Giddy Up, Let's Go!

I love Christmas. It's a great time of year. (Maybe not for the flatness of my belly, but it's a good time, nevertheless.) Last week Glen and I didn't have to make/pay for dinner three nights in a row because of it! (and then the fourth night we went out for dinner to celebrate that fact. aaaaand i was being lazy.) One of those nights was my office's holiday dinner, which was pretty interesting considering I don't see these people on a daily basis anymore. Our table was pretty silent because we almost didn't know what to talk about anymore! The next night was our ward Christmas party, for which I made the ever-fantastic strawberry jello/pretzel "salad". We're Mormons; you've got to have some kind of jello at a party, right? Anyway, it was a nice evening with dinner and a couple of musical numbers, and our table that night was MUCH more talkative.

Sunday we had our ward Christmas program in sacrament meeting, in which Glen and I sang in the choir and then played "O Holy Night" together -- me on the piano, Glen on the cello. After discovering this talent of Glen's when he played for the primary program a couple months ago, I think the ward is fast falling in love with the cello. And who could blame them?

And then of course there are cookies: gotta make those. I roped Glen into being my helper a couple of nights, and now those are all done and looking delicious and ready to be delivered to friends and neighbors -- Glen and I alone eating an entire pan of scotch-a-roos would be a BIG mistake. A delicious mistake, but a mistake regardless.

Hard to believe we'll be off in a couple of days to Missouri! The entire Merrell clan under one roof for a week! Gotta keep the holiday spirit alive and kickin', even if we occasionally step on each other's toes.

-Me

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall." -Larry Wilde

A Storybook Story

A couple nights ago, I took a stroll through memory lane as I described to Glen things I remembered about Grandma and Grandpa Jensen's house: how furniture was situated, what the garden looked like, chasing basketballs down multiple hills, etc. But one thing especially stuck in my mind after talking to Glen, and that was a book that I would read. Of course, at the time I couldn't remember the title, but searching online helped me out there:

Doctor Squash the Doll Doctor

Written by the same woman who penned the famous Goodnight Moon, I remembered loving this story of the doctor who treated sick toys, pretending to listen to their non-existent hearts because it made them feel better. And when the doctor fell ill, the toys took care of him. Oh, the sweetness.

Okay, maybe it's a little corny, but I don't really care. I also discovered in my search that this book has been updated (the original had a mammy doll, so it wasn't exactly p.c.). I have to be honest; I still prefer the original illustrations. But oh well. It's still a sweet story, and even if I didn't quite remember how persimmons were mentioned, I remembered that they were in it. Amazing the little details that stick with you over twenty years.

Other childhood favorites:
The Monster at the End of this Book
Green Eggs and Ham
Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Blueberries for Sal
Anything Berenstain Bears-related

What about your favorite childhood stories?

-Me

"Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." -Mark Twain