My Favorite Things (Today)

My favorite things change daily. Today my favorite things are:

1) Pepperidge Farms Gingerman Cookies!  Is there anything as good? Crisp, crunchy, with those little sugar crystals on top!! When you open the package, that sweet, gingery smell comes out. UMMMM!  Sometimes I bite their heads off first and then gobble the rest of them, but sometimes I start with the feet.   I have to be careful or the whole little cupful disappears before I even know it!  Once upon a time, my friend Fred worked at Pepperidge Farms and for Christmas one year, he and his wife  gave me a 5 pound bag of broken and unsellable ones. It was fabulous!!!

                     

 

2)  My next favorite thing today is my Avalon “Joy” CD.  It was released in 2000, and some of the people aren’t even in the group anymore, but I love it. Apparently, I’m not the only one, I follow Sandi Patty on Twitter and she tweeted this today “The Pre game music is blaring in my dressing room. I cannot get ready without Avalon's JOY cd.”  I think that’s pretty impressive!  I can’t even decide which song is my favorite – I like all of them.  This is a “No Skipping” CD. I never skip any of them.  I do repeat some though – I repeat “Light a Candle” and “Good News” and the “Manger Medley.”  In the category of “Most Favorite” we have a tie – I’m torn between “Jesus Born On This Day” and “We Are The Reason.” I saw an Avalon Christmas concert once that was just absolutely wonderful and I think of that when I hear it!  I think I went with my friend Amy and we ate at the Cracker Barrel after the show!

Between my gingerman cookies and my Joy CD, I am happy right now! I think it’s the memories and the things I associate with other things that make them my favorites!

Favorite Christmas Songs

So, you already know I LOVE Christmas music. But even in that broad category, I have some favorites.  There some that I don’t enjoy at all, but that’s another story for another day.  Some I have a really good reason for loving, but some I don’t have a good reason. I’m never sure why some songs grab me and other ones just don’t.  We have a long running joke in our family about a particular “church” song I don’t like  and nobody understands why.

But, it’s the Christmas season so here are my favorite Christmas songs.  I don’t think any of these will ever be in a hymnal under “Christmas Songs” but I don’t care!   One more thing, these are in no particular order – I don’t know if I have a number one favorite, I just love all of these. 

Sing Noel by Newsong – It’s on the Christmas Shoes album, but I love this one better than the Christmas Shoes. I want to hear the Christmas Shoes every year, but it makes me cry. Sing Noel makes me happy!! I can’t listen to it just once, EVER!  I love the end where the whole rhythm changes and the words are:

 Rejoice for God is with us
Rejoice, Immanuel!
Rejoice and sound those trumpets
Rejoice and ring those bells
Rejoice to the King of Glory
And again we say rejoice
He is the Wonderful Counselor
The Prince of Peace

Celebrate The Child by Michael Card. Not your typical Christmas carol, but I just love it.    I can’t tell you anything else about this song, but I like it a LOT. The electric guitars and saxophones make it not so typical! 

Avalon’s Joy:  Light A Candle and a remake of David Meese’s We Are The Reason.  Don’t Save It All For Christmas Day is a great one too! 

I love Point of Grace singing Not That Far From Bethlehem and my friend Cindy sang it in church yesterday and I missed it!

Selah’s Light of the Stable is another favorite! 

Christmas Like a Child by Third Day from the Christmas Offerings CD.  I hate it when Christmas can feel like a burden and when I’m so busy I miss the joy of the whole season.  Doesn’t this exactly capture how we feel sometimes?

I want to feel Christmas, how it used to be
With all of its wonder falling on me
This season has felt so empty, oh for quite a while
I want to feel Christmas like a child

Okay, now for something completely different:  Bon Jovi’s I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas and Jim Brickman and Collin Raye’s The Gift always make me hit “repeat!”

Okay here are two cheaters:  Repeat the Sounding Joy CD by Phillips, Craig and Dean and Chris Tomlin’s Glory in the Highest.  Both of these have so many songs I love, they may each need their own post!