The song "My Favorite Things" is from The Sound of Music, a movie about a family in Austria running from the Nazis in the days leading up to WW II. The song appears in a scene where Julie Andrews is trying to console a little kid about being afraid of the dark or something like that. Despite this, the song has somehow become a Christmas carol. Now how you get from Nazis and being afraid of the dark to Baby Jesus or Santa and his sleigh and eight tiny reindeer... I'll never know (and of all people, John Coltrane covered this song in 1961 which makes this even more strange). But in the spirit of Christmas and following the theme of the song, I thought I'd recount some of my favorite Holiday things...
Stuffing. I LOVE stuffing. I'm using the word "love" about stuffing. A very wonderful thing -- stuffing. It just tastes so good and I can never get enough of it. I could cook up a whole batch of it and just eat that for dinner, I bet. Now I have no idea what is actually in stuffing. I know it has bread crumbs or at least little pieces of bread, but beyond that it has a bunch of other ingredients of an undetermined origin. I imagine there are some powders and spices and, of course, hydrogenated corn starch or something else equally unhealthy. But the point is that I think stuffing is really good. I love the way it tastes and I always look forward to it around the holidays. Some people want a little stuffing with their turkey. I'm just the opposite. How about a little turkey with all that stuffing?
Egg Nog. Again, using the word love. I love egg nog. Egg nog is just creamy Christmas goodness down to the last drop. What else can I say? And again, I have no idea what it actually is. It's not milk, but I do think it is something from the dairy family. Some sort of cream perhaps? I doubt it actually has eggs in it and I have no earthly idea what a "nog" could be so I really don't think the name is a very good one. My guess is that those little flecks of brown are a spice of some kind, but this holiday beverage remains somewhat of a mystery to me. But the truth is that I don't care what is in it because it tastes fantastic. It's even better with a bit of Bailey's in it.
Carols. It is probably too generic to say that I love Christmas carols. What decent, self-respecting Christmas-lover doesn't also love Christmas carols? In particular what I like about carols is that they are hymns and worship songs in disguise. They clearly give glory and adoration to God and what is so surprising is that nobody seems to realize this. Barbara Streisand, who do you think was born in that O Little Town you're singing about? Frank Sinatra, do you and the rest of the Rat Pack know what all those herald angels were harking about? Christmas is the one time of the year when you can tune in to almost any radio station on your dial and hear someone singing praises to the King of Kings. And, of course, I love singing them myself. I made myself two Christmas carol CDs so I can rock out in the car.
So when the dog bites, when the bee stings, or when I'm feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things and then... I eat a plate of stuffing, down a carton of egg nog, and turn up the Christmas carols... and then I don't feel so bad!
=MV=
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