12 Things about this Christmas

12. Carols and ads spouted, printed, wired, and lit up in the sky all beginning the day before Halloween leads to greater numbers of Bah-Humbug! I know the economy has been rough, but please refrain from making your American customers crazy. We're already feeling the guilt.


11. The actual date for celebrating IS negotiable. I promise. Just ask your family and have a vote. In our case, we decided to exchange gifts in January this year so we could fix the basement floor and allow everyone their own room. In the end, the $500 needed to fix and recarpet the floor downstairs was almost 3 times our entire gift/card budget and we opted for Christmas instead. I wish more people knew this. I think it would help them relax. January 6th is a good exchange date...something about the wise men.

10. Have a budget and stick to it. Last year, some anonymous special someone helped us with our giving expenses when our budget was $0 and we couldn't imagine going in debt to teach our children about the bounty of the season. Not only was this a gift last year, but it helped us reign in the idea of how big the present portion needed to be. (It's smaller than you think!)

9. Know why you're celebrating. Especially if yours isn't the standard commercialized Santa-reindeer version.  If you're in the "minority," but your "reason for the season" is important to you, you need to be prepared to do some 'splainin'.  Our five year old had, somehow, latched on to the idea of Santa.  Since we have never even shared Santa stories or songs and she hasn't begun kindergarten, this was sort of a surprise to me.  Talking about the legend together helped. 

8. There are fewer lights now.

7.  People are crazy about perfection during this season more than any other time of the year... even bikini-body-tanning-perfection in the summer months doesn't match this frenzy.  Maybe it's that naughty and nice thing from Santa.  You'd better watch out! 

6.  Three year old boys are not really ready to shop for other people.  They get very excited and want to open everything and play with it right now.

5.   A fake tree isn't such a bad thing after all.  It turns out to be a good investment for lean years and it still looks pretty in all the lights and ornaments.  I've heard that pine scented oils and candles work wonders for the nostalgia aspect of freshly cut pine sap.  (Not that allergy sufferers can use these.)  Plus, it eases the guilt that may come when watching you-tube videos of tortured trees stuffed into trucks.

4.   Shatter proof ornaments can actually shatter.  "Proof" that nothing is impossible.

3.  Caroling on Christmas Eve is the best thing ever!  Not kidding.  Other than finding that many of your neighbors celebrate somewhere other than their own homes, you may find some very happy, tearful neighbors waiting in the quiet of their own homes hugging you with tear-filled eyes.  You may find neighbors with car keys forgetten in the locks, doors still ajar from sneaking in gifts, parties to crash for delicious hot cider, or even out-of-state guests completely shocked that anyone would take the time or brave the cold with their voices.

2.  Christmas Day and Tummy Flu do NOT go together.  But, if the virus is insistant, it will hang out anyways.  Since all the stores are C-L-O-S-E-D by 8pm on Christmas Eve, this is no time to be found without Lysol, Bleach, crackers, 7up, ginger, broth, or bread. 

1.  We Fish Ewe a Mare Egretts Moose!  Is still a great way to give holiday cheer.

At First Site by none other than the GREAT Nicholas Sparks

Okay.  I knew four pages in that this was not going to be my favorite book.  So why finish?  Why torture myself with stuff I don't like?  Well... in this case, it was research.  I thought I'd see what exactly the formula for that million $$ best seller reads like.  I only need one, right?  Except, it was page 162 before I read a line that was a good line.  Not a quotable outside of the context line, but one that held a decent metaphor for the situation using only a ceiling fan and the empty air. 
     The great thing about reading this book is that I suddenly found myself urgently needing to write something I could read.  And that's a good thing.
     For anyone looking for more than this about the man or his books go visit his website.  It's as pretty to look at as he is if you like that candy coated sort of thing.  http://www.nicholassparks.com/

Snowball Fights and Parenting

Today, the snow fell wet and almost rain.  I wrapped a ball in my gloved hands and took it inside the house, sneaking up the stairs... THWACK!!... The first snowball flew directly on target, skimming past the nose of a teenaged visitor (one of my eldest daughter's best friends) and smack onto the red dining room wall behind her... THWACK!! The second snowball was off smacking my daughter on the forearm.  Oh, honey!  That was supposed to be a warning shot!  I squealed and ran to the other room as she chased me into the kitchen clutching remnant snow to fling at me.  The laughter was wonderful.  The spontaneity just what we needed.
     Her friend, too shocked to laugh yet said, "My mom would NEVER let us do that."  My daughter responded, "Well, my mom is NOT like other moms."
     I'm thinking that's a good thing.

