David's Tea & Marbles: The Brain Store

This post is a bit of a departure from the norm, and something I don’t see myself doing too often. But as it’s the holidays and everyone (including myself) is doing quite a bit of shopping, this seemed like a good time to do it.

The largest mall in my immediate area underwent a massive remodel over the last year and a half. Remodel is an understatement. They gutted it and rebuilt it almost from the ground up in some sections. It is now the most beautiful mall I have ever been in…although it’s less of a mall, more a shopper’s theme park. Many of the stores are “firsts-in-the-area,” and make exploring the mall very exciting. On my first ‘mall-crawl’ I stumbled across a little gem called Marbles: The Brain Store. The name of the store does not do it justice. It is the coolest little game store I’ve ever been in.

Wall-to-wall games, games of every sort, small tables with games set up to play, card games, board games, wooden games, action games, party games, but all of them family friendly games. No Cards Against Humanity here. It’s not so much a brain game store it seems, as a family game store. My family takes games very seriously. At pretty much every family gathering games are played, whether the adults or the little ones – games will be pulled out at some point. And many games my family knows and loves were at Marbles, along with dozens I knew immediately we would learn to love. For little ones, versions of Spot-It I never knew existed, for bigger kids and adults things like Labyrinth, Telestrations, and Apples to Apples.

But what really made it for me were the employees. I don’t know about you, but for me the hard thing about buying games, is that if you’ve never played it, it can be very hard to decide if it is actually as good as it may look, or sometimes they seem too difficult based on the “back of the box” blurb. At Marbles if you show interest in a game, or seem perplexed by it, an employee almost immediately offers you a demonstration at one of their game tables or the front counter. Some of the more popular games are already set up around the room, or open behind the counter ready to go. The employees take the time to give a quick but thorough run-down of the rules, and play a round with you so you can get the feel of the game. Some places I shop, I don’t like being “sold to.” I like to browse and leisurely select my own choice. At Marbles, it is a very different dichotomy, and I greatly appreciate the hands-on experience of a game before I choose to spend the money on it. I want to know what I’m getting.

Marbles, you’re doing it right. And now every time I’m in the mall I pop in there, and frequently I walk out with a new game for the family.

Then on my second mall-crawl, which happened to be Black Friday (no, I’m not crazy, nor am I one of those people) I wandered into a store, not even hardly realizing what it was. What it was, was David’s Tea. I like tea. By that, I mean I like curling up with a warm ‘cuppa,’ I like the endless flavor profiles you can enjoy, I like that I don’t get the jitters like I do with coffee lately. But as much as I enjoy a cup of tea I’m not usually one to go tea rooms, tea shops, or really go out of my way at all for a specific type of tea. Nor have I ever dabbled in loose-leaf tea. That all changed with David’s.

You walk in and are immediately greeted by smiling employees behind a loooonnnggg counter that runs along one entire side of the store. The smell alone is good enough to make you buy up the entire store on the spot, but then you notice what is behind the counter. An entire wall, from waist height, almost to the ceiling, of very large, very colorful tea canisters, each one clearly labeled, their rainbow of labels beckoning for you to try every. single. one. The other long wall is covered in neatly presented gift packages, sampler sets, tea mugs (no froo-froo tea cups here), infusers, tea pots, tea bags – anything your heart could desire. And the final shorter wall is a small counter, glassed off from the rest of the store, where you can order a to-go cup of any tea in the store, hot, iced, or as a latte.

The highlight is definitely the smelling experience. This isn’t as odd as it sounds. What better way (short of tasting it) is there to pick out flavors you might like to try, than inhaling it’s natural, earthy, herbaceous goodness? The employees are extremely helpful, make excellent recommendations based on your taste, and will pull down any of the dozens and dozens of canisters for you to smell. But don’t worry, when you pick one (or several, if you’re me) you’re not buying the tea that everyone’s noses have been over. There’s a shield, hiding the real stash of tea from the smelling samples. By the time you’re done shopping, there are usually a dozen or so canisters that you’ve been enthusiastically sniffing, at your spot on the counter.

