Lesson 273: My Favorite Things

Raindrops on noses and fingerless mittens, 

bright colored sweatshirts and a girl with five kittens,

silver white winters that melt into springs,

 these are a few of my favorite things!

Eloise was celebrating her Germanic heritage last night.  I wrote the twist on My Favorite Things about my workout Thursday night.  (Yes, a girl who attends has 5 cats!)

  

I was getting geared up for the live TV event, The Sound of Music, starring Carrie Underwood.   Just the thought of my FAVORITE musical with my FAVORITE female country music star as the lead, left me waltzing the living room in anticipation.

Mother Eloise got all her chores done early, just so I could watch one of my favorite musicals uninterrupted.  I even did my hair up nice like my German, storytelling kin.  My hair was styled in traditional German molded braids, like this.

I was not trying to copy Princess Leia.  

She had coils sans the brains---and a gun.

Final report card on the production:  Just can't give one.  

I've never been a big fan of overall grades.  I like to evaluate based on criteria, and I much prefer the rubric method of scoring.  Each skill or part of a project is looked at in isolation, and rated.  Therefore one could have a low mark for acting, but a high mark for singing.  People and projects and productions are all the same---we have our strengths and weaknesses, our good and our not so good.

It was quite the water cooler talk today at work.   My friend Brenda said that The Sound of Music is her Benchmark Assessment for all musicals.  Sound of Music sets the high bar, and all others are measured against it.  I agree.

Here are the ups and downs of the Sound of Music from Eloise's perspective:

Highs:  

• Carrie's singing
• the two littlest Von Trapp children
• Mother Superior's song 

Lows:

• The Captain
• The long, boring scenes with the girlfriend
• Singing the puppet song on the bed during the storm
• New songs?!?!?!
• Overall acting

When you roll it all together, it was an enjoyable evening, chore free, with my family.  Ellen has determined that she never wants to be a stage actress.  Sam wanted to shoot the bad guys.  Natalie just smiled and ate popcorn.  Louie fell asleep.

In keeping with the theme, Eloise will tell you about some of her favorite things for the season.  It is my favorite time of year--the week prior to Thanksgiving through New Years Day.  I try not to lose sight of the joy in it all, while I'm most often up to my blue eyeballs in all the preparation the season entails.

My favorite kid-friendly party game:

Fibber

I picked up Fibber at K-mart for $15.  Kenyan cooks for Thanksgiving.  I bring the beer, rolls on a potty seat, and a board game.  We had lots of fun with it at Thanksgiving.

Cousin Bonnie (left) never got to finish her game.

We had to make room for the turkey, darn it all!

So she sent Sam this:

And this, to keep Sam busy while he is waiting for his rematch:

We always look to promote academics here at the Lamp Post.

Thanks, Cousin Bonnie.

My Winter Run Series started.

Group runs in one direction are my FAVORITE!

The start.

The finish.

The next one is in January, whenever the mood strikes me.

Contact Eloise if you are interested in joining in on the fun.

Some babies came to visit Aunt Eloise.

Babies are Aunt Eloise's FAVORITE!

I got to see a movie!

Movies based on books are one of my FAVORITE THINGS!

It's candy cane season!

Candy Canes are one of Eloise's favorite Christmastime treats.

Back in my heavy coffee drinking days, I'd have one hooked to my coffee mug at all times.

Now, because of Ellen's sweatshirt, I half wondered how one would taste dunked in a glass of 6 Mile Cellars wine.

The Erie Bayfront is one of my FAVORITE places to take photographs.

The city lights up the tower at Christmastime.

My FAVORITE Christmas decorations are my nativity sets.  I have several.

This one is from my parents.

This one was from my in-laws.

This one my sister just gave me.

And this one has seen its day.  

I got it 15 years ago for baby Natalie.

Since then we lost Mary and Joseph.  

The wise men have been happy to babysit.

And we all know Tim McGraw is my FAVORITE singer.

How opportune Handsome released a holiday song titled Mary and Joseph.

(I think he did it just for me).

Thanks for the gift, Handsome!  

You can view some more photos from the week on the video below, set to Tim McGraw's Christmas song, Mary and Joseph.  Vocally, he's at his best.  Listen and I hope you agree.

Spend a minute thinking about your favorite things this season, and more importantly, take more than a minute to savor them.

Blessings,
Eloise