Sorry, Santa. No cookies for you!

On Monday night, I baked 10 dozen cookies. Well, if you subtract the ones I ate that broke and the fact that I didn't make them as small as the package recipe called for, I probably baked 8-9 dozen. (Hey! Don't judge. Most of that difference is from the cookie size!)

On Tuesday night, Smitty and I undertook the painful enjoyable process of covering pretzels in white chocolate and festive sprinkles. (And unfortunately, a few of those pretzels hardened too quickly to properly accept an even smattering of glittery red and green sugar. So I will be forced to eat them. Unfortunately.)

Today I'll deliver plates of the goodies to a few people. And with that, my holiday baking is over! Sure, I'll make lasagna and this deee-lish bread (I'm assuming. I haven't made it before. But just look at it!) for Christmas dinner, and even though our New Year's is turning out to be a small (read: tiny) affair, I'm sure I'll make a few tasty snacks. But no more baking!

If you'd like to read about yet another shortcut I've taken in the kitchen over the holidays, head over to Once a Month Mom. I'm filling on today while Tricia is enjoying her sweet newborn's first Christmas.

I know we've already talked about giving up on perfect holidays, but tell me today: What shortcuts are you taking in the kitchen over the next several days?

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The Christmas Can-Can

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Drum roll, please . . .

Congratulations to Kim H., the winner of the Lisa Leonard necklace from Friday's Giving Up on a Perfect Christmas! E-mail me your address, Kim, and I'll send it to you!

And now I'm going to go veg. And then I'm going to bed. Because I am wiped out! Birthday dinner with Smitty on Friday, a lazy day (plus lots o'fun balancing the checkbook and paying bills) on Saturday before running errands and enjoying date night with Mark, and then a full Sunday of the choir's Christmas program has left me one tired girl.

While I recuperate from one great weekend, tell me about yours!

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Saturday Review: Movies on DVD

With two long weekends coming up, I anticipate renting more than one movie from the old Box of Red. I’d really like to see Paper Heart, and I’d be lying if I said that watching guinea pigs save the world in G-Force hasn’t crossed my mind.

What movies will you be watching over the holidays? Are you even a movie over the holidays type of person? I’m here to help you pick out a good movie – or, at least, avoid the bad ones.

The Accidental Husband wasn’t terrible. Honestly, it was a pretty typical chick flick. Silly premise introduces boy to girl, who’s already seeing another boy, and so on and so on. But, just like I won’t lie about being intrigued by talking guinea pigs, I won’t lie about this: I’m a big fan of the formulaic romantic comedy.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan was cute, although I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Colin Firth. I mean, is he that stuffy in real life or does he just get stuck playing characters with that personality? Overall, I’d say at least one solid thumb up.

We rented GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and we watched it, start to finish. But I do not even know what the movie was about. Granted, I was on the computer part of time. And sure, I only thought it might be good based on two things: 1) I usually like superhero movies and 2) I quite enjoyed Channing Tatum in Step Up. It turns out those facts were not enough to salvage this movie for me.

It was dark (visually, not spiritually) and confusing and boring and silly. Two thumbs down. Sorry, Channing.

I’d heard that Four Christmases was bad. I wouldn’t necessarily say “bad.” But I won’t say “good,” either. The worst part for me was when the main characters visited Vince Vaughn’s dad and brothers. It hit WAY too close to home for me to find it humorous in the least. If you’ve seen this movie, you’ve seen a glimpse of my in-laws. (For the record, they’re not that bad. But still.)

We laughed. And it was okay. It was short. So . . . one shaky thumb up.

I have been just dying to see Julie & Julia since I saw a preview months ago. Are you kidding me? Food and blogging? You know I’m all over that. And finally, I got to see it last weekend with Chelley.

I wish I’d watched it before 10 pm, because I was way too tired to watch a long movie. But it was worth the wait. I think I’d like to watch it again; I’m pretty sure I missed some good lines in the dialogue.

What I’d heard from several sources was that this movie, more than anything, portrays two solid, loving, realistic marriages. And it did. It was a nice change from most movies and TV! I give this movie two thumbs up, and I can’t wait to see it again.

Sorry not to end on that positive note, but the day after we saw Julie & Julia, we rented another movie starring Amy Adams. Unfortunately, it was not Enchanted. Or, basically, any other movie she’s in. Mark decided we should rent Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and so we did.

It’s probably a good kids movie. I don’t know. For us, though, it was silly. Too silly. I will say that I totally buy Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, and I tend to like Ben Stiller in most of his movies. But Amy Adams seemed to be channeling some fluffy version of Nicole Kidman or something. And the whole story was just silly. I know I already said that, but it’s about all I got.

