Connect
Sponsors
Currently Reading
-
Terms
The Book Lady's Blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Reviews and articles posted here are property of The Book Lady's Blog and are not to be posted elsewhere without permission. Please contact me if you wish to post any of my work, or any excerpt thereof, in any other location or format.
Miscellaneous
Meet Bookrageous!
Technical Stuff
Design Credits
Dec
29
I'm back from vacation, and I don't know what day it is, and here's what I did on my Christmas vacation!
2009 at 11am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Since I spent most of the day Sunday journeying from Aurora, IL, where hubby and I paid a quick visit to one of his brothers, back to St. Louis, where we spent the rest of the holiday, and because I was unplugged for the holiday weekend, and because pretty much no one was reading blogs, I didn’t have a Sunday Salon this week. And hey, that’s all right. I’m not married to a routine here, and if I’m being really honest, I do this blogging thing in the fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method about 90% of the time anyway.
So.
Despite my extensive complaining, the vast majority of my good old-fashioned family Christmas was delightful. Our first evening in St. Louis brought the much-anticipated tradition of Family Movie Night. Hubby’s parents go out to the movies exactly once a year, and it’s always right around the holidays. They take all four of the boys (or however many are in town) and their wives, and the grandkids stay at home with a babysitter (usually Aunt Dorothy, who is the coolest nun I know). This is a tradition that is not to be messed around with, so it always, always means a late-afternoon movie followed by dinner at Outback Steakhouse (which is conveniently located across the parking lot from the theater….because of course, for it to be Family Movie Night, you have to go to the SAME THEATER EVERY YEAR).
Family Movie Night can be a bit of a debacle for the following reasons. 1) Hubby and I are the only ones in his family who are inclined to plan anything ahead of time. 2) Trying to get the rest of them to agree to a day, time, and movie can take days on end and is about as uncomplicated as herding cats. 3) Hubby’s parents don’t want to see anything with sex, drugs, offensive language, or violence; anything that requires too much thought; anything with a less-than-happy ending; anything that might make you cry. There are no downers on Family Movie Night.
(I feel like this would be the time for a joke about how the first rule of Family Movie Night is you don’t talk about Family Movie Night, but that would be too dark, right?)
As you can imagine, fulfilling these criteria is rarely easy, so we usually end up seeing something that is either far too juvenile for a group of adults ranging in age from 26 to 67—I can usually be heard ranting about how WE’RE ALL ADULTS AND WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE MOVIES WITH ADULT CONTENT—or that is just sappy sweet or slapstick funny (re: not funny to anyone but my father-in-law) or overly moralistic or just downright bad. But we have scored a couple times with Dreamgirls (though they didn’t like it when Eddie Murphy dropped his pants or when Beyonce’s character fought with her husband) and Charlie Wilson’s War (which the in-laws didn’t mind even though the opening scene includes nudity, hookers, and cocaine), and this year I had a big win with suggesting Up in the Air.
You wanna know why? Because even though it has prolific and creative use of the F-bomb, sex, infidelity, a main character whose job it is to fly around the country firing people from their jobs, and a less-than-happy ending, much of it was filmed in—you guessed it—St. Louis! I didn’t know this ahead of time, but it seems that this movie was in the news in St. Louis A LOT during filming, and my in-laws had a great time spotting local landmarks while I drooled over George Clooney for two hours and enjoyed this genuinely funny, smart, well-written, grown-up movie.
Holla!
Dinner at Outback was predictably satisfying (who doesn’t love a Bloomin’ Onion every now and then?), then we returned home in our food coma, and I snuggled up on the couch to finish Homer & Langley. Yes! There’s that mention of reading material you’ve been waiting for! I’ll be writing my review soon, but suffice it to say Homer & Langley is most excellent and one of my favorites for the year.
Christmas Eve was spent lazing around the house—it was Thursday, but we treated it like a Sunday—with Bill Bryson and In a Sunburned Country (also most excellent), then hubby and I went to ten o’clock mass (even though I’m a heathen Methodist and neither of us can be considered to be a “practicing” anything) because Christmas Eve church is one of my holiday rituals and then headed home to await Santa’s arrival.
