Merry Christmas To All!

The past few days have been busy, have they not? It seems that everybody is tied up in Christmas festivities, be it shopping, get-togethers, reading, wrapping, etc. and I'm definitely one of those people! I doubt that I'll squeeze in another post before Christmas, so I wanted to take the time to wish you all a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays! Each and every one of you who I've gotten to know through this blog over the past year has come to mean more than you know to me and you've shown me that friendship moves beyond physical barriers. To me, a big part of the holidays is celebrating that friendship and connections made throughout the year, and you're all in my thoughts :) I look forward to another wonderful year with y'all and hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas with your families!

Of course, I can't write a post without mentioning books! I read Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth today and it was such a magical book. I wish I would've read it a few weeks ago because I would've gotten it for all the little kids that I know so that they could've read it before Christmas. It was a very different Christmas book and so endearing. I loved it!

Niklas Goodfellow is the last real Santa. Christmas has been hi-jacked by an evil-Santa by the name of Goblynch who is all about making money and giving kids video game consoles. The old Santas (the kinds with elves who make old fashioned, endearing wooden toys) have been um...obliterated...and turned into chocolate (killed in a not so scary way for kids I guess :/) and Niklas is the only one left. Niklas is young and scruffy looking, not what you'd picture a Santa to look like at all. But he has a heart of gold! During a storm, his reindeer Twinklestar (who loves marzipan) becomes afraid and breaks away from Niklas' caravan leaving him abandoned in the middle of a suburban town. Niklas befriends a couple of children by the name of Ben and Charlotte and they work together to keep the true meaning of Christmas and the last Santa alive. The cast of characters is completed by 2 endearing angels, a slew of hilariously grumpy elves, and some terrifying nutcrackers! Such a great little book!

This will probably wrap up my Christmas posts. Well, I'm sure you'll get a full report on which books I managed to scoop up for Christmas ;) And then I should have the year in review post up soon! Have a great one everyone!

A Very Christmas-y Post

Well the weather outside sure is frightful...the temperatures have gone back up again and I'm back to shorts and sandals. It's officially 75 degrees right now in New Orleans and that's a cool down from earlier. But we're supposed to get some cool weather coming on Sunday night and it's supposed to be down right cold again for Christmas Eve and Christmas! Yay! But the heat has not spoiled my Christmas mood! No indeed!

I awoke this morning...er, or noonish, to a package waiting on my doorstep from Santa in the form of Robin from A Fondness of Reading, one of my absolute favorite bloggers who is my Secret Santa :) I was overwhelmed by the package she put together for me! She had a great little card to accompany this set of gifts wishing me and my family a Merry Christmas. All of the gifts come from her region of the US, up in the Northwest in Washington and they're just perfect! I love candles and all things Eastern, so the little glass Lotus flower votive candle holder is just perfect. It's beautiful and made by a local artisan. She included some delicious goodies like dark chocolate covered cherries, a set of 3 delicious sounding jams and preserves, and these great sounding coffee tins! All stuff I love. There's a book that sounds great called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by a local author named Sherman Alexie with some really cool illustrations! You know I love that ;) And then there's a wonderful Christmas CD that I've been enjoying all day and the best thing about the CD is that the proceeds from it go to the Children's Hospital which is near and dear to my heart as I've always worked with kids with disabilities and mental illness. Thank you so much Robin for this amazing gift and for the thought put into it and thank you Nymeth for creating such a wonderful experience!!

I also fit in two Christmas books today! The first was The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon with illustrations by Jill Weber. It's a short read at just 118 pages, but filled with love and joy! Perfect Christmas read. The story's focus is on a nun by the name of Sister Anthony and her dear friend who happens to be a Norway Spruce named "Tree". The head gardener of Rockefeller Center is given the job every year of finding the perfect tree to be the Christmas Tree that we all know so well. While flying in a helicopter searching for it, he spots "Tree" at the convent that Sister Anthony lives at and goes to visit her to ask if he can have the tree for Rockefeller Center. The two form an unlikely friendship as Sister Anthony recounts her past from her troubled childhood through her times as a horticulturist up until now. This was a beautiful story and the story telling actually reminded me quite a bit of The Thirteenth Tale as strange as that may sound. Squeeze this one in if you can before Christmas! I've seen it on bargain shelves at Barnes and Noble.

The other book I read today was Kate DiCamillo's new picture book with Bagram Ibatoulline, the artist who did the paintings for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The book is called Great Joy. It's short and sweet and packs a powerful punch in it's few pages. Leave it to DiCamillo to deliver a touching story like few can. And the paintings are just gorgeous. An organ grinder and his monkey stand on a street corner playing sad music every day for change while young Frances looks down from her lush apartment window wondering where he goes at night. Her mother tells her not to worry about such things, but rather to worry about her line in the Christmas play the next night. But with a child's innocence Frances can't help but worry and wonder about the man and his monkey. Quite a nice little story here.

And of course after Debi and Nymeth's reviews, I had to go out and buy Cornelia Funke's When Santa Fell to Earth! Haven't read that one yet, but I'll get to it before Christmas!

Christmas In New Orleans

It's my turn for Kailana's (UPDATE: AND MARG'S (SORRY!!)) Advent Calendar! I've been loving the posts so far. This is really a wonderful idea and I had no clue what to do for this thing. Still don't really, but I figured I'd just write about what Christmas is like down here because we seem to be in our own little world :p

Every year I listen to all of these beautiful Christmas carols about "let it snow" and "winter wonderland" and I see these gorgeous decorations of houses dripping with white stuff and icicle lights, and I receive these nice little cards of Christmas cottages covered in snow with smoke rising from the chimney, and I flip through the JC Penny's catalog that has kids on the cover in jackets and knit hats throwing snowballs at each other and I wonder..."Does that really exist???" That truly is a Winter Wonderland to us down here in the south! As I type this it's 82 degrees and I'm wearing shorts and sandals.

