New Year's Eve Countdown

In the spirit of New Year's Eve, may we present to you a countdown of our top 10 favorite songs of 2009.  These are the songs that we loved the most this year and will still be listening to next year and beyond.  Enjoy!

10.  Warm Heart of Africa - The Very Best

Bouncy African pop featuring vocals from the lead singer of Vampire Weekend.  We only recently came across this song but have been enjoying it immensely ever since.

Warm Heart of Africa (featurin...

9.  Doomsday - Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Another fairly recent discovery, this song is a slow builder that ends in a fretful cacophony.  Who would've thought that "doomsday might fall anywhere near a tuesday"?

Doomsday - Elvis Perkins In De...

8.  Slight Figure of Speech - The Avett Brothers

We are especially fond of The Avett Brothers, having enjoyed the controlled chaos of their live shows and their past several releases.  This song is one of the few upbeat songs on their new, sombre album "I and Love and You".  Here is the terrific (and hilarious) video for this song:

The Avett Brothers - Slight Figure Of Speech - watch more funny videos

7.  Daylight - Matt and Kim

This song was featured on an early episode of "Community", one of our new favorite shows.  It's upbeat, catchy, and fun!

Daylight - Matt & Kim

6.  The Rake's Song - The Decemberists

A little bit disturbing when taken out of context of their prog-folk fantasy album, "The Hazards of Love", it is nonetheless quite a rousing entry in the Decemberists' whimsical catalog.  This is more a favorite of Ben's (especially after seeing them live this summer) than of Marci's.

The Rake's Song - The December...

5.  Queit Dog - Mos Def

One of Marci's favorites, Mos Def's return to rap is a rhythmically triumphant affair.  Here he is rocking the tympanis on Letterman earlier this year:

4.  Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear

This is the catchiest song on what is probably Ben's favorite album of the year, Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimest".  It's a carefully constructed, folk-rock album that takes a few listens to fully reveal its grandeur. Here is the delightfully odd video:

3.  Lisztomania - Phoenix

Phoenix could've easily had two songs on this list, with the equally delightful "1901", both from the album "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix".  This one is Amity's choice, though, since she likes to dance to it.  We also like singing "Like a rhi- like a rhino!", although that's not the real lyric.

Lisztomania - Phoenix

2.  French Navy - Camera Obscura

Immediately likeable, and blissfully catchy, this song has been in my head almost all year, but I keep going back for more.   I wanted to control it, but this song has projected itself all the way up to number two.

French Navy - Camera Obscura

1.  My Girls - Animal Collective

This song's simple, yet profound statement about a father's desire to provide for his wife and young daughter was something I could easily relate to this year.  Plus, it's a killer jam.

My Girls - Animal Collective

Happy Birthdays!

Happy birthdays to my girls!

Time To Relax

...after a busy week of holidays and birthdays!

Christmas Time Was Here!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  One set of Amity's Grandparents got to come over for the day and we had a great afternoon.  Amity wasn't really interested in opening the presents but just loves to have family around to play with for the day.  Here's the tree before gift opening!

Amity got her first pair of slippers and a fancy pink purse.  She seemed most interested in a small jar of mustard given to Ben, though.

Amity got a rocking horse from her grandparents.  The first thing she did was climb up on the box.  That's a favorite activity for her right now.  She climbs on anything.  Note the satisfied smile that's coming as she begins to straighten up as conqueror of the box once again.

A "first Christmas" ornament got her attention as she tried to chew and pry it out of the box.  No worries.  They must pack first christmas ornaments with childproofing in mind.  Her ornament is in tact for next year.

A Beginner's Bible!! Woohoo!!

Amity took to the rocking horse right away.  She bounced and rocked away.  Pap and Grammie helped her get into the riding action too.

Auntie Chelle and Pap helped Amity open presents.  Cousin Matt came over too.  Yay!

We had a very tasty Christmas meal too.  Ben smoked brisket and made bbq sauce for it as well.  Pap, Grammie and Chelle brought sweet rolls, ham and pies.  What a feast!

The day was relaxing and fun.  Amity did get to celebrate her first Christmas Eve at the Church Children's Service.  She did very well in the crowd.  She even got to stop and see the live manger scene.  We discovered that her use of sign language is expanding when we got partway through the service and she began to sign and say "all done."  So funny!  What a blessing to celebrate a first family Christmas as three.

Happy Xmas Eve!

O Christmas Tree

We got all bundled up last weekend and went to a local tree farm to find the perfect Christmas tree.

Amity's all ready to go.  So taking a stroller to the tree farm wasn't my best idea but she's so cute anyway.

Here's Amity in her winter coat, hat and gloves traipsing through the trees in the snow.  We got our first snowfall too.  What a perfect Christmas tree picking day!

So we found our perfect Christmas tree and Ben got out the saw to cut it down for us.

Amity supervised.

Success!! What a team.  Ben loaded the tree onto the wagon and the friendly tree farm folks got it all shook and bundled for us.

Amity rode home next to the tree.  She was very interested in this new thing and kept reaching out to touch the tree on the ride home.

What a wonderful day!  We got our tree all decorated and Amity just loves when the tree lights up. 

On another note, Amity has made some exciting progress lately.  She put the circle shape in the right place.  I watched her try to put her stackable cup in the round hole first.  She got frustrated when it wouldn't fit.  Then she reached over into the shape bucket, grabbed a star and a circle.  Tossed the star aside and put the circle into the right spot.  Go Amity!

Let It Snow

Stair Climber

We were getting ready to go away for the weekend and packing up when I walked by the stairs and saw Amity standing on the first step. Surprise!  By the time Ben came back in from packing the car, she was high enough to look him in the eye.  So we've reached a new level of mobility and babyproofing.  We keep the gate across the bottom of the steps during the day and Amity gets to climb the stairs when she's going up for a nap or a bath and bed.  We're working on teaching her to go down the stairs backwards.  She's doing really well with it for the most part.  She now stops on the stairs to explore the railing and banisters, the light switch, the carpet and to sit, clap, spin around, shuffle sideways and enjoy her new skills and area.