Growing up, one of my favorite holiday ornaments on my parent’s tree was a little elf with red hair and a black & white gingham outfit.

Well, now it seems that elves are popping up everywhere with respect to the holidays. A few that have showed up in my life (from gifts, tv and emails I’ve received):

www.elfyourself.com – a fun interactive website from Office Max, perfect for some holiday time-wasting!
Elf on the Shelf – a kit that allows parents some relief from being the “middleman” between Santa and the kids. There’s an elf (who reports to Santa every night about naughty and nice activities) and a storybook to explain what the elf on the shelf does.
Elf’s Lament – a song on the Barenaked Ladies’ holiday album, with Michael Buble for a special guest. “I make toys, but I’ve got aspirations…”
And then, of course, there’s the movie Elf with Will Ferrell, which you can watch while eating cookies made by the Keebler elves. Or enjoy the extended version of Lord of the Rings and try to repeat the elvish phrases!

About 6 months ago, my eldest sister dropped a bit of a bombshell on the family. After months of soul-searching, research, prayer and thought, my single 40-something sister had decided to pursue international adoption.

The ensuing months have been a roller-coaster of emotions as she prepares for the day when she is able to bring home my new nephew (or, less likely, niece). She’s had to complete dozens of forms, take parenting classes, get fingerprinted multiple times (3 times, 2 methods, all going to the FBI), and decide on a country, age of child, and countless other decisions. I knew it would be an involved situation, I didn’t know how thorough the process would be though!

Along the way, the adoption agency she had been working with ran into a licensing bump, leading to more thought and agony. As a result of talking to Denise, and being a shoulder to cry on, I’ve spent way too much time looking at adoption websites since July (and not enough on my homework). We’ve researched Kazakhstan and Columbia (thanks, CIA World Factbook), checked out Polish adoption laws, and now, we are looking into Vietnam. Along the way, I’ve found dozens of websites for adoption agencies, countless blogs, and some truly inspiring people.

Of course, reading the blogs of families who are in country to pick up their children has been both delightful (lovely child, happy smiles, hugs) and heartbreaking (when families arrive to discover that the child they were assured was healthy is severely special needs, and the family doesn’t have the financial or emotional resources to complete the adoption).

I’ve discovered there are heritage camps, so that international children can learn about their birth country’s culture, and I’ve decided I miss going to the camps of my childhood.

This post really isn’t about any specific site. It’s more to serve as a caution to anyone seeking to adopt – please, do your research, plan thoroughly, and do some more research. Seek out every available resource you can, both in print and online, as well as the people around you. My sister is six months in, and it could be another 1-2 years before she brings a child home. This is a much longer gestational period than any of our family ever imagined.

Now that my head is finally coming up to the water level, I’m starting to see how many things I’ve missed with my tunnel vision over the last 2.5 years. I’ve subscribed to Library Journal for about 2 years now, but only took the opportunity to visit the website (in particular, the In the Bookroom section) for the first time this weekend.

What fun “In the Bookroom” is! I had no expectations of what it might be, but I discovered a fun collection of blog entries that convinced me that I might actually want to see Will Smith’s new movie (I Am Legend – I tend to stay away from things that brag in the title), and offered up at least 2 books that I am interested in checking out. I have already ordered Reif’s Living with Books via interlibrary loan – and I’ve asked Amazon to alert me when Coffee at Luke’s (a collection of essays about Gilmore Girls) is published.

This could become a dangerous new habit. Could the coming months find me spending more, not less, time on the computer than I have over the last 3 years?

Earlier this fall, a visiting librarian spoke about one of his country’s chief exports – Tanzanite. Although I had seen it, a coworker had not, so I did some quick research and found www.gemstone.org, which is the website of the International Colored Gemstone Association. The website offers a variety of information about gemstones, from specific details about the gems, to birthstones and stories about gems. It was both educational and great advertising for some of these small treasures!

Well, over the weekend, I was thumbing through the November issue of Real Simple (which quickly went onto my Christmas wish list) and saw a several-page spread on gems. Seeing that they had a dedicated webpage on gemstones on the Real Simple webpage, I just took a few minutes to explore the site and see how it contrasted to the ICGA site. The Real Simple information was good – just not as in depth as I had expected from the magazine spread.

But, while I was on the Real Simple webpage, I spent some time exploring, and quickly discovered that my few minutes had turned into an hour. I now have ideas for how I can reorganize my closet, a couple of gift ideas for Christmas, and plans to return to the webpage. I may not have found the gem I went looking for, but I found buried treasure nonetheless.

