Tag: christmas

Thankful Thursday | Cinnamon and Sunrise

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Happy Christmas Eve! I hope everyone’s holidays are wonderful, and wishing you well, whether you celebrate anything ’round this time of year or not. Understandably, this week’s list is gonna be a little holiday focused.

Christmas Break
As of last Friday I am officially on Christmas Break- being as lazy as I can be and thoroughly enjoying it. After the chaos that was the end of this semester… well, I think everyone needed a break after that.

Happy Accidents
Okay, so I’m not quite as rose-colored as Bob Ross, but sometimes a mistake can be almost worth it, especially when the results are still edible. Turns out, when making fantasy fudge, using half the amount of sugar won’t mess up the candy that much. Me and Mom discovered that it will, however, leave you with buttery fingers. and perhaps a smaller amount of fudge than usual. Fortunately, it left us with a good laugh as well.

Cinnamon Rolls
Specifically, sugar-free cinnamon rolls that I can actually eat. I ran across a recipe the other day in which you use crescent roll dough to make easy cinnamon rolls and it worked great. Certainly better than the basic canned cinnamon rolls I used to eat so much as a kid- more like the grands cinnamon rolls, though not quite as bit. But anyway, now when I have a cinnamon roll craving I can indulge, at least a bit.

Old Christmas Specials
As much as I love Christmas movies, I think what I enjoy even more are the older made-for-tv specials that I used to watch when I was a kid. My parents, early on, bought a VCR to record stuff off tv for me and we had a healthy collection of holiday tv specials. Even in the summer I would sit down and marathon those. It’s a little hard to drag out the boxes of tapes these days, and most of them haven’t been converted over, so I love it when I run across one of those stories.

Solstice Sunrise
Okay, so it was technically the day after solstice, but that’s when the days are supposed to start getting longer anyway. I’ve tried, for years getting up to watch the sunrise around the winter solstice, but it’s always overcast. Whether because of normal cloud cover or the fog that so often sits in the valleys, even in the winter. This year, though, the sky was perfectly clear. It was dang cold, but it was nice to see the sun peaking up over the mountains.

Book Review | The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by David Rosenfelt

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It’s always a risk, picking up a book mini-series, even if the novels are ones that can stand-alone, like your average mystery novel. Still, it can be nice, sometimes, coming in blind, popping into an already-established world. Thus, I didn’t mind picking up the 15th book in the Andy Carpenter series The Twelve Dogs of Christmas, a novel about a gruff puppy-rescuer accused of murdering her neighbor after his complaints about her number of dogs. 

It’s an interesting enough story, with a sufficient number of twists and complications to keep one’s interest. It’s also a quick read, with pretty good pacing throughout. Unlike a few mysteries I’ve read, the details and clues are well-played out, the evidence easy to follow as it’s put together and presented by Andy in the courtroom.

The writing is pretty straight-forward, but the tone is fairly lighthearted for the subject material involved. There’s a light humor here that comes out during those courtroom scenes where the protagonist/narrator can use his wit and sarcasm. Those were definitely some of my favorite scenes.

Still, I can’t say the story really sucked me in. The characters, other than Andy and the accused Martha, felt a little bland (of course that can happen in the middle of a series, so that may be on me). And while the narrative started out strong and the courtroom scenes were good, I felt myself losing interest at times.

Long story short, while I don’t feel I wasted any time by reading this one, I’ll probably not be picking up another nook in the series.

Book Review | Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

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Out of the new Christmas books I found for this December’s reading, this is the one I was looking forward to the most. For those of you not familiar with the book, or the movie based on it, Christmas with the Kranks, it follows the Kranks and their decision to forgo Christmas in lieu of a cruise, as their daughter won’t be home. They find that bucking tradition might be harder than they think.

The premise is interesting. I think everyone’s had those moments, faced with the stress of the holidays where they just want to throw up their hands and be done with the whole thing. The thoughts of ‘what if we did something different this year’.

Thus the reason I feel disappointed by this book. I really wanted to like it, especially since I found the movie amusing- not my favorite holiday film, but I don’t turn it down if someone else wants to watch it. Unfortunately the detractors from the film are here in the book and even more noticeable.

Take the characters. I didn’t like any of them, but Luther especially was often unsympathetic, which is strange given how easy it would be, as previously stated, to make the reader feel for them. He’s so very often smug, self-centered, money-focused and, to be quite honest, racist (as is Nora, his wife with at least three comments throughout the book between them). And yes, character flaws make for realistic characters, but I struggled to find moments where I found him to be a normal human being instead of a scrooge caricature. 

