Krees goes Dutch Kiwi!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

It's no surprise that I've been a bit homesick while here in the Netherlands, particularly during the holidays when I'd like to be setting up a tree in our own house, hanging our own stockings, enjoying a Michigan snowfall and making plans to spend New Year's Eve with The Usual Suspects in Ann Arbor. You know, as opposed to dealing wiht a turkey skinned by the Dutch butcher, trying to find flights that don't land us in Palermo at 11pm on Christmas Eve or listening to the local teenagers set off New Year's fireworks THREE WEEKS EARLY and 15 FEET FROM MY DOG AND I. (Rotten Dutch kids. Don't you have some cheese sandwiches to eat or something? Bah humbug!)

So I get a little teary-eyed listening to Ella sing this one in particular, and I hope you'll indulge me.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more

Someday soon, we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, well have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

(And no, Mom, this doesn't mean that we necessarily will have moved back to the States by Christmas next year. It's just a song. Did I say "Bah humbug"?)

'Tis the Season

I try not to bust out the Christmas music too early in the year, but now that we're past Thanksgiving and into December I think it's acceptable. My favorite holiday listening pleasures in recent years have included Ella [Fitzgerald] Wishes You a Swinging Christmas and Starbucks High-Fidelity Holiday.  Charles got me the latter several years ago because it has a great Cocteau Twins version of "Winter Wonderland", but I also love Keb' Mo's "Jingle Bell Jamboree", Dean Martin's "Baby It's Cold Outside" and Robbie Robertson's "Christmas Must Be Tonight." That last one always brings tears to my eyes. I have no idea why.

But I think one of my all-time Christmas favorites has to be the Pogues' and Kirsty MacColl's "Fairytale of New York (Christmas in the Drunk Tank)". It's not the most uplifting of Christmas tunes, but it's one hell of a great song. RIP Kirsty.