On the theory (soundly espoused in my Catholic grade school) that confession is good for the soul, I’m just going to come out with it. I’m a national parks junkie.

I was very fortunate that my parents were able to take our whole family on a variety of vacations when I was a child. One of those vacations was to Hawaii, when I was just shy of 6. During that tour, we made a trip to Pearl Harbor. I was far too young, at the time, to fully realize what had happened there, and what the bombing presaged. All I knew was that many Americans had died there, and that I could see shiny bubbles on the water. I didn’t realize, until far later, that the shiny bubbles were oil or gas from the ships, far below. Even though I didn’t fully understand the history, I knew that in the midst of a busy city, and the hubbub of lots of tourists, when we got to the USS Arizona memorial, everyone was quiet. It was eerie, and haunting, and for some reason, my stoic grandfather was crying.

Of course, that is the power of these historic sites and parks. I can’t remember who said it first, but when you are there, you can feel yourself walking in the footsteps of history.

As best I can tell, this trip was the foundation for my love of the national parks. About 11 years ago, on a trip to D.C., I purchased my National Parks Passport, and I’ve done my best to collect my cancellation stamps from the parks. Now that the end of the semester approaches, I have started to use my little spare time during my meal breaks to dream big about trips and vacations I can take.

I’ll be visiting Georgia in a few weeks, and by searching the National Park Service website (), I have discovered that there are 3 national park sites within an hour’s drive of my sister’s home. With luck, during my week there, I can convince her (and my niece, who is a museum junkie) to visit 1 or 2 of the sites. Who knows, maybe I can get Evann started on her own national parks passport!

On the website, you can search for national parks by region, state, or name, view videos of several parks, find out hours and driving directions. It’s one stop shopping for a junkie like myself! And I had forgotten that the White House Christmas decorations are based on the national parks this year, so I took the opportunity to download the White House Tour book so that I can thumb through it at a later date. I love this site!

Oh, and if you are doubting my junkie status, let me share a story from this summer. My mother, eldest sister and I took a cruise to Canada and New England. I had gotten my sister started on her own parks passport 2 years ago when we went back to DC, and we both carried our passports with us on the cruise. The reason? One of our stops was Bar Harbor, Maine, which has the distinction of being a lovely tourist city. Oh, yes, and the city is on an island, and the whole island is part of Acadia National park. Denise and I were actually able to get 3 cancellation stamps there – one each for Bar Harbor, Thunderhole (which was whimpering when we saw it), and Cadillac Mountain, the first place in the U.S. to see sunrise.

So why is this such a big deal, and a clue to my junkie status? After the big deal Denise and I made over the cancellation stamps, my mother just laughed at us. But when we started planning a family cruise in the Caribbean, I leaned over and said to my mom, “I’ll have 3 new stamps in my passport.” I meant my US passport, since we will be visiting 3 countries. But my mom turned to me, startled, and focused on the one US port of call. “Is there a national park in Key West?” she asked. Well, Dry Tortugas is 70 miles away, but that was not what I was thinking about!!!

So, now I’ll go back to dreaming of a new date with history in Georgia, and another cancellation stamp in my parks passport. Should I go for the Martin Luther King center, Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum, or an outdoor park like Chatahoochee River National Recreation Area? I’ll let you know!

I’m a sucker for a great human interest story, and so when I saw an article in a recent Good Housekeeping that mentioned an Ethiopian library which had at times distributed books via Donkey Mobile, I had to check out the website at http://www.ethiopiareads.org. Ethiopia Reads is the dream of an Ethiopian who learned to love to read when Peace Corps volunteers taught him how. He was nineteen. Eventually, Yohannes Gebregeorgis came to the US, earned a degree in library science, and developed a dream of libraries in his homeland. With the assistance of many volunteers, this program has already opened at least 5 libraries.

Ok, you’ve got an underdog, books, and a continent I dream of visiting. Does this sound like a dream blog entry to you? It seemed too good an opportunity for me to pass up!

Although my spamfilter on my home email keeps me pretty well protected (ok, primarily because the setting is really high), I have still often wondered about a number of the emails I receive from friends and coworkers. Frequently, I turn to Snopes to discover the accuracy of the email, checking to see if it is just your basic chain letter, hoax, etc. However, a coworker recently told me about Hoaxbusters (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/). I have to say, this is really an interesting site, and one that I could happily spend some free time exploring. (Well, once I regain free time.)
In addition to debunking urban myths, it also provides information about trojan viruses, origins of some of the emails, and even an analysis of the costs of these hoax emails. Although I haven’t read through the analysis very thoroughly, and so am not sure how they came up with their figures, this is definitely one site I look forward to investigating further.