Except this: The premise of the movie (museum displays coming to life) is far-fetched, of course. But though we could accept that, Mark was not so willing to suspend his disbelief when it came to a certain scene with an old airplane.

After we’d sat there watching ridiculous scene after ridiculous scene, when the plane took flight, Mark said, “That plane wouldn’t move that way!”

I just looked at him and said, “That’s what you’re not buying in this movie?!”

We cracked up. So, if you include that sort of nonsense, I guess I’d have to give this movie a thumb up!

And that’s all, folks. What movies have you rented lately? What movies are you looking forward to watching?

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Giving Up on a Perfect Christmas

Broken cookies.
Dry turkey.
Sold-out stores.
Thoughtless gifts.
The flu.
A blizzard.
Family, ahem, issues.

The list of things that can possibly ruin the holidays is long. But you know what? None of these things has to ruin anything. We can choose to enjoy ourselves and find meaning in the holidays, no matter how imperfect they are.

Not that I'm saying I'm good at this. After all, if I was an expert or something, I'd have to call my blog "Gave Up on Perfect." Am I right, or am I right?

So, will you join me in giving up on a perfect Christmas this year? And while we’re at it, let’s share our best beautifully imperfect Christmas stories.

For me, one of my favorite not-so-perfect Christmas memories is from my elementary years. I’m not sure exactly how old I was, but I know I had started taking piano lessons, and I was in Camp Fire. Because while a bright blue polyester Camp Fire uniform wasn’t terribly exciting, I was really bummed to open a box and see . . . a pacemaker.

Now, this pacemaker was actually a metronome (Pacemaker was the brand name), but this happened the Christmas after my granddad had gotten an actual pacemaker. In his heart.

It was just a little weird.

What’s your story? Write a post about how you’ve given up on a perfect Christmas, and link up below. And don’t forget to enter to win this beautiful Lisa Leonard necklace.



How do you do that? It’s easier than wrapping all your gifts in coordinating paper. You get one entry for each of the following:

• Leave a comment telling me about your imperfect Christmas plans or your funniest/craziest/most imperfect Christmas memory.
• Subscribe to Giving Up on Perfect by e-mail or RSS.
  
• Join the Giving Up on Perfect Facebook page and leave a comment telling me you did it.
• Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you did it. 
• (If you've already done these things, just leave a comment saying so. That will count.)
  

I’ll randomly draw a winner after midnight on Saturday, December 19, and announce it on Monday.

Until then (well, you know, after you link up and comment!), eat some broken cookies, print labels for that stack of cards and frame that picture of your crying baby on Santa's lap. It's all part of a not so perfect Christmas!

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Who’ll be my role model, now that my role model is gone?

When I was in seventh grade, I had this civics teacher. He was young and single and fun and yes, I did have a stupid crush on him, okay? He taught us about important things like Vietnam and animal abuse.

I thought he was wonderful.

And then came the day I discovered that, while he may be wonderful, he certainly wasn’t perfect. I found out, through an older friend from church, that he may have smoked pot in college.

[GASP!]

Did I mention that I grew up in a conservative family in a small town? It’s true. I was sheltered. But even though I can look at that piece of information with a completely different perspective than I had when I was 13, I will never forget how disappointed I was to learn that this man I’d looked up to had done something wrong.

I imagine that’s how many people have felt over the past couple weeks with the Tiger Woods debacle.

We’ve all read the stories and heard the commentaries and perhaps even held conversations ourselves. The whole thing has started me thinking about role models and the people we look up to.

Mark heard a man on sports radio talking about Tiger Woods, and he said something to the effect of, “You just can’t trust anyone. From famous athletes to politicians to Baptist deacons, everybody has secrets. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody is human.”

I can’t argue with that. (Especially since I’m not even sure why I put quotes around that little paragraph. Because while Mark did, indeed, tell me about what he heard, I honestly can’t remember exactly what the radio guy said. And so I made up that whole statement. Except the part about deacons. He definitely said that.)

But regardless of that guy’s exact words or if you love Tiger or hate him, all of this raises a valid point: How do we choose our role models?

In the past two weeks, I’ve seen two strong women portrayed on screen. Both hit me with a force that I found surprising; both have stayed with me and made me want to be a stronger person.

But while Sandra Bullock’s Leigh Anne Tuohy (The Blind Side) is based on a real person and Julianna Margulies’s Alicia Florrick (The Good Wife) is a composite of many actual political wives, neither is a role model. They’re both fictional, made up, not real. Even though I admire these characters, I still need and want to look up to real people, faults and all. And that’s a hard thing to do.

