My Elvis' Christmas Album

This Christmas I decided to find my first two childhood Christmas albums. I knew the first was Elvis' Christmas Album from 1970. I could not remember much about the second one except that it had a red cover and was perhaps mostly instrumental Christmas music. These were the only two Christmas albums I had has a kid, so they got played over and over ever Christmas for years. I found them in my mothers small record collection, which she had not touched in years. I asked if I could have them, and pointed out that my name was even written on the front cover of the Elvis album. She happily handed them over knowing they would get a prized place in my record collection.
On Christmas Eve, I poured a Coca Cola into a Coca Cola Christmas glass, turned on the "fire log" channel on my TV and put the Elvis' Christmas Album on my USB turntable which is hooked up to a grape iMac. I was instantly transported back to my childhood as the first song, "Blue Christmas" began.
Although I am not an Elvis fan, I enjoyed the album greatly, until the very last song on side two which I though didn't seem to fit the Christmas album theme. I then noticed that on the front cover of the album it lists all the songs, and then in a box at the bottom it says By Request "Mama Liked the Roses". I guess they could not come up with a full albums worth of Elvis Christmas songs, and needed one more song? I wonder who requested it?
This album has always been the Christmas soundtrack in my head, and now I can play it every year for the foreseeable future.

Boxing Day Bonanza at Goodwill

On Boxing Day (December 26th) we took a trip down to Marysville, Washington to partake of the Golden Coral "All You Care to Eat" buffet.  It was amazing as always. If you have never been to a Golden Coral, and you have one within driving distance (our closest one is about 1 1/2 hour drive), you have to check it out. After lunch, we driving around checking out various malls and stores. Along the way we found two Goodwill stores where they are having a 50% everything sale, which meant that 99 cent records were now 50 cents, and 10 cent cassette tapes were now 5 cents... Yippee!

I came home with 29 LPs and 1 cassette tape, with the bulk of them being Disney albums, but there were also some other great childrens albums, including:
1) The Muppet Alphabet Album, Staring Jim Henson's Muppets from Sesame Street
2) Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron featuring Peter Pan Pop Band & Singers
3) Alphabet Song, on Tinkerbell Records
4) Danny Kaye tells 6 stories from Faraway Places
5) Songs for Children on Golden Records
6) Musical version of H.H. Rey's Curious George
7) The Unicorn, on Peter Pan Records
8) Frosty the Snowman, on Tinkerbell Records
9) All the Songs from the Walt Disney Movie Pinocchio, on Golden Records

Although a few of them are in rough condition, they all had the original LPs inside and once I put them into shinny new record sleeves, they all looked great, and are ready to be added to my collection. Total cost for all 29 LPs plus one cassette was a grand total of $14.55.

If you would like to check out the other non Disney albums I picked up, check them out over at the Disneyland Records blog.