Now at first, I was disappointed when I realized that it was primarily loose-leaf tea, but that went away very quickly. Loose-leaf always seemed a little intimidating to me. I didn’t know what was involved, or how to do it all, so I ignored its existence. Big mistake. David’s got me over that very quickly. While they do sell several of their mixes in tea bags (or sachets, as they call them), loose-leaf is how you get the most out of the brand. And they couldn’t make it easier to get into. Most of the tea mugs, and many of the pots come with lovely little built in infusers. You dump a bit of your loose-leaf in the infuser, pour the water over it, let it steep, and either pull the infuser out of the mug, or if it’s a tea pot, go ahead and pour it into your vessel of choice. And every container of loose-leaf is clearly labeled with recommended measurements and steeping time. Couldn’t be easier. They also have small enclosed infusers you can use in any mug, and perhaps coolest of all, little disposable tea bags that you can measure your loose-leaf into! My little haul:

The rewards program is very generous. You’re constantly earning free tea rewards, and there’s a free cup of tea on your birthday. And while everything seems fairly reasonably priced, they have excellent sales and combination deals that make it quite affordable, even to a cheapskate like me. I’ve seen that if you buy online, every order comes with free samples as well. And after emailing customer service with a question about my account, I can definitely say their customer service is excellent. Not only were my questions answered, but they helped me find a few rewards and things I hadn’t worked out on my own yet.

If you have a David’s anywhere near you, it is definitely worth inventing an excuse to go visit. Five stars all the way.

I haven’t done these posts reviewing stores in the past, and I don’t intend to do them terribly frequently. I don’t really want to over-commercialize things here, but I was so excited about my recent finds I had to share them.

Have you ever run across these stores, or any others that might be similar?

(Note: I did not receive any compensation for these reviews. All opinions are entirely my own.)

Christmas Canon

I like many different kinds of music, but unfortunately, true classical music is not one of them. Soundtrack scores I’ll do, but large, flamboyant classical pieces are not exactly my thing. But there is one piece that I absolutely love, and it’s about as cliché as you can get. Pachelbel’s Canon in D. There are probably more covers of that piece, than any other classical piece out there, but I like all of them. But there’s one I like best, and that’s “Christmas Canon.”

Ever since I was very little, this has been one of my very favorite songs. Some little girls were cranking up Hannah Montana (may she rest in peace), and I was cranking up The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It would come on the radio, and STAND BACK because I would be running for the volume dial. I didn’t understand any of the lyrics other than “on this night, on this night, on this Merry Christmas night,” but that didn’t stop me from singing along, lyrics or no.

There’s not much more I can say about this song, other than that it’s pretty much my oldest favorite Christmas song.

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

Pet Sematary was my first encounter with Stephen King, either his books or films. No, I am not living in a cave. No, I do not think horror is evil. I just hadn’t gotten to him until this year. A cousin whose recommendations I trust told me this would be a good one to try out, and I’m very glad I did. I’m already looking ahead at my to-read list, trying to figure out how soon I can make the time to read another.

“Sometimes dead is better....When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son -- and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly cat. But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth -- more terrifying than death itself...and hideously more powerful.” (synopsis ‘borrowed’ from Goodreads.)

From the first few chapters I was completely and utterly lost in King’s world. A sign of an amazing author is that you forget there is an author. As you read, the writer seems to just disappear, leaving a pure and unadulterated story. King mastered this. The “idyllic” setting this promised was just that. The gorgeous setting he created gripped me before there was even a whiff of mystery and horror. The rustic farmhouse, the wide open field behind it, the path into the woods surrounded by tall grasses, all of it seemed taken straight out of my favorite place in this world – a little corner of the Pacific Northwest my family inhabits. Granted King’s ideal setting has less rain than my real version of it.

But once you venture past the immediate setting you find the dark corners that the plot lives in. Follow the path into the woods and you come to the little “Pet Sematary” that the town’s children have maintained for centuries. A circular little clearing, surrounded by trees, and with a great wall of fallen branches on one side, shutting it off from the rest of the forest – the “deadfall.”

Second to the setting in terms of instant attention-grabbers, was the old man, Louis Creed’s neighbor Jud. I’ve never truly loved a character in a horror story like I loved Jud.

Louis Creed, who had lost his father at three and who had never known a grandfather, never expected to find a father as he entered his middle age, but that was exactly what happened…although he called this man a friend, as a grown man must do when he finds the man who should have been his father relatively late in life.

And this is the role Jud plays throughout the entire novel. Jud was one of those characters that I love so much because they seem to truly live. I was almost as interested in Jud and his piece of the story as I was in the main character, Louis and his family.

I don’t tend to scare easily when I read, and that opens up the entire horror genre for my amusement. I enjoy a little bit of a “creep-out” and I like it when it goes even a little farther than that, maybe because it doesn’t happen too often. Well I got my creep-out, and I closed the book for a few minutes because I could tell it was going to go a lot farther than that if I didn’t break my attention for just moment. Out of the many “terrifying” moments in this book, none of them gave me my desired creep-out like the moment Louis Creed heard Something moving in the woods behind the deadfall. Doesn’t seem like much does it? But King builds an environment of such heavy, palpable tension that it doesn’t take much.

