So, I have made an important decision. It is this: This blog does not have to be inherently serious or thought provoking all the time. I am allowed to post things that just tickle my fancy, or seem mildly amusing at times. I was just browsing on over at my friend Kat Langdon's website. Seriously, check her out. She is crazy talented at singing and gave me an awesome and easy cookie recipe. I noticed a blog post about her crazy celebrity crushes, and couldn't help but add my two cents. Apparently I like British people and people with awesome names. Heh.

Anyway, the other night, I was thrilled I could go to bed at a reasonable hour. (11:00 if anyone was interested.) I had finished brushing my teeth, putting on my nightgown and had snuggled under the covers and realized this: I was not tired! Dang! So I put on the tv and found that The Dark Knight was on. I hadn't seen that movie in a while. Of course, the second I started watching, Hailey woke up. So I went down the hall, tried to put her to bed again, and she would have none of it. I brought her to my room with her favourite wash cloth tight in her little grip and tried cuddling her while stuff blew up on the screen. She might not have been too keen on me watching such violence, as every time something happened, she would take her wash cloth and cover my face with it while blowing raspberries at me. I was annoyed, she was amused. I made her a bottle and she drank it. She then proceeded to spend the next hour and a half yelling "A ba ba ba ba ba ba ba!!!!" at the Joker and Two-Face. She finally fell asleep again as the credits rolled. Should she have watched with me? Should I have put on Follow That Bird instead? I don't know. Does a ten month old understand the anarchist message the Joker is trying to impart? Who really knows?

This morning, she decided to dismantle Noah's Ark and beat Phillip and Joseph in the face with it. Was this Batman's influence, or her getting back at her brothers for stealing her washcloth?

All right, as you can see, I have received the necklace you can win in my contest, and it's awesome. Just a reminder, the contest closes on December 25th so you have just five days left to tell me all about your magical worlds that you would like to visit. So send me your stories! I have received some interesting entries so far and look forward to many more to come!

Tomorrow night marks the first night of the Jewish holiday of Channukah. This time of year has always been a personal favourite. The lights, music, and celebrations always put me in a happy mood. Celebrating with family, eating amazing food does wonders to chase away the winter blahs brought on by the early darkness, cold temperatures, and layers upon layers of woolly clothing and bulky jackets.

The holiday of Channukah is also known as the festival of lights, and nothing beats standing around the Chanukiah with your family, lighting the candles, and singing the blessings and Ma'oz T'zur. For me, the holiday means eight days of parties, latkes, and dreidle games. Up until last year (due to her passing), I would also make the trek out to Hamilton and help our family friend Edna chop down and decorate her Christmas tree. This is something I will dearly miss. Seeing her tree all decked out in lights and ornaments was an incredible sight I will cherish forever.

So, in short, no matter what you celebrate, have a happy and healthy holiday season and a very happy new year. Keep you eye out for my announcement of the contest winners.

So, I learned today that someone put a video with me in it on YouTube. Here I am in a ridiculous blond wig singing in a made up chipmonky voice:

Good times. This show was a lot of fun to do.

In other news: Only one week left in my contest! Send me your entries!

For this blog post, I have decided to talk about some of my favourite folktales. I grew up hearing all sorts of stories, some of which were written in my school books, such as the stories about the Village of Chelm. This village was said to be located in Eastern Europe and all within its borders operated on a kind of backwards logic. If problems were to arise, they would strive to solve it, and usually did so in the most convoluted way possible. In honour of this holiday season, I will tell one of my personal favourites:

Winter in the Village of Chelm was a very special time for its citizens. All would wait for the upcoming holiday of Channukah with baited breath, anticipating the candles, latkes, and dreidel games with much excitement. But for the mayor of Chelm, his most favourite thing of the season was the first snowfall. How he loved looking out his window to see the ground covered with a pure unblemished blanket of clean white snow! One morning in early December, the mayor got his wish. He woke up to look out his window to find the ground glittering and white. He jumped out of bed and ran to pull on his clothes. He raced to the front door of his house and stopped short.

"Oh no!" he thought. "If I go out for my morning walk, all this beautiful snow will be disturbed by my footprints. I can't have that. Whatever will I do?" He sat and thought, and could come up with no solution. He sent for his council of wisemen and they all came running to his home. He sat them down and told them his dilemma. They joined him in thought mulling over the problem of getting the mayor to go out for his walk through town without his disturbing the snow.

Much time passed and many ideas were proposed and swiftly discarded. He could not use snowshoes, for that would cause larger prints than his feet would. He could not fly, as he was a man. Finally one of them had an epiphany. What if they could make it so the mayor could fly over the snow, with his feet not touching the ground at all? A chair was quickly fetched, and the council gathered around, hoisting the seated mayor up onto their shoulders. Thus, he was carried out of his house and paraded around town, not touching the snow at all with all praising his wisdom.

This Wednesday night marked the opening of Angelwalk Theatre's original production of Off Broadway On Stage. I loved it. It was a night of music and fun. I laughed, I cried, I had a total blast.
There is so much that I love about smaller theatre companies and production. There is nothing that compares to a small intimate show, where you feel a part of what you are watching. Don't get me wrong, I love the big budget musical extravaganzas as much as the next person, but nothing compares to a house that fits just over or under 100 patrons, and a small cast acting and singing their hearts out. You don't need helicopters, pyrotechnics, or falling chandeliers to tell an amazing, emotional story. Wednesday night proved that once again. The singers used their considerable talents to suck us in with every note. Each song was heartfelt, funny, romantic, or sad as the tune and lyrics required.
Do yourselves a favour, seek out smaller companies, see what the independent producers are doing in your towns. If you happen to be in Toronto before this Sunday, try to stop on by the Toronto Centre for the Arts and check out the show.
Angelwalk Theatre