My Girl Scouts ROCK!

I am so gosh-darned proud of my Girl Scout troop!

Last week, my scouts combed through their homes for any extra toiletries. With a big ol' tub full of goodies, they filled 20 stockings for the homeless.

Then they spent a few hours at Barnes & Noble gift wrapping people's purchases and made $223!

How awesome is the generous public, right?

Well, I have to let you know how my scouts used their funding. They decided to donate goods to San Diego Youth Services. I took them to the dollar store and armed each of them with $20. My amazing girls bought clothing, toiletries, non-perishable foods, baby items, toys, art supplies and so much more!!

We drove it down to SDYS and let me tell you, the director was so excited! All of the items my girls bought will so totally help all the youth they support.

Take a look...

Oh, and did I mention? My girl spent some time on Monday evening caroling at an assisted living facility.

Now don't you agree? Aren't these girls just the best ever???

Christmas Carma!

No, not a misspelling there. Just had to take a minute to show you evidence of my fantastic parking karma!

First stop... Target. Got the first spot right after the handicapped spots.

Second stop... Albertson's. Again, right next to the handicapped spot.

Third (and final) stop... Barnes & Noble. Second spot two aisles over from the door.

Gotta love parking karma at Christmas!!

Thank you, Christmas Spirit, for making yourself known!

You'll remember that last week, I wasn't feeling the holiday hoo-ha.

Well, it took a couple days, but the spirit found me and I've been hoo-ha-ing for Christmas ever since. I think it took a night out with Scott for dinner and some gift shopping to kick start the mood.

Take a peek at the holiday joys of the past week...

Emma sang "Silent Night" at with the church band. (The guy next to her playing the guitar is Billy. He was in our wedding.)

http://youtu.be/AqFvuNHyWH0

Emma also sang in a concert at school. I won't upload the entire thing 'cause unless your her grandma you probably don't care to sit an watch it. (And quite possibly, she doesn't either! LOL) But here's a photo of Em and her "twin", Hannah.

My Girl Scouts sang Christmas carols at an assisted living facility.

My Girls Scouts also raised money by gift-wrapping at Barnes & Noble. They're planning to use the money to buy supplies to donate to a local homeless shelter. They already donated a ton of toiletries from their own homes and divvied them up among 20 Christmas stockings that we're going to hand out this week.

We hosted a cookie exchange today. As near as I can figure it, we had about 25 people and a table full of cookies. Naturally, it didn't occur to me to photograph the cookies (or the people-LOL), so I just snapped this one of some of the remaining cookies...

Disney. Just Disney. He's so darned sweet and adorable that even when he makes me crazy, I love him to death. Today, Hayley was holding him as we were saying goodbye to some party guests and Disney looked over at me and REACHED FOR ME! I am not kidding about that. It was just like a baby reaching for his mama. And it was just about the cutest thing EVER!

I hope that you are having a similarly auspicious beginning to Christmas! (And if you're Jewish, Happy Hanukkah!)

Where art thou, oh Christmas spirit?

I can't find my Christmas spirit anywhere.

I've looked under the couch. I've looked behind the washing machine. I've peeked in among the stealthily hidden Christmas gifts and in the filled cookie tins and in the branches of the sweet-smelling and ornament-bedecked tree.

No spirit.

It's not dangling from the pretty lights around my desk. It's not hiding inside the cute triangular elf tissue box. It's not curled  up inside giant rolls of candy cane wrapping paper.

Christmas spirit, where are you? Only twelve short days remain before Jesus' birthday, yet you elude me. I can't find you, so please, please, please come find me.

Lengthening the "Deliciously Read" column

I realized a couple weeks ago that I was behind on my reading for the year. Each year, I read right around 70 books and as of the end of November, I was only at 59.

Time to get crackin'!!

So I made a trip to the library to pick up some books, both regular and audio. My neighbor invited me to her book club and I needed that book, as well. (The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck.)

Naturally, it wasn't on the shelf but I did find several books by Elizabeth Berg that I hadn't read before. Yay!

Berg's story lines are, well, rather depressing. Grieving prevails in several of them, be it a death or something else. So I'm not wild about the stories, but Berg's writing is just so beautiful. Lyrical. Magical. She sees things in ways that I can only dream about and I love reading her books because it helps me looks at things in my own world with clarity and distinction.

*sigh* I adore wonderful writing.

Now flip that coin over, please. Let's talk Janet Evanovich.

I adore her stories. They are hysterical and I laugh out loud throughout each of her books. And her characterization! Evanovich is a master!

Her writing, though, is anything but lyrical. It's basic. Fluent, but basic. It's like stepping firmly across concrete, whereas Berg's style makes me feel like I'm gliding across smooth ice.

At any rate.... 

I've finished several books in the past week and am feeling more confident in achieving my 70(ish)-book goal.

What book have you enjoyed most this year?