I'm reading Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.  I have always really enjoyed Hardy in the past, but honestly, reading this book is like punishment.  It's so bland and preachy.  It's one of those books you want to know what the story is without actually having to read it.  I only have about 120 pages left, so I'll finish. It is a very forward (for the the late 1800s) indictment against church and the institution of marriage.

To console myself on this punishment of bad Hardy, I've also started reading Coraline.  I watched the moving thinking it was going to be a cute kid's movie.  It was actually pretty creepy.  The book somehow seems less creepy, but I'm not yet half way through and I don't really remember all the movie.  It is interesting to me that the title character is never physically described.  A few times the author has described her clothes in detail, but not her person.  I like it.

I got a Kindle for my birthday and have really enjoyed it.  I didn't have a complaint until last night when I couldn't read it because the battery was dead.  Well, it is true, a real book never needs to be charged up.  It is also true that I can't carry around 50 paperbacks like I can in a Kindle.  I could probably carry around 800 paper backs in my Kindle- but I don't want to brag.   :)

Santa, Yoseph and me!

Was it only yesterday that I went to the closing ceremony for the Fall semester 2010?  It's been a good semester.  Easiest semester ever.  Starting in January I'll have real classes to teach and real prep work to do.  For the closing ceremony D dressed up like Santa and I dressed up like Santa's fiancée.  (I didn't have the time or resources to prepare a costume for "Mrs. Claus" so I was some kind of elf or consort or something.  I don't know.




I decorated for Christmas today.  It's pretty minimal.  While I love Christmas and Christmas decorations, I'm sort of lazy about decorating.  I'm usually not where I live for actual Christmas, and I don't usually have many visitors.  I don't really have that many decorations, and I have so much other junk that would need to be put away . . .  I just scatter a few of my favorites around and call it done.

One of my favorites is the 'Elf on the shelf.'   Although I always thought of him as the 'Elf in the Tree.'  We had one when I was a kid, and he always sat right in the middle of our 3 foot tree.  A few years ago I saw one just like the one we used to have and I bought it.  A few years after that I saw the book Elf on a Shelf.  Apparently this little guy is a spy in a network of Santa's spies letting him know who's been naughty and nice. Yes, he's sitting between pumpkins and near a crazy-eyed Santa.

One of my new favorites is this Mexican nativity.  I bought it a few years ago on a trip pk and I took to visit uncle bk.  I hadn't put it out before so it was still wrapped in it's Mexican newspaper wrapping.  I was surprised to find a tiny plate of tacos included in the package.  Ummmm . . . a gift from a Mexican wiseman?

Plate of tacos on left.

The set seems to include four wisemen and one wisewoman or maybe it's three wisemen, and a well-to-do shepherding couple.  I divided them into groups of the latter description.  I like how the shepherd guy on the near right looks like a Conquistador.