Fusion 45: What Really Happened on Christmas

The economy and the weather got together and conspired to make this a very low-key Christmas for my family in the spending department. We’re broke so it was really easy to decide to not spend a lot of money on Christmas presents for the kids. The weather of the past week, a couple of feet of snow in Portland, made sure of it. We couldn’t get out the door to overspend if we’d wanted to.

The result: my 10-year old said more than once: “A big Lego set and a stack of books. It’s the perfect Christmas”. Save for not getting a copy of Clue for Mama (which we may do later in the week) there was no disappointment among the kids. Books they loved, clothes they needed and a few special toys they wanted and they were ecstatic.

So, there you have it. Here in this family, it’s really been about people (not presents) all along. We just didn’t see it all that clearly. My wife gave me a couple of nice shirts, the kids gave me a pair of used Sabian cymbals (16″ and 18″ crashes, the perfect compliment to my 17″ Zildjian crash) and, best of all, we adopted that girl you see above. I posted her picture a few weeks ago but I have to put this one up, too. It was taken by my 10-year old, a budding camera bug.

She couldn’t be cooler. I think my old dog, Pogo, has made a comeback. I can see him in her eyes. She came to us with an unusual name: “Emie”. (It’s Thai for something, but we can’t figure out what). We considered changing it to “Poco,” but will likely settle on “Amie”. It works: she’s the perfect 70′s log cabin, dog-in-front-of-the-fireplace dog.

I’m not a big fan of Christmas music. I have a half-dozen favorites I can hear about a half-dozen times and be satisfied. That usually happens by October 31st unless I can avoid the department stores and the radio from Halloween until New Year’s Day.

So, today, while the kid’s were busy scurrying about and forgetting about the Singing Dogs on iTunes, I threw another log on the fire, looked out the window at all the snow and put on a Poco compilation called The Forgotten Trail.

Poco was a tremendously underrated band. The harmonies of CSN, the songwriting of the Eagles, the production of America without any of the billion-selling notoriety. In some ways, that’s good. It seems to maintain a sort of purity, that idyllic post-Summer of Love, Rocky Mountain High smell of fresh air and pine, screaming hawks in the valley, acoustic guitars in the living room.

Hope you had a beautiful day wherever you are…

Namaste,
Music Junkie

Pure Prairie League – Amie

Poco – Faith In The Families