twenty-five | day 11 – christmas classics

turn on the t.v.

pop in the christmas movie

gather friends and play

The other day I watched a christmas classic with a bunch of friends from the sac small group. I had the itch to see home alone again, but for the life of me, i couldn't find it anywhere! I checked amazon prime, itunes, even tried to order it online (1-3 week shipping =/ ). Then on saturday, we happened to walk by a video rental store (seems like the only one in sac that's not extinct) and they had it!! Let me tell you...it was everything i imagined it would be! (Well...i guess so haha)

Aside from home alone, the next favorite must be the charlie brown special. I know...the music from that is always super depressing (sad trombone all over the place), but there's something about the charlie brown christmas movie that makes me enjoy it. I think it's the sad little tree and his big old smile at the end. Snoopy's cool too haha.

Of course, I do have to add elf to the list. I know it's will farrell and all, but this is one of the two will farrell movies I can watch. There's something about a 6-foot goofy elf that entertains me. Plus the plot is pretty funny too. While this is a pretty new movie (2003), I'm going to throw it in the christmas classics list, just because.

I miss watching these old christmas movies. They were always entertaining and I generally finding myself watching it if I ever came across it on TV. These days my channel surfing is kept at a minimum as work is getting crazy again, but I do cherish the good old christmas movies.

twenty-five | day 10 – gift-sharing madness

festive Christmas gifts

presents passing round the group

“who will take that one?”

With Christmas gift giving sometimes getting out of control during the holiday season, a pretty good alternative is the white elephant exchange. This provides a group with an opportunity to give gifts and also allows for gag-gifts and other stuff that can entertain a crowd for a while. Popular items include snuggies, toilet paper, that year’s hottest “as seen on TV” items, etc. Sometimes people use this as an opportunity to give away something they have at home that they don’t want, or re-gift an item they didn’t particularly care for (I don’t necessarily condone this…).

I recall one white elephant exchange I used to be in, for a few years, an exercise video called Dancin' Grannies was making reappearances as people were desperately trying to get rid of it. By the 3rd year, it was so certain that DG was making an appearance, that people had to creatively hide the fact that there was a VHS in the packaging. I remember one year seeing it packed as if it was a bottle of scotch (that took some creativity – apparently the guy actually made a papier-mâché whiskey bottle with a cutout of a VHS tape. There was even a compartment for a pouch of fluid so you could hear sloshing around when you shook it).

In case you’re interested, Dancin' Grannies is still available on Amazon (sorry, not eligible for prime – but then again, if you can’t wait for regular shipping on this, the I'd say osteoarthritis-risk might be the least of your worries). I leave the decision up to you.

twenty-five | day 9 – hope fulfilled

baby Jesus born

christmas is our hope fulfilled

come and feel the joy

Today, Pastor Gee spoke about Jesus' birth as the fulfillment of hope. He then went on to talk about legalism, but let's go back to the first part real quick. In Luke's version of the christmas story, the concept of hope and promise looms large. It starts with the story of the birth of John the Baptist to the aging cousin of Mary, a promise made to the israelites. This is followed by the birth of Jesus (also fulfilling a promise to the israelites). Shortly after, Jesus is presented at the temple, where a man named Simeon was waiting to bless the child, and a prophetess named Anna waited to foretell of what this child will do "for the redemption of Jerusalem" – both elders, scripture tells us, having been anticipating the coming of this child. The christmas story is filled with promises fulfilled. But hoe does that apply to our lives? How does Christ's birth fulfill our hopes? Well, I supposed how it applies to your life is something you have to answer for yourself. For me, the christmas story isn't just a telling of something that happened in the past. True, it was 2,000 years ago and all the promises fulfilled. We can all see that the promises are fulfilled, and Jesus' life on earth culminated with the death and ressurection to conquer death and sin. However, I don't like to see it as the story of Jesus is quite over, as there is the present and future with Jesus. There is still a promise to be fulfilled, and as christians, we are all co-laboring toward that day, with the hope that one day Jesus will return.

twenty-five | day 8 – play it again, ray

raymond on the strings

christmas carols fill the air

farmers all around

today was quite an eventful day, most notably because some musicians from acacia were playing at the farmer's market, including an acacia debut from our very own raymond! They played four pretty interesting renditions of popular christmas songs, and there was quite a crowd gathering as they played. There were cries from the farmers nearby (really just food vendors) for an encore from these performers, but alas, another group was ready to take the helm for the next half-hour slot. Perhaps next year we'll get to hear more of this...

