Happy Winter Solstice Everyone! This is the winter holiday I personally choose to celebrate. I love winter and I love Christmastime. This is the time of year where I start to feel like my old self again. I know how I feel about winter in Wisconsin is not popular around here at all, but we have four seasons so everyone gets to be happy at some point in time. Lots of advantages in winter: no bugs, no humidity, and it’s finally quiet and still outside. I grew up loving this time of year and it was really strange in 2018 and 2019 to feel nothing for it. As we all know, the flood claimed all of my Christmas decorations. I know they’re just things, but those things had a lot of good memories attached them and it's hard to want to start all over again. I'm working on it all.

Then in October of 2019, our beloved 15 year old black lab, LuLu, passed away and as a result of it all, I sort of shut all the way down.

In terms of enjoying this time of year, 2020 has been a lot better than the past two years for me for which I am very grateful for. I bring all this up as a little background for today’s Carolaoke Holiday offering. Last year, after Christmas was done and New Year's was yet to be, I peeked out for a tiny bit trying to find some, any, holiday spirit and stumbled upon Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton’s Christmas duet on YouTube, which I’ve included below. I can't get enough of Blake Shelton’s facial expressions and reactions in this video and their infectious joy while singing this song sort of snapped me out of my emotional coma for a few seconds. For a fleeting moment, I felt how I used to feel about this time of year. So really Gwen and Blake, Thank YOU!

A special note - this karaoke track had no backing vocals or harmonies in it so you get just me again, I'm afraid.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there are plans for Filet Mignon, Grilled Shrimp, Winter Solstice Latkes and a fire this evening that I need to get into. Please enjoy and I hope this finds you happy, healthy and in good cheer!