Deb, you have such a pretty face. You should be on a Christmas card!
I think you’re really beautiful and
I feel really warm when I’m around you and
my tongue swells up.
First we’ll make snow angels for 2 hours, then we’ll go ice-skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie Dough as fast as we can,
and then
we’ll snuggle.
{SON of a NUTcracker!}
I just like to smile,
{answering the phone} Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?
I’m sorry I ruined your lives and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR.
S A N T A ! ! ! {Omg!} Santa’s coming!
I know him!
I KNOW HIM!
~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~
NOTE TO READERS: In case you need to know, and I, for one, do…the days start getting longer again starting today! WINTER! Shorter nights! Thank goodness!
Four o’clock~ wallow in self pity
4:30~ stare into the abyss
5:00~ solve world hunger, tell no one 5:30~ jazzercize
6:30~ dinner with me. I can’t cancel that again
7:00~ wrestle with my self-loathing…I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceil…ing and slip slowly into madness. But – what would I wear?
-The Grinch (as played by Jim Carrey)…special thanks to DP-the-son-in-law for reminding of us of this hilarious scene and doing a darn fine re-enactment, making us laugh merrily!
Give a Goat for Christmas. Good for Pomplamoose Music!
Gotta love this unique and charming musical talent. I suscribe to their Youtube channel because their music (both original and covers of songs I love) make me smile. Love their ability. Love their interpretation and delivery. And? Now they are giving away 2 FREE MP3’s of their music to anyone who will buy a goat (or some other animal) through World Vision for Christmas! Music AND heart! {see details on at the end of the video} So, give a goat! Give 5 goats, even! And, Merry Christmas!
Hey, pssssttt….TODAY is last full day of fall! Weird, huh?
Dave’s book did not make the top three for the final leg of the Marcher Lord Press competition.* {sad, sad, sad}
But,
Thank-YOU
for voting and cheering him on
and getting the word out
about it.
The funny thing is that a lot of the “hits” he got on the message boards were criticisms of things the publisher had made him do to make the book more “sellable” when in fact, his original work was probably more powerful, at least according to the dozen or so of us who’d read it. He’ll probably change some things back now and look for another route.
Spoiler alert.
I don’t want to spoil it for you, but it is an action-packed story with loveable characters, engaging dialogue and some major demon-butt-kicking that culminates in a very tender and personal-to-Dave theme of familial affection. Someday, soon, we hope, you will get to read it: Dave’s first novel, Altar (formerly known as Between the Altar and the Darkness, which the publisher also suggested he change).
*Dave’s and another book tied for the next place, just about 10 votes shy of making the top 3…
Martina McBride got to sing with Elvis – just last year! Lucky girl. I want to sing with some one! Isn’t technology cool? Someday all of us will be able to super-impose ourselves into videos and movies from our Droids or something.
Love Martina’s dress! And Elvis? Glistens! Dang, that guy was cute! Reminds you why he is, you know, the king! O.my.goodness…
Dolly and Kenny.
It got me to wondering how many other songs now mention Christmas being “blue”? I remembered Kenny and Dolly on one of my favorite TV Christmas specials ever with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, 1984. I still play this soundtrack every year and just did so during Baking Day!
Now ~ what other songs have something in them about Christmas being blue, or something blue related to Christmas??? I know there are more!
Lisa B.
You can’t tell it here, but these tags all have a very fine sparkle to them – handpainted by my most wonderful-artistic-amazing-friend, Lisa Bierer, who has seen me through my worst of times and rejoiced with me through my best for 20 years, almost! As if I would put these on gifts and give them away?!? Never!
We scaled way back this year. We have been scaling back yearly, it seems. But we still mananged to get some of our favorites made and even a new thing or two, keeping that oven hot and hopping for hours. There are the wildly popular “Thin Mints,” a shameless and absolutely amazing rip-off of the Girl Scout cookies. The sugar cookies for decorating are made and await a coating of royal icing in delightful Christmas colors. Jovan used her new Pampered Chef cookie press to make the lightest most buttery press-cookies, dusted in colored sugars.
Stephanie has perfected peanut brittle. There are Mexican Wedding Cakes and Gingerbread Men, along with Peanut-Butter Kisses-Cookies and Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls heaped next to our chocolate-dipped pretzels and “Strawberry” cookies (which have no relation whatsoever to strawberries, other than how they look, but really are made from dates and pecans and coconut and Rice Krispies and fashioned to look like a strawberry – a Rhoades family fav from the 1950s and 60s). And more, yes, there is more.
