Q&A Friday!!!!

Labels: holiday traditions

posted by Mo H @ 3:00 AM 0 comments

Tinsel on the Tree

Labels: Christmas tree tinsel

posted by Mo H @ 8:53 AM 10 comments

Christmas Shows

My Tivo to-do list is longer than usual this time of year, because of all the Christmas shows. There are the classic must-sees:

(My son watched The Grinch so much when he was little that I know it by heart. Except for the descriptions of the toys…)

I watched MERRY MADAGASCAR because I love King Julian and also the bush baby. Not as funny as I hoped.

I also love all the movies on Hallmark and ABC Family right now, especially the romances (duh.) Did you know there’s a Debbie Macomber one called MRS. MIRACLE? How awesome! The one I really loved last year was called The Christmas Card, about a woman who sends a Christmas card to a soldier and he comes to find her. Moonlight and Mistletoe was good, too.

What about the classic movies, you ask? Christmas Vacation is my favorite, and A Christmas Story (almost have that one memorized, too.) I like Elf and Miracle on 34^th Street, but can take a pass on It’s a Wonderful Life. I LOVE A Muppet’s Christmas Carol, so much that I hunted it down on VHS to show my class (we only have VCRs). I’m looking forward to seeing Four Christmases, too.

What are your favorite Christmas shows/movies? And does anyone besides me remember the show THE NIGHT THE ANIMALS TALKED? I loved that as a kid, but never see it anymore.

Labels: christmas, MJ Fredrick, TV

posted by MJFredrick @ 12:39 AM 14 comments

Home for the Holidays

posted by Mo H @ 9:42 AM 0 comments

The Season of Giving by Debra Holland

Christmas is the season of the year when people are the most generous. They not only give gifts to family and friends, but also to strangers and charitable organizations.

Unfortunately, due to the economy, charitable giving is down at the very time more people are in need. Perhaps you are one of those people. Or perhaps you aren’t able to give in the way you have in the past.

When I was in the fifth grade at Hope Lutheran School, we had to attend chapel every Wednesday. I remember one of the teachers delivered a sermon, using the analogy of a shovel. He said, when you give to God, God gives back. Only, he uses a bigger shovel. Meaning, the more you give to those in need, the more you receive in return.

I know I have lived a life that’s richly blessed. I’ve always had abundance, although some years I had financial difficulites. But through it all, I continued to support my favorite charities. And what I noticed was that my income often reflected my giving.

This principle of abundance has reflected strongly in my life in the last three years. I joined a church and made a committment to give a fixed amount every week. I’ve also continued to support charities such as Habitat For Humanity, Covenant House, and Orange County Mission.

What I found was that the shovel principle has definitely applied to me. Since I’ve been giving regularly, I’ve had so much work that I’ve had to turn away clients. And in this economy, with so much suffering around me, I don’t take my good fortune for granted.

If you’re thinking of cutting back on your charitable gifts this year, I’m going to urge you to rethink that decision. I’m going to ask you to think creatively about the ways you can give.

I remember hearing a sermon when I was young, where the minister outlined the three ways to tithe: time, talent, and treasure. If you don’t have much financially to give, you can still contribute something, even if it means tossing a few coins into the kettle of the Salvation Army bell ringer. It’s the gift from your heart that really matters, even more than the amount.

If you’re out of work, use some of your free time to volunteer. In addition to the help you give others, the satisfaction you receive from being of service will bring important meaning to your life, especially if you’re struggling with low spirits. Plus, you’ll find that there are always those who are worse off. Their troubles will put yours in perspective.

Think about the talents you have to offer. For example, many charitable organizations are in desperate need of someone with good writing and copyediting skills. Writing stories, articles, blurbs, and other copy could fill an important need.

Get your children involved with helping. Younger children can pick a name off a “giving tree” located at churches, malls, and hospitals. (I suggest you pick a child of a similar age and the same gender as your own.) Let the children choose the toys and/or clothes for the person and also help wrap and deliver the gift.