Last year was the first Christmas that I've ever seen snow! Only the second time in my life I've ever seen snow. We got literally a half of inch of snow and you would have thought that everyone in New Orleans won the lottery. We were all that excited. We somehow managed to scrape up enough of the white stuff to build a snowman and gave it boiled shrimp for eyes because in New Orleans, we use anything as an excuse to boil seafood. I had a picture, but I lost it :( Normally on Christmas I always wear dress pants and a sweater, but I'm sure to wear a short sleeved shirt underneath, because it never drops below the 60's (except for last year). I usually loose the sweater within 30 minutes of showing up at Gram's house.

I wouldn't change any of this for the world though. Sure, I'd love to see a true white Christmas with heavy snow, but I love Christmas in New Orleans and I love Christmas with my family. Every Christmas has been special. I remember me and my sister swearing every year that we were going to stay up all night and wait for Santa and never making it! And then on Christmas morning, we'd wait by the hall door while mom got everything ready in the front, and we knew when we smelled the coffee brewing and the Christmas music start playing that it was time! It still works the same way ;)

The city itself is beautiful during Christmas time. City Park does Celebration in the Oaks every year where they transform the entire park into a festival of lights and you can either do the walking or driving tour. It's beautiful. The French Quarter just feels more special during Christmas time and the St. Louis Cathedral is always gorgeous. And nothing beats Cafe Du Monde's Cafe au Lait's and Beignets on a chilly night!

In closing, I've loved all the recipes that everyone's shared, so I thought I'd share my Gram's bread pudding recipe that she does every Christmas. We make ours with french bread, but I know that's not easy to get in other states, so any breat will do really. This is a good recipe to use when you don't know what to do with that stale bread you have!

Bread Pudding:

4 Cups Dry Bread Cubes
4 Cups Milk, Scalded
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Slightly Beaten Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 Cup Raisins (optional)

Soak bread in mil for 5 minutes. Add sugar, butter and salt. Slowly pour eggs over, add vanilla and raisins, and mix well. Pour into greased 1 1/2 qt. baking dish. Bake in a pan of hot water in 350 degree oven until firm, about 1 hour. Serve warm with Rum Sauce.

Rum Sauce:

1/2 Cup Margarine
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Rum

Mix sugar and rum together in a 2 cup glass measuring cup. Add margarine. Cook on high for 2 minutes. Serve warm over bread pudding

Don't forget to stop by RaiderGirl's site too!!! She's also hosting the Advent Calendar today!

Thoughts On A Friday Night

First let me introduce you to my new favorite shirt:
Now that you've made his acquaintance...I decided that after a loooong day at work I'd go get some coffee and then come home and work on my NaNo book. I stepped outside and was greeted by this cold, crisp night air and it suddenly felt like Christmas time. It could be Nymeth's Blogger Christmas Exchange or it could be Kailana's Advent Calendar, but I'm in the mood early this year. I love Christmas, but there's a bit of melancholy that goes along with it. I went and looked up the word "melancholy" on dictionary.com and found this as one of it's definitions, which I like best:

"sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness."

It's not so much that this time of the year is depressing, because it's not at all for me...it's a very odd feeling, hard to describe. A mixture of warm feelings, yet a yearning for something missing. I think of Megan a lot when holidays come around. Especially Christmas. This year should be good though because it's looking like she's flying in for Christmas and then I'm driving her back up to Texas and staying for New Years. I'm sure everyone has someone that they're reminded of around the holidays who's either no longer with us or is miles away, yet it's still a happy time to be celebrated with those who are with us. A conflict of emotions. Which leads me to Christmas music...yes this is a very schizophrenic post...

So I got in my car and wanted to listen to Christmas music because of the weather, but of course I didn't have any Christmas CDs in my car yet...so it was between Norah Jones or The Fray...so you might ask, "why Norah Jones or The Fray?" Both artists' music remind me of Christmas music. Norah Jones has an inherent quality to her music that induces a sense of happiness, peace, warmth, yet it's very nostalgic in a way. Listening to Norah Jones album can take you back to times that happened way before her albums were ever released and every time I make a Christmas mix CD I want to put one of her songs on it even though she doesn't have a Christmas album (not that I know of at least). Now The Fray is a slightly different story. First of all, I'm embarrassed to admit that I own a Fray CD, but it is indeed what I chose to listen to tonight. When The Fray writes their songs, I think they aim for this quality to their music. I think they studied what makes a Christmas song a Christmas song and the feelings that go along with it and tried to put it in every song they wrote which is why EVERY SINGLE TV DRAMA uses their music. As an aside, I think the lead singer of the band would do a much better job of being the voice of Kermit the Frog than the jackass that does it now. So The Fray actually worked very well as Christmas music tonight accompanied by a nice chill in the air and a hot mocha from the coffee shop. I'm happy and a little nostalgic and wishing I could talk to Megan.

I've also had a long day and obviously need sleep otherwise I wouldn't have written such a ridiculous post that probably doesn't make sense to anyone but me. But instead of going to sleep, I'm pumping my veins with caffeine and writing a book! This is what the rest of my night looks like: