When All Else Fails... Sing!

"Perhaps the best Yuletide decorations is being wreathed in smiles."

-Author Unknown

Finally, I am officially beginning my Christmas shopping. Running here and there. Wrapping this and that. Oddly enough, I seem to be wrapping a lot more of that as opposed to this, this year! LOL. I bought some fancy holiday stickers, to put on all the holiday envelopes I will be putting in the mail tomorrow, and hopefully, I will be out tonight at the Holiday Lights In The Woods, in Tilden Park. I say hopefully, because we are due for some rain and really cold temperatures over the weekend, beginning tonight. I love it when it is super cold and cloudy for the holiday, but I am afraid my joints and muscles have to protest. Oh well, I will put on my new mittens, and grab some Starbuck's for the ride up into the park, and hope the rain away. It's the Christmas season...

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas
Lyrics and Music by John Rox

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do,
Don't want a doll, no dinky Tinker Toy
I want a hippopotamus to with and enjoy

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won't have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring him through the front door
That's the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning
Creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
When I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus for Christmas
No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian

There's lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I'd feed him there and was him there and give him his massage

I can see me now on Christmas morning
Creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise
When I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too!

-OndineMonet
"Holiday Bear Concert"
Holiday Fantasy In The Woods"
Tilden Park
Berkeley, California
December, 2007
Early Evening

Steven's Feline Friday: Elvis And I Wrap Packages

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

-Norman Vincent Peale

The Christmas tree is decorated, and there's a definite chill in the air, so what does that mean? It means Elvis and I will be spending the day wrapping Christmas presents. :) I love spending the day with my kitty, he is really helpful for a task such as this. He holds the paper down and assists me with picking out a bow for each gift. I think he must be partial to the blue ones, as those are the ones he usually nudges toward me when it is time to put the final touches on the presents. I will take his official Christmas portrait in a couple weeks, just before the holiday, but for today, he and I are Christmas elves. :)



You can play along with Feline Friday too. Just drop by my friend Steven's blog, (sometimes) photoblog, to learn all the details.

-OndineMonet
"Wrapping Presents"
Berkeley, California
December 8, 2007
Late Morning

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #194: What You Wanted Back When

"The best gift you can give is a hug. One size fits all, and no one ever minds if you return it."

-Unknown

Weekend Assignment #194: Think back to when you were eight years old. What did you really, really, really want for Christmas/Hanukkah/Other seasonal celebration? We're taking the thing you wanted so much that you would just die if you didn't get it. If you can't remember what that was when you were eight specifically, then pick an age close to it. But if you can remember what the thing was when you were eight: Share it!

Extra Credit: Did you get it?

-John Scalzi, of the blog, By The Way

Oh my, this one is easy. As you probably know, I was a girly girl when I was a child, actually, I am still a girly girl. LOL. I loved stuffed animals and dolls, and I still put the occasional bear or doll on my Christmas list. But I have also had a lifetime love of music, and I can remember Christmas 1970, and my undying love for Keith Partridge, played by David Cassidy.

In my neighborhood, either you were a fan of the Brady Bunch or the Partridge Family. Both had their own appeal, but I think I liked the novelty of the music in every episode of the Partridge Family, as opposed to the only occasional, and in my opinion, lame music, of the Brady Bunch. LOL. I just realized how much thought I have put into this, and frankly, I find it a bit disturbing. LOL.

Anyway, in September of 1970, the Partridge Family debuted on ABC, and by Christmas of that year the single, I Think I Love You, had made it to the top of Billboard's charts. And that is what I wanted for Christmas that year, the 45 single, I Think I Love You, by the Partridge Family! LOL. Oh my. :)

I hadn't thought about my crush on David Cassidy for years. I think he was my obsession until Bobby Sherman came along a couple years later. Actually, Richard Thomas (John Boy Walton) may have been a crush in between David and Bobby, but he didn't sing, so he was out! Tee Hee. Goodnight John Boy!

Extra Credit: Yep, I did get the 45 single, I Think I Love You, and then for Valentine's Day, my sister bought me the full length album.

"Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third."

-Marge Piercy

-OndineMonet