It’s easier to fixate on Photoshopped celebrities, characters in a book or people portrayed in movies. Those people don’t have blemishes, weaknesses, faults. They always say the right thing, do the right thing, are the right thing.

But they’re still not real.

So, even though I love seeing strong women portrayed in books, movies and TV (Julia Sugarbaker will always have a special place in my heart), I’m thankful for real people to admire. People like my mom, former colleagues, my cousins, my friends.

Even though they’re not perfect. Even though – and because – they’re real.

Who do you look up to? Have you ever been disappointed by a role model?

[For your entertainment, here are my favorite scenes from The Good Wife, The Blind Side and Julia Sugarbaker herself. And in case you didn't win today's round of Name That Tune, the title of today's post is from a song with the funniest video ever. Also known as Call Me Al.]

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I'm only using tape and paper to wrap presents this year.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. (Kahlil Gibran)

Last night we had friends over for dinner. After we put our daughter to bed and polished off a pan of chicken enchiladas, I cleaned off the table and opened up our game closet. (Also known as our coat closet, but “game closet” sounds oh-so fancy, doesn’t it?)

We briefly considered Boggle and I pulled for the old standard, Scattergories, but we eventually decided on 90s Trivial Pursuit. As we set it up and debated whether or not reading the rules was in order, I said, “Mark got this for me a few Christmases ago, and I was so excited.”

As a matter of fact, I could tell you everything my husband gave me for Christmas that year – four years ago. Because he actually got me things I wanted.

See, my love language is gift giving. And while you might think this would make Christmas an automatic WIN for me, it does not.

Because nobody ever lives up to my expectations.

To read the rest of this article, please visit (in)courage.

And don’t forget about our Giving Up on a Perfect Christmas carnival and giveaway this Friday.

Have you ever eaten broken all the Christmas cookies? Or broken the news to your nephew that Santa Claus might not be real? Get frostbite while Christmas caroling or perform an embarrassing solo at the office party? Or accidentally electrocute the cat with Christmas lights?

No matter what kind of story you have, write a post and link up! Then enter to win a Lisa Leonard necklace. I hope to see you there, and I hope you have a wonderful, merry Christmas!

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No more robbing Peter to play Santa

The first year Mark and I were married, we were so excited for Christmas. We were, after all, official grown-ups now, so of course we needed to buy presents for every single person we knew and loved.

And so, out came the credit card.

In the years that followed, that spending strategy became a habit, and we quickly accumulated several maxed-out credit cards and accounts – and then, slowly, paid them off.

For the past few years, as we’ve become more responsible with our money, I still haven’t been sure how to handle Christmas. So we usually wait until the last minute, crossing our fingers for a Christmas bonus, praying for a year-end windfall and eventually juggling our bills and paychecks to scrape out a modest gift budget.

A budget that’s usually blown – and paid for in January . . . and February . . . and sometimes March – because frantic, last-minute shopping is inevitably more expensive than thoughtful purchases made over time.

This year, though, I actually took a look at our budget in January. I realized that four times a year, Mark gets an extra paycheck (because I budget for four checks a month, but the year has 52 – not 48 – weeks) and I get two extra paychecks a year (again, I budget for two checks a month, but I get paid every other week, which means 26 checks a year).

Next, I made a list of all the “extra” expenses I could think of: Christmas (obviously), birthday presents, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, new tires and regular oil changes. These were the things that seemed to trip us up every year and put us behind financially, as we scrambled to find money to pay for what shouldn’t have been unexpected expenses.

[Looking back – and forward, to 2010 – I should have included the occasional baby or wedding shower and in-home party (like Pampered Chef, because yes, I actually like these parties).]

After adding up all those expenses and comparing the total amount to our extra paychecks, I was so excited to realize that the amounts matched up pretty well. It wasn’t perfect, and I had to lower adjust the amount I wanted to spend on gifts. But still – I was finally getting a leg up on Christmas (and the whole year’s extra expenses)!

I can’t say the year’s gone perfectly. We still have some under-budgeting and over-spending issues. And I have had to readjust and refigure and rethink several line items. But, I was able to “find” money for Christmas by Thanksgiving, which means . . . (yes, I do feel like this deserves a drum roll) . . . as of Friday, I had almost all of my Christmas shopping done!

Are you finished with your shopping?
How do you budget for Christmas?
And what should I get for my grandma?

If you’re still looking for gift ideas, Stephanie put together a great list of books written by bloggers. And I have a suggestion for Santa over on Blissfully Domestic.

