Best of 2008

Nate the Great

No more stitches, just lots of drool!

Christmas Music

I love Christmas music but my kids hate it. I have failed miserably somewhere along the way. They were also traumatized by a McGee and Me video that has a Christmas carol playing during the scariest part of the story. Oh well. I will blame it on Dobson.


I have been in the car for 2 hours running around and listening to the Christmas station. If you listen long enough, you hear some odd renditions. Like Frank Sinatra and Cyndi Lauper singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It was pretty good. However I think that The Jackson Five singing Frosty the Snowman should be banned. Creepy!


I think Andy Williams can sing any Christmas song around. He had a great voice. Also I like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. I am not a Josh Groban fan but he does an awesome Oh Holy Night, which is my favorite. Johnny Mathis and Aaron Neville should both be banned. I cannot stand their voices. I don't like many women singers but Amy Grant does great Christmas songs. Karen Carpenter sings depressing ones.


Christmas carols hold so many memories. One of the first memories I have of Christmas music is sitting in church when I was about 6 listening to the choir which included my mom sing Angels We Have Heard on High and thinking it was the most beautiful thing ever. Oh Holy Night always takes me to the Texas Tech campus and the ceremony where they switch on thousands of lights on the main campus buildings. They used to have a professor with a rich baritone voice sing Oh Holy Night during that lighting ceremony and it was so beautiful. Also, my family would sing carols on the ride to my grandmother's house. I always liked that. Car rides were not always fun when I was little but this one was full of anticipation.

Carols have an interesting history. The carol's roots came not from the organized church, but from the common people who wished to express their simple ideas and honest feelings that were not expressed by the somber music of the church. By the 14thcentury, carol singing was firmly established throughout Europe, not to mention the dancing that accompanied it. Carols originally were associated with dancing, which explains why their tunes are livelier than that of standard church music of the day. Originally, carols were sung for all occasions,not just Christmas.

Nate

Just a few photos from my trip to Virginia. He has a great smile even before surgery as you can see. Now it is all repaired and he is still adorable and fun.

Risk

I googled risk and these are some of the things that popped up.

risk - definition of risk - The quantifiable likelihood of loss or less-than- expected returns

risk - the game about war

Risk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities. Technically, the notion of risk is independent from the notion of value and, as such, eventualities may have both beneficial and adverse consequences. However, in general usage the convention is to focus only on potential negative impact to some characteristic of value that may arise from a future event.

risk management

risk analysis

calculated risk

These words all feel frightening and negative. I have risked this week and have felt like a war was going on. Also I have experienced loss or less that expected returns. I have taken calculated risks. I have focused too much on the negative impact and am struggling to see the beneficial ones. I have to be patient. A long term investor.

When I risk and get a return of anger, I panic, like a wall street broker. Cut your losses and run. I have been trying risky things and some have worked out, which I love, but the flip side stings. It tells me I am a fool, subjecting myself to more pain. Yet I feel compelled to keep going.

Christmas Past

I was listening to the radio today and someone started a parents group trying to get advertisers to slow down ads this Christmas to children, due to a slow economy. The talk show host was railing against this man calling him a wimp. Advertisers have been advertising to children in some way or another for decades. All parents have to do is have a backbone and say no. Or maybe turn off the tv.

Anyway I got to thinking about when I was a kid - the ultimate advertising was the Sears Wishbook. It would arrive in the mail and I would turn into a maniac. Being a list maker, I would write down everything I wanted. I tried to get something from every page. Then I would add them up and laugh at the thousands of dollars I had spent in my mind. It was great fun.

This photo is from the 1971 Wishbook. I LOVED Barbies and am sure I wanted this Karosel Kitchen for $3.95 when I was 9. Heck I love this kitchen now. What an idea! My Barbies were my favorite toys. I had numerous females - several Barbies, Midge, Skipper - but only one male. He was quite a player. My barbie fantasy world looked like a soap opera. He switched girlfriends a lot. Somewhere along the line a got a set of babies - quintuplets. So we had lots of barbie babies! Maybe I was a prophet of my own future. Anyway, I have enjoyed thinking about my Barbie house and camper (the one in the other picture) and that wonderful smell of the plastic. I wonder what my kids will think about and remember in 40 years.