I cannot believe Christmas is like this week. It’s crazy. I still have some gifts to pick up, recipes to decide on, a kitchen to burn down.  Seems like lately every time I try to cook, something gets destroyed. A few months ago it was a salt shaker. (Those things need to be a little less melty.) And then a few weeks I scorched my new stainless steel skillet. But that wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know it would get so hot so fast…when I went to check my email. Anyway, that pan will never be the same. And I might’ve singed a towel last week in the oven when pulling out a casserole. But whatever. Trifling details.

So I was supposed to work allllll weekend on book three in The Charmed Life series, but that didn’t happen. For some of us weirdos, we don’t get fevers like normal people. No, we get the opposite. As in the temp goes down. So when your temp is like 96 or so you feel just as crappy as if it was 101ish. You’d think if you felt like poop when it was high, you’d feel great when it was low! But all you get is a big hankering for a nap. LOTS of them. So me and my couch have had some serious together time. Saturday night I watched Elf, which was time well spent no matter how you feel. And then Sunday I watched Laws of Attraction, a FABULOUS movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore. Here’s the old trailer.

If you haven’t seen Laws of Attraction, you have to! I love that movie. And then I watched the last 30 minutes of Never Been Kissed, a cute movie with Drew Barrymore.

And THEN I watched the last 45 minutes of The Note, a Hallmark movie based on a book by Angela Hunt.

How cool to have your book made into a movie by Hallmark! AND with Happy Day’s Ted McGinley! The ending was good, so I’m sure the rest of it was too. And I can tell just by looking at The Note’s Genie Francis’s hair that she also knows about low temperatures. And so does Oprah, even though she’s in denial. But anyway, by this time, I was feeling better, and my attention span for watching a movie was fading. I actually don’t like watching movies at home and never do it unless I’m feeling too icky to read or I’m with a bunch of people who will let me comment and narrate the whole way through.

Speaking of reading, right now I’m reading this interesting YA book, The Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s written by a guy in Little Rock, AR!

So far it’s really good. A little bit message-y, but good. It’s about these four orphaned kids who are geniuses in their own way, and this Mr. Benedict assembles them together to….I don’t know what. I’m not there yet. But it’s gonna be good. And they’re already in grave danger, which is always fun.

So one of my favorite sites, TitleTrakk.com, asked a bunch of authors what their favorite Christmas tradition was. I got to play along. You can find that HERE. Do any of you have a favorite Christmas tradition?

My new tradition is to wrap like a maniac on Christmas Eve AFTER going to my dad’s and BEFORE going to my mom’s. I always turn on some Christmas movies and just go to work. I’m a very slow wrapper, so I usually go through a few movies (or watch A Christmas Story about three times in a row). And up until last year, I also had a cat who would undo everything I had wrapped with his bare teeth in a matter of seconds, so that never helped. But it was entertaining. Up to a point. But old Christmas movies are my favorite (besides Elf, which is just in a league of its own). Last year I stumbled upon Christmas in Connecticut, a movie with Barbara Stanwyck. I’ love old movies, but I’ve never been a fan of hers. She’s always in some serious role, and serious movies bore me. Especially serious old movies, where they sure seem to do a lot of staring. Anyway, this movie was AWESOME. It’s the only comedy role I’ve ever seen her in, and she was amazing.

Even the DVD cover is fun. She plays a Martha Stewart type of lady who writes a home column about advice for being the perfect wife, mother, homemaker, and cook in the paper. But yet…she’s no Martha! And she’s not married. But when the paper publisher comes to see her, the poop hits the fan, and she puts on this big farce of her pretend life so the publisher won’t fire her, complete with a “borrowed” baby. It’s so good! So if you find yourself wrapping until your fingers bleed, grab this DVD. And a bottle of Diet Coke. And chocolate chip cookies.

Merry Christmas week!

JEN

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