Warm Fuzzies and a Christmas to Remember

Okay, scratch what I said about "ample opportunities" to write blogs. I have been SO BUSY!! This happens to me every year; during the week prior to Christmas/Winter Break it seems like two weeks off school is SO MUCH TIME. Then the break comes around, and POOF! it's already half over!! and I haven't done anything! Well, anything that I needed or wanted to do, anyway.

The holidays were different this year because my brother wasn't here. Our family traditions seemed (and were) a little messed up, and there were a lot of things that just didn't feel quite right. It really helped that he was able to call and talk to us (YAY) for over an hour, even if he did keep us waiting for four hours up until then. All five of us were squished together on our three-person couch, anxiously waiting. :) We did really good! We didn't even start bawling until after he hung up!

The first part of my week was spent decorating and cleaning up for Christmas. It was really fun because, as I said in an earlier blog, I've been really REALLY excited for Christmas this year. I wasn't worried about getting what I had asked for, because I didn't ask for anything. It turned out pretty good! I got two super comfy blankets, both green; an awesome jacket; a BEAUTIFUL blue cotton scarf from Iain, straight from Montreal (I'm assuming...?); and a collection of talks by one of the coolest speakers ever--John Bytheway :).

Now to the real topic of this blog:

One of my favorite parts of this whole month is how my family made this a Christmas to remember. We decided the best way to do that would be to help another family have the same experience. We picked a family in our ward and did a "12 Stories of Christmas" kind of thing. Each night someone in my family would run the package (a Christmas story we had picked along with an object that symbolized something in it) to their front porch, ring the doorbell, and run to the corner of the street as fast as we could without slipping on the ice to the "Getaway Car". It was so fun! One of the earlier weeks at church, one of the kids came up to my mom and asked if it was us that was doing ''that Santa thing". They were mumbling, and they were asking kind of hesitantly, so it was easy for my mom to act as if she had no idea what they were talking about.

It gave me warm fuzzy feelings to think that even if they hadn't seen us, they had considered us people that might have done something like that. I know this will definitely be a Christmas to remember, whether it is because it's our first Christmas that we're not all home together as a family, or because we decided to make it special and exciting for someone that we knew would have had a hard time otherwise.

I'm exceedingly glad (that's #9!) that my family was able to do this service this year. I know it helped me to appreciate the strength and closeness of my own family, as well as the blessings that come from service.

A[nother] Review!

Okay, so I know I haven't done any real POSTS lately, but all I've really been writing about are essays for term projects and such. Now that it's the break (YAY) I should have ample opportunities to write blogs! But for now, here is my Rhapsody term project - A review on Mannheim Steamroller :)

For my birthday this year, my dad said that he would take me to a concert of my choice. I spent months looking up performances at Abravenal Hall, Kingsbury Hall, and many, many others. Finally, around the beginning of November, I found in the newspaper that Mannheim Steamroller was performing their 25^th anniversary tour on the 18^th and 19^th. I was so excited! I had never been to one of their performances, but I love their Christmas music and I had heard a lot about them! I told my dad my idea, and he was just as excited as I was. So, on November 18, my dad and I made our way to our $70 orchestra seats in Abravenal Hall.

We couldn’t have asked for better seats. We were smack-dab in the middle of the audience. We had a perfect view of everything on the stage, and when the musicians came on, we could see their facial expressions perfectly; their visuals and stage presence were phenomenal. The program was arranged in such a way that you never fell asleep or thought your ears would burst from so much sound. The composition of the music was exhilarating and beautiful.

Before the performance started, they had a huge screen pulled across the stage that had a projector showing a pretty indoor Christmas-y scene. When the concert started, they began with Hallelujah. It was an awesome way to start because it was energetic and they had lights flashing everywhere. It got everyone really excited and pumped up for the rest of the concert. I loved watching the violinist; even when she wasn’t playing she was getting into the other’s music. Throughout the concert she and the pianist were almost having a miniature “battle of the bands” between the two of them. It was really fun to watch!

