MTM’s mom (and my lovely mother-in-law) is in the house for Christmas. She fled Wisconsin for The Balmy South. A few days of sweating, and she’ll be ready to go back to the frozen Midwest, her memories of our not-modernist-minimalist-or-Architect-accepted Christmas Vomit intact.
She visits for the Christmas decorations.
Really. MTM had a total of two decorations before he met me. The next year, my future mother-in-law came to visit him. When she saw my house, she looked at MTM and said, “I’m staying with her. She has Christmas decorations. You don’t.”
Between the two of us, he TOTALLY lost that war.
Still, he was appalled yet again last night. He asked his mother for the title of her favorite Christmas song for this blog post. Her first answer?
“Mary Did You Know? by the Zac Brown Band.”
MTM blanched. “Who are they?”
“Oh, some recent country band.”
MTM started twitching. “Recent country band????????”
(MTM only approves of Old Country. Johnny Cash. Hank Williams. You get the idea.)
I took pity on my beleaguered husband. “Well, I don’t have Mary Did You Know in my collection. And besides, my blog readers DO NOT need to hear the story about that song.”
“Why not?” MTM and my mother-in-law chirped in unison.
“Because………….I sort of met the songwriter a few times, and I don’t want to get into how, or why I heard that song waaaaaaay before anyone actually recorded it.”
We discussed THAT possible story and all agreed. You wouldn’t understand, Dear Reader. We moved down my mother-in-law’s list.
“What’s your next favorite Christmas song?” MTM waited for a staid Catholic hymn.
“Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton. See? It’s even the ring tone on my phone.”
We’re still trying to revive MTM.
He fainted.
As it happens, I have a version of Hard Candy Christmas………..just not the Dolly version.
5 Comments
Hmm…”modern” Christmas songs…Bill Frisell has a few good ones, presented in his inimitable style with grace and tongue firmly in cheek.
But as for worst? Nah, not going there. 🙂
I’m familiar with “Mary Did You Know” and “Hard Candy Christmas,” and in an eclectic playlist I’m fine with each. I just like Christmas music and don’t really have any songs that I just can’t abide! Sometimes I like the old favorites with new voices. One of my favorites is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” performed by The Civil Wars. But my playlist would also be incomplete without the old favorite, “Peace On Earth/The Little Drummer Boy,” sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Did I mention that I like ALL Christmas music? Your mother-in-law and I would probably get along just fine! 🙂
hah – guess that’s what keeps life exciting )
I think I love your mother in law!
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