Christmas morning brought excessive consumption of coffee, very excited children, and some wonderful gifts. Most notably, hubby gave me a sherpa fleece-lined hoodie I’ve been ogling for months, the in-laws gave me a beautiful set of chef’s knives, and the sister-in-law who had me in the family gift exchange stocked me up with great music, including both volumes of the GLEE soundtrack, and a shiny new copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks. If you don’t follow The Pioneer Woman, you’re missing out on a fantastic, funny blog that covers cooking, photography, stories from family life, and the occasional feature about her basset hound Charlie (those are the best).
The rest of Christmas Day was spent visiting extended family, listening to my niece and nephew chatter about and fight over their new iPod Touch, and eating way too much stuffing. Is it just me, or are the side dishes the best part of holiday meals?
I would normally spend the day after Christmas sleeping in and then hitting the mall to look for good deals, but this time around, the hubs and I loaded up our four-wheel drive sleigh and hit the road bright and early to make a quick trip up to Aurora, IL to visit another of his brothers and meet our newest niece. We arrived at the beginning of a little snowstorm and were thrilled to have four inches of the fluffy stuff to play in by the end of the day. I rode a sled for the first time in at least ten years, we kissed in the snow (pictures to come!), and we actually got to sleep in a bed that wasn’t inflatable. All in all, it was a good visit.
The drive back to St. Louis on Sunday brought a much anticipated stop at Steak ‘n Shake, which is a highlight of any trip to the midwest, a few more hours with Bill Bryson, and the realization that if I’m going to meet my goal of reading 100 books this year, I have some work to do this week.
We got settled in back at home yesterday, with hubby catching up on email and me rocking out to the GLEE soundtracks while testing out the meatloaf recipe from my new cookbook. I’m happy to report that the meatloaf was a smashing success, and I can’t wait to try out more of the recipes. Did I mention there are step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to do as you assemble the meals? I LOVE that. Also, the GLEE soundtracks are delightful, but the song about “You’re Having My Baby” makes me extremely uncomfortable. I mean, really, is that necessary?
In other exciting news: you can now subscribe to The Book Lady’s Blog by email! Just click the little button in the right-hand sidebar, and you’re golden.
In this, the last week of 2009, I’m hoping to review Homer & Langley and In a Sunburned Country, read The Little Stranger and Half-Broke Horses (both of which I ambitiously packed for my Christmas travel but didn’t get to move from the bottom of the suitcase), somehow write a Best of 2009 post, and gear up for a good friend’s wedding this weekend. I’m also hoping to catch up on blog reading and pull together my resolutions for 2010 and my thoughts on a new reading philosophy.
How was your holiday? What did you get? What have you been reading? Did I miss any good gossip? Did your family make you crazy too? Tell me all about it!
No related posts.
Sorry we missed you, but know how that family stuff goes! I have family in St. Louis too (Clayton) and Steak ‘n Shake is a huge guilty pleasure. Almost as good as Winstead’s from Kansas City. Wasn’t Homer & Langley lovely?
Oh, I love Winstead’s! Best milkshakes ever. And yes, Homer & Langley was lovely. Hope I can find the time and mental clarity to write a review of it.
OMG, your recap of Family Movie Night is hilarious. It deserves to be a movie in and of itself. Rumor has it that George Clooney (among my faves too) could be interested ….
Wow, I did not know “Up in the Air” was filmed in St. Louis! That is so cool. That’s my hometown and I’m actually there now visiting family. Now I REALLY want to see it.
It sounds like you had a great holiday. I really want to see Up in the Air – glad to see it’s good. We’re visiting Carl’s parents right now, so our holiday’s not quite over.
If you’re at all familiar with Lambert airport, you’ll recognize quite a bit.
Our Christmas was just about as low key as you can get. We were done with the family celebrations by Christmas Eve, so I made pizza for our Christmas dinner.
