We're about to get COMPED! - Week 1

Today begins February - the second month of the year. During one week last February, we devoted it to homemade Christmas comps.

A total of seven CDs were reviewed.

Late last year, I opened a P.O. Box and invited any Christmas home enthusiast to send an extra copy of that Christmas comp you create and send it to us. While the postal workers slaved into the day and night, I was scouring the web 24/7 looking for the best online compilations.

When the smoke cleared, I ran the numbers and was flabbergasted. I received 43 comps via the P.O. Box (11 different states, 2 different countries) and found 26 comps via the Internet.

69 CDs TOTAL! One week just won't do it this time. I had originally set aside the entire month of February to review them all but this is 2 1/2 months of CDs!

Considering February only has 28 days (where's a leap year when you need it?), I usually keep the weekend free for my family and I, and and some people sent me multiple copies of their work (two...three... TWENTY!), you can expect the occasional Saturday evening post (joke or pun, it's lousy) and multiple reviews on select days of the week.

Call me suicidal but I'm going to attempt to get all of the reviews posted in under eight weeks. February and March will be a fun month!

Every Friday in February and March, I will have listed the yuleblog review schedule posted. Beginning on Monday, February 5th, we will start the reviews thusly:

• Monday, February 5 - Jeffco Productions Christmas Turkeys 10
• Tuesday, February 6 - FaLaLaLaLa's ADVENTure In Carols 2006
• Wednesday, February 7 - Ernie's 25 Days Of Christmas
• Thursday, February 8 - Andy Cirzan (TWO REVIEWS)
• Friday, February 9 - Al’s Christmas Ale 2006

To those Christmas home enthusiasts who haven't sent me a copy of your Christmas CD and want to be included, please save your copies. Wait until this upcoming Christmas to send me a copy of your latest Christmas comp.

If you decide to send something anyway, your CD will sit for an entire year before I get to it in February 2008 - provided it doesn't get buried at my desk, sent to my CD shelves in my basement (aka the black hole of Fort Wayne), accidentally thrown out, or manhandled by my three kids.

Thanks to everyone who sent a copy... I have enjoyed looking at the various styles of artwork, lineups of songs, and the pure unadulterated joy in your letters describing your work.

I finally get a chance to LISTEN to more of them now!


Capt