Welcome! Welcome, to Julia's Astounding and Astonishing Awards Extravaganza

Ho! Ho! Ho! Tis the season for awards, it seems. Gather round, come in! Come in! Come out of the snow, the heat or whatever ails you. Here in Halifax it's chilly, Christmasey and hustley-bustley. Let the staff take your coats. Gather up your sparkly clutch bags. Let's walk into the auditorium for the awards ceremony.




The lights dim. The curtains open. Heather strides onstage.





She's handing out the Christmas Spirit Award.









"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time;
a kind, forgiving, charitable time;
the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year,
when men and women seem by one consent
to open their shut-up hearts freely,
and to think of people below them
as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave,
and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

- Charles Dickens

"Here are the rules for the Christmas Spirit Award," Heather says:

"You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.
The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.
Link back to the person who gave you the award.
List 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space!
Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But keep the Christmas cheer going!
Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment. Also, link back to the person who gave you the award."

Oh, thank you, Heather! ((hug)) I'm very honored to receive this. I'll list my five things at the end of the ceremony, when I pass the awards along.

Right now I'd like to share a little piece of what lives in my heart all year round when anyone says the word 'Christmas':




Let's welcome Thomma Lyn now, who's presenting the Brillante Weblog Premio 2008 Award.








"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."

- John Lennon

((Hug)) Thomma Lyn! Thank you so much. Your Tennessee Text Wrestling is a place for soothing reflection, as you invite all your readers to hike up the mountain with you, to look around and marvel at the glory of nature. And the poetry from the masters you share with us is a balm for my creative soul. So I'm very humbled by your award *blushing*

In honor of the spirit of this Brillante Premio Award, enjoy this art piece by Bob Miller, exploring the colors and waves of light through prisms and mirrors. Take a moment to enjoy the brilliance that lives inside each one of us.
















Great Attitude and/or Gratitude

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
- George Santayana

Thomma Lyn invites Wylie Kinson and Ann from Fractured Fiction to join her at the podium.

"Blogs which show Great Attitude and/or Gratitude," Thomma Lyn says. "Wylie, you're a perfect example. Your pop culture pulse crackles with attitude - it's where Julia gets a lot of her late-breaking entertainment news. And your gratitude for the important things in life, like your own family hikes through the woods, or philosophical talks on a long car trip - these shine out in your blog like heavy curtains thrust aside to let in the sun."

"Thomma Lyn," Wylie says, giving her a playful nudge. "You know Ann's contagious enthusiasm for books dwarfs my passion for all things cutting edge and fabulous. Ann shares splashy book covers and makes everyone add to the TBR Mountain Range. And she posts hilarious captioned pictures from Icanhascheezburger that make Julia spew her morning coffee through her nose. What better attitude is there than that?"

"Stop it," Ann says, shoving Wylie into Thomma Lyn. "Julia - get up here already and wheel this lemonade cart outta here!"

((hugging Thomma Lyn, Wylie and Ann)) Thank you so much! Come on - let's go get a glass of this stuff and watch Mikhail Baryshnikov show Attitude and Gratitude at getting the chance to perform in A Chorus Line:














"Wherever you go, go with all your heart."

- Confucius

Joanna D'Angelo from missmakeamovie takes the stage. "I'm here to present the I Heart Your Blog Award. I invited Julia to join our group blog this year and we've enjoyed many heartfelt comments-conversations over all things filmic, political and especially about the heart it takes to be an artist. Come on up, Julia." She passes me the award - here's another ((hug)) for Joanna.

I've enjoyed blogging with the missmakeamovie women so much, Joanna. Everyone knows how passionate I am about ballet, and my passion for film runs neck and neck with dance. My need for non-mainstream film/TV and books is fed daily at our blog. I got my first peek at the Flight of the Conchords from a missmakeamovie post. I'm extremely honored to accept this award from you, who manages to continue your own filmmaking career while tirelessly promoting Romance on Facebook and scheduling our blog posting schedules. Thank you so much.

Let's watch


this clip















from I Heart Huckabees featuring Jason Schwartzman and Mark Wahlberg. It's another peek into the heart of me.

Kailana takes the stage next. She's handing out the You Make My Day Award.








"If you don't have a smile, I'll give you one of mine."

- Author Unknown

Kailana is a busy, busy fellow Maritimer with an enormous appetite for books. Not only does she read, she spurs herself through themed reading challenges that boggle my mind at the scope of them. She started her own after her dog Sandy passed away, so I signed up for my first reading challenge - her Four-legged Friends Challenge. Because I had to find books that featured an animal as a main character, I got a refreshing detour from my usual reads. And I discovered an author I now love - Mercedes Lackey.

"Yeah, yeah - enough, already," Kailana says, ducking into the wings to drag me back onstage. "Take the darn award, would ya?"

((hug)) for you, Kailana. Thank you for this - I've mentioned to everyone how much your Blog Advent Tour meant to me last year when my heart was aching with the loss of my gram and soon after, my father-in-law. You made my day every time I clicked another link in the tour, to another post about Christmas. So I'm very touched that you're passing this along to me.

Here's a bit of fun that makes my day:








"Wimps lift weights, cheerleaders lift people."

- Author Unknown

*applause* as Toni and Karina walk up to the podium.

"My little ole blog serves up life's daily journeys," says Toni.

"And mine dishes up the skinny on a Boston city gal's dramas and dreams," says Karina.

"My fabulous life is filled to the rim with trips to Christmas tree farms fraught with edge-of-your-seat plot twists," says Toni, gesturing me to join them once more at the podium.

"And mine is overflowing with tales of romance, office intrigue, spiritual awakening and sexy boots," says Karina, handing me a martini glass beckoning with a Blue Monday.

"Just how fabulous are you, Julia?" they ask me in unison.

Kissing them on the cheek, I raise my martini glass in salute to them both, and then to you.

Darlings - if I were any more fabulous I'd be under glass at Tiffany's. Thank you Toni, Karina...and to all of you for making my blog so very much fun! And because I'm so fabulous, I'm going to indulge in a sweet little treat. Care to join me...?



*fanning self*

*sipping my martini*

Now - to pass on the awards. I'll begin by returning to Heather's request for 5 things I love about Christmas:

1 - The National Ballet of Canada's production of The Nutcracker

2 - homes lit up with Christmas lights

3 - Christmas trees

4 - Auntie Noel's lobster bisque which she makes with love for all of us each Christmas Eve

5 - Blackadder's Christmas Carol

Now, because this is a multi-awards presentation, I won't keep to the suggested amounts for passing them along. Most of them request 5 or 7 recipients. The Attitude/Gratitude Award asks for 10. For this event, however, I'll keep all awards to 2 nominations each.

This year's Christmas Spirit Award goes to:

Kailana and
Marg

The Brillante Weblog Premio 2008 (nearly 2009!) Award goes to:

Sans Pantaloons
Shelley Munro

The Great Attitude and/or Gratitude Award goes to:

Mimi Lenox
Sandy Carlson

The I Heart Your Blog Award goes to:

Claudia
Gautami Tripathy

The You Make My Day Award goes to:

Amy Ruttan
Bobbi

And the I'm Fabulous Award goes to:

Jennifer McKenzie
Patty Szymkowicz