17 Thoughts on Christmas

As we all settle in and prepare for Christmas that is quickly upon us, here are some thoughts inspired by the sights, sounds, and activities of the season, and by my first Californian Christmas.

1) Colored lights are fabulous. I'm not sure if they are just fabulous in California or if they became cool everywhere this year.



2) Californians seem to observe Christmas within the actual season. Its crazy, really. I just can't get my mind around why Christmas decorations don't go up here before Halloween like they do in the South.

3) Amy Grant owns Christmas everywhere - she's not just a hometown hero.



4) Stockings made with love and hung with Campbell's are the best!



5) Monday Night Football + Christmas Cookies is a great combination.

Here we are hard at work - Courtney, Ryanne, Jaime and me.



Jonathan enjoyed his Gingerbread Man with shorts, not pants.



Courtney made Kyle a Christmas football helmet in honor of his not-so-winning season.



And I made Adam's a Spurs bell. Of course.




6) Its important to prepare your heart for the season or it might just slip right past you.

7) Urban Outfitters is selling the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I watched the CB Christmas Special for the first time in many many years this year. Its much shorter than I remembered. But so great.



8) Laguna Beach lights up quite nicely at night, but not quite as nicely as the Homewood Star.

9) It does get cold in Southern California.

10) In California, they light the bottom of trees.



In the South, they light the tops of trees.



11) I think that this is the first year I've ever actually listened to the words of "Here Comes Santa Claus". Has anyone else missed this line in the past:

"Santa Claus knows we're all God's Children,
That makes everything right"

What? I'm still trying to figure out what that even means, but I think there might be some mixed up theology in there.


12) Christmas trees are no better than Christmas house plants.

A little scary by day . . .



But quite glowy by night.



13) Veggie Tales nativities are tasty.



14) I've heard people say How could it feel like Christmas if it isn't cold outside? (You know . . . They say in LA its a warm holiday). It can. It has felt every bit as much like the season this year as every year that I've spent in 30-degree weather. Also cross-reference #9 regarding this. We're not exactly running around in swimsuits here.

15) I would be perfectly content to never hear the song "Santa, Baby" again for as long as I live.

16) Black tarps can do wonders for a garage, especially when combined with breakfast and pajamas. This is the second annual Garage Dinner (my first) - yum! We stuffed ourselves!

Here is Kyle teaching everyone to call ducks.



The girls warm themselves by the dryer-cage-turned-firepit built by Brian. No doy - who else do we know that could do something like that?




Josh is thrilled to play the iPod game. Did you know that he has 2500 songs on his iPod? He is a DJ, afterall.



What is the iPod game, you are wondering. Think "name that artist". Adam, of course, took all of the Beatles songs within seconds. I held my own, but mostly (embarrasingly enough) in the categories of country and old school ccm. None of us could stand up to Cathi, though. She finished us all off with her unbeatable knowledge of jazz standards.

The only bummer of the night was that it started raining. Yes, multiple people jumped up when they heard and ran outside to take pictures. (Our snickers were met with the defense of "No! But you don't understand! Come look! Its blowing in different directions. It looks like a hurricane or something!"). Welcome to California.

17) And lastly, it's a really good/bad thing to deliver Christmas Cookies to your neighbors. On one hand, you may be yelled out by an elderly lady claiming "There's no Mary who lives upstairs" but on the other, you may receive 3 lovely Christmas cards in return that make you think maybe you at least brightened someone's day a little and spread some Christmas cheer!

Merry Christmas, in whatever state you celebrate it!

The First Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Adam and I stayed home in CA (lack of money, lack of vacation time, etc., etc.) and had our first major holiday together. Lucky for us, our dear friends the Kings were also in the same situation, so we all got together to plan a Thanksgiving to remember. It went a little something like this.

Wednesday Night:

The Kings arrive in O.C. for the festivities. Lauren made some apple cider to warm us all. Then we began the first of many hours of cooking!



I know, I know, we should be on Iron Chef America - I'm expecting a phone call from Bobby Flay any day now.



Thursday Morning:

Despite our board game hangover from 2 late-night rounds of Yahtzee, we were all up and at 'em bright and early the next morning for the Dana Point Turkey Trot. Adam and I are TT veterans (having run it a total of 1 times in the past - for the record, I won. And beat Adam and his whole family. It was great. But I'm not competitve - its just for fun!). Let's be honest, I'm in pretty bad shape right now, so I was optimistic about me and Adam's strategy to run the first mile, walk the second, and run the third. The excitement that you see here is totally forced - we were actually dreading it!



I forgot how crazy this race is. We opted for the 5K rather than the 10k. Good choice. There were 9000+ runners, not to mention spectators, volunteers, etc. Its insane. Lots of people dress up and run in teams, etc., etc. It was a fun morning of people-watching, and in the end we were glad that we did it! I am also proud to announce that I ran the whole race, which exceeded my goal. Here are Adam and I's official race pics:



Luckily Andrew gave us a pep talk just before the race about not getting beat by strollers, so you can see my motivation directly behind me in my photo.

