Anyway, I thought I’d share some of the outtakes from the many photo sessions we held.

Big laughs on the rail of the front porch, but Mark was teetering perilously and Tessie was holding on for dear life.

Since we’re petless, we hired a dog actor to pose as the family mutt, but the chemistry just wasn’t there.

This train shot was almost our Christmas card choice, but the United Brotherhood of Hobos objected. We ain’t messing with them unions.

This is the card we sent to people who owe us money.

 A good range of emotions here: despair, insufferability, amiability, operatic joy.

If I had any say in such matters, this is the picture that would have graced our Christmas card this year. There’s more cheese in the boys’ expressions than in the whole state of Wisconsin.

The winner.  Clockwise from the top: Maria, Victor, Mark, and Tessie. Not a bad looking bunch, if I do say so myself.

Modern Trick by Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles is the perfect gift for the music lover in you.

Mind you, I’m not suggesting that we file swap, as that would be illegal. Rather, I just want everyone to recommend their five favorite new songs from the past year.

Now when I say new, I don’t mean to restrict your selections to cuts that were released in 2007. What I’m looking for our songs that first garnered great status, in your estimation, within the last year. So it might be a 20-year-old song that you heard for the first time. Or maybe it’s a song that you’ve been familiar with for years, but it never really rocked you until this year.* Of course, it could be a brand spanking new song.

As always, when writing about music that the reader may not be familiar with, it’s good to offer some points of comparison with other, more well-known songs or artists. For example, you might describe a song as sounding like a freaked-out Belinda Carlisle doing an impersonation of Tom Jones at a klezmer hoedown in Compton.** If a particular song doesn’t lend itself to comparisons, then just a sentence or two of why you like it will be helpful.

It was a good year for new music for me and it was hard to narrow the list down. Nevertheless, I’ve arrived at five and here they are, in no particular order.

Young Folks – Peter, Bjorn & John feat. Victoria Bergsman  What do you get when combine a drum machine, whistling and cool Swedish accents? One of the hottest songs of 2007. Lyrically: this song wouldn’t have worked if the person who wrote it spoke English as their first language. Musically: you won’t stop whistling the hook until well into 2008.

Will You Return? – The Avett Brothers This song has a hootenanny-type feel to it. At first, it sounds like a drunk guy picked up a banjo and started banging out a tune. Then the harmonies kick in and you realize that these guys can really sing and play. This, my friends, is a fun song.

Modern Trick – Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles  Sound-wise, this song is a bit of a departure for them. It’s slightly trippy and puts me in the mind of something groovy, only there’s a pedal steel where a Moog might have been. Great song on a great album by a great band.

Use It – The New Pornographers  If you like a good piano-driven rocker, this is the song for you. It features cool lyrics like this:

the cat calls, through the night
and two chicks in the parking lot crack wise on the price of fame

Your Little Hoodrat Friend – The Hold Steady  A toe tapping tale steeped in depravity and squalor from “America’s Favorite Bar Band.” This would be a killer karaoke song, if one were inclined to engage in such public displays.

Stuff your own stocking with any of these five songs and you’re bound to have a Merry Christmas. Now stuff mine.

 
*This is not an uncommon occurrence for me. There will be a song that I’ve heard countless times and thought it okay, but nothing to iPod about. Then I’ll hear this song in a different context, say in a movie soundtrack or performed live, and POW! – it will reveal itself to be a kicker of previously unappreciated quality.

**That, by the way, is a song that I’d  pay top dollar to hear.

We don’t do much holiday-wise that doesn’t include the kids, but this year was going to be different.

Aimee Mann is bringing her Christmas show to the Vic in Chicago tonight. We had tickets. We had hotel reservations at a nice place a half block away from the concert venue. We had recommendations for places to eat and places to enjoy a nice pre-show ale. We had babysitting.

Now, all is lost.

The threat of perilous weather in Chicago and the fear that we might end up stranded compelled us to make the responsible parental decision and cancel the trip.

You know, I’m a rational person. I wouldn’t normally harbor suspicions that weather events were being used to conspire against us to fulfill some sort of vendetta. But consider this.

My wife trains for five months to run the Chicago Marathon and fulfill a dream, and then on the big day, unseasonably high temperatures cause the cancellation of the race.

And now, a trip to Chicago to see one of my favorite performers of all time, a trip that we had planned since September, is thwarted. By ice! In December!

Someone or something doesn’t want us to experience life’s joys in the Windy City.

Oprah lives in Chicago.

It makes you think, doesn’t it.