Christmas Carols

I think I get it. I mean, like most people, I want to assume that I get it. However, I don't really "get" it. Why do people have such a problem with Christmas Carols? I love Christmas carols, especially the old classics. It is one of my favorite things about the winter season.

I know I'm not the only one who loves Christmas carols, so it surprises me when people start complaining about how early Christmas carols are getting played and how quickly they tire of them. This year I was cast in "A Christmas Carol". It put me in the holiday spirit fairly early so I started to listen to Christmas carols a few weeks earlier than I might have otherwise (we're talking about before Thanksgiving). It made me happy. Other people, not so much.

It seems that most people want their Christmas carols for a limited time or they will become "sick of them." This confuses me, because they can listen to the same inane, generic pop songs on their playlist over and over for twelve months of the year. Give them anything approaching a full month of Christmas carols and they start to go insane as if they are being put upon. It just doesn't make sense to me.

But it does. And so here is what I think is going on. There are two issues at stake.

1. When Christmas carols first start playing people begin to think of the stress of holiday shopping. It's an early reminder of the increasing commercialization of the holiday. People don't really object to the music, they object to how the pressures of Christmas are reaching back earlier and earlier in the year. This is also why Christmas music becomes more enjoyable (for some) as Christmas approaches. As they get into the spirit of giving, get their shopping done, and decrease their stress the Christmas music is less threatening and more reminiscent of the positive emotions of the season.

2. Christmas is something to look forward to when the days are getting shorter and colder. Christmas carols help remind us of that. It's a comfort. However, after Christmas is over the weather is still cold, the days are still dark, and the Christmas carols are now reminding us of a day that has gone by, not one that is rapidly approaching. Christmas carols become associated with the cold and the snow. That's depressing for many people. So what do they do? Wish the Christmas carols would go away.

There might be other reasons. There's also the reasons we tell ourselves when we're hiding from the truth. I don't have all the answers. I just know I love Christmas music. In December or May, it doesn't matter. And I hope that maybe someday you'll learn to love it that much too.

Nice

In Sixth grade our class awarded one of our fellow students with the title of "Nicest Kid" or something like that. It was not a popularity contest, and even still I did not win. I wanted to win. I even thought I was going to win, but another student did. I can remember the student's face, but not his name. He deserved to win. He was a nice guy.

I did not learn my lesson. My wife described me this way, "If you have the choice between being nice and being funny, you choose funny." She wasn't wrong. In fact, I found myself so amused and well described by the statement that I used it to describe myself for quite a while, though I always attributed it back to my wife.

What can I say? I like to be funny. Humor is an essential part of my life.

However, increasingly I think about what type of man I want to be. What kind of example do I want to be for my children? And the answer that I keep coming back to is that I want to be nice. I want people to describe me as "the nicest person I know". Not because I want the praise, but I wish I could be that good to other people. I wish I could be so selfless. I'm a selfish person.

One of the nicest people I know is my father. He is not perfect. He isn't perfectly nice either. However, when I think of him I think about how he treats strangers. I rarely see him fail to hold doors for other people, to let other people go ahead of him, to pick up people's dropped items, or to help them with a joke and a compliment. He is always striking up friendly conversations with the people around him. And it's not just when it is convenient. I have seen him go out of his way to help other people. At times, it seems like my father is actively anticipating what the people around him or going to need. It's amazing.

And while he does that, where am I? I'm in my head. Thinking away and not helping.

I don't have any deep thoughts for the blog this week. There are no insights that I have gained. I think I mostly wanted to mention something that I admire in my dad. It's one of the ways I wish I could be more like him. So, thank you dad for being such a great example to me.

My New Obsession...

For years I've loved to cook. I can trace back my joy of cooking to early in my life, though it wasn't until after I got married that I really started to learn how to cook. That's a story for another day. When I've talked about my love of cooking there has always been an accompanying clarification. "I like cooking...except dough. Me and dough don't get along."

2016 is the year that changes. I am going to conquer my problems with dough through sheer exposure.

