Getting into the Holiday Spirit

Well, today I'm in a much better mood. I don't know why, there's a storm a coming, a potential transit strike, and the conference room I booked for my group's off-site didn't have a network cable so that they could all check their emails during the day.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that Liz Smith, the syndicated columnist mentioned little ole me by name. She had mentioned in her columns that she wished that the James Bond novels would be reprinted, and I emailed her to let her know they had been with beautiful vintage covers. So she talked about in her latest column. I'm famous! (Well, not really. Certainly not as famous as Ms. Lani Diane Rich who had the E! News Reporter Kristin Veitch mention in her column that she read all three of Lani's books recently).

Still, I'm feeling the holiday spirit much more than I was recently.

So in honor of the holiday, I'm going to answer yet another holiday quiz courtesy of Vanessa Virtue, where all the good stuff seems to be happening these days (check out her post about the man-dog in Au Bon Pain here.

To pass the time away...

1. What is your favorite Christmas carol? "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

2. What is your favorite fun Christmas song? "Grandma got run over by a reindeer"

3. Who's your favorite reindeer? Rudolph...of course, does anyone remember the names of the other reindeers?

4. What's your favorite Christmas food? Christmas Pudding with brandy hard sauce.

5. What's your favorite "day" of Christmas? Isnt' there one about lords a leaping? Love that one.

6. What's your favorite Christmas special? That's a real toss up. I love the Charlie Brown Christmas, but I also love The Grinch and A Year Without a Santa Claus. I love Heatmeiser and Snow Meiser.

7. What is your favorite Christmas movie? Easy..."Love Actually." Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman all in the same movie. I just love it, particularly Bil Nighy as Billy Mack.

8. Do you prefer Frosty or Rudolph? See question #3...Rudolph. Frosty creeps me out.

9. What's your least favorite Christmas movie? God, any Hallmark/Lifetime cable abomination that we get every year. Don't even get me started. They all just make Christmas depressing.

10. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas Day. Only heathens open them on Christmas Eve.

11. Where's your favorite place to celebrate Christmas? I normally have Christmas with a friend who is also an orphan but if I had my way I'd celebrate Christmas in London.

12. What's your favorite Christmas memory? I don't know if it's my favorite, but the one that stands out for me is the last Christmas I had with my Mom. We spent it in a motel room in Kingston, NY since my dad had just had brain surgery to relieve a blood clot (or hematoma as Dr. McDreamy likes to call it) on his brain before it killed him. We opened our presents in the motel room. It should have been depressing, but since my dad could have died but didn't, it felt hopeful. We then went to visit him and my uncle who was also in the hospital with emphysema, so in a way, it was the first Xmas in awhile that my immediate family spent together.

Okay...have at it and have fun with it....

Next week, on Monday, we'll have an interview with Cathy Yardley.