Santa's early visit

I got my Secret Santa package in the post! All the way from County Cork :) It's the first time that my Santa doesn't have to travel outside the country. I've lived in Ireland for about six years now and I don't know how I have managed to never visit Cork city, but now I'd love to go and say thanks to Em in person. Maybe a trip in the new year?
I opened the package immediately, because I'm like that. I prefer instant gratification than later delight. But I did pause for a second to take a photo of the content. I couldn't believe how generous my Santa has been. Huge virtual hug to Em from C'est la vie! Seriously, thank you so much. This was way more than I expected, you made my day! I looked for an email on your blog to thank you immediately but I didn't find one, so this is the only way I have to show you my appreciation ;)


Em sent me 3 books - Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Tent by Margaret Atwood and Perfume by Patrick Süskind. Two cds - Mick Flannery (Irish) and Basia Bulat (Canadian), who I had never heard of before, and two mysterious packages which turned out to be two special kind of French artisan sea salts: Fleur de sel and Gros sel both from Nairmoutier in Brittany. Em describes the first as being the gold of salt, and I'm almost hesitant to try it out as it's so precious!

About the books, I've read Perfume before and really enjoyed it, but I have never read Dracula (I know!) and the only book by Margaret Atwood that I've read is The Handmaid's Tale which was fantastic, so I'm glad to have another one of hers handy.
Also, I've listened to the cds once each, and yes, it's my kind of music. Will be playing them lots, especially Basia. So thank you so much again for everything, you've been a wonderful Santa.

Wow, I can believe this is the 4th Secret Santa exchange. The 4th! I'm just going to let that sink in...
And then warmly thank all the people who make this possible every year:
Allie, Amanda, Amy, Jen, Jen, Kelly, Lenore, Nicole, Selena.

Big hugs to ye too!

http://holidayswap.wordpress.com/

My Secret Santa!

My Secret Santa delivered her present last week!
I got a big box which didn't fit into the chimney so Santa left a note saying that my present had to be collected at the post office...and I couldn't even wait to get home to open it. I'm so bad. But what's the point of getting packages if you don't open them as soon as you get your hands on them??
So inside were not one, not two, but THREE books. All from my wishlist. Two of them hardbacks!
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw.
Remember my pretty covers post? That one was on top of that list:)










What they always tell us by Martin Wilson.
The fact that I coveted this book is a tangible proof of the influence that the Nerds heart YA Tournament has had on me (and I'm sure on so many others). I had never heard of it before. It's not published this side of the Atlantic (yet?) so it would have remained in the dark as far as I am concerned, if it hadn't been for that wonderful thing Renay put together. PLEASE Renay let's do it agaaaaain.
Read Jodie's review for the 1st round.



and last but not least is....


The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents by Terry Pratchett!
How fitting that I just wrote a post about how much I loved his two kids books I read and then ZAC!, I get another one.
Santa's magic, I'm telling you :)




Now I wish I could have a time-extending machine, or a timeless hole where I could hide for as long as I like, only to reemerge after I'm finished reading everything I want. Alas, such things don't exist. Hope someone invents them soon.



Secret Santa didn't just send me books. I also got a badge "Spell check yourself before you wreck yourself" (good advice!), a pretty necklace, and a beautiful bookmark by Suzanne Woolcott. I wasn't familiar with this artist but the more I look at her stuff, the more I like it!
Look how cute this bookmark is!:

For all her awesomeness, my Secret Santa has decided to stay secret.
But I'd LOVE to know your name, Secret Santa, so that I can thank you personally. So if you don't mind, let me know. I promise it won't spoil the magic :)

ETA: I completely and shamefully forgot to thank the amazing people who made this Santa Exchange possible. It's my third year taking part in it, and I wouldn't want to miss it for the world! It's just so much fun. This is Holiday Swap central and this is the crew who made it possible: Amanda, Amy, Ana, Chris, Debi, Eva, Jen, Jenn, Jill, Kelly, Lena, Lenore, and Nicole.
THANK YOU!!!

I'm off home!

Just a quick note to say I'm going home for Christmas and I'll be back on the 28th! I didn't bring my laptop with me so I won't be checking blogs much:(
Hope everybody has a great Christmas!

Secret Santa and Christmas Blog Carnival!

Finally I get to thank Joanna from Lost in a good Story for her pressies! She sent a wonderful packet with 2 books - The Kite Runner and The Ice Queen, plus Christmas candles, a cute tree decoration (is it hand-made? it looks like), AND Belgian chocolate, lavender and ginger flavour. I have to say those are gone already but luckily I took a picture of everything, here it is:


I looove this secret santa idea, thanks again Joanna, it was lovely! And thanks Nymeth for having the idea:) I'm already looking forward to next year's one!:P

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Maw is hosting The Book Review Carnival, and I'm in it:) Go have a look.
If you comment to at least three blogs, and one of them it's new to you, you have the chance to win a $10 voucher for Amazon!

