I hope everyone has a terrific holiday. I'm taking the rest of the day off as well as Christmas day (unless something big happens, in which case I will do my best to get something up).

The James Brown's Funky Christmas is actually pretty terrific and of all things, I was with the wife and Fitsum at a Gap Outlet doing some last minute shopping on Saturday and my wife gives Fitsum her phone so he can entertain himself while she shops. My job is to essentially watch him. Anyway, he loves watching videos of Mario Kart. Yes, he doesn't want to play, he just wants to watch videos of other people playing Mario Kart. So he's enthralled with watching some other person play Mario Kart and the distinct and wonderful voice of James Brown comes over the speakers, I'm pretty sure it was Soulful Christmas, with the words:

"Merry Christmas. Happy New Year! I love you. Have good Cheer. I love you. Good God. Uhh."

Something magical happened. Fitsum starts dancing in the store. He's still staring at the game, but his hips are moving, his head is bobbing. He's feeling it. I promise if you put this on at your home, you'll get lots of strange looks, but we could all use a bit of funk for Christmas. As an aside, this album was apparently recorded over a three year period, from 1966, 1968 and 1970 and the album was compiled after that. And Let's Make This Christmas Mean Something This Year is really pretty cool because he talks about what he's thankful for and there's a point towards the end, where Brown sings, the way that only he can, "Let the violins play!"