While watching the news over the weekend, I was alarmed to hear that the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C. are having structural and facility-related issues. According to the report that I heard, the Secretary in charge of the Smithsonian’s was requesting a huge budget upgrade so that the institution can do more than just catch-up or crisis intervention with roof leaks, climate issues, and much more. While using the Smithsonian website to check out more information about this situation (http://www.si.edu/about/gao/default.htm), I was reminded that in addition to the current museums, there will soon be a National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Marvelously, though the museum won’t open its’ physical doors for several more years, they have already established a web presence at http://nmaahc.si.edu/. This site leads you to online exhibitions, the Storycorps Griot, and an education section that I have already been able to use. Within the education section, there are lesson plans using the current exhibition “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” as well as a literature list that proved helpful when speaking with one of our Education professors who was planning a multi-cultural children’s literature class. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the National Museum of African American History and Culture online, make it a point to do so soon!

I spent time over the holiday weekend avoiding homework by Christmas shopping. After spending an inordinate amount of time looking for gifts for the younger set (college roommates children, a baby shower gift for a coworker, Toys for Tots), I brought the bounty home … and promptly began to worry about what I had purchased. You see, after I returned home, I discovered that journalists had discovered that recalled products were still being advertised and offered for sale at some major retailers.
To allay my fears, I checked out the Consumer Product Safety commission website (www.cpsc.gov). On the site, you are able to check for all of the products recalled by company name, description, or even just month and year. This is definitely one of the sites I will be bookmarking for future reference! Although the search engine is a bit clunky (ok, a lot – the special simplified searching method didn’t work for me), even the basic search method quickly brought results. Even better, none of the toys I bought were on the list!

I’m deep in the midst of trying to play catch-up on homework, and really want to do nothing more than throw myself into the holiday spirit instead. Thanks to taking a break on Thanksgiving day, I was able to do a bit of that. I got to revisit some childhood memories by way of a WGN broadcast, “The Best of Bozo, Gar and Ray.” For those of you who didn’t grow up with WGN (Radio and TV) being an avid part of your life in the 70’s when I did, you might not be familiar with these programs, but it was a wonderful trip down Nostalgia Lane for me. Ok, so Bozo was on air when I was around – I came too late to the party for Garfield Goose and the Ray Rayner show. I hadn’t realized, though, until I saw this show, just how much WGN had infiltrated my holiday memories.
Why do I say that this has holiday memories? After all, the shows ran year-round. However, in the midst of the show reruns, they included the videos for Suzy Snowflake, Frosty the Snowman, and Hard Rock, Coco and Joe. Each of these originally aired in the 1950’s, and brought back many memories of sitting on our brown and orange shag carpeting watching them on TV. (Ah, the 70’s and my childhood). But the really special thing for me was that this year, WGN had sent the clips to the Museum of Broadcast Communication to be cleaned up, so it was as if I were seeing them as they originally were (no static, no tears, just pristine footage).
Hearing this, of course, prompted me to seek out the Museum’s website (www.museum.tv). I had no idea that this museum was located in Chicago, let alone what kind of collections it has. When I have more time, I’m looking forward to exploring the exhibit on “The Great Debate & Beyond” – which deals with presidential debates from 1960 – 2000. And yes, I probably will follow the link to their online store to buy a DVD of Hard Rock, Coco and Joe!
Of course, for me, Christmas isn’t truly begun without listening to my dad’s and my favorite non-traditional holiday song. For years, the only way I could hear “The Pretty Little Dolly” was to listen avidly to WGN Radio to try to catch it. When my father and I heard it, everything stopped. If we were in the car, and it was just the 2 of us, we pulled over. Now, if any of you have heard the song (now available via a Dr. Demento compilation disk), you know that this is about as politically incorrect a song as you can get. The little girl writing the letter to Santa wants a dolly that walks, talks, and well, “happy drinking gets her stinking.” I have no idea why this song cracks me up so much. But it does, and so I sit here and listen to the song, and raise a cheer to my dear old dad. (I’m sure a therapist would have much to say on why my eldest sister (a social worker) wanted a Little Miss No Name doll as a child, while I grew up wanting my very own copy of a song that devotes it’s time to harassing a doll.)
So as I sit here, soaking in the holiday spirit, I wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving weekend, and may your holidays – be they Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa or other – bring you dear, wacky, or just sentimental memories.