All Good Things is a weekly feature on the blog. It started as a one-hour Sunday night radio show on KSTO St. Olaf radio, featuring feel-good music and 10 highlights from the past week. The show, and its current written form, is brought to you by Clara, Second Set of Baby Steps creator, and my radio co-host Cassie. Sit back and enjoy!
1. Songs of the week. This week I have been remembering the mood-boosting power of loud, un-self-conscious karaoke-style singing... Or maybe "singing" in quotes would be more accurate. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays was a reader request (!) this week, so I decided to go back to the good old playlist days and kick off a feel-good lineup with this generation's favorite Christmas song :)
Incidentally, that N'SYNC hit featured heavily in the fifth grade Christmas concert at Clara S. Bacon Elementary School. Most of my friends had solos in it, and there was a lot of step-clapping on the risers.
Welcome to 1999...
2. World's End. I wasn't entirely expecting to like this movie, but I've heard from a decent number of people that it's a must-watch, and J. wanted to buy it. So we went out and got it (and beer, which we heard is necessary while watching this film) and watched it for date night this week, and I actually loved it. Really what did it for me, although it was funny and a relatable plot, was the end. Without spoiling it, I will just say that the overall message, of humans being flawed and that being ok, is something I loved.
Plus, it's about a pub crawl. I mean, come on.
3. Masamoto. My roommate took me out to this BYOB sushi place for my birthday (which took me into birthday month #2. I don't hate it). We had to cross the border into PA but it was only 15-20 minutes away - one of the perks of living in this small state. The restaurant was super cute too and the sushi was delicious, and we finished it off with a chocolate ice cream/mousse/cake ball. Good company definitely made the night, though. :)
4. Girl time. This week I spent a couple nights with my girls - sushi with Katy, holiday movie night/tea party with Marina and Watson the Scottish terrier, and Friday night in Trolley Square with Annie. It has been so refreshing, a good change of pace, to spend quality one-on-one time with a good friend and just get to talk about whatever is going on. I don't do that very much these days.
5. Taste the Holidays. Annie and I went (late, as usual) to an event at the Delaware Center for Horticulture (DCH) on Friday night. We bought drink tickets and sampled some beer, wine and spirits. The best ones were a blueberry vodka from Maine, and tonic syrup, which neither of us knew was a thing but tastes like Christmas. The guy manning the liquor table was really interesting and knowledgeable, so we spent awhile talking to him and getting samples of the blueberry vodka. We also discovered a local alpaca farm, which had really cute warm hats and gloves and ear warmers, and we spent a few minutes talking to the ladies manning that booth as well. Sometimes the two of us feel like the only hippies in Delaware, but events like this remind us that there is an underground artisan culture in the area. Also, neither of us had been to the DCH before so we took a peek around the facilities while we were there.
6. Hummingbird to Mars. After the event we headed back to the Square, parked, and buzzed in to Delaware's only speakeasy-style bar: Hummingbird to Mars. I've been hearing about this place for months (years?) now but haven't ever gone. Since we were looking for somewhere quiet to sit and talk it was perfect, and the menu (bearing only drinks) was a work of art. I didn't see any cocktails for less than $10, which is more than I normally like to pay, but for a once-in-awhile kind of thing it was a fun experience.
7. Gettysburg Seminary's Social Media Advent Calendar. I haven't seen many churches or religious groups use social media to its full potential, which is sad to me since I know how perfectly suited churches and social media are for each other. Anyway, the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg is taking the classic advent calendar digital this year. It's a 25-day photo challenge, where each day has a theme, and participants post a photo for each day's theme on pretty much any social network, just using the hashtag #watchandwait. It's a really cool way for somebody like me to get involved and do advent stuff.
8. The Neverending Story. I have never seen this movie before, but J, being a child of the 80s, pulled it out today and we watched it... And it is great. When the empire of Fantasia is explained as the hopes and dreams of humans, and being threatened by The Nothing, I got really excited and happy because it actually gives me hope that people were concerned about the demise of human hopes and dreams in 1984... And thirty years later we are still worried about the same thing. We haven't totally lost it yet!
9. Ginger snaps. I think this is the Official Cookie of the 2013 Holiday Season. Our project manager at work brought in a big bag of de-li-cious ginger snaps, and when those were gone we got a bunch of packages of ginger thins, and then today I found a recipe for whole wheat ginger snaps and of course they made the house smell like ginger and cloves and are crunchy and yummy as all get out.
10. Snow day! This morning we were getting all geared up to drive up to Philly and do the Christmas Village... But right at 11a.m. when we were getting dressed, it started snowing, and within 20 minutes we had an inch, and by noon we couldn't finish clearing off our cars because there was a thick layer of snow on it by the time we got all the way around... So one by one, everybody bailed and we ended up just staying at home and making cookies and watching movies. Now, those readers who live in Upstate New York or Minnesota need to understand that in Delaware we don't get snow like that. Some reports said 11.5 inches over the course of the day! It reminded me of home back in New York and the lake effect. Plus, we went out to scrape off our cars before they iced over, and the neighbor came out to shovel her walk at the same time, and we got to talking to her a little. The new neighborhood really is wonderful.
And so is snow!
* * * * * * *
Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.
And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!
Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!