Things change.
One interesting thing this year was computers. Looking around the kitchen and seeing 3 laptops (2 Macs and a PC) open to recipe sites – that was funny. So much for cute recipe cards, huh? It was also quieter and we missed Elise-the-Niece…Well, it was quieter, that is, until the boys and daddies joined us and a chaotic-Christmas-cheer ruckus ensued, fueled, undoubtedly by the pure sweetness of the ‘cane hitting the bloodstream.
The girls swarmed poor Santa
The guys show up for dinner at 6:30
The boys played cards with Aunt Dessa while the girls took our “food orders” for chicken nuggets and muffins, coffee and salad (their imaginary menus were limited and they are sort of pushy as waitresses, these granddaughters of mine). The ‘bebes chased each other, snuck sweets from piled-high trays of goodies and pushed Rudolph’s paw, making him sing the Rudolph song veeeeeery loudly, at least172times (that Rudolph nose was flashing like a traffic light, non-stop for hours!). I seriously wished for some one to decapitate Rudolph. But the grandbebes? Find him delightful.
Gemma was particularly artistic in her interpretive dancing, inspired by her viewing of “Frosty the Snowman.” Averi’s great joys were bringing handfuls of cookies to everyone, or unrolling toilet paper into the, shall we say, “bath bowl”, and I just hope there was no criss-crossing of these activities.
And at one point, so warmed by both this season of good will and by the way they’d been running like banchees, all five grandbebes ripped off their shirts and flung them like confetti into the air, thrilled to be set free from the confines of clothing so they could fully enjoy the twinkling lights and the Christmas music. “We’re nakey! We’re nakey!” Averi exclaimed with glee and they laughed as if it were the funniest thing they’d ever experienced.
Rocky and Tredessa interact with Santa as well.
Ah. It is the little things.
It took awhile to find every shoe and sock and coat amd mitten (and shirt) when it came time to go home with their large trays of cookies and candies. {Sigh}. But we did it…almost. I still have to make the marvelous butter-cookie dough from which will emerge Raspberry Ribbons and melt-in-your mouth Candy Cane Cookies, among other delights, and the Peppermint Bark awaits me this morning. But most of the holiday baking is complete for another year and it is way too much and more than enough and truly not as sweet as the time I got with my girls. And the whole bunch.
Christmas Vacation “Eddie?…Eddie?!…Eddie?!?…If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn’t be more surprised.” C-l-a-s-s-i-c! A must-watch every Christmas and I watched it last night – which is what made me think about John Hughes, the movie-maker.
Sixteen Candles “By night’s end I predict me and her will interface.” One of themost-quoted movies for our family. “Fresh breath is a priority in my life.”
The Breakfast Club ~ “Don’t you forget about me, don’t don’t don’t…”
Planes, Trains and Automobiles “Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you…” LOVE that song and that scene!
Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version) ~ Though I am not a fan of remaking certain amazingly beautiful classics, and this would be one of those, he did do a colorful update and I cannot resist that sweet little Mara Wilson and the final scene in the gorgeous “catalog house”. It is a feast for the eyes.
Home Alone and (6 1/2.) Home Alone 2: Christmas in New York ~ I’d be over these by now if I hadn’t ended up having very resourceful grandsons. They could so pull this off!
Uncle Buck~ My mom l-o-v-e-s this movie and John Candy is pretty irresistible.
Some Kind of Wonderful ~ Which quote? “You should consider whether or not you feel you can deliver the kiss that kills.” Or: “You look good wearing my future.”
Maid in Manhattan(writer) ~ Tagline: This Christmas, love checks in,” plus Norah Jones on the soundtrack!
Only the Lonely ~ The man (John Candy) a cop. The woman – a lonely, shy funeral home worker. The mother, an overbearing, domineering woman who wants her son’s undivided loyalty. Sweet.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Pretty in Pink ~ “May I admire you again today?”
John Hughes.
He practically single handedly created the 1980’s “Brat Pack,” he wrote the teen-age angst of that time. He portrayed the “average kid” with superior skill. He captured the north-of-Chicago neighborhood as the great American hometown with wide, tree-lined streets and big warm-looking houses. He perfected the sights and sounds of chaotic family gatherings with multi-generational conversation going on. He put the right songs in the right scenes, dealt gently with the less-than-beautiful in love, graced movie-goers with believable, flawed, but good-hearted characters. We saw friendship develop, the underdog find love, Molly Ringwald become “the quintessential,” and Saint Bernards take over a household (the “Beethoven” movies, not listed above).