There were moments that made me want to cry, that made me laugh out loud, and that infuriated me. By the final climax, I was so engrossed I ended up staying up until 1 am to finish it. Oh, and the moment that infuriated me? Yes, it was rage at a cheap writing trick I thought King was pulling, but it was uncalled for. Just a page later everything was hunky-dory…or as hunky-dory as a Stephen King novel can be. Reading involves a certain amount of trust. And trying new author, you have no relationship with them and therefore trust is a bit more fragile. But Stephen King earned my trust and respect with this novel, even if I panicked for a moment.

If you’re not a horror person at all, don’t bother. If you’re a horror connoisseur or just trying to find a good book to break into the genre this is definitely a good one to try. But never forget,

The soil of a man's heart is stonier…A man grows what he can, and he tends it. 'Cause what you buy, is what you own. And what you own... always comes home to you.

I look forward to my next Stephen King book with great excitement, but I’m a little worried none of them will hit me as well as this one did. The rustic setting and gritty characters were exactly right for me. Any recommendations of what to try next?

PaPEr ToWnS (2015)

After the novel, The Fault in Our Stars, I was very annoyed, slightly angry, gun-shy, and determined to avoid John Green as long as possible. I knew that eventually curiosity and the belief that any author deserves a fair shot would get the better of me. Even while resisting however, my eye has been on Paper Towns. Something about the plot sounded fun and adventurous. The exact opposite of TFIOS. Last week I finally watched the trailer for the film, and decided to go for it. And I did. And I loved it.

Normally I wouldn’t have watched the movie first, but I needed reassurance that the book was a story worth spending time on. A two-hour movie is also less of an emotional commitment than a 350-page novel. John Green had not yet gained my trust. Now the book is at the top of my YA to-read list.

Young and shy Quentin is in for the night of his life when Margo, the most popular student in high school, recruits him to help her play mischievous pranks on the friends who betrayed her. The next day, however, the mysterious Margo is nowhere to be found. With help from a few buddies and some cryptic clues that she left behind, Quentin embarks on an obsessive mission to find the girl who stole his heart and made him feel truly alive.

The trailer and the synopsis do not do the movie justice. First of all, this movie is not a boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl story. It is not primarily a romance, nor is it about Margo Roth Spiegelman. It is first and foremost a movie about friends and about growing up, not just growing older, and about seeing people accurately, not how you want to see them. The three friends, Q, Radar, and Ben have grown up together. As graduation nears and they each plan to go off to their respective colleges they know there is a good chance they will never all be together again. Margo is the catalyst that sets them and two girls off on one last great adventure – an interstate manhunt for Margo Roth Spiegelman. Road-tripping up the east coast from Florida to New York brings them together and deepens their friendship in ways they had never experienced. In the end Quentin learns a painful lesson, but takes the good with bad, and learns for the first time in his life what really matters – the relationships he has now.

This past summer I read The Beginning of Everything, a YA novel that struck a chord with me because I’d never seen a YA story with such an excellent message: grow up, get over your childish foolishness, and become an adult, even if your friends and those closest to you will not. I enjoyed the main character’s last great adventure, and the journey to the end of high school (high school both as an attitude and a time of life). And ever since I read that book, I’ve wished it was a movie. Well, little did I know, but The Beginning of Everything, as excellent as it is in its own right, draws heavily from Paper Towns. From the female character that draws the main character into a series of adventures, to the message that you must grow up, live your life right, and value those that are in your life now to the warnings about the danger of idealizing human beings. The film Paper Towns was my Beginning of Everything. I’ll have to read the novel before I can accurately compare them, but as things stand now, they’re both different and the same.

That said, it is not a family film. The language wasn’t too horrible – there were two or three strong profanities in a two-hour film. But there is quite a bit of innuendo throughout. Sexual jokes, comments about “waiting for prom” to “do it,” and then afterward admitting it has been “done.” And perhaps worst of all, one of Margo’s pranks ends with a teenager fleeing a house totally naked, showing just about everything. The nudity I could’ve done without, and the scene could’ve been just as effective without going so far. Points off for the nudity. The most I can say about that particular part is you can see it coming, so just hit fast-forward if you’re like me and don’t appreciate that stuff.

