Musical Advent Calendar, Days 13-16: Christmas Time in the City: "Silver Bells," "Skating"

Remember when you were little and had an advent calendar, and about halfway through the month realized, "Holy Cow!  I forgot about the Advent Calendar!"?

No?  That was just me?  Oh well.

To catch up we're going to have to do a little cheating.

From Saturday through Tuesday of last week, I was in San Francisco for a conference.  It was the first time I've been in the city that close to Christmas, and I've never seen it so crowded - with revelers there for "Santa Con," with protestors, with shoppers.  It made it a little difficult to navigate through the heart of the city near Union Square, but at the same time it was a lot of fun.

As I made my way through the crowds, I couldn't get the first lines of "Silver Bells" out of my head:

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas



"Silver Bells," Brenda Lee

And then, there were the memory invoking tones of Vince Guaraldi's "Skating":



"Skating," Vince Guaraldi Trio