Another Good Christmas

I'm back. We returned home late this afternoon from an eight day trip to Modesto and Tahoe over the week of Christmas. I'd like to go into further detail, but to be honest, I'm plum tuckered out. The kids are down for the night and I am lounging in my cozy evening wear (nice pair of sweat-type pants and slippers) and I am thinking that my own bedtime is fast approaching. I do plan to tell of our adventures in the snow and Christmas 2008, but for now I'll give a few snippets to whet your appetite!

........fabulous dvd's, snow cream, sledding, unexpected family connections, and toilets.....

Do I have your attention??? I know you're only coming back to hear how 'toilets' fit into the Christmas scheme of things, aren't you?

'Til then....

Beware of the Doghouse

My brother is a wise man. Recently he posted this video on his Facebook as a warning to his fellow man so they would shop with discernment this Christmas season when it comes to getting their wives a gift. I thought it was appropriate and would be appreciated by my reader(s) as well.

Enjoy!

Christmas Song Trivia- part 2

Here is the second part of the song trivia. If you missed the first part then scroll down to yesterday's post for the explanation.

11. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals. *Frosty the Snowman* Caterina

12. Natal celebration devoid of color. *White Christmas* Sarah

13. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity. *O Holy Night* Sarah

14. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature's dormancy. *Winter Wonderland* Sarah

15. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state. *We Three Kings* Sarah

16. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonant cups. *Silver Bells* Sarah

17. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children's slumber furniture. *Away in the Manger* Caterina

18. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation. *Go Tell it on the Mountain* Sarah

19. Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us. *We Wish You A Merry Christmas* Sarah

Christmas Song Trivia

A couple weeks ago I was at church for the ladies bible study. Although it was more of a Christmas social gathering than it was a bible study that day. Among the goodies and chatting with friends, we played a game, it was called Christmas Synonyms. We all had a list of 19 Christmas songs but the catch was instead of having the name of the song there was a descriptive sentence. We had to translate the statements back into recognizable English and therefore we'd get the song title. We had fun comparing ideas and figuring out the correct title. Sometimes we were completely stumped but a few times we actually got it right!

Since I'm in a blogging slump (I blame it on Nablopomo of last month!) I have decided to share this fun little quiz with you. Let's see how well you can do!!! Once a correct guess has been made, I will add in the answer after the clue along with the person who guessed it. To make it last longer, I'll put the answer in black, so if you see someones name after the clue then you'll know it's been answered correctly but still able to play along. If you want to see the answer then select the blank space between the * and the text will appear.

I'm going to break this up between two days since I have so many songs. I'll give the answer to the first one to give you an idea of how it works. So here is the first set! Let's see how well you can do!!!

1. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds. *Hark the Herald Angels Sing* sample

2. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness. *Silent Night* Sarah

3. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere. *Joy to the World* Sarah

4. Embellish the interior passageways. *Deck the Halls* Caterina

5. Exalted heavenly beings to whom hearkened. *Angels We Have Heard on High* Sarah

6. Twelve o'clock on a clement night witnesses its arrival. *It Came Upon A Midnight Clear* Sarah

7. The Christmas preceding all others. *The First Noel* Sarah

8. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem. *O Little Town of Bethleham* Sarah

9. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinder. *Little Drummer Boy* Sarah

10. Omnipotent Supreme Being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males. *God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen* Sarah

How Lovely Are Your Branches

A couple weeks ago we busted out the fake Christmas tree and set it up. A fake tree just makes sense for our family since we tend to be gone over Christmas and having a real tree just isn't safe. So last year we broke down and bought a fake pre-lit tree. In another year or so it will have paid for itself. And it doesn't look too bad either!

Anyway, back to decorating....

After the tree was set up and lights all working (although they did go out for a while, but my man fixed it!) I got out the other boxes of Christmas decorations. The kids love these boxes and hoover around me as I pull things out. They are quick to snatch up the ornaments and tend to have the tree decorated by the time I finish pulling things out.

I had even more fun this year decorating the tree. Last year my mom gave me some silver beaded garland that she didn't use anymore, so now I had one last thing to add to our tree! I love the silver garland, it just adds the right touch to our tree. The kids even helped me put it up. See....



Well, I guess we got a little carried away, didn't we?!

Because the Winters Here are Frigid

This will be my third winter in Southern California since moving from Michigan a couple years ago. And I think I've finally acclimated. How do I know, you ask??? The temps are in the mid 60's and I'm cold. That's how I know!

I remember being in Michigan and knowing when we had acclimated to the cold winters there. Ryan had gotten home from work and we were all heading to the gym for a quick workout before coming home and having dinner. I was wearing some lightweight workout pants and t-shirt with a sweatshirt on top. The temperature was about 40 degrees and at the most I felt a little chilly.

Yesterday the temps were in the mid 60's and I wore pants, long sleeved mock turtle neck shirt and a cozy lightweight fleece jacket. At night I'm bundling up and layering my socks to keep my toes warm. And I think I need to add an extra blanket to the bed. However, I'm still wearing my sandals. I'm a southern California girl, what can I say!

