Merry Christmas everybody and anybody! I have had an absolutely perfect holiday; with Christmas Eve spent with friends (and lots of little kids to play with) and a Candlelight service at church, and today spend enjoying family, left-overs and presents. 

This year was a very small and very quiet Christmas, each member of the family getting a single gift from everybody else–so it worked out to three presents per person (or in MA’s case, one big present from Dad, Mom and I together). I think I like a small Christmas, though. It certainly gave us more time to enjoy each other! 

The only things not right about today were a) rain which turned to ice and b) no internet to speak of because of said rain. It took Mom the better part of this afternoon to post pictures of Christmas. 

My Presents

From MA: a pocket-sized Paperblanks journal and a very nice pen. 

From Mom and Dad: Music from all three High School Musicals on MP3. 

From the family: a hand-blown glass straw.

The gift card is from Aunt kgh; thank you!

EDIT: I used the gift card to get a sweater/top/thing–

Of course, Cricket is fast asleep, but it’s a start!

Like I mentioned in that post called “The Christmas Quiz”, I prefer live trees. I was very glad when we got one for this year…although it does admittedly stretch the definition of “tree”.

It’s a rosemary “tree”. The entire house now smells of rosemary…not an unpleasant scent by any means, although no one has been cooking with rosemary either. The angel beside it usually adorns the top of my family’s Christmas trees; this year she is next to it because, well, she is the Fat Bottom Angel, not the Skinny Bottom Angel.

As Cricket poking her head out from around the tree, all I will say is that a certain camera was pounced soon after this picture was taken.

I’d like to say that I’ve been extremely busy and that is why I have not posted anything here in a while. In truth, however, there has been very little going on and none of it of a type to inspire a writing mood. . .but maybe that is the fault of the mood and not of the circumstances.

Well, there has been one event of note this month: my brother turned 21 on December 10.

My “Zahn” story is in a simmering stage…in other words, ideas are simmering around in my head, hopefully to break out into a fierce boil very soon. Maybe later this afternoon I’ll go turn the heat up.

Cricket caught (or stole) her fourth mouse. Ellie has decided that being around humans isn’t the worst fate imaginable. She’s actually taken to coming up to us to be petted.

It’s been cold and nasty out; but so far it only snowed once and it didn’t stick for very long. I think I’d prefer we had a lot of snow and that it stick. Almost anything is prettier to look at than half-frozen mud.

And so, between one thing and another, December creeps by.

The kids that I baby sit on occasion once told me about Bridge to Terabithia. They mentioned that they considered it a “bad movie, Hannah, bad movie.” They also gave away the ending.

So, naturally, when I got home, I asked Mom to put it on Netflix. It came yesterday and we watched it today.

I shall attempt to outline the basic plot without giving anything away: Jess Aarons is a poor, lonely farming boy. At home he has to work hard and is neglected while his four sisters receive what attention his parents can spare from their financial problems. At school he is the favorite target of the school bullies. Jess’ only escape is through his drawings…until he is befriended by Leslie Burke, the new girl at his school. Vibrant, imaginative and different, Leslie is also a target for the bullies.

Together, Leslie and Jess create the magical land of Terabithia—a simple forest to those who choose not to use their imaginations. Through their imaginings, the pair learn to deal with the problems in their life.

It is a really good movie; I highly recommend it. However, as I got in trouble for not warning my parents, I’ll warn you now: keep a tissue nearby. Or a whole stack of them.

In other words, my bed is raised up off the floor–as a direct reaction to Cricket catching yet another mouse. Actually, she stole it from Ellie and took off to my room to play with it. Cricket was happy; Ellie was not. Neither was the mouse, but that’s another story.

National Novel Writing Month is over…and I neither wrote 50,000 words nor finished my story. However, the 30,000 words I did reach is nothing to sneeze at.

The following is a list of things I have learned while attempting this crazy endeavor.

1. There is no limit to how many “and”s one can write…just on how many one ought to use.
2. ‘Taint really a plot problem if you can work it in!
3. If your characters are crazy, there is really no need for their actions to make sense.
4. 12 pages with inspiration can be written in the same space of time as 2 without inspiration.
5. Contractions are for the other 11 months of the year.
6. It’s not cheating to count the scratched out words…according to the rules I shouldn’t have scratched them out in the first place.
7. I can do oddballs very well. The jury is still out on whether this is a good thing.
8. Look no farther than your family and friends for ideas on what the heck to write next.
9. Watching High School Musical  inspired me. Watching North and South did not. Go figure.
10. I apparently leave the sweet side of myself behind when writing.
11. It is necessary to keep ten identical pens in your room: nine to distract your cat and one for you.
12. The family deserves an early Christmas for putting up with me.
13. It’s the things you don’t remember writing that are the best.
14. Thumping one’s head will not produce ideas any faster. However, it will produce a headache.
15. Hot showers were made for working out plot problems.
16. You don’t have to win to win.
17. Peer pressure isn’t always a bad thing.