Substitute Santa!

Here's a little story for Christmas by Little Leaf #1. I can't reproduce it here because blogger prefers I don't paste these days. But its a gem, so worth the trip. Merry merry!

To You and All Your Family...

Happy Winter!
Safe Holidays!
Let's make 2010 the best year ever!

Reindeer #1 of a series

by Little Leaf #1 2008

A turning point in a mother's life: reading with LL#1 this weekend, and I noticed the text in her book was smaller than mine! She's reading Redwall and I'm reading Solace of the Road. Also, my firstborn told me I was "cool" this weekend. Probably has something to do with all the Christmas cookies we baked. Recipe to follow.

Skin You Can Write On

Let's just say I'm taking this writing thing a little too far: I have a kind of hives called Dermatographism. Now I haven't taken Latin or whatever, but doesn't that mean "Skin You Can Write On"? Another non-Latin reason I suspect that: the brochure has a photo of a guy's chest with his name scratched on it. Yes it does. No I'm not making it up. The letters are raised like a hive would be, only instead of a bump, it's "Terry." No, I'm not gonna put the picture on here. You can use your imagination just fine, that's what it's for.

Now the second fascinating glimpse into my life and personal hygience comes in the form of the "emollient" I have to use. (Ok, I think I was supposed to get the "lotion" but anytime I think of that word in isolation, I get a Silence of the Lambs flashback. "IT PUTS ON THE LOTION!!!" shudder) Anyway, the stuff is made of wax! So, obstacle number one, you can't get it out of the tube without a caulking gun, and number two, once you get a handful, it doesn't spread around at all. So you just glop it on. Everywhere. And now the part where I use the cliche about the cure being worse than the...whatever...it's tacky. Tacky as in sticky. All my clothes feel like a wet suit. And when I do succeed in peeling off a layer, the air feels cold on my skin. Like a cold sweat that never goes away. I'm made of cold damp frozen rubber. I'm a wax museum writer in a meat locker wearing a scuba suit and tanks filled with compressed air.

What exactly was so bad about the itching again?

One Two Tie Your Shoe

Guess which little "ism"-maker tied her shoes today. An historical event! She used the bunny-ears method made famous by my sister Jennifer in Barclay Heights during the 70s.

What a great day, so great that we celebrated by getting H1N1 shots! What could be better?

Stash to Story Congrats!

Wabi Sabi Knitter did her first Stash to Story workshop! Congratulations! If you are a knitter or quilter who has an interest in writing about your craft or experiences, you owe to yourself to check out her workshop. Or if you've already written something, click through to the Stash to Story blog guidelines for submission.

Just read ARCs of Sea by Heidi Kling and The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy. World, you wish it was 2010!!!

I also received Leaving Gee's Bend (ARC) by Irene Latham, but I didn't dare open the package until I was finished with TCS because I suspect LGB will have power over me until the very last word. (Maybe I've only mentioned in passing my love for the quilts of Gee's Bend, and my fascination with the story of Gee's Bend, and---oh, yeah---did I mention Irene is a poet?) I want to be prepared: Kids, here's the phone number for the pizza delivery, put yourselves to bed when its dark...

Kids: Mommy mommy mommy.
Me: unh...
Kids: Mommy, eyes on me, Mommy!
Me: whah?
Kids: You love that book more than me! WANNNHHHHH!!!!

If you haven't checked out http://www.classof2k10.com/, please do! And comment on the blog to win awesome titles from the Class of 2k9.

Grad Party for Class of 2k9 AND Class of 2k10 Launch

December is here and it is official launch time for the Class of 2k10 debut author group. Check out http://www.classof2k10.com/. YAY! = understatement.

Before we start talking about our own books, we're celebrating the graduation of the Class of 2k9 with, you guessed it,

a giveaway<------CLICK IT!

We're giving away copies of their amazing books! Leave a comment to enter. Enter again with a link from tweeting, blogging or facebooking, etc. about it. (Comment on the 2k10 blog to enter, not here.)

Hooray for the Class of 2k9! Great job! Good luck!