holiday traditions

Do you have any holiday traditions for this time of year?

My biggest tradition is the wrapping of the presents for people that live with me. I did this for my mom when I lived at home. I'd lock myself away in my room on christmas eve, put on a christmas mix, and then my mom would drag all the presents for my dad and brother into the room. And I'd wrap. I still do this - I haven't wrapped any of jimithingy's presents yet, and I won't until Sunday afternoon.

We have the "couple" traditions - going to jimithingy's grandmother's dinner in York, PA on christmas eve eve (that's saturday). Then christmas dinner with my parents. Then on the 26th, we drive up to NJ to spend time with him family.

We haven't picked a traditional christmas eve dinner or anything like that yet. Last year, we flaked and almost went without food because we lost track of time and all the stores were closed! We had waffles that night haha.

So, how about you? Do you have any holiday traditions? Little things that you have to do or it just won't be the holidays?

does anyone watch 'Dexter' besides me??

So, I finally sat down and watched the season finale of 'Dexter'.

I have to say, I really ended up liking this show. I watched the first couple episodes, then picked up the book it was based on while at the library. I read the book pretty quickly and I didn't like it. I didn't like the character of Dexter in the book. He was almost too creepy. He keeps referring to his urge to kill as his "dark passenger" that is constantly laughing at him or egging him on...

Yes yes, I know, he's a serial killer. Of course he's creepy! But what makes the TV show work, and why it's so watchable, is that Dexter is turning into a "real boy". It's not really a heroes journey. But each episode had a theme, usually touching upon some part of our humanity, and in the end, Dex would either understand people a bit more, or perhaps find that he did care about something that he thought he had no feelings for at all.

I think that's why, for me, the TV show is so superior to the book. The character development in the book felt non-existent to me, but I really thought that everyone in the tv series was fleshed out enough for you to care about. Even the "bitch", LaGuerta, seemed more human than what the author was able to put down on paper. Maybe that's because the TV show was able to shift out of Dex's point of view a few times, and let us see things that he didn't know about.

Though now I'm wondering how much reading the book first made me watch the show differently, especially since I knew the big twist way before it was revealed on the show. In the book, the twist felt so abrupt, so forced. But since I was watching for clues in the TV show, I felt like they led up to it better, but how can I really know since I already knew the ending?

And now - interesting changes that were made between the book & tv show - MAJOR SPOILERS for BOTH!

( Born Free )

I know, I know - jimithingy pointed it out ot me a thousand times, he's a sociopath and in reality, he would never "get better". But it seems like that's what the TV show will want to do. By the end of it's run, we want Dexter to feel more secure in his skin, more comfortable with the people around him, and have him say that he does love people. That he's not faking it all the time. To make the show work, the hero has to have a goal, and even though Dexter doesn't know it yet, that is his goal.

MINI Update!

lil ORNGRFL has arrived in New York City!!!!!

No idea how long it takes the cars to go thru the "quality control" check and then get shipped down to Maryland. But it seems like everything is right on schedule!