Billy’s really glad to hear Family Movie Night didn’t involve Men Who Stare at Goats.
Oh, how I envy your quiet Christmas. We hosted my family at our house last year, and it was very mellow. I am so over this whole traveling halfway across the country to open presents thing….and I can only imagine how THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS would have gone over at Family Movie Night.
Love that you use a Fight Club reference when referring to Family Movie Night with the in-laws!
I’m glad to know how much you liked UP IN THE AIR – I think my husband and I may be seeing that next (we got several movie-theater gift cards for Christmas, among other things). And welcome back – sounds like you had fun, but it’s good to be home!
That whole “gotta make everyone happy” with Family Movie Night gives me de ja vu! Half the time, my parents get smoked out when we watch movies. We also see quite a few movies when home with my parents…this year our theater experience was The Blind Side, which was fine. A few well-placed “bitch” words, but the rest was good for ages 10 to 65.
Sounds like you got some great gifts, plus Steak N Shake! My favorite! Chili Mac baby! Homer and Langely is on my list BTW, so I will look forward to your review.
I feel like a walking ogre, with all the food I ate. Thank God for the Game On diet.
My family (parents and younger brother) visited for 13 days. They left yesterday, and John and I are enjoying the quiet! It was pretty stressful entertaining for that long and trying to not talk about current events or politics for that long either (my mom gets too emotional/her feelings hurt).
As for gifts, I got some wonderful gifts this year – some much-needed work clothes, a sewing machine (!), a coach purse, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking as well as Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmerty, a massage (so excited about that!) and a few other things.
13 days! Holy crap. When hubby and I bought our house and moved 1000 miles away from our families, my parents promised (their idea) never to visit for more than 4 days, and I think that’s just about perfect. Good thing you have that massage to look forward to. Bob gave me a spa day as an anniversary present a few years ago, and it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. Enjoy HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY!
The Blind Side was our other option, but after I explained that it was “feel-good, inspirational but NOT a comedy,” my in-laws weren’t interested. Personally, I think the happy ending should count for a lot (and who doesn’t love a feel-good sports story?), but they didn’t want to endure the sad parts along the way. I’m still hoping to see it soon, though.
4 days sounds perfect!
And thanks, I’m already planning out the best day to take advantage of the massage. I’m stoked!
And I’ve been looking forward to Her Fearful Symmerty since before it was released – I’m so glad to finally have a copy!
Also, sorry about the excessive exlamation points. I noticed that after I hit submit. Oops.
I’m guilty of the exclamation points thing, too…mostly on Twitter. So I’ll forgive you
I love the time leading up to Christmas but it comes and goes so quickly! I always feel a bit blue afterward. Overall, it has been two weeks of wonderfulness, minus the root beer incident where my son threw punches at his 46 year-old uncle after taking a root beer out of my 6 year-old’s hands. THAT was festive.
I’ve been reading like crazy though. I am trying to finish King’s 1100 page Under the Dome before the new year. I will do it, but it’s taken my focus off of the other books that I was in the middle of reading (Finn by Jon Clinch) and a host of others.
Also, we are about to head out of town for the holiday so there’s the domestic stuff like laundry, etc. I plan to hit a Sonic which is very much like a Steak N Shake or so it appears.
Happy New Year Rebecca!
Sonic and Steak ‘n Shake are both delightful, but I think they are oh-so-very different. Have a cherry limeade for me!
Holla!
Welcome back, you’ve been missed.
Sounds like you had a fabulous family vacation filled with excellent (yet possibly frustrating) family traditions. We don’t even attempt movie night any more but the situation you describe is pretty much what I go through every time we attempt to have family dinner out. Good news is that we too enjoyed Outback this week and it got a thumbs up from pretty much everyone….even my dad who has on past occasions been less than pleased with their menu selection.
Oh how I miss a good Steak ‘n Shake. They are on practically every corner in Florida…mmmm, cheese fries.
Safe travels to Baltimore tonight