My Thermos

It's Friday so it's time once again for our Top 5 On Friday via our friends at Music Memoirs

Our mission for today:

Top 5 musical things on your Christmas Holiday Wish List:

I thought about going with the pie in the sky sort of thing, trip to NY for the Gov't Mule New Year's Eve shows etc.. but with the holidays coming up, I thought that a more realistic list might be useful to family or friends who may actually be curious as to what I might like if they were inclined to add me to their gift giving lists...

Gov't Mule - A Tail of 2 Cities (DVD) / A 2 DVD set featuring 2 full shows, one of which we attended here in Chicago.

The Faces - 5 Guys Walk into a Bar (Box Set) / A fantastic band given the full box set treatment. I've heard such wonderful things about this collection.

Guitar Strings - I really could use some strings for my guitars. I really like the Elixirs for the Carvin electric but I have had good luck with GHS in the past. Lights .010 through .046 are great. GHS Lights for the acoustic.

A couple years back I picked up a Line 6 Guitar Port which is a very cool USB connected effects processor. You can also get a subscription to an online service which offers lessons and new effect settings but I've let it lapse. Would be cool to be able to pick that up again.

And lastly, I'd love more time to play my guitars. I guess that is something that I can give myself but I just don't take enough time to play any longer. I think if I was still taking lessons I would take the time to play more.

What is on your list?

SB

and the start of my week...







I hope yours was safe and happy!

I've been reading a lot today about how my fellow bloggers spent Christmas and the overwhelming theme seems to be time with family - good or bad as that may be.

Being raised jewish, my family doesn't really do Christmas and distance keeps us away from Gina's family who are spread about the country. We would likely do the traditional Chinese food / movie combo were it not for our Christmas Family.

Yep, you heard that right. Gina and I have a Christmas Family...

Carl and Eloise have been friends of my parents for years. Their kids and us grew up together but, as is often the case, we got older and drifted apart - seeing each other only occasionally.

When Gina and I moved back here from Colorado 15 years ago, we got an invite to their house for Christmas dinner. I think our whole family got invited but only Gina and I attended. We had wonderful food and a chance to get back in touch with old friends.

We had all grown up, gotten married, and many had children of their own. We recounted stories of our childhood, the hole we put in the wall, toys we played with and other shared experiences.

We left that evening with the best of intentions to "get together soon" but the year passed without that happening, so we repeated the exercise again the following year, and the year after that... and every year since.

By now we've accepted the fact that we only see them once a year but that doesn't diminish our relationship with them or their importance to us. Their welcoming of us into their home each year and adopting us into their family - if only for one day - is a wonderful experience. Our Christmas Family makes sure that we don't spend the holiday alone and for that we are grateful.

SB

As this Thanksgiving comes to a close, I thought I would post some thoughts and observations about my day.

The food was outstanding, a combination of home cooking and contributions from my brother's favorite Soul Food restaurant. In addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing, and ham we had fantastic sides of macaroni and cheese, greens and sweet potatoes. Of course, Gina's sour cream pumpkin pie (this year with a graham cracker crust) was wonderful as always - I splurged and had 2 pieces.

A post meal game of Taboo was quite a bit of fun, although in reading this wiki article it seems that we were scoring wrong. No worries really as we eventually just turned it into a free for all which I much preferred. There was much laughter, and everyone joined in the fun.

While much has changed over the years, our menu, the location, the size and makeup of our family, the one constant is the joy that comes from being with loved ones. Some of our traditions have lapsed but new ones are born. Next year we'll be discussing toothpaste in the cupcakes, implants, and any number of inside jokes, meaningless to everyone but us.

I wasn't in a particularly good mood this afternoon (a business deal gone bad, someone I trusted that it seems I shouldn't have, blah blah) but I ended up having a great holiday. It seems that spending time with family is a wonderful remedy.

I hope that you all had a safe and happy holiday as well.

SB

I know it really isn't Thanksgiving yet when I posted this - but it will likely be when you read this, so here it is. I also assume I'll be lazy in the morning and not post again until tomorrow evening so this will be the top post for most of the day.

So in any case, Happy American Thanksgiving. I am feeling especially mindful of things for which I am thankful as that was my NaBloPoMo (blog posting thingy) theme until I abandoned it a few days back.

Thanksgiving for us is a day to spend with family. The task of hosting has seemingly fallen on my brother Steve and his wife Judi and it has become tradition to go to their house for the holiday. That is really the beauty of holidays like this - the honoring of old traditions and the establishment of new ones.

I'm not much of a fan of the Thanksgiving turkey so that is a tradition we could lose if it were up to me. I like the stuffing though, and the broccoli casserole, and of course Gina's wonderful Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie.

So it is with much sincerity that I wish you all a very safe and very Happy Thanksgiving.

SB