twenty-five | day 7 – holiday crazies

people everywhere
kids and old folks in a room
crazy holidays

When it comes to the holidays and large family gatherings, an outside observer is likely to get easily overwhelmed. There’s something about getting everybody together and having all this catching up to do, well, we simply go nuts. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but when it comes to family gatherings, our family is absolutely and certifiably crazy. Loud and obnoxious doesn’t even begin to describe it. If you ever attend a large family function around the holidays, you will feel embarrassed. It’s inevitable. Nevertheless, we manage to have a good time in family holiday fun. We just try to limit it to once a year so we don’t end up driving each other nuts…although that may have already happened…

50 beans | disaster myopia

I think I may have earned myself a lifetime ban from Temple Café on 9th and Jst.

I suppose I should probably elaborate. I went down to Temple this morning to get a Guatemalan pour-over. I asked for a bit of room for cream and sugar as I quite enjoy this aspect of coffee. I waited patiently as the lady behind the counter carefully poured 207°F water over carefully ground Guatemalan beans. She looked at me with a stern please be patient or you will never get to know what this magnificent coffee will taste like look as she rotated the hario long-stemmed kettle over the coffee. It was quite a tantalizing wait. The barista then brought the coffee over to me with a lid and pointed me in the direction of the cream and sugar, all the while probably silently judging and thinking what kind of poindexter puts cream and sugar in their coffee?

I walked over to the cream and sugar stand and proceeded to pour a bit of cream into the cup. I then continued on to the sugar, which wasn’t really there. Dumbstruck (for just a second), I looked around before I realized that Temple makes simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water) for you to use, so you can add it to iced coffee too. I picked it up, and immediately noticed the oxo pour-topper with a small lever on the side. Not thinking much of it, I turned the bottle to pour, and noticed that the syrup was coming out at quite the slow rate. Of course, being curious if it was supposed to flow like this, I figured I’d give the lever a try. I pulled on it, which seemed to slow down the pour to a standstill. Ok…wrong direction. That’s when I tried the other direction (pushing forward).

bad idea.

You see, I never would have, in a million years, thought that by pushing on the lever upward, it would loosen the topper. Or pop off the topper. Or hurl the topper right into my coffee. Or pour the bottle’s remaining simple syrup all over their cream/sugar table. You see, this hadn’t really occurred to me. So I pushed on the lever. And it all happened in sloooowww moooottttiiiioooonnn.

Have you ever seen something bad unfold before your eyes? You know it’s going to be bad, and while it’s playing in slow motion, a million thoughts are playing through your head – uh-oh, what now? Do I make a play for the door? Do I fish out the topper? Do I admit to my wrong doing?? As I played all of these questions through my head, the topper plops into my coffee and a deluge of simple syrup is unleashing itself all over the tabletop.

ahh fiddlesticks…

I quickly reach for the paper towels as I notice out of the corner of my eyes that a barista is walking over – the same barista with the stern face earlier, who frowns at the thought of cream and sugar adulterating the perfectly crafted cup of coffee – she is walking over with a towel and she does not appear to be happy. I quietly ask for a spoon to rescue the overboard topper from my cup and I wipe off the countertop with the towel she brings. She gets the topper from me and says I think it’s safe to say you’re no longer allowed to come back…but then she half smiles and walks away, presumably desperately trying to hold in her laughter as, really, what kind of yahoo pours an entire bottle of simple syrup onto the table in a crowded coffee shop??

Of course, me being the simpleminded guy that I am, can’t really read the barista…was she serious that I was banned?! Or was it a joke? *sigh* I guess I’ll find out when I try to go back. What’s the worse they could do??

twenty-five | day 6 – the girl from ipanema

a roaring fire

fresh cup of cocoa in hand

music fills the air

As much as I love the song White Christmas, I do have to point out that in a lot of places, it doesn’t happen that often. I used to live in Philly and NJ, and in all the Christmases there, I’ve only witnessed one white Christmas (where it actually snows on Christmas day). Those are the rare treats that I think are fitting for a christmas day. For the record, my perfect Christmas day would revolve around sitting in front of a roaring fire with snow falling all around outside, sipping cocoa and reading a book or something, and The Girl from Ipanema playing on the radio. I know, it’s totally not a Christmas song but if I’m by a roaring fire in the middle of a snowy Christmas, It’d be nice – for a moment – to imagine myself somewhere tropical. Aside from the samba music, it’d pretty much be a scene out of an L.L. Bean winter catalogue. Too bad here in California we see snow only as an aberration – but one can still dream…