How One Baby Shower Invite Undid Ten Years of Self-Esteem Building

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How One Baby Shower Invite Undid Ten Years of Self-Esteem Building

My Top 10 Favorite Christmas Songs

10. “O Holy Night” by Mariah Carey. Celine Dion has a nice version, too, but Mariah hits that note that can send the pigeons out of the church rafters. Of course that means pigeon poo everywhere…still, a great version of the song. Just duck if you’re near pigeons.

9. Muppet Christmas Carol’s “It Feels Christmas” and “Bless Us All.” The first song is just catchy and cute and the second is a fave because the little frog that plays Tiny Tim coughs at the end and since high school I have thought the froggy coughing is the cutest thing ever. What? It’s Tiny Tim. He’s not well.

8. “Give Love on Christmas” by Johnny Gill. I love that man’s voice. He could sing “Happy birthday” and I’d buy it. They never play this one on the radio though. They never play him on the radio period. Probably jealous of his sexiness.

7. “Joy to the World” was always my favorite as a kid because it meant Mass was over and I could go home and open presents. Hey, I was a kid, you try walking past a living room full of Santa’s best to sit on a wooden pew for an hour. Plus it’s bouncy.

6. “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” by Celine Dion. I prefer Celine’s version to Lennon’s because she gets that anger in her voice that’s more appropriate for the subject matter. It reminds me of when I was a kid and they executed Nicolae Ceausescu at Christmas. Oh sorry, way to bring everyone down. Think happy thoughts.

5. “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey. How can you not like this one? One of her best and before she started doing that odd breathy sing-y thing. I remember finding out the lip liner she used at that time and was so happy when I found out I already owned it.

4. “Santa’s Got a Brand New Bag” by SheDaisy. It’s jazzy and fun and one of the only songs I can think of with the sister, Kristyn, as the lead. Her voice is deeper and I don’t know why she doesn’t sing the lead more often. Plus, we Krysten/Kristyns with “y’s” in our names have to stick together.

3. “Blue Christmas” by Elvis. It’s not officially the Christmas season until I hear this song. He makes the holiday hot.

2. “Last Christmas” by George Michael. I don’t think this is a shocker I’d have this on my list. I heard it for the first time while in grade school trying on clothes in Mary Anne. Remember that store? There were no doors on the dressing rooms. Classy. I thought, “That sounds like George!” My mom and I ran to Record Town and asked and the guy said it was a Wham! song. Plus if you’ve seen the video it’s full of 80’s awesomeness including a full length fur coat on a man. This is good stuff people.

1.“Every Year, Every Christmas” by Luther Vandross. It’s the perfect melancholy “missing someone” sort of song with that sexiness only Luther could put on a Christmas song without making it weird. Loved him, love the song. Great video for it, too.

Honorable mentions: “December Song” by George Michael. It’s really the cute video that I like more than the song. It’s a little sad, but the video is so adorable. Plus, it’s George, so how can I not like it? Also “Jingle Bell Rock.” I don’t care for the song, but it was one of my Grandpa’s favorites so it doesn’t feel like Christmas till I hear it.

What are your favorite Christmas songs?

New review

Check out my review on Rebecca Cantrell' latest, A Game of Lies over at Authors and Appetizers.

http://authorsandappetizers.com/2011/08/game-of-lies-by-rebecca-cantrell/

Read-a-thon

I'm doing the Once Upon a Time read-a-thon and it's not going well seeing as I had a 16 hour power outage that left me in the dark. But I did get some reading done. I'm currently working on ""A Game of Lies" by Rebecca Cantrell. Great so far! Here's a review of another great one I read and enjoyed called "Hemingway Deadlights."


Hemingway Deadlights: A Mystery is set in 1956 and Papa Hemingway is at the point in his career where he has stalled a bit in his writing and is drinking even more heavily than usual. Hemingway is living in Key West Florida when the book begins and spends his days drinking. Soon he finds out a friend of his, a local fisherman named Peter Cuthbert, was harpooned to death and the polic department isn’t exactly on the case. Since his writing isn’t going anywhere, Hemingway decides to take a crack at solving the crime himself. He travels to Cuba and meets with a mobster, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara. Guevara informs him that Cuthbert was more than just a simple fisherman. He soon gets up caught in a situation between the FBI, CIA and Batista’s corrupt government in Cuba.

The book shows us the beginning of Ernest’s paranoid and the downfall of his career due to writer’s block, mental illness, and booze. The book even opens with Hemingway falling off his roof drunk and ending up in a cast. We also see his paranoia and drinking binges taking affect. This is an entertaining take on the writer’s life having him solve crime while being chased by mobsters, spies, the CIA, etc. The author stays true to Hemingway’s personality and traits which makes for an entertaining story.

I ♥ Dave Barry

Check out my new review on Dave Barry's latest book!

http://authorsandappetizers.com/2011/06/ill-mature-when-im-dead-dave-barrys-amazing-tales-of-adulthood-by-dave-barry/

What Would You Do?

Check out my new review on "This is Not The Story You Think It Is" by Laura Munson. Whatwould you do if your husband said he wasn't sure he ever really loved you and wanted out of your marriage?

http://authorsandappetizers.com/2011/05/not-story-think-season-of-unlikely-happiness/

Mr. Right or Mr. Good Enough?

Recently reviewed a book about making the case for settling for Mr. Good Enough and not the movie fantasy version of Mr. Right. Let me know your thoughts!

http://authorsandappetizers.com/2011/05/marry-him-case-for-settling-for-mr-good-enough-by-lori-gottlieb/