Beautiful Dreamer

I love this commercial for the imagination used in it, the shots capture, and the song...the song always makes me look up when it comes on.



The song is Beautiful Dreamer done by Rachel Fannan. But oddly enough according to this website the song was originally written in 1864. 

Gratitude Friday

Christmas Eve Dinner

I am thankful for...
1. a very nice Christmas
2. a white Christmas
3. being able to just be - not having to think or do anything sometimes is very nice and it was this week
4. talking to my parents and sister Michelle on Christmas
5. an amazing 2012

Merry Christmas

May peace, love and joy be yours today and your blessings throughout the year. Wishing a very Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Frittata

Frittata - potatoes, onion, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers, sausage, cheese, and herbs/seasonings - rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper - beaten eggs
poured over the top and baked - this was brunch this morning

Gratitude Friday

blue lights in Grand Junction

I am thankful for...
1. road side service...our car wouldn't start this morning and road side service came to our house to give us a jump.  We then went to get a new battery for the car as it was much needed.
2. being able to play Santa Elves and deliver some goodie trays as well as a casserole to a friend that just was getting out of the hospital.
3. wearing Santa hats and singing Christmas songs with my love
4. going out and looking at lights
5. unexpected gift from a friend that helped us do one of our traditions - getting a starbucks to sip on while driving around looking at lights.

blue lights on trees - probably close to 50 trees in this yard 

Santa's Elves

Michael and I are going to play Santa's Elves today and deliver a strata with roasted mushrooms, peppers and tomatoes, several of these little goodie trays and then a container of fudge.  We are even going to wear our Santa hats. 

On the tray: Maple fudge, sour cream cookies, chocolate fudge, 7 layer bars, thin mints and festive bark.

The Greatest Gift

During the holidays when I am busy making and baking gifts I will either watch Christmas movies on Netflix instant or listen Christmas music on Pandora.  This year I have been watching movies and one I watched was The Christmas Lodge. Not a fabulous movie, but still not horrible either.  Very pretty scenery shots in it too.  Anyway....this song was in the Christmas Lodge and the singer was in the movie.   

Gratitude Friday

Today's Gratitude Friday is hard for me to do. I know I have lots of things to be thankful for....but today has just been filled with so much...so much pain and sadness not only because of the shooting in CT, but we had 2 friends diagnosed with cancer this week.

So sending every one light and love.

Impact

"Consider the importance of becoming aware of the impact you have on others, and remind yourself that by raising your own energy level to a place where you’re in harmony with Source, you become an instrument, or a channel, of peace. This works everywhere, so be a part of the counterbalance to the human negativity you encounter in your life. As Mahatma Gandhi said: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Dr. Wayne W. Dyer from Do You Make a Difference?

I Believe Father Christmas

Christmas Treats

These are some new recipes I want to try this Christmas....

Source: bakersroyale.com via Darby on Pinterest

Instead of making them into pops, I think I will just do little brownie bits.

Source: flowerpatchfarmgirl.blogspot.com via Darby on Pinterest

This I think I want to make and give as gifts in a mason jar.

Source: food.com via Darby on Pinterest

These are microwave caramels....which seems almost impossible to me, but I would consider it a huge blessing if it was true. So I think I will try them.

Taking a Leap

The on-the-spot practice of being fully present, feeling your heart, and greeting the next moment with an open mind can be done at any time: when you wake up in the morning, before a difficult conversation, whenever fear or discomfort arises. This practice is a beautiful way to claim your warriorship, your spiritual warriorship. In other words, it is a way to claim your courage, your kindness, your strength. Whenever it occurs to you, you can pause briefly, touch in with how you're feeling both physically and mentally, and then connect with your heart-even putting your hand on your heart, if you want to. This is a way of extending warmth and acceptance to whatever is going on for you right now. You might have an aching back, an upset stomach, panic, rage, impatience, calmness, joy-whatever it is, you can let it be there just as it is, without labeling it good or bad, without telling yourself you should or shouldn't be feeling that way. Having connected with what is, with love and acceptance, you can go forward with curiosity and courage. I call this step "taking a leap." From Pema Chodron's book "Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change"

Gratitude Friday

I am thankful for...
1. Michael - it was his birthday yesterday and I am just so thankful for being able to walk this path of life together.
2. just relaxing and watching movies with Michael on his birthday
3. Michael feeling a little bit better...he has had the flu all week
4. Michael relaxing and not pushing too much this week...letting his body rest and heal.
5. apple cider to warm us up on this cold evening

100 Things | My Name

29. I love my name

I love that I have my name. Thankful my parents saw it in a church bulletin and decided to name it. As a child though, I did get upset when other kids got pencils, notepads and other little trinkets with their name on it and I didn't. On Christma

s when I was about 6 years old my Grandma & Grandpa gave me a t-shirt that had my name on it that they went out and got specifically customized for me. I hung on to that t-shirt for YEARS. But eventually I lost it in one of my moves otherwise I am sure it would enshrined because of how important it was to me as a little girl. At least now days with the digital age it is easier to customize things with names on them.