In a few short years, primarily through the 1980’s, the guy gave us great movies. In 1991, disillusioned with Hollywood standards and extreme leftist thinking, he became a voting Republican and Illinois farmer and checked out of it all, only to write under a pseudonym. He died in August of this year at 59. I can’t help but think of him, especially at Christmas, because of how well and how beautifully he paid homage to Christmas in several of his films. And how brilliantly he did it in “Christmas Vacation.”
The Phase 3 polls are open and taking votes now.I’ve decided to leave the polls open for 8 days this time. Hopefully that will give time for folks to get the forum figured out. In previous phases, people sometimes felt they didn’t have enough time and maybe weren’t able to cast their votes. Not this time!
The polls will remain open until midnight Eastern time on December 15. Tell your people! And be sure to get there yourself.
Eight entries remain in the main contest. One of them will be the next Marcher Lord Press book. Come tell me which 3 should advance to the final round.
Last time, only one vote separated the final book that advanced and the first book that didn’t. Your vote counts!
Thank you for your participation in Marcher Lord Select!
Jeff
Today? Is a day to wrap gifts and make menus and drink hot chocolate and read books. You saw it here: eight remain and from this vote will come the final three.
You may follow directions at www.daverhoades.com to become a registered voter (if you have voted before, you are already registered) and to find your way to download the final entries. Then?
“From my living room window as I write, I can look out across the broad front lawns of our farm like a lovely picture post card of wintry New England. In my fireplace the good cedar logs are burning and crackling. I just stopped to go into my gleaming kitchen to test the crumbly brown goodness of the toasted veal cutlets a la {?} in my oven. Cook these slowly…”Elizabeth Lane (as played by the versatile and provocative Barbara Stanwyck) sitting in her New York apartment (pretending to be on a farm in Connecticut) typing her column for the American Housekeeping Magazine in the movie, “Christmas in Connecticut”
No toasted veal cutlets warming in my oven here (I just had a slice of cold pizza for breakfast), but along with a rich cup of steaming-hot coffee I am enjoying a delicious, slow Sunday morning in the Colorado air where a light, dusty snow is falling softly like grace, covering the winter-scarred landscape with a sparkling beauty in a gentle silence. In a pallette of white alone, God manages to cause the somewhat lifeless winter look to awaken in splendor and reveal His mercy-covering nature to a fallen world.
Snow falls like grace and suddenly all things are new again.
“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor.” Job 37.5-7 NIV
image found on google: Rocky Mountain Reflections Photography, Inc. by Andy Cook
Everyone knows I was a little ga-ga over Gokey during the last season of American Idol. He ended up in 3rd place, but should have been #1! Danny was the big voice, sweet kid with 187 pairs of eye glasses – so kind of a nerd with panache. And he was a worship-leader-widower. The more I learned about him, his values and heart, the more I loved him!
I began to devise: Yes – what a great idea! Tredessa is so right for him. Let’s book him for Heaven Fest. Because naturally, if we got Danny and I could get them both backstage and they met, they’d see what a perfect match they’d be, right? I mean-you know Tredessa – how lucky would Danny be?
Then Tredessa sent me this quote in an an email with the subject being “Why I can’t marry Danny Gokey”:
“Never get involved with a man whose wife’s been murdered. For one, he’s not a real barrel of laughs. Two, you can’t compete with her. It’s not like the marriage started going downhill when she was boozing or sleeping around. I mean, she was taken from him at the peak of their love. She’s gone out on a high. She’s like Marilyn Monroe or Jimmy Dean. Can’t compete with her. Never get involved with a man whose wife’s been murdered.” -Ricky Gervais on Extras
And apparently even though Danny’s wife (who, by the way actually was a beautiful woman of conviction, who devoted her energies to ministering to families and children who had been touched by “poverty, sickness, or disease”) wasn’t murdered, Tredessa believes this still applies.
As if.
Here the kicker, though. Stormie and I were a little worried about me posting this in case Danny Gokey googles his name and reads this and I have now ruined any and all chances my daughter ever had with him. When I told Tre, she laughed her head off and said, “Post away. I don’t think this blog will be what ruins my chances.”
{SON of a NUTcracker!}