The desire to change that probably started with Netflix. Yes, Netflix. Don't judge me. You've been there too. In this case, my family and I had started watching food shows together on Netflix and after going through several classic Food Network Show (and some not so classic shows) we sat down and watched "The Great British Bake Off". It was enthralling. My wife and I have discussed how we wish American competitions would emulate their style more. It wasn't hyped, it wasn't false tension, it wasn't forced drama. It was a bunch of people in a tent doing what they loved--baking. And they did some amazing things.

I don't think I'll ever get to the level that the contestants were at, but it was fun watching what they created and I felt the desire growing within me. My wife and I looked up cook books written by the shows host and I ended up asking for "How To Bake" by Paul Hollywood for Christmas. My wife was gracious enough to get it for me and I started reading through it.

From my earlier research, I knew that this book was not converted for an American audience. Measurements are given by weight instead of cups and in grams instead of ounces. Temperatures are in Celsius. Liquids in milliliters.. This was actually an attraction instead of a deterrent. I already own an electronic scale that can do grams and ounces, a probe thermometer that can measure in Celsius (plus google to do conversions for oven temperature), and any good liquid measure already does milliliters anyway. Measuring in this fashion is often more accurate than our American cups so would lend to a better product. Needless to say, I was excited.
As I flipped through the book on Christmas morning a realization came to me. This was the book. The cookbook I had been seeking. Finally, in my hands I held a cookbook that I would master. Every single recipe. There would not be a single recipe I would skip. I would go through them one by one until I had mastered the art of baking and completed the book. It had recently become a goal of mine to find such a cookbook and now I had it.

Later examination would reveal that some of the recipes were less appealing than the rest, but I had already committed myself. This is going to be that book.

That is what I have been doing for the last 18 days (mostly on the weekends...baking takes time). I have been working my way through the book. Thus far I have really been stuck in the first chapter: Basic breads. This has included basic white bread in a loaf and as a cob, wholewheat bread, focaccia, crumpets, soda bread and today, barm cakes. The barm cakes we used as rolls for sloppy joes and they were delightful. All of it has been delightful. I'm adding sticky notes into the book to help me adjust the recipes as I go along.

For example, every recipe needs a little extra liquid (and he mentions it might). I'm guessing that's because of the dry climate I live in. The soda bread was the only failure (not fully cooked). It's a fun learning experience and I'm enjoying the hand kneading. It really helps gets the stress out and I like the exhausted feeling in my arms by the time I'm done.

So that's 2016...the year of baking. I'm sure I'll blog about it some more before the year is out. But if you're going to be stopping by let me know. I'll make something special for you.

Happy New Year

At Thanksgiving I started learning a new language: French. Simultaneously I started refreshing my Spanish. I used Duolingo to do so. One of the great things about the site is that they reward you for keeping up the daily practice with Lingots--an online currency you can use to buy bonus lessons, tests, or extensions on time to complete your lessons without breaking your streak.
My streak made it up to 36 days. Which was just amazing. I even maintained it over Christmas with limited internet access and having to work from my phone through the mobile site (it was not fun, let me tell you).

Unfortunately, something went wrong communicating with Duolingo on the last day of my vacation. Before going to bed I did my required number of lessons and earned my reward for building my streak. Logging on the next day from home and my streak mysteriously vanished. Some of my work from the day before had not logged properly (apparently).

Needless to say, I was a little broken hearted to see my streak vanish into nothing.

Here's the worst thing--I let it get to me. I walked away from the program and haven't reached my goal since. That's a shame, and it's all on me. It's just a silly little thing on the internet, but I let it rile me and affect my progress.

And I can't help but think about how many times I've let small disruptions in my habits break me apart and set me back to zero. How many times has a single day of missed exercise thrown me off exercising for months at a time? How many times have I stopped writing, because I missed a blog post?

I'm only failing if I let myself fail, and I've been letting myself fail a lot.

So here's the resolution for the New Year: Don't let little misses become major setbacks. Keep getting back up. Do it again. Get better. Keep trying.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go practice my French.