Older children can serve at soup kitchens, organize food or clothing drives at their schools, or donate part of their allowance to charity. Many times older children will gravitate towards a charity that feels meaningful to them or one that their friends are involved in.

And don’t forget to spread peace and good will to all. Being patient with a haried sales clerk, smiling at the shoppers around you, giving up your place in line to someone with cranky children are all ways to increase your Christmas cheer.

What are your favorite ways to give?

Labels: christmas, giving, the season of giving

posted by Theresa Ragan @ 10:20 AM 3 comments

This Week on the Wet Noodle Posse

Labels: Dr. Debra Holland, Maureen Hardegree, MJ Fredrick

posted by Mo H @ 7:23 PM 0 comments

Q&A Friday!!

Labels: writing scenes with lots of people

posted by Mo H @ 6:26 AM 5 comments

Let us Give Thanks

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks: For generous friends with hearts as big as hubbards and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter;

For old friends nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And, finally, for those friends now gone, who like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;

For all these we give thanks.

Let Us Give Thanks from View from a Tree by Max Coots

A very happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Labels: friends, gardens, Thanksgiving

posted by Karen @ 9:16 AM 2 comments

Eat Your Peas

This is Frankie- newest member of our family. He is a perfect gentleman cat who has completely won over the unhappy Jinx by being so nice, so social, so friendly, and always giving her whatever she wants. He's won us over too. And I went looking for an entirely different kind of cat. He has almost perfect brown spirals on his sides. I wish I could get a picture of his beautiful pale blue eyes but they just won't photograph well.

But back to my story.

My mom was a terrific cook, and she completely lived for holidays when she could cook her wonderful turkey and dressing and all the trimmings. Naturally we lived for them too.

We had a wonderful dog, a Weimaraner named Greta, who Dad had gone all the way to Minnesota from Illinois to get. And she was perfectly trained when it came to family meals. Never begged or snitched anything.

One year a friend of my father's promised to bring us a wild goose from his hunting trip. Mom had never cooked a goose before, but she got out all of her cookbooks and even bought a new one, and she pored over them until she had a plan. A menu that had us all but drooling in expectation.

We all had to clean the thing- and we did it outside because cleaning fowl is a stinky business. But Mom did all the cooking. I was only allowed to do the extra things like setting the perfect table, sometimes peeling vegetables. It was a really big goose for a large family, and the preparations took all day long, but the final result was a beautiful sight. And the house filled with wonderful aromas that were different from anything we'd ever had before.

And so we gathered, all seven of us, and took our seats, napkins in our laps, ready for the best treat ever. Greta was probably salivating too, although none of us noticed her at the time. All we could think of was digging in. Dad carved. We passed our plates for the tantalizing meat. We passed around the dishes of vegetables, dressing, cranberry sauce, Mom's unforgettable Thanksgiving rolls. We said grace.

Then, like the big family we were, we dove in, all at once.

The first mouthful. In unison a huge groan of disgust roared forth. Shock registered on everyone's faces as we all looked at each other. Even Mom.How could anything that smelled and looked so fabulous taste so horrible? The most disgusting thing I think I've ever eaten! It was like biting and chewing a whole garlic clove all at once.

Poor Mom! "But I followed the recipe to the letter!" she said. I knew, because I'd read them with her, and she had done everything exactly as the cookbook said. It wasn't spoiled. It just tasted like pure wild garlic and onions. And the stuffing, my favorite part, was completely ruined by the giblets in it.

Dad did his best to console her, and even apologized. He'd heard sometimes wild geese feed on wild garlic, and it must have just recently had a lot of it. Mom thought maybe wild geese had to be cooked differently, but she hadn't found any recipes for game, so she'd used what she had. And we all agreed Mom was the best cook ever, so it couldn't be her fault.

So what were we going to do with the bird? Should we feed it to the dog? Greta sat a bit too near to the table for proper dog manners, her tail thumping wildly on the hard floor as we discussed the possibility.

