Now that's what I call.....

.....Christmas!!!

Currently downloading a raft of tunes to provide suitable ambiance for our Christmas dinner tomorrow. It's become a bit of a tradition for my group of mates to meet up near Christmas and celebrate the festive season/get hideously drunk in a safe and comfortable environment.

As my starting point, I have downloaded just about every song from the original "Now that's what I call Christmas" cassette, which is still just about going strong back at my mum's house and has provided the soundtrack to Christmas for as far back as I can remember. I just need to hear Wings or John and Yoko and am instantly transported back to the build up to the big day in the late 80s/early 90s, as the excitement built up for what seemed like an eternity, with more and more presents arriving under the tree and my sister and I trying to "subtly" find out which were ours and work out what could be inside.

These days of course, technology has progressed a little from the good old cassette and this year's selection is going to be on my Ipod (due to CDs only holding 24 tracks - rubbish). I've gone for some classier stuff along with the cheese so we'll have a bit of Frank and Dean and a bit of Louis Armstrong as well to while away the wait for dinner - which seems to take as long to cook these days as Christmas day did to arrive when I was a kid.

I just hope I don't get mugged on the way to Helen's house - the shock and feeling of injustice would only be outweighed by embarrassment as the mugger stuck on my tunes to discover Slade and Cliff Richard blaring out.....

As a further reason to celebrate, J found out today that she has got her dream job! She starts as a lab assistant in a Geotechnical consultancy on the 2nd of January. She bloody deserves it.