Troubled Waters...bk2

Doesn't the song say something about "like a bridge over troubled water..." ?  In the back of this second installment, Dean Hughes makes note of the many comments he'd received about how "different" his Hearts of the Children "feels" compared to the Children of the Promise series.  (See that!  It wasn't just me.)  The author chooses to believe that it is a reflection of the historically documented "generation gap" between the two generations, but we all know the truth.  I think he knew it as well and successfully altered his focus for the second book in this series.  Instead of chapters of Trivial Pursuit in the categories of music, fashion, and history, the characters were allowed to have a story.  Granted, they are still filling out certain stereotypes, but their are some unexpected moments as well that keep the story interesting.

Dean Hughes

Now, I don't believe it's fair to judge an author by a single work any more than I believe you can judge a book by its cover.  That said... ugh. 

My sister gave me a beautiful gift for my birthday.  A whole series complete and ready to read.  Having been in college for so long, I was so excited to read something that was unassigned.  But, I have to say, that this piece of historical fiction is tough - and NOT because it's hard.  Dean knows his history.  He set his story in a place he's familiar with and gave his characters attributes he understood from having lived among them. 

They say you should write what you know.  Hughes knows history (did I say that already?!)  He knows O-town.  And he knows a little something about being LDS.  So do I.  All of the above.  I didn't know all of this though.  I didn't know about the extention of the hand of racism right here in the heart of the LDS culture. Hughes spends a lot of time with this issue because the book is set just at the time that the Civil Rights bill is passed and so many changes to voter rights, etc. are still in the works.

I grew up in California at one of the most unique moments in history in that we felt color blind.  The classes were so naturally diverse in skin color, culture, religion, and ethnic origins that none of us seemed to care about sticking with the people most similar to ourselves.  We made friends for the other reasons you make friends... because you have recess and lunch together or because you both like to play four square.  Then my family moved here.  Everyone was white.  And the families sitting on the pews at church had actually "cookie-cuttered" themselves.  It was like nothing I'd ever seen.  So, racism among "my" own religious group was weird to me.  It shouldn't have been.  We only had one "black" kid go to my high school and graduate with us.  One.  And he was so cool.  So I guess I figured everyone felt the same way I do about skin color...it doesn't make the person who they are at heart...but I was wrong.

The other thing that is strange to me is the way that Hughes has chosen his characters.  The four main teens that he is following most closely are sort of cookie-cutter stereotypes of LDS kids/perspectives.  You have the girl who doesn't care about her education and just wants to be a mom set against the girl who wants to become a lawyer and change the world and can't imagine being happy in a marriage.  You have the golden child boy who has everything financially and takes his testimony for granted set against the one in poverty with little freedom who has a hard time believe in the God of his parents because He never seems to answer his prayers.  It feels contrived.  All of these types of individuals exist, yes.  I may feel this way about the characters because he is pushing four stories forward, so he doesn't let them show us who they are. 

Hughes also neglects the setting.  I have a problem with that.  This may be because I am a Geographer.  But, place is important.  It's more important than the song on the radio or the brand of sweater that was in style in 1969.  Or, it is to me.

There are four books in the series.  Bring it on.

Lovely, Still (2008)

Do you believe that magic goes away after you stop believing in the Tooth Fairy?  Do you cringe at the idea that your parents still feel the thrill run through their body when they kiss?  Don't watch this movie.

Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn have not forgotten what it looks like to fall in love with someone for the first time and they do an excellent job of portraying the awkward, the nervous, and the falling into joy.  The story is portrayed with a minimal cast of a lonely old bachelor (without one picture hanging on his walls) drudging through his day until he comes home to find a lovely neighbor, Mary, inside his house.  Robert is a bit freaked out (who wouldn't  be) until Mary explains that the door was open and with the car crashed into the garage door, she thought she'd better check to see if he was all right.  After that, Robert melts.  He and Mary begin dating and he spends time researching the "right thing to do" by asking all of his coworkers at the grocery store for advice. 

The beginning is just the beginning of this movie.  It's hard not to get swept up in the joy of new love as portrayed by these two experienced actors.  It's also difficult to ignore the odd music choices.  But, these are only mildly distracting and, in retrospect, foreshadow the end of the tale very well. 

This movie will grab you by the heart.

Switchin' it Up

I finally made a switch and loved the results!

This face has been kissed by Oil of Olay since it was 16-ish with a few "let's save a couple of bucks" changes over the years.  But, lately, I just break out all of the time.  Although not all over my face, the pimples have been deep, hard, and lasting.  I thought it was post-32 year old hormones.  I thought it was old make-up, not enough exfoliation, too much exfoliation...

Whatever it was, I decided to dump the old and go for the new.  (Even the acne "fighting" products from Olay didn't make a difference.)  Maybe it was the green on the bottle.  The dermatologist on the label.  Or even the "fruit" in the Fructis.  Whatever drew my eye, I purchased a facial cleanser and moisturizer with SPF 15 from Garnier a little over a week ago.  That was less than $10 well-spent.  My old pimples are clearing (even the red "scarring") and I only had one tiny little pimple pop out in time for my period that was here and gone in a day (the pimple NOT the period.) 

I've gotta remember that change can be good.