Christmas Classics: Mariah Carey

We all know this song, but how many times have you seen it performed live....WHILE AT DISNEY WORLD?! This year, this classic Christmas song [sung beautifully] by Mariah Carey, quickly became one of my favorites, and then I saw this video, and it got that much better. This video is actually a number of years old, from 2004 I believe, but it's fantastic. It wouldn't surprise me if someday Disney found the cure for cancer, just look at how happy they can make all those people! Less than a week till Christmas, hope you enjoy this song/video!

[All I Want For Christmas Is You]

Little Drummer Boy

Since we're well into the official Christmas music season, I felt it was time to get a couple songs going up in here! This first one is a great rendition of Little Drummer Boy by a band called 'The Almost'. Enjoy!

[The Almost - Little Drummer Boy]

A Stratton Family Christmas

Here's a couple choice pictures from Christmas morning this year (and one sequence) but the above picture should give you a pretty good understanding to how things went. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, and has a safe and Happy New Year! On with the pictures!

Fra-Jee-Lay, It Must Be Italian!

Ralphie, everyone knows this one. Not a whole lot to say about it except that it's pure classic [so much so that it's run 24 hours straight on TV starting tonight and lasting into tomorrow.] There are too many memorable moments in the movie to name, but 2 of my favorites are the scene when Ralphie finds the hidden package making his Christmas wish come true....and pretty much any scene with the 'Dad' ["This guy swallowed a yo-yo, now that's real news!"] Enjoy this theatrical trailer and I hope everyone has a safe and very Merry Christmas!

Cookie Monster

If this doesn't make you laugh and think of years past, then I don't know what does!! Seriously, there's not much out there that's better than a Sesame Street Christmas! ....except maybe 'Fragile'.....

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Wow, when was the last time anyone saw this much snow? I know it's been a loooong time. These photos were taken around 12:35pm on Saturday, it snowed all night and it'll probably go for at least another 12 hours. Who knows, maybe we'll actually have a white Christmas this year! Good thing my house is all stocked up on the "essentials!"

Back Yard

Front Yard & Street

Toys For Tots.....VIDEO!

That's right, here's the video that was put together for last weekend's Toys For Tots event that I posted about earlier. Obviously, I have some favorite parts to the video, can you tell which parts they are?? ;) Enjoy!

Toys For Tots

This past Saturday I met up with the Southern Maryland MOPAR group for their annual Toys For Tots Run. Basically we all (Charger, and Challenger owners) meet up at a local fire station for a mini meet & greet, then got an escorted cruise from that fire department for about 25 miles to the dealership where the actual car show and toy event was being held. The cruise from one spot to the other was an absolute blast, mostly because they had all the intersections blocked off for us, so we could blow right through all the red lights and stay together as one big group! There were probably close to 35 or 40 cars total.

Once at the dealership everyone just parked and enjoyed the company and all the cars. Then a little later on we did their traditional 'hand-off' to the Marines who showed up to collect all the donations. The group almost filled the back of a budget rental truck!

It was an awesome day and the weather couldn't have cooperated any better. It was really fun to be part of such a great cause, see some really cool cars, and meet some great people in the process. The car community really is fantastic. Here's some pictures from the event, enjoy!

Pulling up to the dealership

The Convoy

Trucks leading the way

Fire Dept. helping unload toys

Red Ranger & Santa

Yea, It's Got A Hemi [note the toys in passanger seat]

Blowing through the red lights! [Note trucks blocking traffic]

Cars behind me

Traditional toy hand off from the donation pile to the truck

Almost filled!

Cars lined up at the dealership [Park Dodge]

Christmas Music Is Here!

Christmas music season has officially kicked off! LET'S PARTY!!!!!!!

Hump Day Playlist

It's Wednesday (and Christmas Eve) -- you know what that means!! This playlist 1) was probably somewhat expected and 2) needs no introduction. Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the music!

Relient K - Sleigh Ride
Andy Williams - It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Coldplay - Have Yourself A Merry Christmas
Relient K - 12 Days of Christmas
Blink 182 - I Won't Be Home For Christmas
New Found Glory - Ex-Miss
Kenny G - The First Noel
Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Relient K - Angels We Have Heard On High
The Muppets - Jingle Bell Rock
Adam Sandler - The Hanukkah Song - I know, I know, but don't tell me you don't like this song!
Twisted Sister - O Come All Ye Faithful
Hellogoodbye - Winter Wonderland
Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad
Relient K - We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Let It Snow Baby, Let It Reindeer...

My brosef informed me the other day that Relient K was going to be on Jay Leno (the following night.) I went home and set the DVR to record it. Even though I haven't actually watched what I recorded, thanks to the magic of the internet and youtube I was able to see their performance yesterday. It should be known that my brother posted about this first yesterday, but it's simply too good not to share again. And yes, that is Biff from 'Back To The Future' you see at 2:36 rocking that guitar. Enjoy.

I really am 6...

Recently a dear friend of mine sent me the link to this video, saying 'This is totally you, 6 years old' -- she couldn't have been more right, or found a more perfect video for the season and this blog. Being that I really am a kid at heart and love Relient K, as well as Christmas music, you can only imagine my amusement when I first clicked play. Please enjoy this little peak into who I really am, and to what my Mom had to deal with back in the day, albeit through some total strangers video. Anyway, ENJOY!




Except, I think I've been pretty good this year! :)

Christmas Music!

I love Christmas music plain and simple. I think part of the love comes from the fact that I do not allow myself to listen to any Christmas music before the last of my mom's delectable pumpkin rolls is gone at Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner is over with and I've sufficiently stuffed myself silly, it becomes the official Christmas music season. I know, I know, old news right? Well I only started this blog a few days ago, so get over it! There's this band Relient K. They rule. I've had the opportunity to see them like once a year for the past 7 or 8 years or so. In the past few years they've put out some stellar Christmas albums. This song was off their most recent. Without further a due, Relient K's "Sleigh Ride"

Relient K - Sleigh Ride from gotee on Vimeo.

LED Christmas Lights & Me

So this past weekend I attended what I'm sure will only be the first "Christmas Sweater Party" of the year. At any rate, somehow I got the idea in my head that it would be a fantastic idea to try and install some Christmas lights on the sweater this year. Good idea right? I thought so. Well as it turns out, I'm not an electrician.


My brilliant idea was to buy a set of Christmas lights, and somehow rewire them to run off of dc current (batteries) instead of ac current (plugging them into the wall.) I found this nifty little site which I thought was going to help me with my mission, unfortunately things only got more complicated from here on out.

I learned that with LED lights, red, orange, and yellow run on a different voltage than green, blue, and white. Since I bought multicolored lights, I had to completely cut up and destroy a once perfectly lovely strand of Christmas lights and splice the right colors back together. Victory will be mine! Except not really. After further reading on that 'helpful' website, I learned that the author used voltage based on rechargeable batteries and not regular coppertops like I had purchased. Okay no biggie, I'll just use 2 less batteries to reach the same amount of total power for my strand. Eureka! A quick half-second blip of light and then.....nada. I give up. The lights beat me.....but I will be back!

Some construction pics for your viewing pleasure:

Still made it to the party though!