Christmas Eve / Christmas Morning

When we got married, perhaps the biggest debate we had in the first 6 months was when we should open our Christmas presents.  I grew up with the German tradition of opening most gifts on Christmas Eve and then saving Santa's gifts for the morning.  I loved the feeling opening gifts in the dark evening.  It was a quiet and comforting time of day.

My husband firmly believed that this practice was sacrilegious. End of story.

Ends up, we (sort of) compromised, and opened one gift on Christmas Eve, saving the rest for the morning.  Of course, now it doesn't really matter to me the time when we gather together as family and share gifts.

During my childhood we took few pictures at Christmas, but this photo tells me a few things.  1) We did not lack for number of presents. 2) We apparently did not have a tree (nor a fireplace in our apartment). 3) We had really, really ugly curtains.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

Marx Dollhouse

Sorry about the glare...

Last week when I was wandering down Yale, I looked in the window at Stamp Your Heart Out and saw this dollhouse.  It is very similar to the one I owned as a child.  It was probably a Christmas gift, and when I ran across them on eBay a number of years ago, I was flooded by nostalgia.  Seeing one all set up in the window revived that nostalgia.

These dollhouses were made with thin metal (tin?), and I believe that they arrived flat (like Ikea furniture). The owner (or rather, the owner's parents) assembled theirs by putting tabs into slots.  I'm sure that they were in the Sears catalog, and while I have no idea how much they originally cost, I am sure that it wasn't the $70-$500 (for mint condition) that eBay sellers can now get.  Sold separately, one can also buy all kinds of plastic furniture and people and pets to fit in the five rooms.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

This is the version of The Night Before Christmas that I grew up with.  I have no idea where the actual book that I had resides today.  About 7-8 years ago I decided that I wanted to collect some of the books that I had or loved as a child, and I set out on quite an internet journey.  If you do not know the illustrator of this particular poem, it is much more difficult to find, and fortunately I stumbled on a photo of this book on some website by accident.  

Once I knew the illustrator, I found copies of this book on eBay for about $100-$150 and even higher.  I was not about to pay that amount, but I was diligent and found this particular copy for a Buy It Now price of $33, and I hit the buy button as fast as I could.  Now I have a Ghost of Christmas Past - a friendly ghost.

Letters to Santa

Here are two of my favorite letters to Santa in my Christmas folder. Claire was 4 and wanted a unicorn.  She also needed some double A batteries to make one of her toys run.  Can you guess which wish was fulfilled? 

Liesl was 7 for this letter, and, unfortunately, she did not write her letter soon enough.  Santa had already filled his sleigh with Legos for her, so he wrote her a note explaining that he ran out of stuffing in the stuffing machine by the time he got to the tigers this year.  She was okay with that and enjoyed her Legos very much.  I am sure that Santa DID like her picture.

1Q84

I finished 1Q84, Murakami's latest book, on Saturday, but I needed to mull over it before posting.  At 926 pages, I took nearly a month to read it, and unlike many books I read, I wanted to take time over the prose.  I get so impatient with much writing these days, but for some reason, Murakami's words, though translated from the Japanese, require me to enjoy each sentence.

Like Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, I was drawn into the characters and their world from the first page.  Along the way the plot gets strange (yes, it's Murakami), and occasionally I felt as though there was too much effort in explaining this strange world.  Some of the criticisms of the story are valid (loose ends left floating), but I could easily overlook those because the whole of the novel fully satisfied me.

Many reviewers (Alan Cheuse, Ulin, Dirda) gave positive reviews.  Janet Maslin from the NY Times (among a few others) did not.  My reading friends fall into two definite camps on Murakami, but he is one of a few authors that the four members of my family can agree we all like.  Now I have to wait patiently for his next one - or, better yet, read some of his earlier works that I have not yet read.

Book Club - December Edition

Side Dishes

Ham and Salmon

Each December our co-ed bookclub has a book exchange.  This year we did it a little differently.  First of all, we decided not to discuss a book.  (That gave me time to tackle the Murakami.)  Second of all, we had a mini progressive dinner.  By mini, I mean that we only went to two houses. We started out with main course and side dishes at one house, then walked across the street to the other house for dessert and book exchange. (I believe that the invite said something along the lines of a Pie Smack-Down.)

It was, in my opinion, quite successful, and I think it ought to become a tradition.

Wrapped Books

We ended up with a Lynne Rossetto Kasper cookbook as well as Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel.

Pie Smack-Down

Journey to Bethlehem

This morning brought the annual Journey to Bethlehem to CUCC. During Advent we have been focusing on angels, and the addition to this year's pageant were four teenage girls as angels.  They preceded the Holy Family, surrounded the manger, and then took their place behind the lectern. These angels read the scriptures for the morning.

Voyagers Christmas

Usually I cannot make the annual Christmas party for our social group at church since I have a concert to play.  This year the Voyagers had their party on a non-concert day, so I was rarin' to go!  We have a White Elephant gift exchange which has turned into bringing a consumable gift.  This year we came home with this Holiday Soda 12- Pack with sodas I've never had.  They look like a nostalgia pack, but not from my childhood (think Nehi).  Looking forward to trying these drinks which probably contain real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup.

Clocks Around the World

Vacation is here!  Last night boasted the largest attendance ever at the Vista Winter Sing.  People were standing in the aisles.  The children performed about the best they usually do, pictures and videos were taken, and the manners by parents were passable (no one was pushing or shoving, although the talking level was pretty high....).  Anyway, I am always glad when the show is over.

When I went back to school to return some instruments and music this morning, I was looking at the clocks that Ley Yeager had installed as a project one year when we went from battery-operated clocks in the classrooms to the plug-in variety.  These are the battery ones, and they are meant to tell the time in various parts of the world, but a quick glance at these shows that either we are all in alternative worlds, or the batteries don't particularly work well.  I don't think they have ever been correct....

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

I rather consider myself a member of the grammar police corps.  I get totally annoyed with the misuse of their, there and they're, and I sometimes actually correct people.   I especially like to correct people who are also self-proclaimed grammar police. (And people have been known to correct me; it's true.  Not all police follow every law always...)

Anyway, Lynn Truss' little book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, is for all the punctuation police out there with more information on commas, dashes and parentheses that one might care to know.  I recommend that one read one chapter at a time; it does not read like a novel.

I needed to finish this book soon since it will be going into the book club book exchange.