It's Beginning To Sound A Lot Like Christmas

Since I try hard to keep up a thin veneer of adulthood and maturity, I am a bit ashamed to admit publicly how much I really enjoy Christmas and the whole Christmas season. For all of the simple, childish reasons, and the conventional ones, too. And a HUGE part of that is Christmas music. I could listen to it all year long. I am related by blood to more than one person who flat refuses to listen to anything Yuletidish until December 1st. And my dearly beloved honey thinks the whole radio-station-dedicated-to-all-Christmas-music-all-the-time thing is kitchy and cringe-worthy. Not this lady! Bring it on! I need more! I LOVE how I feel when I am listening to Christmas music. And Saturday, we were at a restaurant with family. Of course, I had to spend a few minutes in the Ladies' Room giving The Veeves a hind-end alignment. Of course, there were Christmas songs being piped over the intercom. I sang along softly to my baby as we took care of "our business". Now, I'm a bit self conscious about my singing capacity. I can sing OK, but I can't read music, and I'm an alto who only knows the melody. So I'm a tad shy about singing. I like to sing in a big group, so no one can clearly hear my voice. So imagine how I felt when another lady came out of her stall, walked up to the baby-changing station, and said, "you have the voice of an angel!" Awwwwe! I can't describe how I felt. It made my whole day. That's pretty much all I need to for Christmas. That whole Five Love Languages thing? I'm totally a Words of Affirmation girl. Bring on the {sincere, well-timed, applicable to something that I already feel insecure about or have put a lot of effort into} compliments! So, next time you're around complete strangers and find yourself thinking something nice, speak up! They may be someone like me.

But that's not what this post is supposed to be about. What I want from you is recommendations for Christmas Music albums. I wanted to listen to some while I was packing to leave for Wisconsin, but all I have is The Mo-Tab Choir's "Messiah". Not to knock it at all, but it's just...not enough. I actually was going to buy a whole bunch of Christmas music and stick in in my stocking but 1) I do NOT buy my own Christmas presents (Mark and I have worked this out) and 2) I do NOT want to spend my mad $$$ on something that's, uhm, inferior. So, I know you all have Christmas Music preferences, because I've been reading you blogs. Please, please sound off here and give my your favorite two or three. Because I NEED a little Christmas!