Christmas Music Week: Melissa

"Many years ago, I attended school at the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. It was lonely, I'm not gonna lie. The town was built around a brewery. In fact, their claim to fame is that they have the longest stretch of bars in the world. 3rd Street in downtown La Crosse stretches for over 5 miles. And its all bars. During my time in La Crosse, as far as friends go, I had to choose between those who drank legally and those who drank illegally. I chose those who drank legally. I had two other friends who also felt that way- one was greek orthodox and the other was a devout non-denominational Christian who lived as she believed. One night, while all of campus was at the Campus Christmas Drinking Party, my devout non-denominational Christian friend and I enjoyed dinner and exchanged presents and goodbyes. Since I wasn't going to be returning after Christmas break, it was really the last time we'd see each other. She gave me a CD called Jingle Bell Jazz. She had found it at Williams Sonoma in the check out aisle- you know one of those $5 go to charity deals. Its a collection of several classic Jazz artists doing Christmas songs. Beautiful. We were both music majors- french horn players- and both loved listening to the rich sounds of Billie Holladay and Frank Sinatra- fully recognizing of course that being horn players, we'd never possess the talent that it takes to execute such music.

(Melissa, this is the picture I found when I googled it...is it the right one? It's on Amazon, I want to buy it if it's the right one!)

I brought the CD out to Provo with me when I transferred and introduced it to my new roommates. They all fell in love with it. We listened to it quite a bit during those years. Many nights we would sit on the couches sipping hot chocolate and listening to it. Or building our gingerbread houses- like the epic quidditch field we built one year. The CD not only reminds me of Christmas, but also of my dear devout non-denominational Christian friend who was a lifesaver during my freshman year of college, and of my Centenniel #224 roommates and the good times we had there. Now, when I'm feeling crabby during the Christmas season, Matt will turn it on and it immediately brightens my mood. I love it!

The Christmas song that I think is the most profound is "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day." Longfellow does a beautiful job expressing the meaning of Christmas in those verses.

The Christmas song that I can't deal with is Feliz Navidad. It reminds me of a certain choir teacher from my youth who played it all the time and he was a creep. Plus, it really is just annoying."