Allison Krauss and Union Station - Stay

This is just one of many reasons why I love this group. Good poetry. Sweet music. Even though it's cowboy music...I still love nearly every song this group puts out. Hooked.

I'm Glad

Taking Inventory I Find My Christmas Groove Again

Now that I'm on vacation for the entire month of December it seems that the right thing to do is take inventory of all my belongings. Cleaning sock drawers, organizing closets, and loading up stuff in Banana Republic bags for the Goodwill are things I normally manage to squeeze in even when I'm busy with my career. It's just the right thing to do at year end.

It's amazing how many shopping bags I've collected in one year. My friend Mary and I have a famous saying, "Oh well, I'm out of garbage bags, I'd better go to Dillard's and shop so I can stock up on trash liners again." I make sure that my Goodwill recipients know that they are getting good stuff by packaging it up in Nordstrom or Saks Off Fifth Bags whenever possible.

Today my little Operation Spring led me to conduct an inventory assessment of my dresser drawers. Ahhh. The swim drawer. Bottom left. The least used drawer of all. Anything can camp out in there and never be noticed. I often stuff mis-matched socks in there hoping that when the matching sock emerges (Hope against all hope) from the dryer I will rely on my very impressive and efficacious standard operating procedures of sockology of which I a self-proclaimed crackerjack.

"Why do I have 2 swim caps and seven pairs of goggles?" I ask myself. This is getting out of hand.

Something else that is a MUST this time of year is definitely taking inventory of all the Christmas Stuff you have put away since last Christmas. Oh, don't act like you don't have those big plastic boxes of last year's on-sale lights from Hobby Lobby that you bought on December 26th at 75% off. We all do it. This year it was such a joy to open up all my goodies and make some Christmas Cheer around this place.



In about 30 minutes I went from a clean house to project central as I launched Operation Ornament for the Traditional Riche' Family Christmas Party on Bayou Rouge coming soon. My sister Ava and I provide ornaments for everyone, my Mom A.K.A. "Sister Debbie of the Holy Order of the Cajun Crossroads" reads Polar Express to the gaggle of grandchildren and great-grandchildren of which (I always have to add this) I am the oldest and favorite; this, just before she gives them all a silver miraculous medal of the Catholic variety. Sometimes I just wish that medal was like the Mardi Gras doubloons I used to see just before Lent, the ones that are actually chocolate covered in silver or gold wrapping. Those are the best.

Then comes the fun part. Ava and I get all of the cousins to learn a dance. This is no fais do-do; furthermore, what takes me three months to learn takes Ava about three minutes due to her fine education from Judy's School of Dance for all those years. She always lets me feel like I'm in charge, but really nothing could happen without her expertise.





And no Christmas cheer would be complete without several baking projects occurring simultaneously. Note: I did not say instantaneously. I just like setting everything out like a batter on deck just waiting his or her turn to get into the batter's box.









"I gotcha batter right here," I tell my bundt pan just before making my famous Louisiana Lemon Bundt Cake. The truth: there's nothing special about my Louisiana Lemon Bundt Cake. It's just a Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix in the shape of a bundt pan. The tradition began at a live auction near Eagle Mountain Lake years ago when the cake that cost me 99 cents sold for $75 just because of the Mardi Gras beads I used to decorate it.




And it looks like this year I'll finally have an opportunity to do my special Christmas cookies with Eli. I know that it will be alot of fun, just like when he was a toddler. Yum! Yum! "Protein cookie" recipe anyone? Help. I'm in over my head!

So today I think my heart actually smiled on Christmas, though I don't have a single gift under my tree. I am just counting down the days until I can hold my Sweet Annie for her christening next week, and I say the Hebrew mizpah to myself, God watch over me and thee until we meet again.

Naming the Blessings You Can Count (Even if One by One)

Image at www.photobucket.com, Toni Braxton and Will Chase

My last visit to New York included a visit to the TKTS booth in Time Square and I grabbed a couple tickets to Aida the musical by Elton John and Time Rice. I'm a theatre bandit who does not want to do alot of research before seeing the story unfold in a live production or in a novel-turned-movie for that matter.

For instance, the latest Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) movie Dear John will be on the big screen next February. Chances are I will not run out to Barnes and Noble or even Amazon to buy the novel before seeing the movie. I like being surprised. For a film review click here.



