Stockings designed and handmade by my mother for Eddie and I. Too cute, right? With a recent move to a new apartment, and about a million other things happening simultaneously, our box of Christmas decorations got taken to the dark, creepy basement without our realizing it. After a few weeks of unpacking, and only days until Christmas, Eddie and I made an executive decision...no Christmas decorations this year. I knew that was the easy solution, but as Christmas grew closer, I wondered if I could squeeze in the time to search through the junky basement and bring it upstairs. Finally, I let the idea go. When I arrived home from work the other night, Eddie had retrieved the box and filled our apartment with our familiar decorations! He even concocted a Christmas tree from a large potted plant he picked up at Home Depot! It's (finally) beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ~~~ Allow Eddie and I to serenade you...we recorde...

I feel pretty confident in saying this...without youtube, I wouldn't be able to make a living as a pianist. For any job, I'm given sheet music to learn within a certain amount of time. As a ballet accompanist, often these come from famous ballets like  Sleeping Beauty  and  Raymonda . Other times, people request specific songs for their wedding or special occasion. I'm able to simply type in the title of the song in the search box, and up pops link after link to any and all versions ever recorded of the song in question. Playing primarily by ear, all those tricky rhythms I can't figure out from the sheet music make perfect sense when I hear it. I cringe to think how much money I would be spending if I had to pay for each song I needed to listen to, or worse, live in the days when we had to BUY a whole CD for 1 song! Oh, was I  ever  that young?! Just as easy and effortless, I can then open up a new tab, and search for the chords of a song. About 90% of the work...

That's what I was thinking to myself as I sat in 35F degree weather, fighting off blustery winds. Yes, even my thoughts were stuttering from the cold. The gig was to accompany a singing group of harmonizing ladies as they serenaded the Philadelphia Christmas Village with sweet Christmas music.  Eddie snapped this photo, as he himself froze in the audience. He bought me a cup of hot chocolate, hoping I could wrap my bare, piano playing fingers around it and feel warmth for a moment. But the "hot" chocolate lasted only a sip or 2 before it too succumbed to the cold air. The picture turned out so funny, I had to share. The only thing missing in the photo, is the violent shuddering of my shoulders!