My son's record collection

Talk about the gift that keeps giving! My son Jesse found a guy in Big Rapids through Craig's List and paid him $50 for a few hundred vintage records. What a bargain! How could someone not want these? Tell me the picture of Engelbert you see to the right is not worth twice that amount alone! The cover art is often stunning and as for the music inside . . . well, you haven't really lived until you've listened to the Ray Conniff singers, in their inimitable upbeat style, sing Bridge Over Troubled Waters . . . "When you're down and out. When you're on the street . . . When friends just can't be found . . ."

For Christmas, Jesse wrapped up a treasures like A funny thing happened on the way to hell and gave them to various relatives. He gave his Polish grandmother an album of Polka music and she said, "You mean this as a joke but we actually like this music." And she's right -- some of the music is spectacularly good. Some of it is just as spectacularly bad, but some of it is wonderful.

And, as I look at Gomer here, and Henry Mancini below, I want to know why men don't wear more ascots? And, as I look at Lynn Anderson, I wonder why women don't wear their hair like that anymore.

Last night we were enjoying an evening with some friends and the records came out. They left with a big pile for their children, to make a very special Christmas. Come on, where else can you get the Longines Symphonette performing You and me and a dog named Boo?

So it's a Merry Christmas in the Munroe house. Hope it's a happy one for you, too. Enjoy these images. It's the Christmas gift that keeps giving.