Christmas songs

 I knew from a young age that I liked Christmas songs, but I didn't know how much tradition and trivia were contained in all of them, like "12 days of Christmas"- 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, etc., "The Christmas Song" with Nat King Cole and "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....." , "It's a Holly Jolly Christmas" sung by Burl Ives.... the original king of Christmas Songs Bing Crosby with White Christmas..... (doesn't look like we're getting many white Christmases around the U.S. this year, even in Chicago where it's not snowing until 2022....) I often berated myself for being so sucked into the Christmas spirit and the commericialization of a holiday that forces everyone to buy a present for everyone else whether they actually need that present or not, but it's kind of easy to see why now: I'm very influenced by songs and whether something literally strikes a chord in me or not, so I've never been that interested in Thanksgiving (best weekend to travel internationally) because there's no song attached to it! New Year's is just one classic song, nothing for Valentine's Day, Easter, or any of the other 11 federal holidays of the year. I don't see too many people dancing and being jolly or kissing under mistletoes for George Washington's birthday or Labor Day. 

Christmas is always an interesting for the stock market, as there's always this fabled "Santa Clause rally" that brings presents to long-term investors with gains leading up to Christmas most of the time, but one memorable Christmas late in 2018, when the market was hemorrhaging and I was in the negative amount of dollars for the year, the Santa Clause rally came a little late on December 26, the day after Christmas; I was sitting in jury duty and the market zoomed up that day, never looking back and continuing its run well into the new year. That was a memorable Christmas, more than the last 2 Covid-marred Christmases for sure. 

I took the opportunity of the holiday to do some house cleaning around my parents' home in Camarillo, and it made me realize just how much dirt and soot cakes around the bottom of the window sills. Every window in a home is filthy, and a 4-bedroom home with both upstairs and downstairs has a LOT of windows. It's amazing how much soil I remove, and as scary as it is coming to the realization that we've been breathing in the residue from those black dark streaks on the windows, it's just as cathartic to wipe them up with a paper towel and throw them in the garbage. My hands were even getting painted black from scrubbing the whole day, bringing new meaing to the term window washing. Check your windows! There might just be a big dark suprise in there, and it's not a lump of coal or Santa's bag of toys, it's a bag of black mold. Maybe they should make a Christmas song about that: "Last Christmas, I gave you my mold... but the very next day, the mold came back again. This year, to save you from tears, I have to wipe it special...." (inspried by Last Christmas by Wham!- did not know George Michael was the voice behind all of those Wham! Christmas song CD albums.) TIL.