Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Cool Christmas Stuff

The kids have gone back home, and for today anyway, I'm glad they don't live here full-time. What a mess we made!

Here's a picture of what I got for Christmas:


My brother and his family sent us some maple candy (top) and chocolate (bottom) from Massachusetts. We like getting presents from them.

I also got two books, two DVDs, and Yahtzee. My kids have me trained not to buy any DVDs in December, so they can have something to get for me, and this year I was obedient. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was on my list, and I got it. We watched that first. What wasn't on my list was Season Two of the 1970's Muppet Show, but I'm happy with it. Fozzie Bear is my favorite Muppet, probably because he's cheerful while being a little pathetic. I'm not quite sure what that says about me, and I'm not quite sure I want to know. But Season Two has such guest stars as Rudolph Nureyev, Bob Hope, Cloris Leachman, George Burns, and lots more. We watched a few episodes while we played Yahtzee (I won two games, and my son won two, so my daughter's going to need a rematch soon).

The first book is a coffee table book, The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas. It's got maps, and photos of landscapes and artifacts. And it uses that annoying dating scheme of B.C.E. You'd think since they're talking about biblical topics, the least they could do is use B.C. and A.D., but no. I think I'm going to like this book, though, in spite of its method of specifying the years.

The second book, the pale one on the left, was a surprise. A friend of mine had mentioned it to me only a couple days ago. It's How to Get a Date Worth Keeping, by Dr. Henry Cloud. My friend saw Dr. Cloud in a pre-conference workshop at this year's Women of Faith conference, and he talked about some of what's in his book. She recommended it to me (and herself), and I mentioned it to my daughter, and then it showed up among my presents this morning. It's amazing how fast my daughter can shop! She must take after her dad's side of the family that way.

We never got Christmas dinner. I was ready, with ham and potatoes and vegetables and cranberry sauce. But nobody ever got hungry. My son brought over some Cinnabon cinnamon rolls and a chocolate pie, so we had those and some of the candy, and eventually we ate frozen dinners (we cooked them first) just to get some real food inside us.

It doesn't really matter, though, because we had a great time. Christmas should always be this good.

2 comments:

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

That's quite a catch!

How is the music to Pirates of the Caribbean? Is there a difference between the movies in the music? I've heard one piece, but don't know if all the soundtrack is like that. I really liked the piece, and have thought about getting the entire album soundtrack.

SkyePuppy said...

WordSmith,

I'm not real sure how the music is, except that I liked it. We were playing Yahtzee at the same time, so I was a little distracted.