Thursday afternoon:
After the race, we rushed back home to get the turkey in the oven. This was definitely one of the highlights of the day, as the 4 of us sat around, consulted cookbooks, and checked the internet to see which end of the turkey you put the stuffing in. Since the boys were supposed to be in charge of the bird, Andrew had the privilige of pulling all of the organs, etc. He loved it.



The majority of the day was spent slaving away in the kitchen. But it was all worth it in the end. You are about to be very impressed with this spread:



And this was after appetizers of sausage balls, ham rolls, and homemade guacamole (that was our CA Thanksgiving twist). The turkey turned out perfectly. In the end, Andrew became quite attached and refused to let anyone else baste her and exchanged loving words with her each time he opened the oven.





The biggest success of the day (besides us actually completing the Turkey Trot), was the coconut cake that Lauren and I baked. We started it on Wed. night and finished up on Thursday. Yum!



We seriously have no idea what went wrong. I think that we were all looking forward to the coconut cake more than anything, but it was a total disaster. Lauren and I both re-read the recipe multiple times and still have no idea what we did wrong. I guess that we just don't have the magical touch! Needless to say, we each had about 2 bites of it and trashed the rest. Bummer.

After the Kings left, we spent the rest of the break painting our condo! Finally! Its amazing how much cozier it feels! Of course these things are always more of an ordeal than you think, but after multiple trips to multiple home depots, a few minor home-improvement injuries, 2 coats of paint, and one case of bronchitis, we finished all of the major spaces! What used to be stark white walls are now covered in Rustic Taupe and Berry Red (just humor me and tell me it DOESN'T look like blood smeared on our walls - I'm trying to convince myself!).




No rude comments about the Christmas house plant in the corner. Happy Holidays!

December Album of the Month

I know you've all been holding your breath A) to see if I could actually have a long enough attention span to do a consistant monthly blog and B) to see what the December album of the month would be. Well, never fear, I can make good on both of these . . . for this month at least.

The December Album of the month is (drumroll please) . . . . . . . . . Patty Griffin's Impossible Dream.



It seems like I've heard Patty's name before but was never familiar with her music at all until a few months ago when Adam made me a mix with "Long Ride Home" on it. Coincidentally, just like November's album, this song was featured on the Elizabethtown soundtrack. I immediately loved it when I heard it and had to have more of this girl. Its funny now because I had this fear that whoever this amazing voice was might be a one-hit wonder and I wouldn't be able to find anything else by her! Ha! Well, I'm still learning about Patty, but apparently she is quite a staple of the folk industry and is very highly regarded by fellow musicians as both a singer and songwriter.

"More of Patty" was the only thing on my birthday list last month, so I was lucky enough to receive a trilogy of Patty albums from Adam (Tower Records is going out of business - jackpot!). Now I've learned in the past to not try to introduce too many new CD's into your life at once because you spread yourself too thin, so I picked one and am saving the other two until I am completely inundated with this one.

I decided not too long ago that if I could re-write my own life, I would be a folk singer. Sometimes I think it's not too late, but thats mostly when I'm in the shower or in the car belting to this album. Since this album, though, I've honed my vision to write myself specifically as Patty Griffin. Her voice is amazing, as is her song-writing ability.

All politics and controversy aside, I love a lot of work that the Dixie Chicks have done and was not surprised to find that two of the songs of theirs that have played on repeat on my stereo quite a few times are actually Patty Griffin covers.

I would strongly recommend this as a Christmas gift for any music lover in your life. My only disclaimer is that it is on the very mellow/border-line depressive side, so I wouldn't recommend it if you are trying to be in a happy mood!

Genre: Folk

Release Date: Spring 2004

Time of ownership: About 3.5 weeks

Songs to put on repeat: #8 - When It Don't Come Easy - I can't get past that one so its the only one I can even write about (Ok thats not entirely true - I also love #6 Kites and #9 Florida - it has a great A1A reference that always makes me think of Emily and sophomore year spring break! - but #8 is by far the best)

Friends who would like this album: Rachel - you know you love those depressing heart-wrenching ballads . . . you want it! (By the way - I still have your Garden State soundtrack that I borrowed about 2 years ago . . . whoops. My bad - I'll bring it back at Christmas!); Potentially Reba - she has a Sandra-esque sound




No, I'm not a Scrooge. I have been mingling some holiday selections in with Patty. See Adam's blog for some thoughts on the latest from everyone's favorite independent artist, Sufjan Stevens. His Christmas album just became available to the public (previously only to his fanclub). Its a great 2-disc set with some very refreshing versions of holiday favorites, including 2 versions of one of my favorites, "Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming".

Help fight AIDS

As many of you know, especially here in the Saddleback community, today is World AIDS Day. For those who haven't heard, Sen. Barack Obama spoke today at the AIDS conference being held here this week . It has caused such controversy that he is pro-choice and yet was invited to speak at Saddleback Church on the issue of AIDS. While I understand the controversy, I can't help but think every step forward that we can take on this issue is essential and positive. Who are we to say that someone is not good enough to join in our cause? Here is a more complete explanation of the situation for anyone interested.


Here's a small thing that you can do today. In honor of World AIDS day, Bristol-Myers Squibb (a major producer of HIV/AIDS drugs) is donating a dollar to AIDS research every time someone goes to their website and moves the match to the candle and lights it.

It takes about 2 seconds. Every dollar counts!