Christmas Tree, Snow Day and Sounds of Music

It’s our first SNOW DAY! Really it’s gorgeous but lordahmighty it’s so c-c-c-c-c-cold.

GS offices as well as my office building are closed today. OU is closed today. I will do a little work from home but for the most part, Mark and I have the day to do a whole lotta whatever we want.

Right now, I’m sipping coffee with homemade Irish Creme, compliments of our friend Suzy. I’ve got the 15 bean soup in the crockpot with ham. The cats are actually starting to merge with the couch. They are bringing the word FLOP to an entire new dimension and I’m sitting here wishing I had some house shoes.

Before I go put on socks, I thought I’d just do a quick little recap.

We put up our Christmas tree last night. It was our first combined tree, and while it turned out beautifully, there was compromise involved.

I like a live tree. He doesn’t like cutting down any tree.

I have ornaments dated back to 1978. Most of mine are dated and personalized from my life. Some are kitch.   Most all of mine are kitch. Some are really spectacular, but I’ve got a mix of Harry Potter, Hallmark and glitter.

Mark’s tree ornaments are all art. They are hand crafted, beautiful pieces of art. He’s got a teensy bit of glitter, but even those are gorgeous.

I like a lot of decor on a tree. Mark doesn’t like a lot of decor on a tree.

In the end, we sorted through things that we no longer need/want/will use and I’m going through my Red Cross connections and finding a family in one of the tornado-hit communities that needs some holiday cheer and we shall bless it and let it go.

It is a gorgeous tree. We think we can even go taller next year. I do love that. I’ve never had a house that could hold a tree much taller than 6 ft. Ours this year is between 7-8 ft.

My favorite part of last night was after we had it all decorated, the lights on, the tree skirt on, the last bits of needle swept up, I went for my layers. Coat, gloves, boots. I called to him and he was doing the exact same thing.

We couldn’t wait to go outside and see what our house looked like with the tree shining through the window.

It is gorgeous.

The rest of the night was spent with the live event the Sound of Music on tv, and working on our Christmas schedule. Trying to figure out who’s going where and when. Ugh. That isn’t my favorite.

The musical was…interesting. I love that the network took a chance and introduced musical theatre to the masses.  The supporting cast was flawless, I could watch Audra McDonald sing about the trash. Daily. I am a Carrie Underwood fan. She undertook a huge endeavor and while her acting was on the Waiting For Guffman level, her musical talent was wonderful. I still cry every time I hear Climb Every Mountain and Edelweiss. The children were great, and I cannot imagine doing a live tv event at their age. Lord. And as much as Carrie’s acting inability hurt me, I watched every minute. I love the story. I had forgotten how much I love this story. I’m not a fanatic. I don’t give an F sharp about the differences between the movie and the stage production. I know the difference between the two.

What I don’t understand was the production value. Why was the sound so awful? The sets were a bit kitch as well, but hey. I’ve done my share of community theatre. I expected something a bit more elaborate but this was the vision of the director and whatever. The sound, though. GAH. It sounded like a running waterfall in every Abbey scene.

As SP pointed out, this isn’t NBC’s first foray into a live production. Remember the live episode of ER? Anyone watch the Today show? So I just don’t understand all of the background noise. It took away from the production value. I find fault with that in a big big way, but as I stated before, I watched every second of it. I hope that the networks got a huge rating boost and that they will do more musical theatre on TV.

Because, along with snow days, the smell of live Christmas trees, and homemade irish creme, it really is one of my favorite things.