Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Well, I doubt I will be blogging again until after Christmas, so I'm sending out my wishes of Christmas joy to all here and now. Then again, I may perhaps write before Christmas, but something awfully big and worthy of my time must take place in order for me to do so. We shall see, won't we?

Tonight was possibly my last "Christmas" for the year. I had the one at school. Kristen and I shopped on Saturday (and had quite the funny time at Olive Garden) before church, so we exchanged gifts then. Saturday evening was the Brown/Carson Smith exchange (meaning Jacque and Laurie. My family has a way of labeling the families by where they live. We have the Beardslees. The El Centro Browns. The South Carolina Browns. The Reno Smiths. The Carson Smiths. Grandparents are not labeled). Yesterday, Jeanne and I exchanged gifts. Tonight was my immediate family's exchange. I gave Stephanie hers last Tuesday, and I gave Chris his tonight. The only person I have left is Hana. Phew!

So, Janina and I may not be going to San Diego after all. She's had to hang around UNR a little longer, because she had some choir fundraising obligations: to be the back up entertainment for a Casino performer. She hated it. Who can blame her? She said they had to sing with the fog machine going. I've been there, done that, and hope to never again. It's a hideous experience. Anyway, she got the mother of all colds--almost passing out last night onstage! Ick. She doesn't want to travel with it, nor does she want to potentially pass on her illness. So it might be hanging out in Dayton for Christmas, just the two of us. Truth be told, I am not really looking forward to the 10 or so hour drive there and back. The Christmas Grinch must have reached my soul, because I really wasn't looking forward to seeing the family, either (I'm so sorry!). I've seen all but the Beardslee cousins pretty recently, though, so I think that's part of it. If we do end up going, I'm sure I'll have a good time. If not, well, more lounging for the two of us is definitely in order. I'm still wiped out from school and trying to overcome this cold.

Umm, I'm reading some good stuff right now. Janina gave me a book of poetry for Christmas that's very exciting!!! All the poems are written by women throughout history and from all over the world; it's titled Ain't I a Woman, after Sojourner Truth's poem. I've only read a couple so far, but this is a great collection. I've also recently started The DaVinci Code. I'm not that far into it yet, but it's a very intriguing mystery so far. I'm reading the fourth of the Shopaholic series right now, Shopaholic and Sister. Ann and Stephanie got me started on them--they're very funny. I'm rereading Love's Labour's Lost at the moment. Chris is directing it this summer at the BAC, so I'm toying with the idea of auditioning. It's been about four years since my last Shakespeare play (Othello), so I figure I'm due! Plus, it's a comedy. My last two were tragedies, and I think I'd enjoy something a little lighter. I'm starting a book called Interpreter of Maladies which Ann also recommended. It's a collection of short stories which are about women from India, or of that cultural background. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, so I've got high hopes for it. I'm rereading Lois Lowry's Gathering Blue, which is kind of a book in the style of The Giver (which she also wrote). Not quite the same society as Jonas', but Kira's is also an interesting story. She recently published a third one which I've not yet read. Oh, and I'm going to start reading a play by Thornton Wilder here very soon (this break) called The Skin of Our Teeth. I'm told it's very interesting and quite good. It's Wilder, so I really quite expect this of one of his plays. Isn't reading one of the greatest things ever? I love it!!!!

So, do enjoy your Christmas, and bit of time off! Did you guess where the title came from? Meet Me in St. Louis, of course! Did you know it came from a musical? It was originally a movie, but has since been turned into a stage show. And the original singer of this famous song? The amazing Judy Garland! She had to sing it to little Margaret O'Brien who played Garland's five year old sister in the movie. The family had to move from St. Louis to New York City soon at the point in the movie where Judy sang this. An interesting random fact is that the lyrics were going to be completely different, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas/it may be your last/next year we may all be living in the past." It went downhill from there. Judy heard the song and told the lyricist, Hugh Martin, "It's a lovely melody, but I can't sing that to a little girl! The audiences will hate it!" He changed the lyrics to what we know now as such a great Christmas standard.