Christmas Lights

Coldplay + Christmas music = yay!

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS. Although we don't hear about it as often these days as we did in the late 80's/early 90's....it is still a fight. We must continue to fight for those who have HIV/AIDS. So this is for friends who continue the fight of their lives and to those who are no longer with us.

Bond ... James Bond .....

I'm a big time James Bond fan.

Connery, Moore, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig ....

All of them had their stake and left their own unique mark.

The movies are fun.  There's action with sexy women with sexy cars and sexy gadgets.  As the enterprise continued to advance, the Bond empire continued to be more innovative.  The cars did more, the gadgets were more tricky and the characters found themselves in space, under water and rescuing the world over and over again.

But as the empire continued to roll, the character could almost become predictable.  Peril + girl + gadget + action filled escape = successful Bond movie.

It wasn't until Pierce Brosnan's tenure that we started to see a different Bond emerge.  He was upset - feeling betrayed - a little darker - feeling more than going through the typical stunts and falls.

Daniel's version of Bond finally added depth to the character.  We had a Bond who has issues.  We had a Bond who was complicated.  Daniel Craig's Bond got rid of the gadgets and the over-the-top invisible car ... the VANQUISH ..... ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh....

What Daniel did in Casino Royale was to bring Bond back to reality.  Beating his counterparts using his brawn, smarts and a bit of Bond luck.  He didn't need the gadgetry to save him like the infamous jet pack or the laser beam that can fire from his watch.  Don't get me wrong - I like some of that stuff.  It's fun - but after awhile it just felt over used.

And so ... if you haven't seen the last couple Bond films (Quantum of Solace and Skyfall) - you may want to reconsider reading any further.  I don't want to spoil the plot for you.

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Are you sure you're ready?


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Last chance ....

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Alright....  Quantum has been dubbed Craig's mistake in the Bond spectrum.  While I can see some of the complaints ... honestly - if we forgave Pierce and the disappearing car ... we can give Daniel a little leeway too.  

So here comes Sam Mendes to direct the latest film Skyfall.  Sam is very popular and well known for his work with American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Jarhead.  He's done good work and I think he brought a different perspective when he was asked to lead Bond on another adventure.  The problem with Skyfall wasn't Mendes, wasn't Craig, Dench or Javier (who made a really great villain.)

It was the story.

Not everything was bad ... as there were elements I liked.  Bond having a hard time bouncing back after his last assignment, recovery not quite as smooth as it had been for other Bonds.  He was real ... just as I have grown to like him in Casino Royale and Quantum.

But ...  there were times in Skyfall where I felt like we were starting to embrace the earlier Bond methods.  I'm not sure if this was Mendes' way to pay homage to Daniel's former brethren ... but it just didn't seem to mesh with the Bond I've come to really enjoy. 

Yes - it's great to see the famous Aston Martin again.  Yes - it was even great to see Q again.

Where as in Casino and Quantum ... we got to know the villains more.  We learned more about their history and how they got to be evil.  Javier's character barely had one segment to explain why he was in a bad mood and wanted to take down the agency.  It felt flat even though Javier did an incredible job trying to rescue the character.

Even with that ... I felt I could be okay with the movie ... until ....

...the very end.  The last 5-7 minutes seem like a cop out.  Right down to Eve Moneypenny, the cushioned door leading into M's office .... and it just felt like Daniel's Bond had been transformed into something - less - than what he's capable of.  The build-up of what Sam had done up until the last part of the movie - was unraveled by this "blast from the past" kind of familiarity reunion thing.

I'm sure the Bond franchise is eager to start building on Skyfall's popularity.  The movie has gotten rave reviews and has been a good money maker for the Bond empire. It's sad that the bottom fell out at the end of a really good movie.  I'm not saying their unexpected plot twist with M was bad ... it's probably really good for the stories to come ... but we didn't need to come back to Bond circa 1960.  

What Mendes and Broccoli should've realized is that it's okay to be an advanced modern Bond and an advanced MI6.  It's okay to be weak, vulnerable and human with all of the failings that follow.  The Bond empire didn't need to revert or put the jacket back on from long ago.  It's okay to step out of the shadow of the old Bonds ... and make the Bond that resonated the most with the Ian Flemming character.

In short - as some reviewers have said - it's not a bad movie ... but it's just not a great Bond movie.  I do hope that the next Bond movie can step back on the Path they started before ... or else I'm in for another disappointing 2 1/2 hour movie.