Feliz Navidad-Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Feliz Navidad (1970)

  Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1. "Feliz Navidad" is Spanish for "Merry Christmas." Can you wish us happy holidays in a language other than English or Spanish? 
Joueux Noel!  I know a few more words in French.

2. According to ASCAP (the American Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers), this is one of the 20 most played holiday songs of the last 10 years. What's the most recent carol that you heard? 
We have a classical station that is playing a lot of instrumental and choral Christmas music and in the afternoon and I love turning on the radio.

3. Which Christmas song do you hope you never hear again? The one where Grandma gets run over by a reindeer.  
It is awful and then it becomes an earworm all day long.  Oops! There it is!

4. This week's featured artist, Jose Feliciano, was honored to perform this song at the tree lighting ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. If you were to win a trip to our nation's capital, which sites would you visit? 
I have been to DC and have seen everything I want to see.  I have other places to visit.  I especially liked the National Art Gallery.

5. As a very young child, Jose taught himself to play the accordion. If you could suddenly, easily learn to play any instrument, which would you choose? 
I guess the piano or guitar. 

6. Jose says that hearing early 1950s rock on the radio made him want to become a singer. What's your favorite music genre? 
Almost any thing except jazz or rap.

7. At 17, Jose had to drop out of school to help support his family. Too young to enter bars, he played guitar in coffee houses for tips. Have you ever worked a job where you regularly received gratuities? 
No, although when I was a bank teller, I was regularly given money....couldn't keep it! As a side note, I saw Feliciano in one of those coffee houses in Pasadena. I was impressed, by his music and his beautiful dog, who sat quietly at his feet.  I wasn't aware I was seeing someone who would be famous one day, though, I should have known.

8. Jose and wife Susan have been together for more than 40 years. Who is the happiest married couple you know? 
Mr BC and I come to mind....also our best friends Maggie and Jiggs.

9. Jose wrote and performed the theme of the 1970s show, Chico and the Man. What's your current favorite TV show? On network...The Middle....
We are currently streaming many favorites we like Time Team, each episode featured a team of British specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days.  I am also hooked on A Place to Call Home, an Australian melodrama, Set in Country New South Wales in the period following World War II.  Both of them we watch on Acorn, a streaming channel of British TV.  I also am catching up on Foyle's War. I started watching that on Masterpiece Theater and did not know there were several seasons.

Christmas Travel Prep-Friday Fragments

It's always fun to join with Mrs. 4444 for FF as it gives us a chance to share "Fragments" of our week without a large posting, please go over and join us. 

We have made lots of lists so we can get the RV ready for our trip to California.  I woke up this morning ready to get started.  We are going to stay at Carpenteria State Park right on the ocean.  I hope the much needed rain in CA will stop and it will be beautiful....as usual. Actually we can jump in the car and go, when we don't take the RV, but we have to do some stocking of the pantry and there are some projects that concern towing a car.

I have to get the dogs ready for the trip as well.  One nice benefit...they will get walked several times a day when we travel with them.  Also have to shop for groceries for them too.  I have to check their immunization for Bortadella, and get them all bathed and clean.

I have my shopping done for the boys...I went out to pick up some books, yesterday, and that finished up my list. I got a book of Christmas Stories, that includes the first Christmas Story. I am not sure they have heard that particular story yet and I believe they should be introduced to the reason for the season. Their folks are not religious and I am not fanatically so. but at almost 6 and 3, they should have heard about something besides Santa Claus. 

I still have some things coming from Amazon, that should come today. I have wrapping them before we go...on my list too.  Hope it gets done and I don't have to wrap Christmas Eve as usual.

DD2 isn't going with us as she has to work.  She signed up to work for Christmas Day for the double pay.  We are all going to get together for a Family wedding in August so she will see the boys and her sister then. I wish she could go, maybe next year.

Christmas Surprises-Memory Monday

This week's prompt is: My Christmas Memories

I am doing a lot of online shopping this year in preparation for our trip to CA for Christmas with the kids and grand kids. I have a few surprises and Christmas is all about surprises.  Mom and dad were careful to hide the gifts well so that. 'Santa' would surprise us well.  When I was about 10, I was so hoping for a big bike.  I didn't think I could wait until Christmas morning so I snooped everywhere.  What I did not know, is that my wise parents hid it at my grandparents house until Christmas morning, so I came up empty. in my search for my hearts delight a five speed bike.

My Cousin, who lived with the grandparents. was in on the secret so I hounded him to tell me what he knew.  Eventually, he spilled and I was so happy. Until Christmas morning when there it was......a bike.....a beautiful bike! But I was disappointed because the surprise was...no surprise! That was when I learned that it wasn't so exciting to KNOW what you were getting for Christmas....and I never really snooped again. Surprise was an essential ingredient for Christmas gift giving.  

When I had girls of my own, I tried to instill the element of surprise. Especially when one of the girls was so unsubtle about searching, that she left the dining room chair, still in place, in the bedroom closet. There she had riffled through the top shelf, not so unsuccessfully, looking for loot. So I knew I had to be more creative in my hiding places.

So we were always the mom and dad, who had to make a trip to parents or friends homes, to pick up the Santa gift. Or else, Mr BC was staying up until two am..... to put the Glamour Gals Cruise ship together.....Oh, so many tiny parts and stickers for the walls. This was a good surprise that Christmas. 

I also remember the Christmas that, DD1 got her first big bike.  We did not put it next to the Christmas tree, but in the front hall.  Her face dropped so far to the floor, that I did believe she was surprised that she didn't get the expected bike. Her sister's little bike was there, but not hers. Oh, the disappointment, until she turned around to see she was not forgotten. I believe I should have said Gotcha! But I didn't. Christmas is meant for Great Surprises.

Relationship status: Sweatpants, Oreos, and Netflix....Sat 9

Saturday 9: Lucky Star (1983)

  Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1. Have you ever wished upon a star? Sure didn't everyone who watched Disney wish on Stars.  It was usually Venus the Evening Star.....that must be why the wishes were usually answered.

2. In the 1980s, Madonna considered her wrist bangles one of her fashion trademarks. What's one of your fashion trademarks? Sweat pants and flannel Jammie bottoms.  It is cold here. 

3. Though she got good grades, Madonna could be disruptive at school, known for turning cartwheels in the halls between classes. Can you do a cartwheel? Nope

4. Her high grade point average earned her a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, home of the Wolverines. Do you follow college football?

5. Madonna co-starred in the movie version of Dick Tracy. Do you enjoy comics? I enjoy the X-Men Movies but I don't think I would have cared about the comic books, like Mr BC.

6. She played Argentinian First Lady Eva Peron in the biopic, Evita and directed a movie about Wallis Simpson. What famous 20th century woman do you wish you could meet/could have met? So many intresting women. Either Eleanor Roosevelt or Audrey Hepburn.  They both were influential and led fascinating lives. 

7. Madonna authored a children's book called The English Roses. Tell us about a book that had a big impact on you when you were a kid. I read Exodus, by Leon Uris, when I was 11 or 12. A neighbor gave it to me.  I was not aware of the Holocaust before that age.

8. One of Madonna's "vocal idols" is Ella Fitzgerald. Who is your all-time favorite female singer? 

9. Madonna once did a Pepsi commercial. What beverages are in your refrigerator right now? Apple Cider, Milk, Sierra Mist and Cran-Grape.