The Christmas Story: The Brick Bible for Kids - a Review

The Christmas Story: The Brick Bible for Kids by Brendan Powell Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to say, the angel is kind of creepy and reclining legos seem a touch... well... off. That said, my kids love legos, and so this was a fun reading adventure for them. My teenager enjoyed it the most, particularly the slaughter of the innocents, but she's got a deep and abiding love of dark humor, and it was, most definitely, ultimately humorous to see the Christmas story told by legos. Props to the weirdlings geeks who thought this up, and their dedication to building. I laughed a lot, but like I said, there's just something creepy about the angels, and "child Jesus." Seriously, legless adult torso? Lego needs to hop on that whole legos that bred wagon.


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Ornament Swap II

Last year the ornament swap was a great success, and everyone who played received an ornament (and in some cases more than one, because a couple players were feeling the quantity last year, and that's okay, just unnecessary).

Last year my tree got TADISed. Love.

So join in, and have fun.


The Rulez-

Sign up by Wednesday, 12/7/11 and ship by Friday 12/16/10.  That will give your ornaments time to show up and be well loved and admired before Christmas, and give us all over a week of Christmas ornament rushing to get it made or bought to send.  Of course, you can start before you get assigned your "mailing" buddy.

Who can participate?  You can. Do you have a mailing address? You can play.  To keep shipping reasonable, I am going to try to arrange for people within a certain country to send to people in their same country, but if you're from the US and you've always dreamed of sending overseas, let me know you're open to international swapping when you sign up.

How Much Do I have to Spend?

Shipping. 
You can handmake or purchase your ornament for the swap, and spend as little or as much as you'd like, so long as it is something you feel someone would treasure and truly appreciate hanging on their tree. 

My plan is to pair people up randomly and once you're paired, I'll share addresses amongst partners for the swap.

So, to sign up, you need to do the following.
Email me- fentonslee at gmail, the following info.

1. Name
2. Address
3. Blog URL (you don't have to have one of these, but hey, if I'm going to link up participants, wouldn't you want to be linked to?)
4. Twitter name (again, if I'm going to link up participants, wouldn't you want to be linked to?)
5. If you have a strong preference for handmade, say so. 
6. If you have a strong preference for traditional or non traditional say so. Like surprises? Let me know.

Then, when all is said and done, you can post a picture of the ornament you sent and recieved, and link back here, and I'll set up a linky so we can all see everyone's spiffy new additions to their trees!

DIY Holiday Cards

Somewhere in my basket of holiday cards that I can't bear to throw away (what if it's the last thing Aunt Tilda ever sends me?) I have so many duplicates that sometimes it makes me snort giggle.  Further, I used to buy holiday cards in bulk, so I'd have to remember which box I used for which part of the family, and be sure not to repeat next year for the same people. If I sent inappropriate reindeer cards to my mom's side last year, better not send anyone the leftovers, or they'll think I'm off my rocker, twice.
Of course, the boring "Happy Holidays" message doesn't do a good job of reconnecting with the people who are important enough to me to send a card in the first place, so then I end up thinking, I might as well write the dreaded "Christmas Letter."  Now, if you're like me, you're shuddering for two different reasons right now. The idea of writing a Christmas Letter is in and of itself daunting. It's time consuming. You have to include enough information about the last year to bring people up to date, but you have to gauge your language, not come off whiny or boastful. That's harder than it seems, hence the shuddering. The other reason you might be  shuddering?  If everyone sends you a letter, then you have to *read* and *retain* the information, rather than run away in horror.
Best solution? Make your own holiday cards. Cards with personality, cards that say what you want to say, without having to hand write it or fill a whole page.  Cards with your own artwork of family photos. They're personal, they're fabulous.
Last year I told you how I had begun making my own simple cards, and the nightmare that was trying to print them myself. Well, it turned out that having Shutterfly print them for me was a great idea. I also had them print up some notecards  and greeting cards for other occasions too, all of which have come in handy over the last twelve months.  (Seriously start thinking ahead now for birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and even graduations, you won't be sorry that you did.)

Last year, this is the card I went with.

I *still* love the bright colors, and I got a lot of compliments on it. It stood out and let's face it, kids are cute.

I also did a few with this fun Ho Ho Ho design-

It's entirely possible I was just looking for an excuse to include their Halloween pictures from last year. By entirely possible, I mean that was my entire point.

