Merry Christmas.

For our magazine, LaTonya once wrote this story about how her Mom used to always let her drink only a little Egg Nog at a time. This always bothered her and so when she got to college, she got some Egg Nog and drank as much as she wanted. And then got sick.

I kinda thought the story was a little silly. I mean, it's just Egg Nog. But then today happened. I love Egg Nog. So, in an attempt to get into the Christmas spirit, I bought a carton last night. This morning, I had two big glasses on an empty stomach. And I'm feeling it. Ugh. You know how bad it is? Designer Alecia brought in big Christmas cookies and I can't eat one. Yah, you know it's bad when i turn down cookies. (But one is going into the Nativity Jar...)

But hey, tis the season.

I think that I'm just now starting to feel any degree of Christmasy (no thanks to that Egg Nog). I sat in my apartment yesterday morning with a blanket on, the tree lights on and sipping hot chocolate. It was quite quaint. I've been wrapping gifts like it's my job (it isn't.) And I've been spending a lot of time trying to guess what people have gotten me. I need to spend some time reading the biblical story of Christ's birth, too. That is what I really need to keep me in the right mindest. I've been thinking about watching The Passion of the Christ, actually. I know, I know: wrong season. But I watched it last year and it was really poignant for me as a real reminder of WHY Christmas matters.

As I've been thinking about Christmas this year, one of my favorite Christmas memories has kept surfacing. Being with my family has always been the real blessing of Christmas. The house is all decorated. Family is all together and a buzz. There's just this etheral quality about my memories of Christmas at home. There's just this closeness and love. I'm lucky in that way. But all through the first 20 or so years of my life, even the week leading up to the Christmas Eve and Day was always neat as all three kids would be home and excited. (And telling each other what we saw Mom hiding in the closet....)

Well, in the senior year of college, I took a trip to England that week before Christmas with my college roommate Gene. It was awesome to be walking down Cobblestone roads in Canterbury eating roasted chestnuts just days before Christmas. It was all so Dickens. But the neat part was that I arrived home on Christmas Eve. I got a limo home and walked intot he house as guests were arriving for our annual Christmas Eve meal. I felt like I was just dropped into the Christmas season--and it was great.

Well, Merry Christmas.

WHOO-HOO OF THE WEEK
So, today I was reading the critical response to The Good Shepherd at RottenTomatoes.com. And I discovered my name there! I've gotten a review listed on RottenTomatoes.com! This seriously is a huge deal for me. I've been looking at RT reviews for YEARS. What a cool thing to see.

Well, it turns out that not only was I added to the RT.com stable but they've archived all of my reviews. It's funny to see them all here--and remember some I forgot about. Some star ratings I really regret (The Legend of Zorro didn't deserve 2 stars, it should have been like 1. And Sky Captain shouldn't have been 3.5. It should have been 2.5. Oh well.) And I'd completely forgotten about some reviews that I'm pretty proud of.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"You look like a russian girl." --An office lady here to a woman wearing a nice new outfit for the first time.

"I just hope I don't end up hating christmas because of this. And then like, turning from the faith." -Jill, about her office being filled with pine air fresheners.