a REAL book meme

saw this on ysmarko's blog

The rules are:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!

1. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

2., 3., & 4. He entered the Trogdon home through the side door of the garage, and felt like a burglar for the first time in memory. When he opened the door to the house, an alarm beeped for a few seconds, very long seconds in which Luther's heart froze and his entire life and career flashed before him. Caught, arrested, convicted, his license revoked, banished by Wiley & Beck, disgraced. Then it stopped, and he waited another few seconds before he could breathe.

This is SO much better than the APA manual!

Remembering baby Jesus

I became an accidental collector of nativity sets. I mean, I didn’t intentionally collect them, but I have several. Among the collection is a ceramic one made by my Grandmother for me when I was in elementary school. One is handmade from County Tipperary, Ireland each piece signed by its maker. One is carved from olive wood purchased in Bethlehem.

When The Entertainer was 2 or 3, the olive wood nativity was on a large round end table that was the perfect height for her to see and move the figures. The figures changed position often depending on which girl had been in the room last. If The SportsQueen, who was 5 or 6, had been there last, all of the figures would be in a circle around baby Jesus.

One afternoon, I happened to notice that baby Jesus was missing. I looked on the floor, under the couches, in between the cushions, I couldn’t find baby Jesus. I finally asked the girls if they knew where baby Jesus was. The Entertainer did.

She took me to her room where baby Jesus was laying in her crib. I think she took the words of “Away in a Manger” to heart. Baby Jesus had “no crib for his head,” so she gave him a crib – her crib.

I gently explained to The Entertainer that baby Jesus needed to stay on the table with his momma. More than once I told her that baby Jesus wants to be with his momma.

The next time I noticed baby Jesus was MIA I went her crib to retrieve baby Jesus . Sure enough there was baby Jesus ... and his momma.

Fa-la-la-la-la, La Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals

Fa-la-la-la-la, La Friday Five

Reverendmother here... those of you who read my blog know I have a love-hate relationship with the 24/7 Christmas music we're subjected treated to in stores and radio (in the U.S. at least). It gets too sentimentally sticky-sweet sometimes, yet I find myself unable to resist it. Nothing says "it's Christmas" to me like John Denver and Rolf the Dog singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." So...

1. A favorite 'secular' Christmas song. Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth duet by Bing Crosby and David Bowie

2. Christmas song that chokes you up (maybe even in spite of yourself--the cheesier the better) Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant

3. Christmas song that makes you want to stuff your ears with chestnuts roasted on an open fire. Grandma got run over by a reindeer

4. The Twelve Days of Christmas: is there *any* redeeming value to that song? Discuss. It's the last vestige of the real season of Christmas in popular culture -- not that anyone knows the 12 days of Christmas are after Christmas. And its better than "99 bottles of beer on the wall" during road trips

5. A favorite Christmas album A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi

Bonus Christmas Songs that crack me up: St Stephen's Day murders by Elvis Costello and the Chieftans and Veggie Tale's Christmas

Christmas meme from SpookyRach

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate mmm
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? usually unwrapped, if wrapped, wrapped in special Santa paper
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? color, the more the better
4. Do you hang mistletoe? we have one grownup and two kids -- all girls -- the only boy is the dog. We love him but we're not kissin' him. No mistletoe.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever there is a break in the madness. The tree etc are still in the attic. The only thing "up" is the Advent wreath
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Spinach dip with water chesnuts, little smokies, crunchy chocolate peanut butter balls, "chicken stuff"
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? the elves delivering a bike while I was taking a bath when I was 6 and turning off the room lights to watch the bubble lights on the tree
8. When or how did you learn the truth about Santa? I recognized my mom's handwriting (that's why Santa doesn't wrap gifts at our house)
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes they are all already opened. When the girls were very little, I thought it was not right for Santa to deliver and 2 hours later they had to leave the gifts and go to dad's. So we called Santa to see if he would mind coming a little early. He has been very accomodating over the years. So Christmas Eve really is about Jesus and church stuff. And this preacher gets to sleep in on Christmas Day morning and so do the girls.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Every year the girls get an ornament each and I get a Peanuts ornament. They each put their's on the tree, I put a few of mine on the tree. When they grow up and move out, their ornaments go with them and I'll have all Peanuts.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I really don't like snow. I get too cold. Cold hurts my bones. Of course, the girls love it.
12. Can you ice skate? Barely. But I choose not to any more, too cold and hurts my knees.
13.Have you ever fallen on the ice? yep.
14. Do you remember your favorite gift? A Snoopy phone, Vince Guaraldi's Jazz Mass at Grace Cathedral CD, and football autographed by Steve Largent (Go Seahawks!)
15. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? 11 pm Christmas Eve service, good story for sermon, presents for the girls
16. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Chocolate Cheesecake
17. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Candles, carols, and communion on Christmas Eve
18. What tops your tree? a beautiful angel
19. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? giving, slightly more, but I squeal for the perfect gift
20. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant; Still, Still, Still; Christmastime is here; Away in a manger with cradle song tune; Happy Birthday Jesus sung by the Entertainer
21. CANDY CANES!! YUCK OR YUM?? mint of any kind, yuck! other flavors, yum!
22.What is your favorite Christmas movie? The Bells of St Mary's (just dial O for O'Malley), Holliday Inn, White Christmas, and A Christmas without Snow
23. Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman or Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown. I always get goose bumps when Linus says, "Lights please" and then recites Luke 2

book meme

saw this on ysmarko's blog

The rules are:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!

1. Since I'm finishing my last paper (due by 6 pm 12/06), the book is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition.

2., 3., & 4. in the 2nd and 11th grades ... the 2nd-grade students
on 2 trials ... on the remaind 18 trials
4 of the 40 stimulus words
in 7 blocks ... in 12 blocks
the 6th group ... 12 groups

Okay, so I'm doing this again AFTER the paper ... watch for Cornwell or Meltzer

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five Adventually

riday Five: Adventually

From Songbird: Although it comes as late as it can this year, Advent is upon us. Some of us grew up observing it, while to others (including this childhood Baptist) it was even more foreign than Lent! Over the past twenty years, I have grown to love Advent as a season of preparation, although as a pastor I find it harder to practice it at home than at church, even when the church might prefer I make it the other way 'round.

Here are five questions about Advent for this first of December:

1) Do you observe Advent in your church? Yes. Went to Cokesbury today to purchase a new Christ candle just for the Advent wreath.

2) How about at home? We attempt to observe Advent at home. We have seasonal prayers that follow the church seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and ordinary time. This year our Advent wreath is out for the first time in years. The Entertainer doesn't remember the last time we had it out. We are substituting tea lights for the tapers because we couldn't find any small enough to fit.

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn? O Come O Come Emmanuel. The O Antiphons are copywrited by the Benedictine sisters. I learned O Come O Come Emmanuel at Benedictine College with the antiphons in the "nuns" chapels that had seats facing each other instead of facing the altar. I didn't know about Advent until BC. For me Advent starts with O Come O Come Emmanuel. I especially like Manheim Steamroller's version.

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I'll like your answer better if it's funny.) Because someone washed the red Walmart Christmas candles with the white Christmas Eve church candles ...

5) What's the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you've ever seen? A house with many windows and one door. There were cats for each opening. It had cat treats. Yes, that would put a whole different understanding to presents at the cat house.