A to Z Blog Challenge -- I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas

Join me at The Popculturedivas for O is for Oscar Night Party.

Wordless Wednesday - 175

Poetry Train Monday - 134 - Holding Christmas Near

Welcome to a brand new year aboard the Poetry Train!




Here is my newest poem, freshly crafted this evening. For more poetry, Ride the Poetry Train!





















Holding Christmas Near


Not yet ready
To put Christmas away
Not yet ready

Mom whipped up a
Huge pasta dinner
Mom gathered us to her
Not yet ready to put Christmas away

The tree remains
Stands at a safe distance from
Neighboring eyes
The tree remains
Behind closed blinds, brightly shining
We still hold Christmas near

My husband and I clear the way to this table
Clear the way through the fresh page of snowfall
My husband and I clear the way for fresh starts
Mom gathers us round the table
Still holding Christmas near

My sister and her honey bundle up through the cold
My sister and her honey bring news and laughter
Mom gathers them round the table
Still holding Christmas near

Not yet ready to put it all away
Auntie and Uncle bundle up through the cold
Auntie and Uncle bear smiles and hugs
Mom gathers them round the table
Still holding Christmas near

Uncle bears salad greens
Grown in his greenhouse
Grown with no heat source but the sun
We eat the earth’s bounty
Freshly picked this January day

The tree remains
The lights still shine
The laughter still erupts
The appetite for family never wanes
Still holding Christmas near

- Julia Smith, Jan. 3, 2010

Madeline D. Murray says I like how the repetition evokes the comfort of the stability of family.

Akelamalu says Well we've put Christmas away - but then we have to pack for our cruise next week! LOL

Ms Snarky Pants says If I had a bigger house I'd get a pink tree and leave it up year round with different decorations for every holiday. :-D

Wordless Wednesday - 121

Susan Helen Gottfried says The table looked great!

Sukhmandir Kaur says That is an awesome looking slice of pie.

Shelly says Beautiful table setting...and the pie looks great too!

Summer Stock Sunday - 6

What could be more summery than a family dinner on Canada Day?
































My little cousin Sarah enjoys a hot dog, while my dog Xena supervises.














Xena is thrilled to have so much company. She shares a moment with my cousin Emily.














Our family usually has a family dinner once a month. But this year has gone by so quickly, none of us could believe we haven't had one since Christmas Day. My sister Michelle hangs out with our cousin Julianne, her husband Stephen, their daughter Laura and Auntie Noel.


















Xena gets up close and personal with Stephen.














Uncle Charlie tells us about a TV project he's working on about an aboriginal healing circle and the continuing pain caused by the residential schools of decades past. My husband Brad, Julianne and Stephen listen in.














Brad and me, happily fed.














My sister Michelle and her sweetheart, Newt.














My cousin Charlie enjoys the cake.














Chatting in the kitchen - Laura, Julianne, Michelle, Charlie and his wife Heather.














My Mom - nothing makes her happier than putting on a family dinner.














Thanks, Sarah - great watering job!

You can find other Summer Stock Sunday posts at Around the Island.

Ellie says I liked the red napkins - nice accessory to that desert my mouth is craving now!

Anya says The cake looks yummieee.....

Heather says It was a great time, Thank you and Auntie.

A to F Meme

Akelamalu tagged me for this meme.

Here are the instructions:

Copy/paste the questions.
Type in your answers.
Tag four people in your lists.


(A) Four places I go over and over:


- Mama Gratti's for coffee between stumbling off the bus and toddling into work














- Park Lane cinemas for films and ballet in HD






- Keshen Goodman Public Library for my monthly writers' meeting







- When I'm in Toronto, the World's Biggest Bookstore











(B) Four people who e-mail me regularly:


- my cousin Julianne
















- my best friend Connie














- my missmakeamovie blog mistress, Joanna D'Angelo







- my Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada chapter mates











(C) Four of my favourite places to eat:


- family dinners, whether it's our once-a-month gathering here in Nova Scotia or a Toronto family gathering whenever Brad and I can get back there - family dinners are my favorite thing of all.

For our regular Nova Scotia family dinners, we revolve them between Mom's place, Auntie Noel's, my cousin Julianne's and at my sister's boyfriend's place.


- my weekly lunch with my best friend, Connie. We've been BFF since grade 3. We walked to and from school together from elementary through to high school, and she was at my house or I was at her house after school every day. Moving away from her when I lived in Toronto was a torment. Once I returned to Halifax, we've made sure to meet up on our lunch break once a week, since we work a mere 5 minutes' walk from one another. All is right with the world when we have that hour together.

We have our regular spots: when I was at Land Registration, we met at Cabin Coffee. Now that I'm with Pensions, we meet at the Montreal Grill or Perks. A fixture - no matter where I worked - has been The Great Wall Restaurant, a fabulous Sze-Chuan and Cantonese place. Mmm mm.


- trying new restaurants with my husband. He's definitely someone who likes to try new things. And the whole walking into a restaurant experience, feeling the ambiance, reading through the menu, tasting the food, chatting, the whole thing - it's right up there among my favorite things to do.




- sitting at my mom's kitchen table on the weekends for coffee, breakfast, reading the paper and chatting. That's our time.




(D) Four places you'd rather be:


- in Narnia







- wandering through a Christmas-all-year-round store
















- in a spa having a massage













- gathering with friends I haven't seen in awhile for excellent food and lively conversation

This is an oldie but a goodie - a New Year's celebration from 20 years ago. These are my high school choir friends getting together after beginning our scattering across North America. Clockwise L to R: Sean, Shelley, Mark and me.





(E) Four TV shows I could watch over and over:

- besides BBC's Robin Hood, you mean?


