Christmas went well, I think everyone was happy with their goodies. We never go overboard, this year was a little more plump than in the past, though. It's been a few years since we did stockings AND gifts. The kids asked if next year we can skip Christmas and let everyone have 2 birthdays. So, we are trying that.
No news to speak of, it's been quiet around here and we have been firmly at home all week other than grocery-related errands. We discussed a few ideas for things to do this week, but the weather has been awful. Not just cold, but cold and wet and not just wet, but windy as well. The kind of weather than cuts into your bones and makes you want nothing more than a warm place to be dry.
Tonight Matt is making our turkey, I tried it one year and it put me off dead bodies for good. That year it was a 20 pound thing, this year it's just 14 pounds, but it was still awful enough for Matt to spend the whole prep time screaming 'gross' from the other room while I hid out and read and pretended what I always pretend-that meat comes fully cooked and on a bun.
We had big meal plans, but the longer the turkey took to thaw, the more we piecemealed the meal pieces. The pie went first, of course. I actually ate my slice while walking on the treadmill at 9 in the morning the day before Christmas. I think tomorrow other than turkey, we have dressing and...green beans. And cranberry sauce, though I keep cans of that around all year, I love cranberry sauce. I will eat it with no provocation needed.
I have been reading. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I rarely fall in love with characters, but Lisbeth is fucking awesome. I was SO glad to discover it was the first of a trilogy, I must be WAY behind the times as once I started looking around, it appears everyone loves the series and there are movies in Swedish and English. I don't want to watch the movies yet, I finished The Hunger Games and watched the movie in the same day. HUGE mistake. I can't even pick up the next book, the movie was so awful it dashed my interest against the rocks of the young adult franchise money machine.
Do John Green books as movies, gah. No brainer, people who make movies! They are practically screenplays and no special effects needed, just good actors. Oh...that is probably the problem right there. *sigh* They are out there, but the movie casters can't seem to find them.
I am reading The Lost Songs now, I finished Fifty Shades of Grey some time last week. Not what I expected, I did not care for the whole plot and the characters were unbelievable, there is not a 21 year old American female college graduate who does not have e-mail. And if I read another book with a male lead so beautiful to gaze upon that angels weep, I will throw up. Seriously. It's as done to death as girl meets supernatural boy. Or girl is gorgeous and thin yet never exercises at all and has no clue-and is clumsy. Hey, that was a major plot point in Fifty. More like Fifty Shades of Yawn, I did not like either one of them and I probably would have hit her myself given the chance. But he just needed to be neutered. Seriously? A man who 'needs to punish' things he views as transgressions (like that 11th commandment: Though Shalt Not Roll Thine Eyes if Thy Possesseth a Pudenda) and totally control a woman's every move is both hot and romantic? It's a trilogy, but I am leaving off at the end of book one, after she hobbles away from him to nurse her strap marks. No doubt, she takes him back first chance at the start of the next one.
I read A Million Little Pieces by James Frey in one go. I started reading when I woke up and read the bulk of the day, on the treadmill and sitting in the bed and in the kitchen, just toted that book around. Wow. It's a book about his time in rehab, but it's also a peeled-back look into addiction and his insight is brand-new. With no belief in God, the 12 steps are useless, so he forges his own way through and his need to shoulder the blame and not excuse what he has done had me cheering. I hate people that point at others and say, "you are why I am poisoning myself". I have never been drunk or done any type of drugs, but I have laid plenty of blame for other behavior and all it does is detract from what you can do with what has been done. Trading your own future to wallow in your own past. Everyone is capable of being better, everyone, everyone, everyone. Even you. Even me. Be better.
Okay, I guess my soapbox is flat, I have read some more books, but nothing amazing, just time-fillers or self-help like I Can Make You Sleep by Paul McKenna that I got at a bad time because I am sleeping fine and reading it puts me out. So, I guess it's true, though in a month or two when my cycles change and I am manic, I will be wide awake at 3 a.m. trying to remember what he had to say.
