Top 10 Christmas Songs (Religious)

Right on the heels of the Christmas movies is gonna be the top 10 Christmas Songs. If you know me then you know that I go absolutely bonkers over Christmas music. I love it. I've already been listening to it nonstop since Thursday. I will not get tired of it at all. Most people I know get tired of me constantly pumping it in their ears but TOO BAD!!!!

Christmas music is cool because there is only like 5 songs but a million different versions of those 5 songs. So they all kinda have their own flavor to them. Making a Top Ten list of this caliber isn't easy. There are so many songs that's it's impossible to really pick 10 that are "the best." Plus like any other list it's purely subjective. So these 10 songs are the songs that make me really excited when they come on. The artists that I have included singing these songs are the versions that I think are the best. If you love another version, then so be it. Truth is, there isn't a bad Christmas song.

After much consideration, I've decided to split the list. I'm going to do 2 Top Ten lists. One will be religious and the other will be secular. Reason being that you can't really put them together because they have two completely different purposes and meanings. I actually much prefer the religious music because of those reasons and because it reminds me of being younger and being an active youth in my church. We used to always go Christmas Caroling when I was 13, 14, 15 years old and we had so much fun. Then we would all work together for our annual Christmas Cantata
that we would perform the Sunday before Christmas. Those were great times and ones that I miss very dearly. I wish I could still be a part of something like that.

10: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing



9: God Rest You Merry Gentlemen



8: O Little Town of Bethlehem



7: Away in a Manger



6: Silent Night



5: O Come All Ye Faithful



4: The First Noel



3: What Child Is This



2: Mary Did You Know



1: O Holy Night







As you can tell, O Holy Night is the granddaddy of all Christmas Songs to me. You don't get any better in my opinion. And Josh Groban's version is my all time favorite. Actually, Josh Groban anything is gonna be my favorite. (if you couldn't tell that already) Between he and Celine Dion, they could sing anything. And I believe they have two of the best Christmas Albums out there. So be a wise man and seek out their product. (Pun intended)

P.S. I realize that "Mary Did You Know" may not be a true Christmas song, but I always feel that it is. It talks about Jesus being a baby and well, that's Christmas enough for me! It's still one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard.

Top 10 Christmas Movies!!

Matt suggested that someone do a top 10 Christmas Movies list and it didn't take me very long to compile my favorites. I just went through my head (and movie collection) and looked for the ones that I hold near and dear to me and the ones that I insist on watching each year. This list may very well not be the same as your list and that's ok. This isn't a best list. Just 10 Christmas movies that I can't live without.

Also, I'm not really putting them in any order so this won't be a true "Top 10" list. Although my mostest favorties will probably be in the top 5. (And the number 1 WILL be my number 1 b/c it always will be)

Before I get to the list I wanna clarify a few things. This will be a list of "movies" only. Christmas movies at that. Even though movies like Die Hard and Gremlins have a Christmas feel to them, I don't consider them "Christmas" movies. But they are both great movies and you should watch them anyways this month. I also am not including TV stuff like Muppet Family Christmas(one of my very favorites), Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown Christmas, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, etc. Once again, those are all classics and certainly should not be missed.

10: White Christmas



9: Elf



8: A Christmas Story



7: The Grinch



6: Christmas Vacation





5: Love Actually



CAN I JUST SAY WOW ON THAT ONE?!!!

4: Ernest Saves Christmas




3: Muppet Christmas Carol



2: It's A Wonderful Life

This movie needs a little commentary from me. You will never find a better actor than Jimmy Stewart. He is the best of the best. Best that there's ever been. He is so natural and easy going. He was Tom Hanks before there was a Tom Hanks. And this movie will move you if you let it. It's perfect.


1: Home Alone



Home Alone is and always will be my favorite Christmas movie. Probably b/c it came out when I was 10 and it was fun and funny and magical and all that stuff back then. But now that I'm older I appreciate for different reasons. It has a great story and shows that family truly is wonderful and you don't know what you've got til it's gone. The clip above is one of my favorite parts because of the music involved and the religious aspect. After all, that IS the reason for christmas.

Hey Kids! You wouldn't happen to have a cup of warm water would ya?

