So behind

My name is Jennie, I am a delinquent gift giver. But I'm back on track now & by my calculations I still owe you (12-3=9) nine more gifts....

Here's #9. Fabulous agenda to keep life straight. Hell, let's throw in some fabulous pens just for good measure. Oooo how I LOVE fabulous pens. Especially fountain pens.

Where are you.... ?

Feeling very abandoned.... where are you? Trying to sneak out on the blog just because you know I have conversations with myself all the time? Come back to me.

:(

DAY ONE

On the first day of christmas my cousin brought to me....

one week each season at the One and Only resort of your choice. AH, what the hell, I love you and I'm incredibly generous, so you can have a week each season at ANY resort of your choice! Some food for thought......

In an effort to honor the beauty in our own country, take a peek at this little beauty in BC (scroll down to the home on the bottom of the page) Ridge Homes. Yes Sara, I have no doubt that there are stunning places in Sask. and I know Stacey would completely relish the beauty of the prairies, but I didn't know where to begin looking. Please feel free to contribute to my fantasy.

We'd have to go together on this one most definitely:The Plaza.

Ah... a week of sleeping in, late night talks, sumptuous dinners (paelo of course, my CF friends!), walks in central park
the MET, MOMA, Natural History Museum, guggenheim.... what a week we would have!

Flavor of the day: resorts. Not travel, as much as I would love to, the thought of packing up my three kids & getting them on a plane to trek through jungles in costa rica, villages in italy, or beaching in Kerala is exhausting. I suspect it wouldn't be an easy for you either.

So today's offering is a relaxed week, 4 times in the coming year at a fabulous resort of your choosing. Pamper city (and I don't mean facials & manicures, I mean having someone else make your bed, cook your meals & clean up afterwards - bliss!).

xo

Virtual Christmas

So here at Christmas central, we're trying to scale back this year and save some money. The kids get inundated with mountains of toys from relatives (despite our pleas to keep it simple) so we don't go over the top with them. And I don't exchange gifts with friends, since most families we're close to are in the same position: with young families, or first time home buyers, or both. I think it's our demographic. And part of attempting to live more simply without the fret of intentionally wracking up mountains of debt. Of course, this never keeps me from WISHING of things I'd like to purchase for the people I love.

So here it is, I present to you: virtual Christmas. A list of the things/expereinces I'd LIKE to give you to celebrate the season if I was endowed with Oprah's bank account....

First off, flowers. A big fat bouquet (or a few small posies - have you ever had a fresh flowers on your nighttable or in the bathroom - wonderful). Fragrant ones, colorful ones, monochromatic ones - a new one delivered every fortnight. OK, see above photo, I still am not as adept as you at putting things in the right place.

Item number two. A little 'ole somethin' somethin' in the Blue Box. Just because it's fun. And the way that white satin ribbon slips off the box is like an announcement that something special is about to happen. In fact, I'll get us both one. Matching somethins somethins how 'bout?!

OK, apparently Tiffany's doesn't want me to download images of their precious (or I just don't know how), so here's a wee gift from me to you (and me to me) from my favorite Toronto jeweler, Anne Sportun....

Oh no... it's up top. you get the point.

point #1 - i suck at this technology business. lesson anyone? and

#2 i am too tired to attempt to figure it out right now with wee ones beckoning (who am I kidding, they're not beckoning, they're HOLLERING for me) and it's an hour past bedtime. Maybe this is going to be more along the lines of the 12 days of Christmas.... stay tuned, watch this space, more goodies to come.

xo

Love. Emma.

Jennie,

I don't have the mental energy to put my thoughts to words as beautifully as you have been doing on this blog. My thoughts are more along the stinky lines of verbal vomit. For that, I apologize. I do appreciate that I need to participate in this endeavor of ours, to inspire each other and to talk of all that inspires or touches us. For me, these are the things I care about that my husband rolls his eyes at. So no matter how dumb I feel, I will press on and post anyways. Hopefully you can pull some little gifts out of the junk I spout every now and then.

Today I was playing around on imdb.com and youtube and came across a couple of scenes from one of my absolute favourite movies. Sense and Sensibility appealed to me like few have. I am a HUGE Jane Austen fan, but it isn't even the story as much as Emma Thompson's portrayal of Elinor Dashwood. Her acting is truly exquisite. I have probably seen this version at least 15 times and each time I approach the following scenes, my stomach clenches and my breathing quickens in anticipation of the emotion I'm about to feel with Emma.

In this scene, I am so moved and can so relate to Elinor's outburst. Elinor has known for weeks that Edward is to be married to Lucy Steele. Lucy told Elinor in the strictest of confidence. Elinor loves Edward and has been tolerating Lucy's feelings and ramblings of him. She finally breaks down about it to Marianne.



Elinor's pent up emotions which are the result of putting others before herself and the shock of hearing a true glimpse of her feelings spoken aloud- I just think this scene is soooo well done. There is a brief moment where Marianne tears up because she feels guilty and EVEN THEN Elinor pushes her own feelings aside to help (read: coddle) her sister through it. The single act of leaning on the cupboard for support, to push herself to her feet, almost as if she needs the strength to close the door on her own feelings to support her sister yet again.... the weariness in that action alone is my absolute favourite moment in the whole scene. Emma is brilliant.

And then the finale...



Ahhh.

Love.

Stand Up

I totally stole this from another blog I just read, but can't help it. I think I just watched this 10 times in a row. There is nothing like a song that can bring you to your feet..

Magnificent Maya

From Maya Angelou's Letter to my Daughter....

I have made many mistakes and no doubt will make more before I die. When I have seen pain, when I have found that my ineptness has caused displeasure, I have learned to accept my responsibility and to forgie myself first, then to apologize to anyone injured by my misreckoning. Since I cannot un-live history, and repentance is all I can offer God, I have hopes that my sincere apologies were accepted.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.

But for the grace of God...

Ah Stace,

Happy. Happy. Happy. inspiring. interesting. beautiful. I know that's what I (we?) had intended for this blog. But I was just searching for one of my favorite old songs & I came across the video, which i had never seen before. You have to watch it FIRST for the rest to make any sense.

so go ahead, pause & watch it.....

Done?

it literally took my breath away and i felt a headache blossom. it is so intense. so ripe. so sad. love the french word for anguish - angoisse - seems to have so much more depth to convey the full force of the emotion. I think this video is important. NB so we can't pretend this is not going on in some parts of the world RIGHT NOW. this is the daily existence for some people. not people who created it or asked for it. but people who need to endure it day in day out with no end in sight, for themselves or their children. or perhaps even for their grandchildren's children. you know i'm not a religious person, sometimes i wonder what that would be like. but i do believe in prayer. in love. and in hope. i'll stop here. i'm not sure if this is the place for that conversation. every day i am grateful to live in canada. i take the lyrics to our anthem very seriously and try to never take this enormous stroke of good fortune for granted.