Merry Christmas, What I Want for 2017, and BoTB Results

Skidding into the office breathless...

I'm here. I'm here. I know I'm late with the results for Battle of the Bands. I know I was lousy about commenting to your comments. Yikes.

You know what I want for 2017... I mean besides all the obvious things like good health and world peace? I want direction. Focus. I want to finally get going. My ongoing (read: constant) prayer is that God simply give me direction on what He wants me to do and then guide my stubborn nose in the right direction. I'm praying for open doors and new opportunities and courage to walk through those doors and grab onto those opportunities. Even if they are scary. Or feel uncertain or new. I suppose I'm praying for a Jesus-style kick in the rear end. And joy. Lots of joy. I really want to seize the joy in life and be present for it. And live in the moment. All that good stuff.

Okay, now that we've covered where my mental energy has been spent (see above) instead of blogging, let's get back to it. 16 of you voted in the December 15 round of Battle of the Bands. The contenders were Amy Grant and Michael Buble. The song was Grown Up Christmas List. I confess that I found this song by going to YouTube and looking for Amy Grant Christmas songs. I'd gotten stuck in a Christmas song whirlwind (that place of too many songs = confusion), so I decided to begin with an artist I knew I liked. Work from there. Back in the 80s, I had Amy Grant's first Christmas record. It was the collectible variety with her the cover of the album imprinted into the vinyl of the record. I thought I'd choose something from that record. But then I came across her rendition of Grown Up Christmas List (awesome song!), checked out who else recorded it (serious contenders!) and a battle began to take shape. Point of fact, I liked the Michael Buble recording so much that he stole my vote from Amy (who started this whole thing in the first place!), which doesn't seem fair. But, that is how voting works. You think it's going to go one way, but then someone else does it better, and voila. And Michael Buble did it better to these ears. I couldn't have been more shocked.

What did you guys think?

Well, Amy Grant began very strong garnering the first four votes. After that it was back and forth. Then Michael Buble came from behind at the end for the win. And that was without my vote, which turns out doesn't actually count for anything in this battle, because you guys decided it. Final tally:

Amy Grant: 7

Michael Buble: 10 (inc. mine)

I think that was a darn good battle. Very close. And some of you heard a new song (Cherdo, yes, I'm looking at you:)/

Michael, I'm going to let you walk us out with a favorite in our house. Merry Christmas friends. I hope yours is overflowing with blessings!!!