A Few of my Favorite (Christmas) Things.

In the spirit of the season, here are a few of my favorite things:

1. Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

I have been trying to spread the gospel of Emmet Otter at the holidays. Some years are more successful (or appreciated) than others. This year I was thwarted by a lack of VCR. I may just have to get this gem on DVD.  It's a genuinely sweet (albeit quirky) holiday family movie.  Plus, I think Jim Henson is a genius.  Among other things, what Christmas movie do you know of that opens with a song about one's fat grandmother's bathing suit?

2. Christmas Music

We've had the ipod on perpetual Christmas playlist shuffle at my parent's house since I got here (and I'm pretty sure that has been the norm for the season... at least since the day AFTER Thanksgiving, that is.  Please.  That does not make me a Scrooge).  While there are many Christmas songs that I love, this is at the top, for purely sentimental/childhood/family reasons:


3. Christmas Trees

The tree is probably one of my favorite holiday traditions.  In our family, we cut our own.  Every year, the family drives a few hours north and spends the day tramping through the national forest to find our own "perfect" Christmas tree (I use the term loosely, trees in the wild are not nearly so).  More often than not, we end up with a self-proclaimed Charlie Brown tree, but it is loved.  

In addition, the bulk of the ornaments on our tree have some memory attached -- made in school, acquired on vacations, gifts from friends or family, etc.  As a result, decorating and looking at the tree is always story time.   Again, our tree would never be mistaken for Martha Stewart's, but it's real Christmas.

4. Christmas Cards

I mean the real ones, brag letter and all.  I love reading the letters I get, and even the ones my parents get from people I don't know.  I'm not to this point (yet), but my mom even saves brag letters for a year, until the next round goes out.  I guess it helps her keep track of what people have been up to.  This habit came in handy the summer I moved cross-country to Boston for grad school.  I didn't know anyone there, but oddly enough through the church's housing coordinator, I ended up rooming with the daughter of family Christmas-card-friends. We did actually pull out the previous year's letter in August just before I moved to get up-to-speed.  (Thankfully, Diana, I think you guys passed. )

As you may have noticed, I have not been good at this one lately, but I hope to reform.

5. The point.

I'm going to let Linus sum it up for me. (Another Christmas favorite... there's something about this whole film that represents the Christmas of my world better than anything else.)

INFJ.

We were discussing Myers-Briggs tonight, so I figured I'd share.  I couldn't remember for sure at the time, so I went and looked up an old email, and I am an INFJ.  (Or at least I have been in the past, do these things change?)

So, why are these tests so popular?  This was also posed tonight.   I figure we just like labels.  Maybe it diverts the responsibility from some of our choices.  I'm white and blue, man.  It's just who I am  (to cite the results of another well-worn personality test).  Or maybe it's easier to explain something when you can sum it up in a tidy package.  I mean, you think you know me a little better right now, don't you?  Don't tell me you've never had a conversation somewhat like this:

"So-and-so is red, maybe some yellow."

"Oh, mm-hmm."

(In fact, I just did tonight.)   I like to think that's efficiency.  It's probably laziness.

So... what are you?  (I'm lazy, okay? I think it's in my MBTI somewhere...)

Another Goal.

Earlier I mentioned that I have a goal of visiting all 7 continents. I also have a similar goal of visiting all 50 states.  This week, I was in New Orleans for a scientific conference, and in checking off Louisiana, I now have 10 states to go: Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota (if you don't count flight layovers), Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii.

Some may be harder than others. Who goes to Delaware just to go to Delaware? I very well may, at some point.


(P.S. - On Tuesday in New Orleans, it was 76 degrees. On Wednesday I got drenched wandering through the French Quarter in some kind of winter tropical storm. On Thursday it snowed. Hard. Weird. I still walked to get beignets and hot chocolate. It was worth the wet hair and the frozen pants.)