Patrick Donohue is the proudest Indiana native you're likely to find. Seriously. No one is prouder to be from a state that so many people know relatively so little about than he is. Patrick is a native of Terre Haute and a graduate of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University. Knowing this, you might think he’d be a huge John "Cougar" Mellencamp fan, a man considered by some to be the Hoosier State's poet laureate. But you'd be wrong. In a major way. | Every family has its own Christmas tradition.
Whether it's opening a single gift on Christmas Eve or decorating the Christmas tree together, those traditions were born of simple beginnings and now seem sacred.
I know in my house anyone who dare try anything new around Christmastime was labeled as someone who was "slaying tradition." It was akin to being named as a communist sympathizers during the McCarthy-era HUAC hearings. Not good.
But those traditions remain almost entirely in tact and are special because they are unique to my family.
One of our holiday traditions, oddly enough, is listening to the 1984 Christmas album, "Once Upon a Christmas" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton on a loop, beginning sometime around Thanksgiving.
We Donohues, unlikely to listen to much, if any other country music, can't get enough of this album. It's untouchable in our household.
In honor of that tradition, today's song is Dolly Parton's cover of "White Christmas."
Less than three weeks until Christmas, folks. No, really.