Actually making a Christmas/gift budget works for me. For more good ideas, visit Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

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Christmas Tour of Homes

Welcome! Come on in!

If you’re visiting from The Nester’s Christmas Tour of Homes (or if you’re just here, making the rounds on a regular Monday morning), I’d like to invite you to come back on Friday for Giving Up on a Perfect Christmas. We’ll swap stories of beautifully imperfect (to borrow a certain someone’s phrase) holidays, and I’ll give away a beautiful Lisa Leonard necklace!

Now, on to the touring . . .

I didn't put all my ornaments up this year. Now that we have a toddling toddler in the house, I'm not sure how safe my treasures are - or how safe they are for that kiddo! And, of course, there are always the cats to consider. As in, what will they destroy this year!?

So far, so good. We've only had one casualty, and it was only an ornament down, not even broken.

In addition to my dozens of shiny, matte and glittery red ornaments, I did put a few special ornaments up. Last year, we got Annalyn that frame ornament and recorded her giggling. And then I accidentally erased it. (Talk about giving up on a perfect Christmas, right?)

The Snoopy ornament is one of mine from 1980, and the hammer is the first one he bought for his tiny Christmas tree the year before we got married.

Normally, I fill this large vase with plastic (although very realistic-looking, of course) apples and berries. In my attempt to be a little more festive this year, I dumped out the fruit and dropped (carefully) in some of the red ornaments.

I've read some blog posts recently about how buying an artificial tree is a cop-out. That's funny, because I don't know if I even know anyone who buys a real tree these days. Do you?

Makes me think of a slumber party I went to back in middle school. It was on New Year's Eve and my friend's family still had their [very real] Christmas tree up. Sadly, my embarrassing allergies were out of control that night, and my friend's mom ended up taking their tree down and tossing it outside!

I felt terrible, and the point of this rabbit trail is this: I put up a fake tree, but my tree-smelling candle makes it seem a bit more genuine.

So, that's a bit of my home. If you want to see a few more pictures, check out last year's Tour of Homes post. And if you're new here and want to read more, check out these posts:

Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today.
"I learned more from the stains than I did the paper."
Cleaning when the clock is ticking...
It's all about the chili.

Thanks for stopping by today. Merry Christmas!!

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Saturday Review: The Familiar Stranger

When I got the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance’s monthly list of books available for review, I wasn’t sure any of them looked like something I’d pick up off the library shelf. But I went ahead and requested one.

Not because I need another book on my to-read list. But because I am trying to broaden my reading tastes. (Yes, Chelley, that means I will – someday soon, I promise – read Harry Potter.)

So when The Familiar Stranger by Christina Berry arrived in the mail, I wasn’t exactly jumping up and down. [Although, let’s be honest, it would take a whole lot of something special to get this girl off the ground.]

The main reason I hesitated to read this novel was my suspicion that it would be sad. Real sad. And I was right. Berry’s book certainly has its share of sad – and then some.

But that’s not the end of the story. Thankfully, the story is one of redemption and second chances and a whole host of other not-sad things.

The reason I picked up the book in the first place – aside from my nearing deadline for writing a review – was actually one of the endorsements on the back from another author whose blog about writing fiction I subscribe to.

Christina Berry is a woman who really understands how men think.
The Familiar Stranger had me from the very first sentence,
and it kept me flipping pages right through to the end.
It’s a terrific debut novel and I’ll be watching eagerly for her next one.
~ Randy Ingermanson, Christy award-winning author of Oxygen

I have to agree with Randy. The author did a great job (as far as I can tell) of getting inside not only the female protagonist’s mind, but also the man in the story, too. And she doesn’t pull any punches. Don’t expect to fall in love with the main character’s husband in those first few pages, but do expect to be hooked!

For a few days, I read this in every spare second. Even toward the end, when I was pretty sure I knew what would happen, I just kept reading. (And, for the record, I was mostly right, thanks to my vast consumption of stories in all mediums. Still, Grey’s Anatomy has nothing on this complicated story!)

Here’s the summary, and you can read more about the author on her website.

Craig Littleton's decision to end his marriage would shock his wife, Denise . . . if she knew what he was up to. When an accident lands Craig in the ICU, with fuzzy memories of his own life and plans, Denise rushes to his side, ready to care for him.

They embark on a quest to help Craig remember who he is and, in the process, they discover dark secrets. An affair? An emptied bank account? A hidden identity? An illegitimate child?

But what will she do when she realizes he's not the man she thought he was? Is this trauma a blessing in disguise, a chance for a fresh start? Or will his secrets destroy the life they built together?

Have you read any [unexpectedly] good books lately?

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