TV Thursdays

My meme little humble meme focusing on especially TV, but maybe movies too! Leave me a link to your post or just a comment will do!

This week's focus: Holiday Movies!

What is your favorite holiday movie? What is the one movie you just have to watch year after for the holiday season?

1. It's a Wonderful Life (1946): I know it's the old standby, but it's just beautiful and makes me cry every time and Jimmy Stewart is the best!

2. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): Personally, this is my favorite adaptation of the Dickens's beloved classic! It's so fun with the singing and the dynamic between Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo is just hilarious!

3. A Christmas Story (1983): My favorite lines "Shut up, Ralphie!" "He said the f--- word." "It's fragiiiilay, it must be Italian." A touching story on family and just how laugh out loud funny they can be!

4. Elf (2003): Will Farrell is so perfect for Elf! How can you not just love the sweet child-like innocence of a person like that! He really brings out the Christmas spirit for me! And it's just so darn funny.

These are the big four holiday movies that get watched every year in my family! I would love to hear your classics!

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bermudiaonion's Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, and join the fun! (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating).

From Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

1. TREMOLO: p. 49 "I'd forgotten that tremolo of expectation produced by a tiny forest of sprouts."

A tremulous or vibrating effect produced on certain instruments and in the human voice, as to express emotion.

ORIGIN: 1715–25; From Latin tremulus.

From Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama

1. SARONGS: p. 28 "...wizened brown women in faded brown sarongs stacked straw baskets high with ripening fruit..."

A loose-fitting skirt-like garment formed by wrapping a strip of cloth around the lower part of the body, worn by both men and women in the Malay Archipelago and certain islands of the Pacific Ocean.

From the essay Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson

1. CONNATE: p. 12 "...I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages."

Associated in birth or origin.

ORIGIN: 1635–45 from Latin connātu

Happy December 2nd!

More fun Christmas countdown facts from The Christmas Almanack by Gerard and Patricia Del Re!

Poinsetta

Where did this one come from? Why does it symbolize so much about the Christmas season?

According to Mexican legend, a small boy knelt at the altar of this village church on Christmas Eve. H had nothing to offer the Christ Child on his birthday because he had no money, but his prayers were sincere. A miracle gave him the present that could not be bought: the first Flower of th Holy Night sprang up at his feet in brilliant red and green homage to the holy birth.

The flower is also named after Dr. Joel Roberts who was the American ambassador to Mexico from 1825-1829. He loved the flower so much he brought it home with him to his native South Carolina and soon became a popular Christmas flower, and was thus named after him.

Encinitas, California is known as the Poinsettia Capital of the World due to the superabundance of the flower there and the city offers tours during this time of the year in the most picturesque locales.

But be careful if you have pets...they are poisonous to cats...so thus we never get one:( But I'll do anything to keep my beautiful kitties safe and sound!

*This is also part of the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge

Teaser Tuesdays- Dreamhunter

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

From Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

p. 60 It did happen that, every so often, an adult might vanish by the Doorhandle--might melt from the coach. It would turn out that this person hadn't for whatever reason, chosen to Try at fifteen. Hadn't attempted before to pass across into the Place.

Happy December 1st!

The countdown on the advent calendar begins...only twenty four more days! In honor of that and along with my 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge I thought I would share some fun facts about this jolly holly season with ya'll from the book The Christmas Almanack by Gerard & Patricia Del Re.

Why do we celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December? Because of Mithra, a figure spoken about in the Zend-Avesta, from sacred Zoroastrian scriptures. He was born out of a rock on this date. And since the Romans ruled at the time they also enjoyed celebrating the festival of Dies Invicti Solis or the Day of the Invincible Sun on this same day the 25th of December. So possibly emperor Constantine combined the two Mithraism and Christianity into the new celebration of Christ Mass. The Invincible Sun god became the new Sun of Righteousness.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

What makes a great book? When you are yelling at the characters while reading! Yes, I did this. Katniss and the rest of the districts are slowly rebelling against the evil Capitol...President Snow retaliates by sending all the previous victors of the Hunger Games into the arena to fight it out. Can Katniss save Peeta or herself and thus her family?

This is an excellent series and I can't wait for the third book! Katniss is an unassuming hero and that's why I love her. She knows what's good and right and she doesn't even realize it. We also have another love triangle with Katniss and her two guys Gale and Peeta. We love them both! Well, I do anyway.

The world of the Hunger Games is just scary. Could our society ever become as debase and freedomless as this one?

This series is definitely one I'll repeat again and again!

Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby

I won this book from Trina at Bloody Bad and so I was very excited to get it and finally read it! I wasn't disappointed! This was a fun and cute Christmas story. Ornaments on a Christmas trees come to life each year...Larry the snowman can't find his brother Terrence this year and decides to find him beyond the tree's border with the help of his two friends Debbie and Splint. It did take on a bit of a dark turn towards the end, but I think you can use this as a good learning opportunity for kids. I heard this was originally a screenplay so sometimes the dialogue is a bit off, but I thought it was a sweet story overall and brought out the magic of Christmas! I'm going to enjoy reading this one to my son as he gets older each year for Christmas! The book also has many drawings throughout the book that are really fun!

Part of the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

Seedfolks follows the perspectives of various people within a community. It starts of with little Kim trying to get her seeds to grow in a vacant lot right outside her apartment building. With each new perspective we see this little garden grow and how it brings together a small and diverse community. We see hate turn to love and to respect. Instead of phrases like "that Chinese woman" turns into "the school teacher." It's little things like this that make this short story so magical.

Character observations: Gonzalo: "The older you are, the younger you get when you move to the United States."

Wendell: "There's plenty about my life I can't change...But a patch of ground in this trashy lot--I can change that. Can change it big."

Nora: "Yet we were all subject to the same weather and pests, the same neighborhood, and the same parental emotions toward our plants...We, like our seeds, were no planted in the garden."

Amir: "The object in America is to avoid contact, to treat all as foes unless they're known to be friends."

Each character has these little quotes and observations as they each partake in some way of the community garden. It's full of life's rich lessons and one I will continue to read to my child.

Things i LOVE Friday

Thanksgiving with good family and fun games!

Listening to my favorite Christmas music

Reading fun Pride and Prejudice adaptations

Wearing my Santa hat everyday now til Christmas:)

Shopping for my baby boy for Christmas

Buying new books, it's such a rush!

scones from Emmett's

It's actually Things i LOVE Thursday hosted by Midnight Cowgirl @ The Fashion Planner, so join on in and tell us the things you loved this week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looks like this one got some tan lines!

Looks like it was a great first Thanksgiving. Too bad the whites committed genocide on the natives...

So let's be thankful for the good things in life and for the ability to deal with the bad things as well!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Win Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston!

Summary: Since the dawn of time, the Faerie have taken. . . .For seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow, faeries are just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery, whose steel-gray eyes mask an equally steely determination to protect her Sonny guards the Samhain Gate, which connects the mortal realm with the Faerie's enchanted, dangerous Otherworld. Usually kept shut by order of icy King Auberon, the Gate stands open but once a year. This year, as the time approaches when the Samhain Gate will swing wide and nightmarish Fae will fight their way into an unsuspecting human world, something different is happening . . . something wondrous and strange. And Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her but to the heritage that awaits her. Now Kelley must navigate deadly Faerie treachery—and her growing feelings for Sonny—in this dazzling page-turner filled with luminous romance. Wondrous Strange is a richly layered tale of love between faerie and mortal, betrayal between kings and queens, and magic . . . between author and reader.

Sounds super deduper to me! I actually have this one on my TBR list...I even got it from the library, but I have too many other book challenges I need to finish before the end of the year...so this one's on the back burner so...I hope I win!

Sign up at La Femme Readers. It ends November 30th!

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bermudaonion's Weblog where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, and join the fun! (Don’t forget to leave a link in your comment if you’re participating.

From The Magical Christmas Cat by Nalini Singh, Lora Leigh, Linda Winstead Jones, and Erin McCarthy

1. p.70 "The insouciance with which Erik had crushed his wife's heart an hour ago..."

INSOUCIANCE: Lack of care or concern; indifference.
ORIGIN: 11790–1800; From French insouciant.

From The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

1. p. 37 "I adroitly rationalized my absence from home on necessity and told myself that my family would someday welcome the sacrifice..."

ADROITLY: Cleverly skillful, resourceful, or ingenious.
ORIGIN: 1645–55; From French and Old French: elegant, skillful. Droit from dreit = straight, just, correct which comes from Latin dīrēctus.

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

A man learns how to appreciate and love his family through the help of Mary, the lady they stay with. It's a short, fun read, but the edition I read had a lot of editing errors. Also the narration is in first person, but later it would change to first-person omniscient? Not very readable...really annoying. It feels like this was a first draft and was printed without any editing...maybe the later editions are a little more cohesive.

But overall, the idea is within the Christmas and Holiday spirit and for that it's worth a read.

*Part of the Holiday Reading Challenge

Teaser Tuesdays- Secrets of a Christmas Box

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

From Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby

p.135 "They could see very little until Splint and the two lights arrived behind them. Suddenly they noticed the outline of the soccer ball as it lay still on the garage floor. The lights slowly leaned out from behind Splint and the whole area lit up. Everyone gazed up in astonishment. There it stood, right in front of them, the huge box with th words 'Christmas Box' stamped across its brightly lit side."