Dad got up and took a slice of goose and laid it in Greta's dish. Sometimes we called her Hoover because of how she ate, sucking up food like a vacuum cleaner. We nearly changed her name for the way this piece went down.

And so Greta was taken out to her enclosure with a nice dog-sized helping of wild Thanksgiving goose, and we had vegetables for our Thanksgiving meal. And pie. The pie was great.

"Eat your peas," Mom said, like she always did. "There are children starving in China." I never quite understood that and quietly wondered if somehow those poor kids might like wild goose. But I always loved my vegetables and never failed to eat them. That year I was more grateful for them than ever.

And for a week after, nobody wanted Greta's attention because she smelled like garlic all over.

posted by Delle Jacobs @ 9:34 AM 4 comments

Cookies, Cakes and Pies…Oh, My!

It’s that time of year again! Frosted cookies, pumpkin pies and gingerbread men with red sugary eyes!

As I’ve mentioned in the past, every year my sisters and I get together with our daughters and mother and sister-in-laws, and we bake cookies. Lots of cookies. After a long and wonderful day of stirring and mixing and tasting, we pack up plates of cookies for our friends and neighbors and always end up with enough cookies to freeze for the holidays!

I love cookies and it’s hard for me to pick my favorites, but I must say that the peanut butter cookies with the chocolate Hershey’s kiss in the middle are top on my list. I also love chocolate chip cookies packed with nuts and chunks of chocolate. I love adding extra dashes of cloves and cinnamon to the oatmeal cookie mixture…yummy!

The other day I looked in the Wet Noodle Posse archives for delicious recipes and found:

A wonderful recipe for Chocolate Nut Caramels Nut by Merrillee Whren: http://www.wetnoodleposse.com/archives/Dec_2004/stuff.html#recipes

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies by Lorelle Marinello, Pistachio Fingers by Trish Milburn, Almond-Rosewater Cookies by Janet Mullany and more recipes here!

Cookie day with my family this year will be on December 6th and I would love it if any of you have a delicious cookie recipe that you wouldn’t mind sharing. Any type of cookie would be great. I could really use a fabulous gingerbread cookie recipe. Something chewy and delicious!

Happy Baking!

Labels: cookies, holiday cookies, yummy recipes

posted by Theresa Ragan @ 3:05 AM 6 comments

10 Totally Frivolous Thank Yous

We're usually serious and contemplative at this time of year, remembering to be thankful for things like health, freedom and plenty of food. And I am, indeed, thankful for all of those things. But I thought it might be fun to have a list of totally frivolous things for which I am, nevertheless, thankful. So here goes...

1. The wonderful experience of escaping into a story on the big screen. I went to see New Moon yesterday and had the best time. I'm already looking forward to Avatar next month.

2. Farmville, that crazily addictive farming game on Facebook.

3. Entertainment Weekly -- for my weekly dose of what's going on in the entertainment world

4. Whoever thought of putting TV shows on DVD. I'm currently on the 5th season of Gilmore Girls.

5. SyFy -- Thanks to this channel, I get regular doses of fun sci fi shows like Sanctuary and Stargate Universe.

6. Movie soundtracks -- I have lots.

7. The Bed, Bath and Beyond sales circulars that include 10% off coupons.

8. Twitter feeds from some of my favorite celebrities like Nathan Fillion and Misha Collins -- those guys are a riot.

9. Junior Mints

10. That J.J. Abrams decided to do a Star Trek movie. I saw it twice in the theater and already watched it again after buying the DVD last week. Tremendously rewatchable.

What about you all? What non-essential, totally frivolous things are you thankful for?

posted by Trish Milburn (Tricia Mills) @ 12:01 AM 6 comments

This Week on the Wet Noodle Posse

Labels: Delle Jacobs, Karen Potter, Theresa Ragan, Tricia Mills, Trish Milburn

posted by Mo H @ 4:18 PM 0 comments