Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from Jenni, the perfect Holiday Hostess. :)

The Young Victoria

So thrilled to see this movie...eventually.

I find this article, written by Sarah Ferguson absolutely fascinating: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-duchess-of-york/sarah-ferguson-duchess-of_b_394824.html

It's like a peek into the mind of one of the most interesting women of my generation.

Shivery Winter Day

I asked my girls to bring in a poem they love to class today, one I didn't assign, one they have carried around in their hearts. (Now, I know some teen girls do not carry poetry in their hearts, but for those of us who have carried it since childhood....)

One brought in a poem that took me back many, many (so very many it's embarrassing) years...

Click here to be transported to a time when I was young, fanciful, and thought this the most romantic poem ever.

I think I first read Noyes' poem when I read Anne of Green Gables. This might have been circa 1986 or 87. Maybe later. But I was a young, young, young girl. An elementary school girl who, even then, thought she was learned and wise and tragically cool. I loved "The Lady of Shalott" and think that, on some trip to the library with my dad on a Saturday, I spent a lot of time in the card catalogue finding poems like "The Lady of Shalott."

What's great about "The Highwayman" and "The Lady of Shalott" is how accessible they are. How melodic. How fun to say, to devour with your eyes. They're narrative. Ballads. Stories tragic and reaching to the far ends of the world. Or at least that's the way it seemed to a 2nd or 3rd grader growing up in Texas.

I'm humbled to think that in the twenty-some odd years since I picked my way through the card catalogue to uncover poetry, some other young girl took the time to find this, too.

Give poetry a chance. :)

Cirque!

I know, I know, it's a silly thing to get excited about. But around the time of my ill-fated book club gathering at my house, I decided I neeeeeeeded new flatware.

So I splurged...a little, not much. Purchased at Target (naturally). I bought a really cute Oneida flatware set: Cirque. It's pretty playful, not very grown up, but I kind of fell in love with the whimsy of it. It's just not your average piece of flatware. (Can we say polka dots?!)

Imagine my delight when I found SERVING PIECES available today!!! (Hello, Christmas gift givers...please and thank you!)

The 5-Piece SERVING PIECES are only $20!!!! And look, I can get more SPOONS, too, because I always use more spoons than anything else!!!

Fun new tool...