The Holiday Juggernaut Begins

Posted by missjunebug on November 30, 2009

missjunebug just ate the last sliver of pumpkin pie and she’s ready to rush headlong into the Christmas season. She’s working up the courage to open her Christmas closet filled to the brim with nutcrackers, Santas, shiny ornaments, twinkly lights, nifty fake greenery, Christmas stockings, nativity sets, glittery pinecones, and goodness knows what else.

And that’s part of the fun! She can’t remember how cool her Christmas stuff is until she actually pulls it out of the plastic containers she packed it in last year. It’s always a surprise because it’s been a whole year since she’s seen the stuff and believe her when she says a lot has happened in that year!

Maybe that’s part of the magic of the holiday season: revisiting the decorations imbued with a history that encompasses all the Christmases missjunebug has been fortunate enough to share with her Mr.JB, ElderJB, and TinyJB. Yeah, that’s it!

Let the decorating begin!

Thanksgiving: A Holiday to Savor

Posted by missjunebug on November 23, 2009

So missjunebug is gearing up for the big pie bake that will be taking place starting really early Thanksgiving morning. This year all the heavy lifting of turkey baking and stuffing stirring and potato mashing will be handled by her dear neighbors. (Whew! missjunebug and Mr.JB went all out last year with a houseful of friends and family so they are happy to pass the baton back to the neighbors near and dear to them!)

While missjunebug began making her grocery list to supply the ingredients necessary to pull off two pumpkin pies, one pecan pie, one apple-cranberry Harvest Pie, and the not-to-be-missed sugar cookies that look suspiciously like Christmas cookies disguised in the shape of Thanksgiving turkeys, she couldn’t help jotting down a few things she’s grateful for as well:

1. Family and friends near and far missjunebug holds in her heart especially at this time of year. She has been blessed in countless ways with a supportive family and wonderful friends. Sappy but true.

2. A home with a kitchen counter island large enough to make perfect homemade pie crusts or room to roll out the Pillsbury crusts if missjunebug’s homemade ones fall apart.

3. Excellent results on her colonoscopy screening! Okay, missjunebug knows that is t.m.i. X 10, but in a year that has been tricky medically speaking, she’s ecstatic!

4. Speaking of health care matters, she grateful that Congress wrangled the 60 votes necessary to begin the healthcare debate in earnest, dodging a bullet on a Republican filibuster. missjunebug hopes more Americans can get their healthcare needs met without having to show up at the emergency room. Like most Americans missjunebug would like to see some real reform.

5.  In advance of Black Friday, missjunebug wants to thank all the retailers for the super-deep discounts they will be offering this Christmas season. missjunebug tip: inventories are down, so if you see the perfect gift, scoop it up! You might not see another one again, especially those cute little fake hamster pets for ten bucks.

6 to Infinity. So many other things missjunebug could name. Just know she is one grateful little junebug and she takes nothing for granted.

Happy Pie Baking! Happy Turkey Stuffing! Happy Bargain Hunting!

Once Bitten

Posted by missjunebug on November 16, 2009

missjunebug has been busy reading lately. She wanted to see what all the fuss was about so she picked up Twilight by wunderkind Stephanie Meyer at her local library. Now she’s only two books behind. She’s not quite ready to visit Forks or La Push, but she is considering whipping up some mushroom ravioli for dinner.

Seriously, missjunebug had a fine time with this phenom of a YA novel and she recommends it without reservation. Bella and Edward’s romance interlaces gothic intrigue with typical teenage concerns of who’s sitting where in the lunchroom with whom. But twilight falls and things get chilly for the hapless Bella. Take a big bite of this forbidden fruit. It’s delicious fun.

With This Ring

Posted by missjunebug on November 9, 2009

missjunebug, Mr.JB, and TinyJB had the pleasure of attending a wedding this past weekend and it got missjunebug thinking about all things wedding-y. Here are some of her philosophical musings:

1.  Weddings are a hell of a lot more fun than funerals.

2. Contrary to Katherine Heigl‘s  experience in 27 dresses, some bridesmaids dresses are absolutely gorgeous.

3. The 3-part wedding weekend for out-of-town family and friends rocks! Rehearsal dinner Friday night, Wedding & Reception/Dinner/Dance Saturday, Good-bye Brunch Sunday morning provides enough celebrate and catch-up opportunity for everybody! It’s like a family reunion wrapped in a party inside a wedding ceremony!