OK, now I'm off commenting and THEN, back to reading Hellfire, I'm enjoying it so much.

The Advent Calendar Blog Tour : the toys, the movies, the memories...

Welcome to the Advent Blog Tour 2007 day 4!

Ok,today is revival day. Since Christmas is all about children and childhood I'd like to focus on that, namely *my* childhood and christmas memories. Having divorced parents since the age of 5 has meant for me spending Christmas day in various places. In my father's house, my mum's, my uncles, my grandparents... So I don't really have a tradition that has been going on for years. It has always been different.
But something was always there:
1) the toys!
Man,I loved toys, and since some of them are now kind of forgotten I'd like to pay a tribute to some of my favourites, the wonderful toys of the 80's!
Rainbow Brite

I don't remember getting her for Christmas, but since I got one once and lost it straight away, it has always been very coveted ever since.

She-Ra


She was He-Man's cousin, or something. I was so happy when I got her castle for Christmas, she was very cool.

Micromachines


I'm a girl so unfortunately I never got these for Christmas,but luckily I had cousins and half-brothers who were happy to let me play with theirs! Sometimes boys toys were much much better...

Legos

You could never have enough legos...

This list could go on and on. But if you click here you'll find tons and tons of 80's toys to freshen up your memory. I'm afraid I'm gonna spend hours looking at all of them now..

The second main features of Christmas were...
3)The movies!

I'm talking about the films on tv, not at the cinema. Those films that are always on every year, and that we all look forward to watch even if we know them by heart!
I've come up with my lists of favourites:

The Neverending Story

Probably my favourite kids film ever, I watch it every year around Christmas and still gives me the shivers. Now I have the dvd, but as a child, I was always hoping to find it on tv.


Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory

Obviously I'm choosing the 1971's version, because that's what I used to watch,but also because I think it's way better!

Mary Poppins


Christmas holidays wouldn't be complete without my favourite nanny on tv.

This also could go on forever, but I'd like to mention some more that give me an instant Christmasy feeling:
The Wizard of Oz (wonderful Judy Garland)
The Sword in the Stone (it's always on on Christmas Eve or day, dunno why, but I love it)
Willow (80's fantasy, not very famous, but still christmasy for me)
E.T. (the cutest alien!!!!)
Herbie (and all the rest of the Disney family movies, cheesy but unmissable)
The sound of music (of course!)
Who framed Roger Rabbit (it's linked to Christmas to me because when it came out in the cinema I was on Christmas holiday but I couldn't go to see it cause I was really sick. My cousins brought me sweets after they went to see it, to compensate)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (such a classic).

I'll leave you with my favourite Christmas memory. I must had been 7 or 8. I was playing with Fragolino and Fragolina (Mr and Mrs Strawberry: I couldn't find them in the list,I'm pretty sure it wasn't Strawberry Shortcake. They were tiny, and had a strawberry as a hat, and a strawberry van) in my granny's house in Sicily. Now, my granny was really religious and she would always set up a nativity near the Christmas tree. She had this tiny figures who represented the Holy Mary, and The Baby Jeesus, the Magi etc... Only the Baby Jesus was horrible looking. Really. He had a serious angry face which I didn't like at all! So I thought of replacing the baby Jesus with my Fragolino,who was much cuter:) I didn't think anybody would mind...but my granny went wild!!! As soon as she saw it she screamed at me "what have you done? What's this? where did you put the baby jesus? heresy!".
I was mortified, but my dad only laughed and thought I had a great idea :D

THAT'S IT!
Now, keep opening this little windows of memory by visiting each day of the Advent Blog Tour!:
5 December - Melissa (Book Nut)
6 December - Laura (Musings)
7 December - Wendy (Caribousmom)
8 December - Nymeth (Things Mean A Lot)
9 December - Raidergirl (an adventure in reading), Chris (Stuff as dreams are made on)
10 December - Dewey (The Hidden Side of a Leaf)
11 December -Suey (It's All About Books)
12 December - Chris (Book-a-rama)
13 December - Jill (The Well-Read Child)
14 December - Robin (A Fondness for Reading)
15 December - Alyssa (By The Book)
16 December - Rachel (A Fair substitute for heaven)
17 December - Literary Feline (Musings of a Bookish Kitty)
18 December - Dev (Good Reads)
19 December - Callista S.M.S. (Book Reviews)
20 December - Tiny Little Librarian (Tiny Little Librarian)
21 December - Carla (Carla Nayland Historical Fiction)
22 December - Carolyn Jean (The Trillionth Page)
23 December - Booklogged (A Reader's Journal)
24 December - Kailana (The Written World) / Carl V. (Stainless Steel Droppings)