...and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas from the Willis family!

2nd Annual Christmas Song List

The time has come, once again for the annual Christmas song list. This list is a reminder of what is right (and oh so wrong) about music at Christmas time. We will start off with the naughty list (in no particular order.)

1. All I Want for Christmas Is You - this Christina Aguilara "classic" has never been good and is entirely overplayed.
2. Feliz Navidad - This may sound odd for someone who speaks fluent Spanish, but I can't stand this song. I hope the guy didn't spend a whole lot of time writing it.
3. My Grown-Up Christmas List - Oh my. A touchy-feely song that went way wrong.
4. The Little Drummer Boy - I still want to break his little sticks.
5. Santa Baby - Wrong on so many levels. That chicky needs an attitude adjustment.
6. Baby, It's Cold Outside - The Christmas Date Rape song.
7. Ave Maria, O Holy Night, Silent Night only when sung by the likes of Amy Grant, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey (shoot me now)
8. Last Christmas (I Gave You My Heart) - Do I really need to say anything about this one? Gag!
9. Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine - Never liked this one.
10. Away in a Manger as written in the LDS Children's Song book. I HATE the "Asleep, asleep..." part.

Now, the good list and what a list it is. There is so much good stuff out there, it is impossible to name them all. Here is a sampling of the favorites.

1. O Holy Night - Love, love, love this song. Fell in love with the arrangement performed in this year's Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. Masterpiece.
2. White Christmas - only as performed by the immortal Bing Crosby. The rest are cheap imitations.
3. Christmas Time Is Here - from the Charlie Brown Christmas special
4. Angels from the Realms of Glory - as arranged by Mack Wilberg, the incomparable.
5. Mitt hjerte alltid vanker - Norwegian folk carol
6. Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
7. Sussex Carol
8. Wexford Carol
9. Arise, Your Light has Come - a David Danner advent piece. Listen here and thank me later.
10. Old Time Christmas - by George Strait. I am not one for modern Christmas songs but this one is awesome and I never tire of listening to it.

A Special Thanks to Veterans Past and Present

Having several members in my family and friends who have served and are currently serving makes me appreciate their sacrifice just that much more. May God bless them and their families.

New Enemy

I have met a new enemy. The MRI. It is not a machine for claustrophobics like me. Even the open machine like this one that I used still make me want to hit something. If it weren't so dad gum close to your face. Oh well, at least the scan confirmed what we've known all along. Showed nothing. No activity whatsoever.

Chil-lax

There is a new word in our house. I heard it once and it stuck. It's my new favorite word. It is a combination of "relax" and "chill." The word is chil-lax. If there is one thing that we can do (for the most part) at the Willis house is chil-lax'in.

By the way, the word drives Mommy nuts! What fun we will have.

Catching Up

I have been told to be better about updating our blog. (Sorry Cami.) It's been kind of like journal writing. I start out wonderfully and then pppbbtthh. So here is to repenting.

I promised a shot of Julie's "new" ride. It has yet to be named but it has personality so it will probably have a name soon.

Halloween was fun. The kids were able to dress up twice and rake in loads of goodies. The first was for the ward trunk-or-treat and the second was for Halloween night itself. Brigham was a dalmation. If you look close, his ear are black too. Alana chose to be, ta-dahh, no surprise, a princess.

Alana did get to dress up for one more thing. At her school, they had an International Children's Day where they dressed up in clothes from different nations and performed a short program for the parents. After the program, we shared food from different cultures. Alana wore a hand-made native smock that I purchased on my mission in Guatemala.

Catching Up...

We have been very busy since our last post. Here is a brief glimpse as to why. First and foremost, we found out we are having a little boy. His name (so far) will be Hyrum Joseph.

The reason we have not posted lately is because of this. On 17 September, I was on my way home from work when I was rear-ended on the freeway. I was stopped and the guy in front of me was stopped. The lady behind me was still going about 40 MPH when her car and mine had a frank exchange of ideas.

I was able to drive home but immediately upon getting through the door, I told Julie to stop her lessons and take me to the hospital. I got my very first CT scan. Personally, I hoping for something a little more glamorous but it got the job done. Turns out, I had a concussion and whiplash (the fancy term they had for it was a neck sprain.)

Consequently, for the last month, the accident was pretty much taken over our lives. There are doctors' visits, physical therapy, attorney's visits, finding another car, buying another car (more on that in the next post,) and other errands . Let's just say, we've had more fun doing other things.

So, in the mean time, we keep going. I will post pictures of the new car as soon I get some taken.