The A&E miniseries Horatio Hornblower is a huge favorite of mine. I do watch this over and over.










- the British series following Richard Sharpe and his experiences with the 95th Rifles during the Peninsular War.





- the British 60's series The Prisoner. It follows the attempted resignation of a spy and his kidnapping to the Village, where the population is made up of other former spies only referred to by a number.







- a Scottish series from the 90's called Hamish MacBeth with Robert Carlyle. It follows the curious goings-on of a West Highland village and the lone constable who maintains some semblance of order.









(F) Four people I think will respond:

- Ann

- Anne

- Leah

- Red

Thursday Thirteen - 43 - 13 Things I Love About Oscar Night

1 - The celebration of achievement in film. Here's a lovely explanation of my view of film as an art form by David Bordwell, co-author of one of my university textbooks, Film Art:

"Rather than denounce mass-audience filmmaking as mindless or manipulative, we have to be alert for those moments and those films that are subtly altering received forms and formulas. These changes aren’t 'deviations' from norms but revisions or transformations of them, sometimes wholesale alternatives to them. Once a student called me perverse: 'You look for the innovative parts of conventional films and the conventional parts of innovative films.' Not the complete truth, but a good part of it, I must admit."

I feel the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does this very thing in selecting its nominees each year. Art is always subjective, and every year people gripe about who was left off the nominee list and who got on. But the Academy has its criteria, and it's not always obvious as to why, especially when the film or performance is a step or two ahead of its time.


2 - The red carpet. I love the whole red carpet event. Especially for the union of two creative mediums - film and fashion.







I don't understand the people who are jaded and think of the whole affair as a parasitic use of one for the other. Let's replace that word with symbiotic. Then it becomes a win-win situation.







Charlize Theron


3 - Best-dressed women - for someone who rarely gets dressed up myself, I love haute couture fashion. This is where design is at its most creative and I find that exciting. I 'ooo' and 'ahh' and really enjoy seeing Hollywood's most beautiful women presenting themselves at their most luscious.










Jodi Foster


















Liv Tyler



















Kate Winslet



















Jessica Alba



















Scarlett Johansson


4 - Best-dressed men - These fashions tend to be more traditional, but men in formal tuxedoes just look knee-weakening-hot.







Hugh Jackman


















Mark Wahlberg



















Jamie Foxx and Morgan Freeman


















Peter Jackson, Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg


















George Clooney


5 - The Billy Crystal opening songs. The first year he did it - truly inspired. And every other year, still inspired. I miss those.

"It's a wonderful night for Oscar - Oscar, Oscar - who will win?"

6 - Film montages, especially last year's Tribute to Foreign Language Film Winners. Just check out the segues between the films in this montage.

7 - The film clips they show when they announce the nominees for the acting and directing awards. I love watching what has been chosen to represent the performance as a whole. We get dropped right into the most dramatic and stressful moment. I love that!












8 - Oh, how my family loves the Oscars. Some families are hockey families. Some families are political families. My family is a film and tv family, and we never miss an Oscar broadcast.

One year we had our monthly family dinner on Oscar day, and my mom and I went all-out. She made a red carpet (which we didn't tell anyone about until they were on it.) We had all agreed to wear blingy red-carpet wear, though, so as soon as someone arrived, we surrounded them with a camera and a microphone and said, "Who are you wearing?" This is my cousin's daughter showing off her evening gown.



This is my other cousin Charlie arriving, armed with shades to ward off the paparazzi.










There's the paparazzi now. I'm all decked out in vintage flapper style.








This is my cousin's husband, my sister and me playing an Oscars trivia game (my husband Brad is the quiz master, reflected in the mirror.)


9 - My mom tries to see all the best actor/actress nominees before the Oscars, but I usually can't swing it. Leading up to the Oscars, I can figure out what I need to about their performances from previews and clips, anyway. I always have favorites whom I hope will win, but I also have a likely-to-win list as well. I seriously feel that every performance nominated in each year is a winner.

10 - I love the clips from both the animated and live-action short subjects, because it's not likely I'll ever get to see them, and I enjoy that brief glimpse into those films.

11 - This might sound weird - probably is - but I find it fascinating to watch the degree of fear present in the nominees. These people go through a lot in their creative lives, pushing past their comfort zones all the time. And yet the Oscars reduces them all to states of intense anxiety. What I find fascinating is watching how they rise above it all - mostly with grace and poise - when I would be a basket case in their shoes.


12 - The Post-Oscar Governor's Ball and the Vanity Fair Party. I love thinking of all the awards show attendees finally relaxing after so much stress at these parties. Here Helen Mirren and Jamie Foxx chill with a friend at the Vanity Fair party, with Francis Ford Coppola one table over.




How I would love to go to one of those parties. And eat a gold-covered chocolate Oscar by Wolfgang Puck.






13 - Local events with an Oscars theme. These often raise money for different causes, while regular folk get to be celebrities for a night. My best friend Connie and I attended one of these soirees last Saturday night here in Halifax. It's called Haliwood and was held at the Lord Nelson Hotel.






Photo - James Ingram




This is me with the guy who appears on the print ads for the event.





Connie had put her name in for a pair of tickets and won them (otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to go.) It was a fundraiser for Kids Help Phone.







I'd never been to the Lord Nelson, which was fun in itself. What a gorgeous older hotel. We dined on an endless parade of hors d'oeuvres.




We had fun watching the live golden models break their poses to chat with guests.








We saw my friend Jen perform with the Pink Velvet Burlesque and listened to an 8-piece band who were awesome.






And we got our pictures taken with practise Oscars - so we'll be ready for the real thing.