4. Nothing beats little kids as part of the walk down the aisle: junior groomsmen, bell-ringers, ring-bearers, flower girls! missjunebug appreciates how hard it must be to wrangle these kidlets, but the results on wedding day are so worth the parental migraines during the rehearsals. Of course, missjunebug speaks blithely about this because these kidlets and migraines belong to someone else!!!

5. missjunebug firmly believes that the bride and groom can’t go wrong providing a spiritual context for the wedding ceremony. A little prayer and solemnity go a long way toward reflecting the true gravitas of the commitment. No doubt God appreciates this too!

6. That old saying All brides are beautiful is certainly true, but missjunebug will be the first to point out a là George Orwell, All brides are beautiful but some brides are more beautiful than others. Take missjunebug’s niece for example. She owns the more beautiful category outright and missjunebug has the pictures to prove it.

7. The dance floor is an equal-opportunity space for making fools of even the most reserved wedding guests. From the chicken dance to the YMCA refrain, even a tux or a formal gown is no guarantee the wearer won’t look at least a little foolish.

8. missjunebug will wrap up as pithily as she began with her final musing:
Nothing beats an open bar!

Could You Live Here?

Posted by missjunebug on November 3, 2009

missjunebug and her Mr.JB play a game when they are traveling out and about in the world. It’s the Could You Live Here? Game and it’s fun x 10. mjb and Mr.JB have done some traveling in the past few years that has made the game even more interesting and exotic.

Semi-Autonomous Region of Western China? No. Beijing? Yes. Prague? Absolutely! Nagasaki? Surprisingly, yes! St. Remy ? Hell, yeah. Closer to home they’ve ixnayed Dallas and South Bend but embraced Chicago and Austin. Even closer? A loft in downtown City of the Angels?

Why not! Prices are a real deal right about now. But, seriously, missjunebug and Mr.JB never talk the nuts and bolts of price. It’s all about the ambience, liveability, and access to culture, good food, and fun in this game of the imagination.

When Mr.JB gets tired of the game and returns to his fab gadgets, missjunebug turns on the HGTV network and watches her current fav show: House Hunters International (10/9 C). In this brilliant follow-up to the super-popular House Hunters, a peripatetic couple visit their intended international locale to view three possible second homes within their price range. It is so much fun to watch them ew and ah about what they see in these homes away from home. The kitchen area is usually the biggest issue, followed by the burning question Will our king bed fit in here? and the ubiquitous critique in every episode: There’s just not enough storage! Right, American buyers, there isn’t enough storage because you probably have way too much stuff!! But missjunebug digresses.

In the last few minutes of the show, the honey-voiced narrator highlights the pros and cons of the three properties with the soon-to-be second-homers. Will it be the converted monastery with a view of the vineyards? The roomy multi-level within the city walls? Or the country charmer with the wine cellar–wine included!?

And then the bedazzled couple make the big decision. Of course, the fun part for missjunebug is to try to guess which one they will choose. Sometimes she’s spot on but last week the Umbria lookey-lu’s chose the Italian home utterly lacking in charm. missjunebug couldn’t believe there was such a thing, but this couple managed to find it! She couldn’t believe the bone-head choice they made! But that is all part of the vicarious viewing experience for the little bug who loves the game Could You Live Here?

All Saints’ Day: The Perfect Anodyne to All Hallows’ Eve

Posted by missjunebug on November 1, 2009

missjunebug has put away her fun x 10 flapper costume and is thinking about this special day. What perfect symmetry to have All Saints‘ Day follow All Hallows’ Eve. The dark and spooky spirits have had their fill of fun and fright filling up the night with howls and whimpers and whimsy.

Dawns November 1. Believers take a big breath and exhale a prayer for those who have gone before them. missjunebug’s place of worship chimes a bell for the dearly departed of the current year. There is something solemn, wonderful, dreadful, and consoling in the reverberating sound. She can’t help but think of John Donne‘s “And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”

Now that’s a sublimely spooky thought.