It was well acted – the friends all made me laugh out loud at points. They were each different and unique in their own right. And the adventures they go through very much held my attention. I tend to not enjoy high school movies, but this one had enough going for it that I look forward to watching it again. I’ve had both soundtracks (the score and the vocal songs) running non-stop since I finished the movie, and I’m very much looking forward to the book.

Mr. Green, you have earned a bit of my trust. But still, just because I really, really did not like TFIOS…

Christmas Cookies

Let’s admit it, there really are a limited number of Christmas songs out there. There are plenty of artists to do the same songs in different ways, but eventually you have to admit you have probably heard almost every Christmas song in existence. That’s why every time I hear a new, original Christmas song that I actually like (because there are plenty of new ones I loathe) I dance a little dance of joy.

This was not one I was expecting to love as much as I do. A. I am not a big country music fan. B. While I do love them, how seriously can one take the Robertson family? C. I really, really am not a George Strait fan. Feel free to hate me for that. However, “Christmas Cookies” by Phil Robertson and George Strait ended up being one of my very favorite Christmas songs last year. The fact that I spent a month straight baking cookies may have had something to do with it…

All I ask is that you set aside your preconceived notions and give this song a fair shot. It is what it is. An adorable, sweet and fun Christmas song to/about his wife, Miss Kay. And I am not ashamed to admit it, Miss Kay is a bit of a hero to me.

What do you think of this one? A little too out there, or endearingly cute?

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes has been on my to-read list for a little while now. Although it’s more of a revisit, than a first time read, it’s been long enough for me to bring fresh eyes to it, and it really was like a new experience. The Hound of the Baskervilles was the perfect book for this, and when it came up on the docket for the Reading to Know Book Club, it was an excellent incentive to do it now, instead of at some unknown future date.

Poor Sherlock is one of the most argued-about, obsessed-on, fan-fictioned, re-done literary characters of all time. Unfortunately, because of all the Sherlocks out the in the media now, it’s a bit difficult to formulate your own mental perception of the original, “real,” one-and-only Sherlock Holmes as Doyle intended him. As hard as I tried, my own mental image of Sherlock (both his personality and appearance) ended up being a bit of an amalgamation of two different modern Sherlock “spins.” (The Mentalist, which is actually not a real Sherlock, but inspired-by, and BBC’s Sherlock.) I suppose that can’t be helped, but it still felt like my own personal Sherlock, which is all I could have hoped for. And again, for trying to create my “personal” Sherlock, this book was perfect.

“The most famous of the Sherlock Holmes stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles features the phantom dog of Dartmoor, which, according to an ancient legend has haunted the Baskervilles for generations. When Sir Charles Baskerville dies suddenly of a heart attack on the grounds of the family’s estate, the locals are convinced that the spectral hound is responsible, and Holmes is called in.”

Now, in the beginning I was a little disappointed because even though “Holmes is called in,” he does not at first answer that call personally. He instead chooses to send Watson ahead of him to watch over Sir Charles’ heir to the great estate. Watson’s journals and letters accounting the goings-on in Dartmoor take up the middle third of The Hound. But once I managed to stop sulking about Sherlock’s absence, I enjoyed it very much. The first-person telling of the mysterious happenings added to the suspense, and in the long run I really didn’t miss Sherlock too much. But from the moment he decides he is ready to step in, action takes over.

While I didn’t find this book scary or even creepy exactly, it was certainly interesting enough to keep me thoroughly glued to it. From a roaming murderous convict, to a servant haunting the halls at night, to the devil-dog itself, there was plenty to hold my attention. And really all I ask from books like these is that I don’t want to see “it” coming. “It” being any of the plot twists, great surprises, shock-and-awe moments, etc. Even if I sense them creeping up on me, I don’t want to know what is going to happen, and unfortunately I have an uncanny knack of always figuring it out before I want to, even if I’m deliberately trying NOT to. In this book, among the four or five different plot twists and solutions I only had one figured out, and that one wasn’t even terribly important.

Growing up in a family that voraciously consumes mysteries and whodunits, this was exactly up my alley. Growing up with a personal love for the vaguely macabre, chilling and “creepifying”, this didn’t meet my standards for a “scary story,” but it did appeal to the side of me that loves gothic-type stories, with all their windy moors and palpable tension. If you’re hesitant to go near books that might be a bit too dark and frightening, I would say this one is most likely mild enough that it’s worth a try. The tension is not overwhelming, just gripping. And the pure mystery of everything seems to keep it from getting to heavy. If you’re as odd as I am, save it for a dark and windy night after everyone else has gone to sleep, and embrace the darkness of Dartmoor.

Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.

Yet we may shelter ourselves in the infinite goodness of Providence, which would not for ever punish the innocence beyond that third or fourth generation which is threatened in Holy Writ. To that Providence, my sons, I hereby commend you, and I counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.

The Peanuts Movie (2015)

               In reading this review, understand what I mean when I say “We are a Peanuts family.” That means every Halloween and Christmas we have watched the Peanuts holiday specials. And I mean every. That means the first comic strips I ever read were Peanuts. That means I learned how to spell “beagle” (or how not to spell it) from A Boy Named Charlie Brown. That means the first real crush I had as a little girl mirrored Lucy and Schroeder. That means my brother used to call me Lucy because I had such a big mouth. That means my parents already refer to my long-future husband as Charlie Brown, because Charlie loved The Little Red-Haired Girl. That means we tend to take Peanuts pretty personally. Peanuts isn’t just a funny show anymore, or funny comics. Peanuts is a family tradition.

                In context, may be you can understand why I went into The Peanuts Movie with no expectations, and even a little bit of fear. Every time Hollywood takes a story I enjoyed in its original form and makes it for “the big screen” I end up sorely disappointed. I assumed the same thing would happen to Peanuts. I assumed they’d add garbage, change the characters I loved, and leave out signature moments, among other crimes. I assumed completely wrong. The Peanuts Movie was classic Peanuts. Everything that needed to be there to make the crazy fans like me happy was there.

                Here’s a synopsis stolen from Google: Life always seems complicated for good ol' Charlie Brown, the boy who always tries his best against seemingly impossible odds. When the Little Red-Haired Girl moves into his neighborhood, Charlie Brown develops a crush on her. Meanwhile, his best friend Snoopy embarks on an epic adventure in a fantasy world. As a World War I flying ace, the lovable beagle pursues his nemesis, the Red Baron, while also trying to win the heart of a beautiful poodle named Fifi.

                The entire film revolves around Charlie trying to do one thing well, one thing right to break his chronic streak of bad luck, so that when he finally meets the Little Red-Haired Girl, he doesn’t have to be ashamed of who he is: That Blockhead Charlie Brown. And if you know Peanuts, you know things never work out the way Charlie wants them to. This film is no different. Mishap after mishap ensues, until he basically gives up. But right as I was about to throw my hands up in disgust and frustration, (spoiler alert) there was the perfect happy ending.

                As far as classic moments, everything is there that you could possibly ask for. From the Flying Ace to the kite-eating tree to “It was a dark and stormy night,” it was riddled with inside jokes and scenes straight out of the comics and original specials.

While I’m not a parent, and parents would have to evaluate it for their own families I can honestly say I saw nothing objectionable in this film, not even the simple crude humor you seem to find in every. single. movie. Charlie’s crush is a sweet and simple schoolyard crush, not serious and adult in anyway. There was a very positive and obvious message about truth-telling even when it’s hard and a little lie would get you what you want. And while this was one movie I didn’t feel like I had to look for a hidden message in, if there was one it was that the people who really matter will see you for who you really are, even past accidents and mishaps, and that the best policy is to just live your own life honestly.

               In short, five stars. I highly recommend.

               As a little sidenote, for Peanuts fun off the screen, I ran across a website called Peanutizeme. It is exactly what it sounds like - a website where you can create a Peanuts "you." It ran a little slow on my computer, but the results were totally worth it. Peanuts fans young and old definitely need to check it out.

Have you seen it yet? Waiting for it to come out on DVD or streaming first? Are you a Peanuts fan?

Do They Know It's Christmas?

For the first of the Christmas songs that I decided to share, I’m picking one that may seem a little odd, but it really is one of my very favorites. The original “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by the original 1984 super-group Band Aid. You could technically call it an 80s Christmas song, but for some reason, decades don’t really matter to me around the holidays, so to me it’s just a sweet and beautiful Christmas song. I loved this song before I was ever a fan of 80s music as a genre, but I have to admit I have a new found appreciation for it now that I'm more familiar with its generation. Every time I watch it or listen to it, I seem to notice another 80s popstar I had missed. The last time I heard it on the radio, I finally recognized John Taylor from Duran Duran. But it's hard to miss the 80s setting, especially in the music video. The size of the hair and the ridiculous amount of eyeliner dates it effectively. But as a recent convert to 80s music, I feel like that's part of its bizarre charm.