And the neighbors aren’t any better. Seriously, who are these people that they think it’s a great idea to spend the season harassing their neighbors over a 6 foot plastic snowman? 

The story itself, once you get past the premise is… well bizarre. Everything is exaggerated, from the reactions to the Kranks’ decision, to their daughter’s hyper-whirlwind romance. This translated decently to the big screen, with the humor fairly clear, but in Grisham’s prose it misses something, never quite sticking the landing. 

Ultimately, it wasn’t one of the worst books I’ve read recently, but it does seem to be one of those rare books where the movie might just be a better choice.

December 2020 TBR

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So, I’m gonna preface this with the saying I have no intention of reading all of these books this month- I know by now that my interest in any one topic or book waxes and wanes sometimes by the hour, so it’s best to have an assortment brought out to choose from. So, here’s my TBR tower, heavily weighted towards Christmas stories. You’ll see, as the month goes along, which I’m actually pulling out (and not discarding after a few pages).

Skipping Christmas – John Grisham
I’ve seen the movie- not one my favorites, but I’m not gonna turn my nose up at it if someone else wants to watch it, or if my holiday faves aren’t available. I’ve always been curious as to how the book compares, so I didn’t hesitate to pick up this one from the thrift store when I saw it a couple of weeks ago.

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas – David Rosenfelt
So, normally I’m not the sort to pick up random mysteries from the middle of a series, but hey, I figured why not. It’s a Christmas book and it’s got dogs, which, I can guess from the cover and the general premise of the series (a dog-loving defense attorney) aren’t going to end up horribly killed.

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett
I’ve felt my mind gradually shifting back towards the Discword series recently (obsessing over a story partially penned by Sir Terry will do that I guess), and Hogfather seems the perfect re-entrance point. Unfortunately, this is one of the less likely for this month, since (as of today) finding the book isn’t going all that well. Oh well, crossing my fingers.

Plus-Any number of horoughly re-read children’s books that I’ve pulled out every single year since I got them, not limited to:

Mallory’s Christmas List – Ann M. Martin–
What can I say, I’m a sucker for the Babysitter’s Club, especially this one about a holiday gone excessive.

Kirsten’s Surprise – Janet Beeler Shaw
Really, any of the American Girl holiday books, but this was the first AG book I ever read and it’s still my favorite of the whole lot. Unfortunately, it’s another one that’s lost somewhere in the library, so we’ll see how that goes.

Zappy Holidays – Diana G. Gallagher
What can I say, I’m a product of the 90s and Alex Mack was one of my fave tv shows ever. I haven’t watched it in years, but every year I have to pull out this book. It’s my holiday tradition.

Now for some non-holiday possibilities, because you know there can be too much of a good thing.

The Case for God – Karen Armstrong
What can I say, Good Omens has sparked my comparative religions curiosity again. I love Karen Armstrong, and I hadn’t picked this one up yet- well, before a couple of weeks ago. This is one of my in progress books. I tend towards reading slowly through non-fiction texts. We’ll see how far I get this month.

The Fool’s Girl – Celia Rees
Not so sure about this one, but I’ve got a decent YA/middle grade backlog, and it dips a bit into Shakespeare, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Thankful Thursday – Have Yourself a Pepto Bismol Christmas

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Well, when I posted last Thursday’s thankful post talking about how the end of the semester was within sight I didn’t realize just how close to the end I was.

Okay, that sounds pretty ominous.

Don’t worry, nothing catastrophic- but I did end up stuck in bed for a few days due to the stomach bug that hit the school shortly before Christmas break. Thus, this week I was so thankful for…

Ice chips
Weird thing to be thankful for I know, but when you have difficulty dealing with much going on your stomach ice chips can be such a help. For about a day this was all I consumed, and I will forever be grateful for the fact that we had a full bad in the freezer.

Almost-decent Timing
The bug hit me and possibly the best time, comparatively- I was mostly recovered in time to do a bit of something for Yule, though not as much as usual, and I haven’t had much issue with Christmas food either. The hubby is another story, but at least he got to enjoy himself on Christmas Eve before it got him.

Coloring Books
With hubby spending most of the day asleep, Christmas Day was pretty quiet this year. Thankfully, I had some coloring books to take up the time, and get my mind off of plans going by the wayside.

