This Musical Message is For Contemplating Singing Them

Merry Christmas!

And since it is a Wednesday...

Feliz Navidad

OR

Joyeux Noel

Ho! Ho! Ho! 

Happy Festivus

Festivus for the rest of us. Have you put up your Festivus pole? I hope everyone gets a chance to participate in Feats of Strength and the Airing of Grievances today. May you enjoy a Festivus Miracle!

This Musical Message is for Open Your Heart

I Can Find My Way From Here

Hello, Saturday and hello people traveling through Saturday and the days to come! Today's Saturday Scavenger Shots word is HUMOR (or HUMOUR) chosen by Diane, who is on Twitter @Littlebird_db

I have grown up here in the States with fewer "U"s than those in, say, England or Canada. So, HUMOR it is! :)

Let me show you some things that tickle my sense of HUMOR -

We try to keep ourselves amused at work. We used to have a rotating schedule for dressing up this little plush hamster. That whole thing has fallen by the wayside, but here are couple of my favorite HUMORous Hamsters...

Honey Baked Hamster. Just in time for the holidays!

M. C. Hamster. Stop...hamster time!

Even when I am alone at my desk, I try to keep a sense of HUMOR...

I call this scenario "Nancy & Albert Get Busy"

It is nice when someone understands HUMOR and gives you presents celebrating such HUMOR...

These are my Xmas gifts from DR from, I think, three years ago. We definitely share a sense of HUMOR.

Of course, I can never get down around these three...

They bring HUMOR to everything!

And finally...this one is some HUMOR for Jasen @ Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections . He is my co-conspirator on Saturday Scavenger Shots and he's one of my favorite people in the whole world...

Of course, I stole this joke, but I wrote it on a post-it and photographed it just for Jasen (and you guys too!)

Happy Birthday, Jasen!!!!!

This was a long post with a lot of photos. Hope you were able to keep your sense of HUMOR during the whole of it. Now all that's left is to see who Diane tags for next week. Thanks for stopping by and keep on laughing! 

And We - We Got Upsot

Ho Ho Ho and a very Happy Choose and Defend Wednesday to you! By next Wednesday, it will actually be Christmas. Therefore, today seemed like a good day to do a very Christmas-y Choose and Defend. Let's say you want to gather together some neighbors, friends, relatives...whatever. Which of these activities would you Choose to do?

Caroling

OR

Cookie Exchange

Perhaps you are a very social person and have both of these activities scheduled and more! In that case, simply Choose your favorite out of the two and tell us why it is your favorite (Defend). Perhaps you don't care for social activities and these both sound awful. In that case, simply Choose the least objectionable of the two and tell us why it is your least objectionable (Defend). It is just that easy to Choose and Defend! Thanks :)

This Musical Message is For the Joy of a Welfare Christmas

Fa La La La La

'Tis the SEASON. So says, Jasen @ Swamp Gas & Moonlit Reflections for this week's Saturday Scavenger Shots. Right about now, you can't go wrong with a word like that!  Sure, I took it in a bit of a different direction, but I am still reflecting upon the reason for the SEASON.  It's food, right?

Here is part of my collection of herbs and spices with which I SEASON my food. 

I had to feature prominently, my very favorite reasons to SEASON. You gots to have some fresh pepper...and okay, maybe some salt too! SEASONs Greetings!

Here is perhaps a more traditional shot for this festive SEASON. For some reason, the backs of our heads figured quite prominently in many of the photos taken at the City's Holiday Party. It's a good thing that's my best side! Oh, what a jolly SEASON it is :)

I hope you SEASON your food beautifully and that this holiday SEASON is full of joy for you and yours. If you aren't participating in Saturday Scavenger Shots already, please feel free to do so! Now all that's left to do is see who Jasen tags to choose next week's word. Ho Ho Ho!

Friday 5 - Seeds

Decided to pop over to Friday 5 today to see what's been up. As usual, scrivener was ready with another fun series of questions!  Let me see what I can bring to the table today.


1. When did you last have sunflower seeds? I can't think of the last time I had sunflower seeds. I want to say that it has been at least a couple of years. When I was a teenager, I remember eating them until my tongue and lips burned from the salted shells. I just can't take the pain anymore :)

2. What do you think of the idea of sipping coconut milk through a straw, right from a fresh coconut? If coconut milk right from a fresh coconut tastes like the commercial coconut water I've had, I would not be into it. I do NOT get the appeal. However, I prefer to imagine that it tastes different and better...and I love the whole idea of being on a beach, coconut in hand, sipping languidly as a cool tropic breeze blows through my hair. I mean, come on!

3. When did you most recently consume some kind of seed? Wednesday night, my burger, deliciously prepared by DR, was on a sesame seed bun. 

4. What’s the seediest-looking nearby neighborhood like? I actually live in one of the seediest parts of Glendora. Not that it compares to other seedy neighborhoods, but in the blocks surrounding me there are more apartment buildings than individual homes and there is the stereotypical trailer trash trailer park where a good half of my family lives. So, I gots that going on! Housing is expensive in So. Cal. I guess we do what we must to get by...even live in the seedy portion of a lovely city.

