My husband is the best CD mixer ever. I think it stems from his 
wide-ranging curiosity about all things pop culture. He’s open to every music genre and has an encyclopedic knowledge of who recorded what and when, where and with whom. He even made tape mixes back in the olden days — not easy! But now he’s got CDs and computers and iTunes and he comes up with some brilliant mixes. (In fact, five years later people still say that the mix he created for our wedding favors was the best. Ever.) So you can guess what my Valentine’s present was: A lovely, lovely mix of some beautifully quirky love songs. Like The Smithereens’ “A Girl Like You” and Art Garfunkel’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever).” There’s also “Message of Love” by The Pretenders, “This and That” from Michael Penn,Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris’s “This Is Us” and some Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison plus a song I’ve never heard, “Renaissance Eyes” by Don Dixon. This CD is a keeper. My husband, too.
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Shining faces … precious voices … proud parents … Is there anything more moving during the holidays than children’s Christmas choirs? Not much. And it’s especially heartwarming when you don’t even have a child up there and you haven’t spent the past three months in frantic dashes to rehearsals or the past three days in frantic hunts for a white blouse that everybody can agree on (ah, memories!) — you simply can sit back and enjoy. And that’s what I did this past weekend at the annual Community Choir Christmas Concert sponsored by the Rotary Club in Manchester, Tennessee. This is my dad’s project. He’s been organizing this concert for the past 14 years — combining choir music and Rotary, two of his favorite things. He loves it and everybody who comes to listen feels blessed. I’ll bet there were concerts like 
this everywhere this past weekend, along with open houses, parades and parties as December deepens and the 25th gets closer and free weekends and evenings get scarce. A side benefit to all the activity? Catching up with folks you may only see once a year. Several of my high-school classmates sing in the community choir, so we all go out afterwards. I know what you’re thinking when you look at this pic: “There is no way these people graduated high school 33 years ago! They are far too young and hip to be 50-plus!” Thank you for the compliment. And in fact you would think that if you had heard our conversation — riding new Harley-Davidsons (and this was not the lone male alum, either), installing environmentally friendly pool-filtration systems, eating the raw-food way and discussing details of the upcoming class-reunion Caribbean cruise. And of course there were a few grandbaby pics passed around.
Christmas in our family kicks off with the annual hunt for the Christmas CDs — which I found this year, strangely enough, in the look-through-these-and-get-rid-of-what-you-don’t-want box of discs slated for giveaway. Some years they’re in with the tree ornaments, some years they’re wrapped up in the stockings and one year I even found them with the Easter decorations. But we always find them. And am I glad, because we love these CDs. I am not a music critic — proved by the fact that I remember every word of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” and most 1970s TV jingles — but I do know that my family’s favorite Christmas CDs are some of the best around. And it’s not hard to find them in stores, at least: Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret always offer stellar collections, as do Pier One and Starbucks. Really! You just thought those CDs were at the cash registers to spur you into another impulse buy, didn’t you? Give in to the impulse. You’ll be glad you did. I especially am impressed with these collections because they feature such a variety of artists and styles, with some beloved classics as well as up-and-comers. Here are some of our top choices from years past (find them on amazon.com and other sites):
Coffee with Cathy 