AJ and I began our Christmas shopping this morning and we didn�t drive each other insane. We actually had fun. Christmas is a great time to be three. It�s all about magic and mystery and surprise and excitement. The waiting is just about going to kill him, however. Every morning since the advent calendar from his grandparents arrived in the mail he has been asking if he can open it. I think we need an advent calendar to help with the waiting for the advent calendar.

This is the first year that AJ seems fully clued in on the holiday. Last year he was happy about the presents, but it was all a bit much for him. After he�d opened a couple of things, he�d decided he�d had enough. Oh, how things have changed. Suddenly AJ wants to put everything he sees on �my list.� The list is purely hypothetical at this point and it is wholly driven by whatever is in front of him at the moment. AJ has taken to absconding with any and all toy catalogs that arrive at the house and reading them to himself, usually while sititng on the toilet. This is where some of his most extravagant list-making happens.

In an effort to counteract all the present-list mania, I�ve been trying to steer him toward the other side of the holiday, the giving of presents. Every year his preschool sponsors a number of children for Christmas and parents volunteer to help. We picked a four-year-old boy named Jos�, as I hoped the proximity in age would help AJ connect. Somewhat to my surprise, it seems to be working. AJ is getting excited about shopping for Jos�. �I think he would like a shirt with a car on it and some pants with basketballs on it,� he said thoughtfully. �And maybe he could share my Sit �n Spin.� This last item is a sign of great honor � AJ shares his Sit �n Spin with nobody. AJ desperately wants Jos� to come over and play with him. He is completely convinced that they will be fast friends and has drawn scores of pictures of the two of them playing together (with and without the Sit �n Spin). I haven�t been able to quite convince him that they will probably never meet, probably because my heart is not really in it.

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The snow is coming down again, this time in big fluffy, feathery flakes. It definitely puts me in the mood for some holiday tunes, if only to warm the dull grayness of the day.

Dr. Geek asked for holiday music recommendations. Like Dr. Geek, I am very influenced by the music of the season. I also have a similar preference for jazz. The Charlie Brown Christmas album is probably number one on everyone�s list in the Harriet household. An Ella Fitzgerald album and a compilation called �Jingle Bell Jam� are close seconds. But my nostalgic favorites are Bing Crosby�s White Christmas and most of all, Joan Baez�s No�l. The latter is fantastically arranged and orchestrated by Peter Schickele (in his pre-P.D.Q. Bach years, I think) and is beautiful, calm and contemplative and features exceptionally strong singing from Baez. These along with an album by the Norman Luboff Choir were the Christmas albums we played the most when I was growing up. Given the cover graphics of the Norman Luboff album, (alas, unavailable on the link above), I suspect that particular L.P. served the same purpose for my mother.

The remaining Christmas music falls into two camps: classical and not. I have several recordings of Handel�s Messiah (Christopher Hogwood�s is the best when you want traditional, but the controversial recording by Ton Koopman and The Sixteen is fascinating and fantastic as a unique interpretation), the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter�s The Chant of Christmas Midnight, Benjamin Britten�s Ceremony of Carols, Chaikowsky�s The Nutcracker Suite and a Christmas album by Anonymous 4 that I can never seem to remember the name of.

In the not category, definitely Duke Ellington�s version of Chaikowsky�s The Nutcracker Suite is a don�t miss (it�s what�s currently in the CD player). Bruce Cockburn�s Christmas is kind of nice too, although some of it annoys me after a while. In the humor and musicianship category, I heartily endorse the Klezmonauts Oy to the World! which I mentioned briefly in an entry last year around this time. The Klezmonauts are actually a pick-up band and this seems to be the only album they�ve made. When I called to order it (after hearing a couple of tracks on a local radio program), I got the arranger on the phone who, when I gave him my shipping address, offered to walk it over to my office.

I�m all linked out and I must now go celebrate the fact that Ken Jennings is FINALLY off Jeopardy.

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