Family
We haven’t been able to spend much time with the hubby’s side of the family this year, since Christmas Day is when we meet up with them, but we got a relaxing Christmas Eve with my folks at least. It’s taken a while to get used to the flip-flop routine of spending time with both families, but it’s nice when it works out. This year, of course, things were a little different. Hubby’s family, though, took it in stride. This just means Christmas isn’t completely over yet.

Book Review|The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden

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Title: The Story of Holly and Ivy
Author: Rumer Godden
Illustrator: Barbara Cooney
Publication Date: 1985 (originally published in 1957)
Length: 32 pages
Genre: Picture book, Christmas

Something I’ve learned this school year is that, working as a teacher- constantly surrounded by kids and literature made for kids- I’m gaining a greater appreciation for the complexities of adult fiction. Sometimes it’s just so nice being able to sit down with something controversial, or difficult, or just not geared towards people with less than a decade and a half of life experience.

And then sometimes my inner kid rears its head and screams, demanding a bedtime story.

And after way too many meetings and too many graded and yet-to grade papers my inner kid was absolutely bawling, so I finally yielded and pulled out The Story of Holly and Ivy.

Not a very surprising decision, all in all, since I’ve read the book every Christmas season since second grade- all beginning with an accident. One of those ‘sorry, the book you ordered from scholastic isn’t available so we just sent you something random’ accidents.

It’s probably one of happiest accidents I’ve ever ran into- both in terms of my love for this story, as well as the story itself. And all in all, rather fitting.

You see, The Story of Holly and Ivy is all about possibilities and chances. About the stars aligning to put everything in the right place.

And, above all else, about wishes.

Holly is a doll- a Christmas doll- wishing for a girl.

And Ivy is a small girl wishing for a home, and a grandmother… and a doll.

And one Christmas night their worlds begin to intertwine.

Of course, there’s a whole host of things to make that difficult- like window panes, a mean-spirited stuffed owl, and being lost and alone in the cold.

This is one of those picture books that is geared for read-aloud, full of vivid descriptions and details. As an adult, it takes me well over a half-hour to read the story- that’s if I don’t pause at the illustrations, a feat I find absolutely impossible.

The writing, alone, is wonderful, and enough to pull you into a bit of a Christmas spell, but the illustrations by Barbara Cooney- all soft, with gentle colors and lines- add a whole other level to the story. There’s an age there in her illustrations, something even beyond the old-fashioned clothes and details, that evokes nostalgia for a time long before my own. Of the many illustrators who’ve had a hand in bringing this story to life since 1957, Cooney is in my opinion the best.

For those curious, in the early 90s, CBS made a for-tv animated version of the story titled “The Wish that Changed Christmas”. They tried to replicate elements of Cooney’s style but, like the script of the special, there’s something just a little too bright despite their attempts. If you’d like to see what the story is about, it’s easily found on youtube (or at least it was when I published this review). It’s a cute tv special, and not badly done, but it never quite manages the gentleness of the original book; for that, I recommend hunting the book down. It’s out of print, but not difficult to find- either online or at a library. It’s definitely worth the search.

Thankful Thursday – Hanging in There

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So, this weeks list might be a little short… well, shorter than it was last week at least. Not to say that this week’s been bad. It hasn’t. Not at all. It has, however, been stressful, and I vaguely feel like my brain is made of swiss cheese at the moment. My mental energy is lacking, to say the least.

Fuzzy Socks
It’s finally chilly enough to pull out the fuzzy socks I got for myself a month or so ago. Well, technically it’s been chilly enough for the for a while now, but I’d kind of lost them in my rocking chair/dumping ground. However, I finally dug them out and got some use out of them, and they are as wonderfully fluffy and soft as I had hoped. Now if I can just remember to actually use them, instead of just curling my feet up underneath my legs like usual.

Diane Birch
I’ve been listening to Speak a Little Louder on repeat this week. Not sure what it is about that album right now, whether it’s that nice mix of up and down tempo, or the soft rock meshing with soul, but it’s scratching a particular itch- letting my brain loosen just a bit.

Christmas Tree
So I know last week I listed holiday decorations, so this is kind of repetitive, but I really like them, and we finally managed to get the tree decorated this week. It’d been sitting in the living room for the past couple of weeks- lit, but pretty bare, save a tiny stuffed Santa sitting on one of the branches and the a gold star on the top. Now though, it’s decked out in all its glittery glory, like it should be.

And finally…

The End’s Within Sight
Thank God the semester’s almost over. Not a moment too soon in my opinion… well, aside from the whole not having time enough to get everything done… but my brain’s screaming for a break. And for a fresh start. Just one more day and I’ll be free ’til January.