For this year, I'm leaning toward the Happy Everything card, though they have a fabulous Snowflake Star one. I love the Happy Everything one because it doesn't have to be any holiday specific, really, and since so many of my friends and family don't really do Christmas, I won't get any "uh, you do remember I'm an atheist" emails in late December.  It's also a bright-colors winner as well, and I'm so easily seduced by color.

Of course, I never got around to making that calendar for my grandparents last year, but I'm nearly done with that cookbook I'm working on. I really love the photo books, and I'm excited to finish compiling all the family recipes and pictures of the family member most responsible for them, and by finish, I mean, finally get my aunt to part with a certain frosting recipe.  Want a sneak peak of just one recipe?

Yum.

So, while I'm busily telling you why I like to make things myself, I'd like to extend the opportunity for THREE of you to try out their services too.

What's that? A giveaway? Sweet.

I have three promotion codes for 25 cards each!  If you'd like to win one, comment below with:

Mandatory:
Which Shutterfly card you like the best. Be sure to leave your email address in a non-spam-bot-friendly form with your comment if your email address isn't readily viewable in your blogger profile.

Optional:
Where you spread news of this giveaway. (twitter, facebook, G+, pinterest, your blog/lj/myspace/public billboard wherever. Just leave a link so I can check on it if you win.) You can do any of these once a day, just don't irritate your followers. It's not fun if you're irritating your followers.

Winners will be chosen Tuesday November 1st by number randomizer and notified by email. After winner responds, I'll email them their code. If you don't respond, I straight up have to find someone else who is going to respond, since codes languishing in in-boxes is just s.a.d. Alternate winners will be picked based on my mood and how much whimsy is in the air. Yes, it's a weird giveaway timeframe, but I'll be taking pictures all next weekend looking for something slightly cooler to put on my Happy Everything card.  I'm thinking Zombies, since I think Halloween pictures look great on a Christmas Card.


Disclaimer: Yep, I'm getting a promo code for offering this giveaway too.  No, I'm not getting paid, and frankly, I wouldn't be writing this at all if I didn't like the product I've gotten from Shutterfly in the past.  I started out as a happy customer, not a grabby blogger. Have a nice day.

Life as a Study in Fiction

I rarely tell the truth.  The Whole Truth. The Nothing But the Truth. The So Help Me God.
It isn't that I intend to lie, but if asked a simple yes or no question, I'm liable to spend a very long time trying to figure out which answer is correct.  At some point I'll give up and give the response that I suspect most closely aligns with what I'm being asked, but that's not precisely the same as telling the truth.
When you ask me what happened, I'm going to edit the story. I'll make myself sound less skittish and shy, and whomever I'm dealing with sound a little more the way I wanted them to sound. Details will be omitted for concision and others because I don't like them.
I may well say "I don't recall," when I mean "I don't like the answer."
I may also say that I don't remember when I lack the detail necessary to fully explain or simply do not want to explain the complexities of how something was imparted.
It's not personal.  I'm not trying to lie to you.
Truth, as it is experienced, is subjective, and as it is told, is selective.
We all edit things, and will call a good number of things by general terms which do not truthfully describe for the sake of brevity.  We all want to sound a little better in our tales of youthful misadventure.
I don't think it's lying, I think it's editing, and being human.
Yes, I tell my kids there is a Santa Claus. Am I lying to them?  I don't think so. There IS a Santa. There's one at the mall, another at the park, another down the street, yet another in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. There are all sorts of Santas.  There's the Santa I am when I wrap gifts and put them under the tree. There's the Santa my friends were the year we couldn't afford Christmas and they surprised us with gifts for the kids.  So my truth might not be the pure truth, but I'm still telling them there's a Santa with a clean conscience.
Truth is subjective.
I also think that it reflects the way in which memory is subjective and selective.
Sometimes I watch police dramas and wonder how witnesses  can recount conversations of which they do not possess a transcript. Was that really what was said? Precisely. Of course not.
So no, if you're looking for truth-as-it-happened, you'll have to keep looking, and I don't know where you're going to find it.
If you're looking for approximations of the truth, edited, hopefully with a light and generally honest hand, then we'll get along just fine.

How about you. Does anything other than the purest of truth cross your lips, your fingertips?