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2011 calendar, african shelf shit, american shelf shit, analyzing plot structure of a movie, buying a new calendar for the year, christmas eve, christmas traditions, consumable gifts, dong khanh express, eating at asian restaurant on christmas eve, list of goals for the year, making a gift bag, movie up, new year's resolutions, opening presents on christmas, year end wrap up
It’s been over a week since I’ve written a blog post. Lots of half-formed ideas for posts are rolling around in my head, but none are taking enough of a definitive shape to write tonight, so I’m going with the ramble.
As I try to write this, the dog is lying down near my chair, after having figured out how to climb the stairs and attempting to dig a hole through the rug. There’s no guarantee he won’t dig again, or go after the cats, who have used the upper floor as their sanctuary from said dog.
(Here comes the white cat now, two steps from the top of the stairs. She can see the dog from where she is and has frozen in her tracks. The dog is looking a little freaked too. Could be some drama developing momentarily. Nope. The cat left. No drama. Thank god.)
So, then, where was I?
Ah, yes, the holiday weekend. (That’s where I was mentally, even if it didn’t appear so from my introduction.) Everyone was home on Friday, no work, no school. As Friday was Christmas Eve and our family tradition for at least the last ten years has been to visit an Asian restaurant on Christmas Eve, that’s what we did … after we took a walk with the dog at a local state park and took family pictures in front of small evergreen trees.
The Asian restaurant tradition almost became a debacle. We had called ahead twice, mind you, TWICE, to see if the restaurant would be open by the time we got there at 5 p.m. and were given the same wishy-washy positive answer both times. When we arrived at five, the restaurant was closed – at both locations. Um, yeah. If the folks at the restaurant had made up their minds and given us a definitive no, we would have been fine with that. Instead, we were pissed because we were led on. Not so sure we’ll be going back to that restaurant. We found another Asian restaurant, one of our favorites, the Dong Khanh Express, and had a nice meal there.
When we returned home, we watched the movie “Up,” which was delightful. I was so taken with the movie that the following morning I did what a number of writing books suggest: I analyzed the plot structure of the movie, taking up six-and-a-half pages in my notebook in doing so. (That could be a blog post unto itself.)
We took our time getting up Christmas morning (the beauty of children who are teens and adults) and opened presents late. Erik headed to his parents’ house to get started on pulled pork and the rest of us followed a few hours later. This wasn’t the proper extended Warner family celebration, but the food, as always, was fabulous.
Sunday was the proper extended Warner family Christmas celebration, which took place at Erik’s sister’s house. We had to leave the pup home and crated for about nine hours, which seemed to make us more uncomfortable than it did the pup. The celebration included scrumptious food, as does every Warner celebration, and gift unwrapping. We decided to do consumable gifts this year, rather than purchase stuff that my brother refers to as American Shelf Shit (or African Shelf Shit – pick your continent).
We put together candy bags for everyone, repurposing brown paper shopping bags like this ….
Yesterday, I did the grocery shopping and purchased a traditional year-end item, my new bedside calendar into which I record each day’s events. Here’s a pic of last year’s calendar and this year’s calendar:
While an attractive exterior is important to me, what’s critical is the space for writing on the inside. I need more than tiny squares, but less than full pages for each day. Nothing too daunting that takes more than a few minutes to fill. Here’s the interior of the 2011 calendar:
When I get around to purchasing my yearly calendar, I also tend to be jotting down a list of creative goals for the upcoming year. This I have done. (On December 19, I see from my notebook. I’m fastidious about dating my entries.) But, that’s a blog post for another day.
Clare said:
I really enjoyed this little peek into your weekend, Mary.
I remember watching Up on a plane and feeling stupid because I felt so moved by it that I had to fight back tears – what an excellent idea to analyse the plot.
I like your diaries – they are a lot more colourful than mine. I think that is one of the best things about this time of year – the sense of starting anew, with hope.
woowooteacup said:
Oh, my heavens, Clare, if you felt stupid, I’ll have to join you! It was all I could do to keep from bawling during the part of “Up” where Carl finds that Ellie has filled in pictures of her life with him in the adventure book. I choke up now just thinking about it. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.
I very much enjoy colorful journals and we tend to have a lot to choose from in our department stores. My very favorite notebook, however, is one that has a black cover. Not “colorful” at all, but when you open it, there are 8 sections worth of pages, with each section having a different color bar along the outside edge. It’s a divine notebook and I hope I can find another like it. It’s fatter than most of the other notebooks with its dimensions.
Other than starting with a blank journal, I like the new year because I can make a new list of goals. Perhaps I’ll blog that now.
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