In looking back at the big New Hampshire news stories of 2011, perhaps none touch as many facets of the state as the new two year budget.

Reporter Dan Gorenstein spent much of the year following the budget process and the issues arising from it. He tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson about what's in the budget and what it means for New Hampshire.

Every four years, a small subset of political junkies starts salivating over the prospect that no one candidate will garner enough delegates to win his or her party's nomination for the presidency. That would lead to the junkie's greatest fantasy: a brokered convention.

We’re looking at the history of immigration as a part of NHPR’s year long series on New Hampshire’s Immigration Story. In the early days it was French Canadians and Irish who arrived, at the turn of the last century Greeks and Eastern Europeans and today, new arrivals from Brazil, to Burundi to Bhutan. We’re looking at who came, why they came and the little known stories around our immigration history.

Guests:

David Watters: Professor of English at UNH, where he is the director of the center for New England culture.

We're taking a break this week, but that doesn't mean we're off the air. Tune in for a week of broadcasts of Word of Mouth Weekend...Monday through Thursday at noon and nine PM.

Visit www.nhama.org for information about venues, jams or open mics in and around our listening area. There are way too many to mention!!! Music lives in New Hampshire!!!

Wednesday, December 28

>>>Charlie Strater at the Stone Church ~ Newmarket, NH ~ 9pm

>>>Matt Shipman at the Press Room ~ Portsmouth, NH ~ 9pm

Song/   Artist/ Album/Label

Coming Home/Mark Erelli/ Little Vigils/Hillbilly Pilgrim Records

Thanks For The Roses (Merry Christmas /Antje Duvekot/Winterbloom: Traditions Rearranged/ Market Monkeys

I Wish You Were Here/  Sally Rogers And Claudia Schmidt/While We Live/Red House Records

First Christmas/Stan Rogers/ Between the Breaks...Live!/ Fogarty's Cove

Song for a Winter's Night/Gordon Lightfoot/Gord's Gold/Rhino

A Christmas Song/George Winston/December, Piano Solos: 20th Anniversary Edition/ Windham Hill Records

A Carolina Christmas from Biltmore Estate, with Kathy Mattea is a festive celebration of holiday music -- from one of the most magnificent acoustic venues in the country! A Carolina Christmas features soloists and large ensembles performing a rich variety of songs, including sacred music of the season, African-American spirituals, Celtic jigs and folk favorites.

Everyone knows Julia Child loved to cook, but not everyone knows she loved to read. Long ago she started work on a series of specials that are only just now being completed and aired -- stories about food and a little cooking, but mostly about people. "A Christmas Carol is a lovely story to read over the holidays," she says, "because it has a happy ending." Actor Peter Donat brings the story to life -- with sounds and music that stimulate the theatre of the mind.

This program features moving selections of choral classics celebrating Christmas. The Dale Warland Singers provided magical performances to listeners across the country for over 30 years and were acclaimed as America's premier choir. Their signature holiday concert—beloved by public radio listeners nationwide—was the annual Echoes of Christmas program. Drawing upon the archive of their live performances, Dale Warland and host Brian Newhouse create a very special Christmas musical treat.

A Chanticleer Christmas is American Public Media's one-hour celebration of the season as told through the glorious voices of Chanticleer, the 12-voice San Francisco-based men's choir. The program spans the globe and the centuries — from England in the 1300s to new arrangements of classic and contemporary carols.  Information is available at http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/programs/chanticleer_xmas/