Last night I had an opportunity to hit a familiar stage play and I will be the first to admit. I loved every minute of it though I already knew the outcome. We saw Forever Plaid's "Plaid Tidings", a Christmas spectacular. Though all the actors were fantastic, I will be the first to admit that Jinx stole the show as usual at the Addison Water Tower Theatre.

In spite of my inability to ascertain whether or not the highwater pants he wore were part of his costume or just a quirky personal choice, every note was solidly on pitch. He delivered a charming performance as well as did his counterparts Matt Brewer, Brain Hathaway, and Jacob Villarreal.

My favorite song of all: Besame Mucho. It's Romantic Espanol lyrics have been only part of the reason it is the most recorded song of all times by stars like Elvis, The Beatles, Andrea Bocelli, and even Sanjaya on American Idol when JLo was the guest artist.

In spite of being up super late, our son enjoyed the humor of the show and mostly his chocolate chip cookie at intermission. I think that he will have memories that I certainly never had!

My night ended with the the 25th anniversary of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and while he was the original Adam Lambert on this one, Smokey Robinson still delivers on Tracks of My Tears as when he first wrote it for "The Miracles", with Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin. Here's the background on this song from Smokey to Adam with the modern day performance of it, a high point of the 2009 American Idol season.



Today I begin to do a little more of what I'm calling Operation Spring by getting ready for whatever God has for me just around the corner. Besides looking forward to curling up with a bowl of beans and cornbread and watching American Idol, I'm doing some early Spring cleaning which has included dumping out all of my purses. I generally use about one a month and then ditch it when it gets out of control. All I need is my wallet and cell phone then off I go with a new color!

This is like keeping 12 miniature filing cabinets in the closet that need to be purged at the end of each fiscal year. I'm sure all the accountants are cringing by now, but hey, it's a good system for an artist.

I found peanut butter cracker crumbs from September, movie ticket stubs, my favorite listening CDs, receipts of all my travels, crushed up cash, bobby pins, paper clips, 5 combs, and 21 pens.

In don't know if BarlowGirl got it right with the song "Beautiful Ending" or John McLaughin got it right with "Beautiful Disaster". Either way, I'm looking forward to smelling the freshly cut grass of springtime (Lord willing) knowing that this season of my life is behind me.

I was at The Village Church on September 13 when Matt Chandler made a startling announcement. "The empirical data tells us that by this time next year someone in this room will not be with us anymore." Though we had never met before, I spoke with him recently during my last night at Peter Piper Pizza in Highland Village. I could have never predicted that the restaurant would be closed forever within hours taking a major source of income and my health benefits, as I'm sure Matt could have never imagined that as I write this article, he would currently be in surgery for the removal of a malignant brain tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain after collapsing at his home on Thanksgiving day.

I think that the choice to be thankful for the blessings I can count is resting in my hands. Living life, enjoying the arts, trusting who God says I am because He has stamped His DNA into my innermost being--those are the things I can appreciate in this very hour as the sun goes down over Highland Village. Let the name of the Lord be praised!

A Little Useless Graceland Trivia

Here I am in Elvis' Jungle Room at Graceland. I always wondered if Elvis called it Graceland because he was in desperate search of a land called Grace (A.K.A. God's amazing grace), known for holding his band hostage into the wee hours of the morning just to provide some Gospel hymns to soothe his soul long after everyone else was bone weary. After all, he told the world he was caught in a trap.

However, the Graceland estate was named after Grace Toof, a wealthy lady whose family owned the property for almost one hundred years. Grace's niece, Ruth, inherited the land in 1940 and promptly built herself a grand colonial mansion, replete with Greek columns and antique heirlooms. Gone with the Wind had come out the year before.

A Little Snow Day Honesty

My house is decked out, my heart is not quite there just yet this Christmas. I know that in the changing seasons the Betty Baylor response is that we should "trust God", right? So I am working on letting that become a major theme of my life this holiday season as I am reminded in scripture that God is my safe refuge, a strong tower.

There is a tendency this time of year even in the best of circumstances to hold on to pain just because it may be the last lingering tie we have to the past as we knew it, even more so when the future seems so unclear.

If there be any encouragement gained, let it be this. Run well. Obey truth. Live and walk in the Spirit. Love is holding on. (Galatians 5 and 6)

Let these broken bones rejoice again. Trust God.

Finalizing Peter Piper Stuff

Taking a Break on the Peter Piper Sign.