So it's Tuesday night and I'm laying in bed in New York with the laptop on my chest. When I first left I had intended on posting stuff every night so everyone would know what's going on up here. Well, that kinda got screwed up from the get go so it never happened. Plus, I'm not nearly the writer that Mark is(I seemed to have misplaced my lexicon) and I can't make videos like Matt. But I will attempt to take you on a journey of my experiences in print right now and video later. I have taken a few videos but I can't upload til I get back home. Which will be in two days. Man, the time up here has flown by.

First of all, it has been a blast up here. Everyone that I have met has been wonderful. Quick debriefer (and no I don't mean getting your pants pulled down. I know how your mind works Mark!) -- the company I work for MMS supplies a computer software for doctor's offices to do their medical billing and scheduling and such. There is a corporation up here named ABS that uses our software. One of their clients is CWPW, which is a group of various doctors offices about an hour or so north of NYC. CWPW just had another doctor's office, The Kania Group, join their umbrella and that's where we come in. Their entire office needed conversion of one system to the next and training on said program. That's where I come in. I got to become quick friends with a bunch of sassy New York women real quick. The job has been lots of fun but it has taken up so much time that I really haven't gotten a chance to do much else. I'm staying at Stephen's house, Philip's brother and he lives about an hour away from The Kania Group. He has a big 3 story house with lots of space so sleeping arrangements haven't been an issue. I actually have had my own room with my own bathroom.

The area up here is so beautiful! I had no idea that New York is so hilly and mountainous. And there's trees everywhere!! It really has such a wonderful, unorthodox style to the landscaping that I contastly have my peepers peeled to the window b/c I never know what I'll see next. Every house is at least two stories. I guess this is b/c there isn't a flat piece of land ANYWHERE. Can't build out, gotta build up! And there's no pattern to anything. Houses here, houses there....every road twists and turns. Up and down. It really is quite amazing. I tried to take some shots but I don't know if they turned out good. We will see when I get back.

Tomorrow I'm gonna post the good stuff. I'll give an account of what's happened everyday since I left. I wanted to get the general details out of the way first. See you then!!

Quickie

Just a random quickie here. I sit in front of a computer from 8-5 everyday and then rehearse for two hours every night. Because of this, I don't blog as much b/c I don't want to get on my computer when I go home. So I'm at work right now and I thought I would say hey. I am going to write a blog about my top 5 shows that I've ever been in soon. Maybe even this afternoon.

On a separate note, I played debate bingo last night. I didn't win but there was a winning combination. I guess I just missed it. And I remembered why I hate politics. Too much lying and arguements. I mean, I wanna see somebody get up there and say nice things about the other party and not talk to me like I'm stupid. The charade is up people.

Mikey's New Idea ---FFF!!!!

Hey guys I had an idea for Friday posts. It's called FFF. Don't you think it's a great idea? It just rolls off the tongue. I'm actually kinda surprised that someone else hasn't thought of this already.

Just to be fair, someone probably has thought of it or possibly even used it before but I've never seen of such so I'm just gonna announce that I am starting something new. So if anyone asks you about FFF, just say "Oh yeah, Mikey made that up. He's so funny and original." I'm sure they will agree with you.

So now I give you FFF - - Fancy Feline Friday!


I like to call this fancy little darling The Meowna Lisa. Isn't she gorgeous?


Here we show the subtlties of guerrilla warfare. Bad luck for the enemy!


You don't have to be Chinese to know that this precious furball cooks up a delicious smile.


Here's a treat! A FFF on FFF! This wonder may be a Fake Fancy Feline but there's nothing untrue about the sexiness of that curled tailed. Yessssssssssss.......


Sometimes a little role play is all that is needed to spice things up. Japanese Friday night anyone?

The Last Weekend

Today is Thursday which means it's the last weekend of The Fantasticks. If you haven't seen it, ahem...Matt...ahem...Megan, then you really would be doing yourself a favor. This is truely one of the most magical shows I've ever been apart of. I never get tired of it and the funny parts are always funny to me and the touching parts are just as organic and natural as they were when I first saw it. I can see now why it ran so long in New York.

Things that I'm gonna do today. (Just so you will know)
Get my car inspected
Refill my meds
Become Henry
Try not to take a nap when I get home

See ya!

I'm at work

I'm at work right now. I'm about to leave. I wanted to post something b/c it's been over 2 months. I'm such a loser. I drank a food club strawberry soda today, ate a pepperoni lean pocket (2 minutes), ate some ramen noodles, ate some birthday cake and ice cream and drank some Ozarka bottled water.