MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Yes indeed, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and for Meff, Happy Hanukkah!

Before I relate a couple of Christmas stories, I'd like all of my readers to check out Greg Pagel's blog. It's linked on the right side of this page. He has a really cool Christmas story. Check it out.

When I was really little, perhaps three or four, we were spending Christmas at my grandparents' home in Royal Oak, Michigan. On Christmas Eve, I had been put to bed. At some point in the night, I heard a noise. I'm not sure if I hadn't yet fallen asleep, or if I was awoken in the night. But I heard a noise above me. It was clearly coming from the roof. I heard what I thought were footsteps. I was sure that Santa had arrived! How exciting! The next day, there were lots of presents. That clinched it. I'd heard Santa! Years later I asked my parents if they'd gone up on the roof to make some noise. They hadn't. So to this day, I'm convinced that what I heard was indeed Santa Claus. No one will convince me otherwise.

A few years later, I believe when I was in first grade, we were spending Christmas at our own home in Manitowoc. Now I knew the drill. Santa only brings presents to good little boys and girls. So I was scared. I knew that I hadn't exactly been a good boy that year. If you read one of my entries on myself, you'll see the story about how my friend Carl and I had broken into a guy's garage, and smashed up the car windshield. We'd gotten away with it. But Santa knows... As Christmas approached, I was very worried. I went to bed on Christmas Eve expecting the worst. At some point in the night, I woke up. The house was quiet. I crept out of bed and tiptoed down the stairs. I opened the door to the living room and found... a room overflowing with presents! It was as if the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. As I walked back up the stairs, I quietly commented to myself, "I can do anything!" A few days ago my wife asked me what I would have done, had there been little or no presents. My response was, "I probably would have shaped up." Then again, saying it and doing it are two different things.I probably wouldn't have. In fact, I may have been worse, as that incident probably would have scarred me for life.

In the spirit of the season, combined with my recent love for Youtube, here are some of my favorite Christmas songs. The first one is my all-time favorite. It's Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time."



For my lovely wife, here is her favorite Christmas song. Like mine, hers is from another ex-Beatle. It's John Lennon's "Happy Xmas, War Is Over."



This next song is more in the spirit of this blog. I take you back to 1981, to the early days of MTV - when MTV was cool! This song has really grown on me in recent years. And it may actually surpass McCartney's song for my all-time favorite. It's Billy Squier (and the MTV staff) singing "Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You."



This next song is also one of my favorites. It's "Father Christmas" by The Kinks. I just love the lyrics.

Father Christmas, give us some money.
Don't mess around with those silly toys.
We'll beat you up if you don't hand it over.
We want your bread so don't make us annoyed.
Give all the toys to the little rich boys.

Isn't that cool? I actually found the original video on Youtube. But the sound and video quality were poor. So instead, I found the song used with a bunch of clips from Christmas episodes of "That 70's Show."



Lastly, this is a Christmas present to my readers. This next clip is that of fellow graduate Meff (Jeff Messerman). A few days ago I uploaded a clip of he and I, and another friend of ours lip-syncing "Wild Thing." Well, truth be told, there was another lip-syncing performance that day. In this one, Meff was flying solo. Back in October, 2000, Meff's wife was planning a surprise 30th birthday party for him. Little did she know that I had another surprise. I dug out this old video and played it at the party, much to the delight of all who attended. Meff just cringed. But if you know Meff, you know he didn't really care, and got a good laugh out of it as well. As his mother stared at the TV screen in disbelief, Meff said to her, "Remember all those times I went to Two Rivers? Well this is what I was doing." A year later, at my surprise 30th birthday party, the video made an appearance again.

About a week ago, I was talking to Meff. For some reason, I completely blanked out, and couldn't remember the name of the Elvis song he had lip-synced. So I asked him. His reply to me was, "Oh God..." He knew exactly what I was going to do. At that point he suggested that I only play part of the song. But honestly, once people have seen just a part of it, what more is there to hide? Besides, several months ago, Meff chided me for not blogging about a particular story I had which involved Scott Jaklin. He played the "journalistic integrity" card. And he had a point. So with that in mind, here is the entire clip. Is it funny? Yes. But it's also well done. Here's Meff with his performance of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds."

Merry Christmas!