On Christmas Day I opened this: And I knew the place immediately, Roma, urbs aeterna It reminded me of the day that I with Big Nerd Ranch staffers had the opportunity to tour Rome. It specifically reminded me of the small tunnels that connect the streets through buildings, something like…

Santa been bringing apple and orange and nuts since as long as I can remember. Pecans in Texas were whole, but Zabars’ are really tasty.

I suppose there’s a time in life when you realize you have a favorite tea, a favorite Scotch, a favorite grocery store, and a favorite Christmas album. My favorite Christmas album is Michael Bublé’s, “Christmas.”

While I start off every year reaching for She & Him’s version of “A Christmas Waltz,” for the bulk of the classics, there’s no topping Bublé.

I like Bublé because:

1. Great voice
2. Great arrangements that swing
3. Appropriate respect for the song
4. Communication of joy

He does three songs in particular that make me feel the season and which I’d like to commend.

1. A New Orleans-inspired bluesy, boozy, “Blue Christmas”
2. A traditional-sensitive version of “White Christmas” (in duet with Shania Twain!)
3. A flapper-ready swing of “Jingle Bells” (with the Puppini Sisters!)

Below I’ll write about what I love so much about each of the songs, but the one thing that unites all of them are arrangements that are evocative and, frankly, damn funny. In each of these songs, the arrangements give us:

• A set of rules, the “straight” version of the song
• And then it gets wild: fun phrasings, a fat swing break where the rules are broken, delighting the ear
• And then now that the wheels are loose on the bus, let’s see if we can shake ’em off (we do) in a way that shows the staggering talent of the musicians

Also, I find these songs to be incredibly rich pictorially. Every time I hear these songs I imagine a music video (directed by me) that accompanies the breaks and beats in the songs. I’ll share them here too.

Happy 2019! Here’s a story from the holiday times. The other night, Lauren and I came downtown to return some pants in Chelsea. It was a cold evening and it had gotten dark so we were heading up W18th in a hurry. As we were walking, I got a few steps ahead of Lauren such that it might have seemed we were travelling independently. As I crossed a driveway an elderly gentleman on a walker stopped and said to me: Hey there buddy. There’s a lady walking behind you and you both have the same kind of happiness. I’d like to introduce you two.

You know its Christmas in The Big Fuhgeddaboutit when it’s Dominick time.