Top Ten Christmas Church Songs

These are songs we sing regularly at Christmas Mass every year, keep in mind I go to the Children's Mass every year, and many are part of the pageant telling of the Christmas Gospel! I love Christmas Eve mass and these songs! They are full of such joy and I love the story that is behind each one!

10. What Child Is This?
9. Angels We Have Heard on High
8. Go Tell It On a Mountain
7. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
6. Oh, Come, Oh, Come, Emmanuel
5. Away in a Manger
4. Silent Night
3. Do You Hear What I Hear
2. Mary, Did You Know?
1. Holy Night

What do y'all sing at Christmas Mass or service every year? What are your favorites?

Top Ten Traditional Christmas Songs

Here is my list of my favorite ten "traditional" Christmas songs. I'll do one more post in this series about my ten favorite Church Christmas songs too!

10. Feliz Navidad
9. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
8. Up on the Housetop
7. Oh, Tannenbaum
6. I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)
5. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
4.Jingle Bells
3. Carol of the Bells
2. Santa Baby
1. Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

What are your favorite Christmas songs?

Happy last day of November y'all! It feels so surreal to be the final day of the month of thanksgivings and the eve of the moth of joys, but y'all it is here! Where did this semester fly? I have so much to do and literally no time! In honor of the final day of the month of thanksgivings, I'm going to do one more thankful post, before tomorrow begins my daily joys! :) Today I am thankful for hot rollers - they make my hair so voluminous and big and bouncy! I L-O-V-E it! hahaha!

Top Ten Nontraditional Christmas Songs

I L-O-V-E Christmas music y'all - I start listening to it on November 1, much to the disgruntlement of the majority of my sorority sisters, except for Rachel because she does it with me! Hahaha! So, I thought I would share my top 10 "nontraditional" Christmas songs and then in another post my top 10 "traditional" Christmas songs!

10. Tennessee Christmas by Alabama
9. Reindeer Boogie by Trisha Yearwood
8. Santa Claus Lane by Hilary Duff
7. Last Christmas by Ashley Tisdale
6. Grown Up Christmas List by Amy Grant (she's a Theta!)
5. Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant
4. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by N*SYNC
3. Thistlehair the Christmas Bear by Alabama
2. Christmas in Dixie by Alabama
1. Take a Walk Through Bethlehem by Trisha Yearwood

Christmas Traditions

Kelly is hosting a show us your Christmas traditions this weekend, and I thought I'd share my favorites with y'all!

1. I'll start with Christmas Eve: we always go to Children's Mass at church.
2. After children's mass, we have Chinese for dinner - in Colorado, it's P.F. Chang's.
3. After Chinese food, we drive around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music.
4. Then we head home, and open up one gift - a new pair of pajamas; for pictures the next morning!
5. We read Twas the Night Before Christmas and sometimes will either watch a Christmas movie, or play a game depending on what time it is - my Mama always shoos us to bed by 10:oo at the latest!
6. Once we're in bed, Mama hides a pickle ornament somewhere on the tree.
7. Christmas morning, the parents have to be down by the Christmas tree before we're allowed, so they can snap pictures of us in our groggy state - I've started waking up 10 minutes early to go "freshen up" in the bathroom - you know, fix the hair and make-up so I look somewhat normal!
8. We explore our presents from Santa - they're unwrapped, so we see them first, our stockings are off the mantle and with our pile.
9. The hunt is on for the pickle - winner gets a fun surprise. Some years it pickle chips that immediately are handed to Mama who loves them. Sometimes its a new CD or DVD we all enjoy. Sometimes its a "green goodie bag" with green m&ms, a green i-tunes card, green mechanical pencil, green gum, green mints, etc.
10. We open our wrapped gifts from family.
11. We eat my Mama's special Christmas morning casserole.
12. We watch someone's new movie, because without fail, we'll all get at least one CD, one DVD and one book! :)
13. If there's snow, we go sledding up on the Academy.
14. Christmas dinner (late afternoon) of ham, corn pudding, yams, green bean casserole, etc.
15. Watch White Christmas.
16. Play games and lounge around until bed.

We put our tree up and decorate the house right after Thanksgiving normally, but sometimes we wait until we're al home to do so, which is why it wasn't included.

Since I didn't post yesterday, that just means I get to express even more thanks today! So, first of all I am so blessed with my family - yesterday over Thanksgiving dinner (it was 3 in the afternoon, so the term dinner is more appropriate than supper!) I laughed so hard my belly ached and I was crying! My family has a wicked sense of humor! I am so thankful for each of them, that we are all healthy and that we got to spend the holiday together!

Second, Alabama squeaked by Auburn to win our second straight Iron Bowl and remain undefeated! As the paper termed it this morning, Alabama is after the title trifecta - now that we have the state title, its off to the SEC title game and *cross your fingers* the national championship game! I'm so proud of how hard those boys work and the discipline they have! I'm also thankful that the Longhorns and Cowboys won yesterday, as Matthew is always much more pleasant to be around when they win, than when they lose!

Since I probably won't be able to post tomorrow, as we're driving back to Montana, I'm going to do a third set of thanks! :) I'm thankful that my parents are both employed in the current economy and that they provide for all that we need and things that we want too! Today I got two dresses, one for winter formal on December 5 and one for spring formal. My Daddy also bought me toiletries I need, filled my car with gas and helped me wash it; they have also paid for all food and gas for my trip down, during and back - I'm thankful they're in a position to do so, since I am not. I have been searching for a job and just keep coming up shy - its so frustrating! But I'm blessed that I have parents who pay for my car, a roof over my head, and food in my stomach.
Not so happy, when I get back to school I have to pay my parking ticket :(
Here's to wishing y'all a happy last weekend in November and a joy-filled weekend start to the "Christmas season"! Oodles of love from Colorado (soon to be Montana!) to y'all, wherever you may be!

Today I am thankful for my westie, Madeline Virginia or Maddie, as she is affectionately known; even if Mama calls he Matilda just to see if she'll answer - she does. She is 9 years old; she was born in May of 2000 and we got her in July of that year. She may be old in dog years, but she is still a puppy sometimes! The only time she barks is if she sees another dog or feels like one of us is threatened in some way. Her two favorite toys are a black rubber rat (who is missing its nose) and a black fluffy squirrel. The rat was originally our cats, but Maddie claimed it as her own, and when its not beside her in bed, it always ends p right inside the front door - charming. She loves boys best, probably because they have stinkier feet than girls do and she loves that! While it was just Matthew and I home today, she was sassy as all get out and demanded our attention, but when other people came home she decided it was time for a nap! What a goofball! I love that silly girl!