God Rest Ye Politically Correct Gentlemen

It's the Christmas season!!! This means I can pull out my favorite Christmas cd's (ok, so I only have two, so out they come!). One of the cd's I have is Harry Conick Jr.'s When My Heart Finds Christmas, and the other is by Mannheim Steamroller (pictured at right).

The other day I was looking at the back cover of the Mannheim Steamroller cd and I noticed an interesting little tid bit of information. To one side there was a little write up about the song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I thought it was interesting and decided to share it. This is what it said;

God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen: This Yuletide phrase is ofen printed- and sung- with this punctuation and the pause it implies. But that's not the way the charming old carol has it. Properly, it's "God rest ye merry, gentlemen." The phrase "rest ye merry", which is older than Shakespeare, who used it in Romeo and Juliet, dates to the beginning of the 15th century. Incidently, the Old English word for 'merry' did not mean gay and lively, but merely pleasant or agreeable. By the 14th century, however, it had acquired its present meaning.

Hows that for a lesson on political correctness? Again, there is nothing new under the sun.

Merry Christmas! Ahem, or should I say, may you have an agreeable holiday season? Nah. Merry Christmas!!!

The Self-Cut May Be Free, But It's Soooo Not Worth it

I may have brought it upon myself. I'm not sure. I remember talking with a friend about this very situation but I said something like "Yea, but none of my kids have ever done that. Yet." Somehow I don't think the 'yet' was good enough to save me from what happened last night.

It was time for dinner so we rounded up the kids to the table. Where was Isabel? Oh, there she is. Come on Isabel, time to eat! She sits down and we all proceed to hold hands to pray before we eat. That is when I saw it and let out a loud gasp!

I was speechless. Ryan looked at me and asked me what was wrong. I could not say a word (I think instant stress or surprises do that to me). All I could do was look at Isabel and then will Ryan to follow my eyes to her head. How could he not see? How is it that he doesn't notice the gaping hack job of a hair do that Isabel is now sporting?

My emotions ranged from laughter (we all fought it during prayer!), to 'oh well, it'll grow' attitude, to anger. How could she do that? She just got her hair cut, like, three weeks ago??! It was so stinkin' cute too! Now look at it, it's terrible! The ugly inside me waged to get out, and I was a grump for the next hour and a half. But my baby, so sweet and so cute, is now sporting a I-did-my-own-hair-cut cut!!!! It's just not right.

Yes. It has happened. Isabel cut her hair. After seven years of raising children I learn that I am not immune to a child finding a pair of scissors and going to town on their perfectly coiffed hair. But as I thought earlier, it will grow. And my revenge is that I can blog about it and post pictures! Ha!

before, when all was cute and right in the world


after

November Movie Review

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I was looking forward to seeing this, but wasn't sure if I'd like it as well as I enjoyed the others. I did enjoy it, but it wasn't as good as the first Indy movies. That's ok, I suppose. It had the action with an interesting story with a bit of love stuff thrown in, but not too much. The one thing I didn't like was the silly cg stuff. It didn't look real AT ALL and just made it seem hokey. Cg is great and all, but if not used right then its just overkill and silly. There should be a limit to how much is used, or at the very least it should be supervised and thrown out if necessary. In this, throw it out. Anyway, overall the movie was fun and it was great to see Indy again!

2. 84 Charing Cross Road - I'm a sucker for most things Anthony Hopkins. So when I saw this movie with a young Hopkins on the cover, I snatched it up. I didn't care that it was made in the mid 80's or that movies made during that time to appeal much to me, but I nabbed it anyway. It had SIR Anthony Hopkins in it, do I need another reason??! This was a fun movie that I enjoyed very much, despite the 80's feel to it. It begins in 1949 as a female write in New York is looking for old English novels but can't find them in the US. So she writes to Hopkins who works in a book shop in England. They converse over the course of two decades as he fulfills her list of wanted books and she continues to request more. She makes a guenine friendship with Hopkins as well as with several others in the book shop. I enjoyed how the movie was told in the perspective of them writing letters to each other. At one point she almost makes it over for a visit, but ut doesn't work out. I think I know how they must have felt to not have been able to finally meet each other. I found myself empathising with them because that is how I would feel if I was about to meet a blog friend and it falling through. Actually, I was thinking a lot about the people I've met because of my blog and how I think of them as real friends even though we have never met. I think that may be a large reason why I was engaged in the movie as much as I was. Anyway, I liked the movie and would reccomend it to any of my bloggies (but they have to like Sir Hopkins as well!)

3. Grace Is Gone - This was a sad movie. If you have a family member serving in Iraq then I don't suggest you see this one, not right now anyway. It's about a man who learns that his wife was killed while serving in Iraq and how he is unable to tell his two daughters. In his inability to tell his girls, he takes them on an impromptu road trip. I can't say that the movie was particulary enjoyable, but it was interesting to watch this man and how he struggled to deal with the reality of his wife's death. If you're the type that likes sad tear-jerkers then this is for you. If not, then go rent a nice Christmas flick for the family.....It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favs!