Holiday Radio Rant

Can someone explain why the moment Thanksgiving Day arrives, radio stations decide it's time to dust off all the holiday CDs and torture listeners with every rendition of Little Drummer Boy they can dredge up?  From Rod Stewart to Barry Manilow to Mariah Carey to Madonna to Josh Groban (who happens to be the only singer who should be allowed to sing holiday songs), I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into my car in the last two weeks only to find myself being tortured by another version of "Santa Baby." 

It's not like I'm a Scrooge or anything.  In fact, I happen to enjoy a nice rendition of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" from time to time.  But if I have to hear one more Jewish crooner singing another Christmas tune, I'm going to hurl.  Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear Barry Manilow or Barbara Streisand for that matter belt out their own version of "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel?"  Sure the song is a little redundant, but maybe it's time for someone to spice up some Hanukah tunes so we can have some equal opportunity holiday radio play during the month of December.   

Just imagine going out for a leisurely drive on a crisp fall day with your family, you flip on the radio and the next thing you know, Hannah Montana is singing Hava Nagila.  Sure we still have the Adam Sandler Hanukah song that was a hit back in the 90's but other than that, no one has taken a stab at rocking out the festival lights like they do with Christmas.  So I say, let's give a shout out to some other holidays.  Hey - I'm sure there are some Kwanza songs that they can be playing on the radio.  And maybe, Barry Manilow can rediscover his roots, cook up a few latkes, gather around the Hanukah bush and entertain us with some festive jingles straight from the holy land.  And for those of you struggling to think of a Hanukah song that you can sing with your family, here's a tune that'll get you into that crazy eight day spirit.

Hanukah, oh Hanukah come light the menorah,

Blah, bi di blah, oh blah bi di blah, I sometimes read the torah,

Gather round the candles, but don't touch the flame,

I wish I knew the words to this song cause it now sounds kind of lame,

Oh who am I kidding.  I guess I'll be brushing up on my Menorah tunes along with Barry and Barbara.  Then again, maybe the three of us can record a new version of Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.  If you can't beat 'em (or remember the words), then join 'em.

Happy Holidays!

 

The Double Whammy

Can someone please explain to me the sick joke that the man upstairs pays on me when I'm preparing for a major event, am two days away from that major event, and both of my kids come down with strep! They've never even had strep before - but of course, today, as I had planned to tie up loose ends my son woke up with a strange rash and my daughter seemed perfectly fine - I even went with her on a school trip but when it was time to head home, she said she was feeling dizzy and tired and her throat ached and the next thing we knew, my husband, who lucky for me came home to take my son to the doctor so I could go on the school trip, ran back out to take my daughter to the doctor while I stayed home with my son and my trusty BlackBerry.

While responding to emails and crossing off dozens of items from my to do list, Dylan insisted we play a game. The guess which animal I'm thinking of game. I pretty much went through every animal I could think of and he aced the subject - next time I'll throw in a weevil just to keep it interesting. He then ate a few bites of dinner, refusing his veggies of course, and then I whipped out a special treat - we were going to bake smores cookies - you gotta love Pillsbury to cheer up any kid with a bacterial infection.

The diagnosis for my daughter - you guessed it - strep throat. And hence the name of this blog - Double whammy. A double whammy always seems to hit me when I'm busiest and maybe it's a wake up call that I've gone into overdrive since launching my two companies. Thank goodness my event will be over at 4:01 pm on Saturday and then I can relax and think about what culinary masterpiece I'll be purchasing for Thanksgiving when we entertain over a dozen relatives. Funny how people stress over what they're cooking for Thanksgiving, stress over work, stress over gaining weight, stress over carpool schedules and yet the biggest stress of all trumps everything hands down when your kids get really sick.

Thankfully my two kids are on antibiotics - one pink, one white with skin cream for his weird pimples and of course, they'll both be out of school tomorrow. According to the pediatrician, they should be fine by Saturday but if not, my hubby will be holding down the forte at home while I host a casting call for "Supernanny," over 30 vendors, performers, authors, an illustrator, Miss Teen New Jersey and a kid's fashion show that my daughter has been talking about for months. Life always has a funny way of throwing me curve balls, but no matter how busy I get or how many hats I wear, at the heart of everything is that I'm the one everyone depends on. I am mommy hear me roar. If Helen Reddy could see me now.

Wii for Me!

My family has officially migrated over to the technological dark side. While we are pretty antiquated when it comes to embracing advances in new technology - like buying an HDTV or getting the kids Nintendo DS's three years after they were actually popular, we have finally entered the 21st century and are the proud owners of a Wii.

It's not because my husband and I camped out at Target at 8am to purchase said product, but luckily for us, my in-laws did instead. When I received a call at 8:20am this morning from my mother-in-law who informed us they had just snagged one of the last Wii's in the store, I have to admit, I was giddy with excitement. What is it about the Wii that has eveyone going wild?

We picked up the Wii tonight and after spending an hour hooking the thing up (not the Wii's fault, my new HDTV is totally not cooperating), my kids started to play baseball and I was amazed. You literally feel as if you are pitching and hit the ball! Now I have to tell those folks at Nintendo, they should give the players on the field legs, but other than looking like odd weeble wobbles with goatees and menacing looks, the games are pretty freakin' fun.

Granted, I haven't had a chance to play the game just yet. I am actually waiting for the kids to go to sleep (it's currently 10:38 pm) so that I can try my hand at tennis. Considering I've blown off the retirement league these last few weeks, maybe I can get my game up before I head back into the yenta tennis fray.

So here's to the Wii - I am officially part of the club, and I'm pretty psyched. Now if only my kids would go to sleep so we (my husband and I) can play a round of golf, tennis and bowling without ever getting off the couch. I'm going to have the most toned arms in Westchester - my butt and thighs are a whole different story but maybe next year's version will come with a stationery bike.

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