5. When did you last plant some metaphorical seeds, and has there been germination? Upon reflection, I realize that it has been quite some time since I have planted seeds of any kind...even metaphorical seeds. Doing that requires specific intention and for quite some time now I have felt rather untethered as far as specific intentions. I seem to be just floating like a dandelion seed.

"Thanks for participating, and may you reap what you sow this weekend!" So says scrivener and so say I.  You may want to answer Friday 5 questions on your blog as well...or perhaps in comments. Or not. That's cool too. Please stop in tomorrow for a full SEASON of Saturday Scavenger Shots.  Thanks!

Later On We'll Conspire

Welcome to a wintry Choose and Defend Wednesday! Warm weather lingered this year in this part of the country. But there has been a cold snap and we Southern Californians are, depending on our constitutions, either suffering or enjoying temperatures as low as 40°F. Okay, go ahead and scoff! But I've lived here all my life and to me, this is cold :)  At least it is cold enough to really feel that winter has arrived.

This made me think about winter activities. I thought I'd see what you'd like to do on, say, a snow day! We don't get those. But about an hour of travel will get me to snow if it is what I want...well, not now...in a few weeks maybe. Anyway, this week's Choose and Defend is about snowy, wintry activities. Which of these two things would you prefer to do (Choose) and why?(Defend)

Build a Snowman

OR

Go Sledding

These activities may actually be available to some of you. And even if not, you can surely imagine. Please, Choose and Defend! Also, feel free to talk about other winter activities you enjoy in comments. Thanks!

This Musical Message is For Made My Way Back Home

Stay Alive Until You Die

It is a TRADITION here at What Fresh Hell is This? to post weekly Saturday Scavenger Shots. Today is Saturday, so here I am. I chose this week's word - TRADITION. I guess I chose this word, mostly as a nod to the season. Lots of TRADITION surrounds Christmas and other winter holidays.

Here are a couple of nods to TRADITION from my house.

Here is our little Christmas tree. A TRADITION in many homes. When I was a child, the TRADITION was to go out to a local Christmas tree farm and get a fresh cut tree. So much fun! As I raised my own family, the tree TRADITION varied from year to year depending on finances. But we did always manage something! It is TRADITION after all. Now that my children are fairly grown and I'm living in a fairly small apartment, we have a fairly small artificial tree. I still think it is very pretty and I enjoy carrying on this particular TRADITION in this smaller way :)

Here is a kind of fuzzy picture of DR and I wearing seasonal elfin hats after returning home from the City's holiday party. Going to the party has been a TRADITION for me for the past 11 years. Wearing goofy hats for Christmas photos is a long TRADITION! Being happy is a TRADITION I highly recommend.

I am, for the most part, kind of Scrooge-like. Christmas tends to make me feel pressured and anxious. But I do, at heart, enjoy the TRADITION that surrounds this time of year. And I will be happy when I've experienced each one and can look back on it fondly :)  

I will go ahead and tag Jasen to choose next week's word. Thanks for stopping by!

So I Turn Myself to Face Me

Time for Choose and Defend Wednesday and time to make a change! That is this week's challenge. We can all stand to improve something in our lives, right? Well....maybe not you...or you....but the rest of us! So what would you most like to have more of, in the quest to improve your life?

Awareness

OR

Confidence

Maybe you'd prefer to make some other sort of personal growth, and I am happy to hear about that in comments! I so enjoy learning more about you. But still, make sure you Choose and Defend from the two choices presented here. It's what we do. Thanks!

I Was Nowhere in Sight When the Church Bells Rang

It is Monday, but don't despair. I am finally getting to my Saturday Scavenger Shots post. Thanks to the long weekend I avoid much internetting over the past four days. Now I am back to the grind and back to the fun of blogs and such.

This week's word, WIND was chosen by a new player in the game. Her twitter handle is @VesuviaAdelia . Quite a challenge to provide photos for something unseen! Doesn't mean it can't be done though...just have to get creative.

Well...I didn't get all that creative. But I did happen to have on hand a couple of fine pictures that illustrate a certain phrase -

This is my oldest son, Kick Back Dude, about...gosh...ten years ago! He was a runner all through high school. He was the very essence of someone who could run like the WIND! I was sad that he gave up running, for the most part, after high school. He had a real gift for it.

Here is my youngest son, Handsome Lad, a couple of years ago when he was a Freshman. The three kids in between these two never considered running, like the WIND or otherwise. But Handsome Lad gave it a try. He was a very good runner too, but I think his coach was a little hard on him because he was so enamored of Kick Back Dude. I feel bad that he decided not to continue with running. Siblings shouldn't be compared to one another, really. It just isn't fair.

And that's it...two of my kids running like the WIND! 

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, if you're into that. I hope you had a lovely weekend and are planning for a great week ahead! I'm not sure what is going on for this week's Saturday Scavenger Shots, but when I do I will post it on my Saturday Scavenger Shots page. Thanks!!! 

This Musical Message is For I Laughed and Shook His Hand