The lyrics have been recently criticized for everything from racism and stereotyping to outright lies. Some of the lyrics were rewritten and recorded by the new Band Aid, and I reject that version, not because of the lyrics, but because the new super-group didn’t seem that super to me. When this song was originally released, the lyrics were not criticized, the musicians not ostracized (at least not as much as recently) because everyone knew what they were hoping to do – bring attention to and raise money to help fight a terrible famine in Africa. And it worked. Save the Children and the Ethiopia Famine Relief Fund both profited greatly from the record.

Honestly? I can’t take it that seriously. Not seriously enough to criticize it for Western-colonialism, not enough to praise it for being a partial-Savior of Africa. They tried to do good, and they did, so good for them. We also got a really fun song out of the deal, that is completely different from any other Christmas song out there. I love it. But then I may be prejudiced by Bono and his solo. As a pretty rabid U2 fan, this is the first part of the song I bellow at the top of my lungs. Besides, any video with so many mullets is guaranteed to make me giggle. Always a bonus.

Politically incorrect? I don’t care. Odd? Probably. Awesome? Definitely.

What do you think about this song? A little too untraditional or awesome because it is untraditional?

Manic Monday XII

I’m baa-ack! Well, at least I hope I’m back. In theory this post should be the introduction of a new pattern of living into my everyday life. The last two months (over half of which this blog has been in silence) have been primarily spent in an attempt to formulate new good habits and behavior patterns. The next several months, I’m sure will involve trying to stick to them, but for now, I’m not worried about that.

And writing this post is the very start of what I think may end up being my very favorite good habit: scheduled writing time. I now have a daily appointment with my word processor, a compulsory date with my creative side. I know I’ve shared one of my favorite quotes on here before, from Auden. “The surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide what you want to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble.” While I know this is definitely not true for everyone, and I believe you can overschedule, for me this works with the things I care most about making time for. I tend to wait to “find the time” to do something, as if it will just magically appear laying on the ground for me to pick up. Writing tends to take the brunt of this particular bad habit, and frankly, I’m tired of it. So (and it has taken me months to figure this out) I’m going to do something about it. Wish me luck! Thank you to all my friends and readers that kicked me in the pants and/or asked where I was and/or encouraged me to make the time.

So what else does life look like right now? A bizarre mish-mosh of fall decorations, Christmas lights, cornucopias, Christmas presents, pumpkins, and rosemary Christmas trees. I’ve never had quite such an odd overlap of holidays, but it just sort of happened. I can’t Christmas decorate full-on just yet, but wrapping needed to be done so gifts wouldn’t be stumbled across, and little Christmas decorations here and there just found their way into our shopping cart and then into our home. Helpful Hint: Never go to Home Depot around the holidays unless you assume you’re buying Christmas decorations…because you will be. A Charlie Brown Christmas tree anybody?

Our weather is schizophrenic as ever – freezing one week, scorching the next. I’m sure my Oregon friends are mocking my notion of “freezing,” but I acknowledge, SoCalifornians have no notion of real winter. We’re on a “scorching” week right now, but as long as the nights stay cold, I’m happy. Winter blankets, sweatpants, hot lattes…life is good. In the Disney film Frozen, the adorable little snowman Olaf sings an ode to summer. I can in no way relate to those feelings. Like Olaf, if I go in the sun, bad things happen. Unlike Olaf, I have no problem with that. Fall and winter come around and I greet them with open arms and cozy sweaters.

For me, fall and winter seem to blend into one wonderful season. Thanksgiving and Christmas also tend to end up a little bit united. There have been years in the past where I already had the Christmas tree up and decorated almost immediately after Halloween. Thanksgiving, as wonderful as it is, almost is just pre-Christmas to me. The two go so well together, and I see no reason they cannot exist in harmony, at least in my own little holiday world. I can’t bring myself to get involved in the ongoing argument over, “Which is better, Thanksgiving or Christmas?” I take them together, and that’s just how I like it.

However Thanksgiving will soon be past, but there’s still lots of time to settle into the Christmas mood. One of the regular posts I hope to do over the next month is to share one of my favorite Christmas songs each week. Some of them will be religious, some of them just fun secular ones, but all of them very, very special to me. I hope you listen along!

Even with the holiday rush, I hope to be able to pick up and keep up this blog once again. I’ve enjoyed it, and I think maybe some others have as well. I assure you, I have not abandoned this little endeavor, and I hope to be able to stay on top of it, without anymore long-term leave of absences. It meant a lot to me to hear other people encouraging me to come back, stick with it. My friends seem to be more patient than I deserve, and for that I am Thankful.