Merry Christmas to all. Thankyou for reading the blog and the book and for all your support this year! Very best wishes for 2008
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Look what I stole from Moose:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? Gift Bags

2. Real tree or artificial? I think my parents had a real one for my first Christmas, but ever since we have had artificial. When I got married, I inherited one sad looking tree from my cousin, Kathy. Two years ago, the day after Christmas we bought a new artificial tree, dirty cheap from K-Mart.

3. When do you put up your tree? Thanksgiving weekend

4. When do you take down your tree? The weekend of Epiphany

The tree lights are on behind me and I'm sitting here eating the last of the Christmas chocolates from the tin, trying to work out what my New Year's resolutions should be this year. I intended posting them here so I'd have a constant reminder. But I've just remembered that my main resolution last year was not to do any 'shoulds' at all from now on. So, hopefully, at the stroke of midnight tonight, I'll be resolving just to continue being positive and to keep going forward — that's what I want most of all from myself next year.
If I can keep awake for it, I'll be seeing the New Year in tonight with a pint of Lemsip and some soluble Aspirin, but there's not a hint of complaint in that, because I was part of a friend's nice, family Christmas this year and I know the coming year will be a good one. I hope it is for us all....
Happy New Year to everyone!
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The Mitchell Report comes out at 2 PM today. It's possible somebody will get an early, leaked copy of it, but really, can you even trust that until 2 PM?

Seriously though, last night I was like a kid waiting for Christmas. The latest reports say that 60-80 names will be on the list, including All Stars and MVPs, names that will rock the baseball world.

This is worse than the Christmas when I snuck a peak at my presents and knew I was getting a Nintendo.

All I want for Roidmas is Roger Clemens.

Who can resist a piglet with her snout up the chimney, peering for a glimpse of Santa? In this latest for Olivia fans, Ian Falconer's Caldecott award character goes through the days just before Christmas with all the joy that a preschool piglet can muster.

Booking Through Thursday

This week’s question is suggested by Island Editions:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again? (I have several…)

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Last night I watched my all time favorite Christmas special. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is still gold standard in my humble opinion for quality Christmas fare, and it just isn't Christmas without watching Charlie Brown discover the true meaning of the holiday.

I want to wish all of you out there in cyberspace a Very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa Claus is good to all of you, and you are able to enjoy this holiday with all of those people you love. I will be with my family, and especially with my nieces and nephews as they tear open their gifts. It's always a treat for me.

I've included here a two-minute clip from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" of that wonderful speech that Linus gives when Charlie Brown frustratingly wants to know what Christmas is really all about. It's something none of us should forget.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Friday Fill-In #49
1. I love the nostalgia surrounding Christmas.
2. Blue is/are my favorite color(s) for the Christmas tree lights.
3. The non-existent candles in the window have non-existent bulbs.
4. A Christmas Story (You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!) is one of my most favorite Christmas movies.
5. My favorite Christmas lyric(s) is/are

We had one of the biggest days on New Year's Eve here at this site, as people from around the world came here looking for trivia connected with either New Year's Eve, New Year's Day or the year 2007. The site had 351 hits on Monday, and it was one of the Top 5 days we've ever had here.

Most people followed a link that sent them into the post I put up on Christmas Day about 2007 Trivia that was happening the next day. I put in a new line into it alerting those folks looking for trivia questions to go to my December 27th post that had the questions. I hope they were able to find them, and I thank all of you for being here yesterday.

The tree is gone. It's as if Christmas never happened. I often feel a bit of a let down after Christmas, but this year is different. Maybe it's because it seemed to have come earlier this year. Maybe it was because we had snow. Whatever it was I'm looking forward to the new year. January is like a fresh blanket of snow. No footprints. There's so much possibility. You just want to run out and make your mark. I can see why New Year's resolutions are so appealing.

My schedule has lately prevented me from sharing some interesting bits I've come across, but fear not. I've scoured the web yet again to find you some oddities and attractions. Enjoy.

Since I can't help but love the space stuff, I was interested to hear that black holes can sing.

After reading this, one can't help but wonder: at what point does a library cease to be a library?

For the Cormac McCarthy fan -- he speaks again!

Ruh-roh. Oprah's praised another stinker.

Please remember that we will not be having the regular Tuesday night trivia this week due to the Christmas holiday, and it will be happening this Wednesday night, again at 9 PM.

The featured category this week will be The Year 2007 Trivia, as I will be asking 10 questions about events that occurred this year. We also be having the usual four categories as well.

Since I will not be posting on Tuesday due to the Christmas holiday, I will be posting the Sneak Peek question a day earlier. So, here it is:

"What was the name of the hit song by The Baha Men in 2000?"

I hope many of you can make it for Trivia Night on Wednesday. And please remember that next week's Trivia Night will also be on Wednesday night, January 2, due to the New Year's holiday.

See you Wednesday.

All of us here on the Sports Flow team would like to wish all readers and passers-by a very merry Christmas from all of us. Enjoy your time with family and friends and tune in later in the week as we will continue to count down all our favorite and top teams, plays, games, and players of the year that was 2007.