At some points they went really over-the-top with the visuals; they would pull the screen across again and show some video while they played their music. With some, like Deck the Halls where they just showed some pictures from past performances in the background, it wasn’t hard on the eyes. In fact, the ones where the visuals were just small were actually very entertaining. But on other songs they would project entire performances right in from of you, and it was hard to watch. During the second half of the program they performed God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, both a more traditional version and again with a more modern feel. It was the longest and most boring part of the whole performance. They pulled the screen across and showed what felt like a ten-minute reenactment of what a Christmas feast would have looked like during the Renaissance. It would have been pretty cool if it had been about five times shorter. The good thing was that they recaptured everyone’s attention with their next songs.

Their program was very cleverly arranged. They would alternate between faster, more energetic songs and other slower ones that would give you time to calm down and relax. You were never bored (except, of course, for God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen) because they would finish with a calmer one and start the next one right off with an explosion of noise!

One of the things I loved most about Mannheim Steamroller’s music is how original and unique it all is. Even with this concert where almost all of it was just remakes of traditional songs, it was like hearing the songs for the first time. It was full of energy and so fun to watch!

I have always loved Mannheim Steamroller’s CDs, but nothing can compare to being there in person! The acoustics in Abravenal Hall are absolutely amazing. The sound reverberates around you so much it almost makes your head start to spin. Because their music is considered “18^th Century Rock-n-Roll”, the bass seems to make the whole building shake. The energy of the musicians are very contagious!

Letters About Literature!

Here is the essay-in-letter-form that I wrote for the Letters About Literature contest I entered. It wasn't nearly as good as I had hoped, but I was already late in turning it in.... I don't think I even did it right, as they said it shouldn't be a fan letter, but I really couldn't help it! I'm a fan!!

Dear Mr. Riordan,

I have always loved reading, but it wasn't until I started writing more on my own that I began to appreciate how difficult it is to come up with original ideas. That is why I really enjoyed reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Your writing is original and creative. I really like how you are able to retell classic myths with a modern-day twist, and I absolutely love your sense of humor.

I have started hundreds of stories within the past few years. I have never finished any of them because I realize halfway through my story that it's almost exactly the same as other books I've read. This has been very demoralizing for me. When I heard about your series, I was amazed. I could not believe that there was such a great idea that no one had written about before. It gave me hope for my own writing, especially after reading them and seeing how well written they were. Everything was obviously well thought through, and written with amazing imagination. I has encouraged me to realize there are lots of new ideas out there if I just keep working at it.

Probably one of my favorite things about your books is how accurate they are to the original myths. We just finished our unit in mythology in my english class, and I understood so much more after reading your series. I had a lot of fun talking about the myths in class because in the back of my mind I could see each of the characters in your books. We read parts of the Odyssey in class, and one of my favorite parts was reading about Circe and seeing the guinea pigs from her island spa in the Sea of Monsters. The way you picked up on the gods' characteristics and placed them in a modern world was absolute genius. Poseidon in Bermuda shorts and sandals, Zeus in the expensive pinstripe suit, and Ares in the black leather biker clothes. It was hilarious to picture the gods as you had described them, and it was surprisingly easy. It was so believable!

So many of the situations in your stories are completely unrealistic (like time stopping in the Lotus Hotel), yet you put the characters in situations that we can relate to and make them believable. How many kids completely lose track of time while playing video games? The ideas that the ADHD trait in kids is really their battle reflex, and dyslexia comes from having a brain "wired for ancient Greek" was genius. I loved the irony of the main characters being the underdogs in their normal life at school and home, but that they were really the ones saving the world. It gives us normal people something to work for! We may not be the best at sports or the smartest in school, but who knows? Maybe one day we'll be the ones saving the world!

All of the creativity and humor in your books made me want to be a better writer. I want to give others the same pleasure that I had reading them, so I decided to take the Creative Writing class taught at my school. I know that if I had not read your books I would not be so dedicated and enthusiastic about writing as I now am!

Thank you for all of your hard work! Keep it up!