1. Songs of the week. This week I have been remembering the mood-boosting power of loud, un-self-conscious karaoke-style singing... Or maybe "singing" in quotes would be more accurate. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays was a reader request (!) this week, so I decided to go back to the good old playlist days and kick off a feel-good lineup with this generation's favorite Christmas song :)
Incidentally, that N'SYNC hit featured heavily in the fifth grade Christmas concert at Clara S. Bacon Elementary School. Most of my friends had solos in it, and there was a lot of step-clapping on the risers.
Welcome to 1999...
2. World's End. I wasn't entirely expecting to like this movie, but I've heard from a decent number of people that it's a must-watch, and J. wanted to buy it. So we went out and got it (and beer, which we heard is necessary while watching this film) and watched it for date night this week, and I actually loved it. Really what did it for me, although it was funny and a relatable plot, was the end. Without spoiling it, I will just say that the overall message, of humans being flawed and that being ok, is something I loved.
Plus, it's about a pub crawl. I mean, come on.
3. Masamoto. My roommate took me out to this BYOB sushi place for my birthday (which took me into birthday month #2. I don't hate it). We had to cross the border into PA but it was only 15-20 minutes away - one of the perks of living in this small state. The restaurant was super cute too and the sushi was delicious, and we finished it off with a chocolate ice cream/mousse/cake ball. Good company definitely made the night, though. :)
4. Girl time. This week I spent a couple nights with my girls - sushi with Katy, holiday movie night/tea party with Marina and Watson the Scottish terrier, and Friday night in Trolley Square with Annie. It has been so refreshing, a good change of pace, to spend quality one-on-one time with a good friend and just get to talk about whatever is going on. I don't do that very much these days.
5. Taste the Holidays. Annie and I went (late, as usual) to an event at the Delaware Center for Horticulture (DCH) on Friday night. We bought drink tickets and sampled some beer, wine and spirits. The best ones were a blueberry vodka from Maine, and tonic syrup, which neither of us knew was a thing but tastes like Christmas. The guy manning the liquor table was really interesting and knowledgeable, so we spent awhile talking to him and getting samples of the blueberry vodka. We also discovered a local alpaca farm, which had really cute warm hats and gloves and ear warmers, and we spent a few minutes talking to the ladies manning that booth as well. Sometimes the two of us feel like the only hippies in Delaware, but events like this remind us that there is an underground artisan culture in the area. Also, neither of us had been to the DCH before so we took a peek around the facilities while we were there.
6. Hummingbird to Mars. After the event we headed back to the Square, parked, and buzzed in to Delaware's only speakeasy-style bar: Hummingbird to Mars. I've been hearing about this place for months (years?) now but haven't ever gone. Since we were looking for somewhere quiet to sit and talk it was perfect, and the menu (bearing only drinks) was a work of art. I didn't see any cocktails for less than $10, which is more than I normally like to pay, but for a once-in-awhile kind of thing it was a fun experience.
7. Gettysburg Seminary's Social Media Advent Calendar. I haven't seen many churches or religious groups use social media to its full potential, which is sad to me since I know how perfectly suited churches and social media are for each other. Anyway, the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg is taking the classic advent calendar digital this year. It's a 25-day photo challenge, where each day has a theme, and participants post a photo for each day's theme on pretty much any social network, just using the hashtag #watchandwait. It's a really cool way for somebody like me to get involved and do advent stuff.
8. The Neverending Story. I have never seen this movie before, but J, being a child of the 80s, pulled it out today and we watched it... And it is great. When the empire of Fantasia is explained as the hopes and dreams of humans, and being threatened by The Nothing, I got really excited and happy because it actually gives me hope that people were concerned about the demise of human hopes and dreams in 1984... And thirty years later we are still worried about the same thing. We haven't totally lost it yet!
9. Ginger snaps. I think this is the Official Cookie of the 2013 Holiday Season. Our project manager at work brought in a big bag of de-li-cious ginger snaps, and when those were gone we got a bunch of packages of ginger thins, and then today I found a recipe for whole wheat ginger snaps and of course they made the house smell like ginger and cloves and are crunchy and yummy as all get out.
10. Snow day! This morning we were getting all geared up to drive up to Philly and do the Christmas Village... But right at 11a.m. when we were getting dressed, it started snowing, and within 20 minutes we had an inch, and by noon we couldn't finish clearing off our cars because there was a thick layer of snow on it by the time we got all the way around... So one by one, everybody bailed and we ended up just staying at home and making cookies and watching movies. Now, those readers who live in Upstate New York or Minnesota need to understand that in Delaware we don't get snow like that. Some reports said 11.5 inches over the course of the day! It reminded me of home back in New York and the lake effect. Plus, we went out to scrape off our cars before they iced over, and the neighbor came out to shovel her walk at the same time, and we got to talking to her a little. The new neighborhood really is wonderful.
And so is snow!
* * * * * * *
Thank you, readers, for being with us tonight, and for giving me reasons to write, and things to write about.
And thanks for joining us every Sunday night! Join the Baby Steps on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TheBabyStepsSaga for good things every day, and updates on new posts. Come back next week for another reminder of 10 more things to be thankful for!
Until then, be kind to each other, and find a reason to smile!
posted from Bloggeroid
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