Please come and stop by the NEW sports flow and sign up to talk sports at the community-based forum!

Time seems so speeded up — another Christmas already! Sometimes I can't believe how quick things are going. Don't feel I've done enough these past twelve months to mark off another year just yet. I'm here though, surviving, hopefully putting the peices of my life back together again. What I'm not doing so well with at the moment, is with emails — in replying to them.

Merry Christmas to you all, God bless, and please take time to reflect and enjoy family and friends over the next couple days!

I'll try to get one more post in before the new year, hoping to spark conversation on what 2008 will bring. I've had to take a small hiatus from the blog to study for a career-related challenge exam this past week. Thanks for keeping up the commentary. I do enjoy taking time to read what is on everyones' mind.

It's Mr. Willowby's tree, but the Christmas tree itself is the star of the Robert Barry's charming holiday classic. First published in a more Spartan format in 1963, Mr.

It's good to see that even during the Yuletide season, the Long Tail is in full effect. Just take a look at the Christmas 'classics' that have reappeared in the UK hit parade (it's still called that, right?) in the run up to the big day.

Professor Thom's Tuesday Night Trivia will feature a special round of Christmas/December 25 Trivia. It will be questions about people, places and things associated with either Christmas or December 25.

We will also have the usual four categories as well, and we'll get going at about 9 PM. Please also remember that next week we will be having Trivia Night on Wednesday, December 26, as Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday this year.

The Sneak Peek question for Tuesday night is:
"The bubbles inside a glass of champagne are made up of what gas?"

I hope to see many of you for Trivia on Tuesday night.

Sparkly ACEOs
Originally uploaded by m.Lee Any happy holidays to those that do not celebrate Christmas. But since tomorrow is Christmas I am covering that one first.

I haven't felt like writing much lately. But I am making art. Cutting paper, playing with gold and getting my fingers messy. It's fun and exciting. I also have some fun art stuff to play even more with coming hopefully this week.

For the last minute shopper, it's Curious George to the rescue. Actually, it's Margret and H. A. Rey's Merry Christmas, Curious George!

It was a big success last year on my blog, so let's do it again and begin a tradition. Here is the famous "Yule Log," that has been a staple of WPIX-TV here in New York for many years. It debuted in 1966, left the air for a few years in the 1990s, but popular demand brought it back to the air. It will be on TV at 9 AM on Christmas morning (and it will be followed by the classic film, "March of the Wooden Soldiers" of course). Unfortunately I have no music for you to enjoy.

So here is the second annual Mighty Quinn Media Machine Yule Log. I hope you enjoy the crackling fire anyway. Have a Merry Christmas.

Today is my birthday! Presents and cards are welcome and cake and ice cream are plentiful so come and join in the fun. Tomorrow we are off to Elgin to a pumpkin farm, where we can launch pumpkins, have a hay ride and do a corn maze. I think it will be a lot of fun and the weather is suppose to be cool. This will be my last birthday before officially becoming "MOM" so I am going to live it up and soak up the last bit of juicy selfish fun.

Stars: ****

I re-read this for the Christmas Theme Challenge only because I wasn't able to get to the library to get a new-to-me book. It was also for the Read It Again challenge.

I read this book every year in the week of Christmas (although it only takes me a day to read it.)

It's almost Christmas, World War I has finally ended, but Ruthie cannot quite enjoy the season until her father returns from the war. Still, she remembers the beautiful evergreen tree her father marked to cut for Christmas, and lit by lantern light, she and her mother walk through the darkening woods to bring the tree back for their church. It's her family's turn to provide the tree for the Christmas Eve service, and Ruthie's mother is determined that she won't let the Pine Grove congregation down.

We had friends over to ring in the new year and I actually managed to stay up until 1:30am! Of course I am totally wore out today though : ) I finished my hypnobirthing book that I got for Christmas and really enjoyed it. I started it yesterday and just reading it totally relaxed me so that when our first guest showed up I felt even a little hazy like I had just woken up from a mid-afternoon nap. I start my classes January 22nd and I can't wait!! Baby is doing well. He is as active as ever, with his kicks and punches just having a lot more force behind them. I hope everyone had a safe and happy new year!

Christmas has always been a time of tradition for me. I have always been with family at Christmas, and this year was no different. I always go to the Christmas Eve vigil mass, watch the Midnight Masses from Rome and St. Patrick's Cathedral on TV, open my gifts on Christmas morning (never on Christmas Eve), and watch parts of the Yule Log and "March of the Wooden Soldiers" on the day itself. And I always enjoy watching my nieces and nephews open their gifts.

This is my 683rd and final post of 2007, and the 1,160th post in the history of The Mighty Quinn Media Machine. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to come over to my blog. It's really been such a pleasure to see it grow the way it has this year, and to see my readership here increase the way it has.

The Red Sox World Series championship was definitely the highlight of 2007 for me, and it brought so many people here. It was a fun watching the Sox lead the AL East from nearly start to finish. There were a few bumps in the road, but it was so gratifying to see them now have two titles in four years.