Carl Crossman

Written by Sherri Hicks

As far as I’m concerned, one of the best parts of the entire holiday season is the opportunity to watch the best old Christmas specials every year. The animated shows are probably my favorite overall — and though it’s hard to choose a favorite episode of all, if I had to pick my favorite, it would be Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Every year, I love to watch as Rudolph struggles with being different, faces the Abominable Snowman, and ends up finding a way to save Christmas for everyone.

This year, I watched Rudolph on Direct TV with the little girls I babysit for. The younger one had never seen Rudolph, but had heard plenty about him from her older sister. As a seasoned Rudolph fan, the older sister sat next to me and talked about her favorite characters, telling me why she loved Rudolph himself the best. When the show came on, the younger sister was simply in awe. It was amazing to me to see how engrossed in the old style animation she was, especially in comparison to the modern shows the girls usually watch.

However, I suppose that’s what makes Rudolph such a classic and is one of the reasons that it’s my favorite Christmas special. There’s something about it for everyone that transcends current trends and popularity, making it a timeless classic.

I was coming out of my house last week when I ran into a neighbor of mine. His name is John and we got to talking. I have known him for years, but haven’t seen him in awhile. Anyway, he works at the hospital and always has some interesting stories to tell. I knew he was about to go to work as he was wearing one of the medical uniforms he always has on.

It was kind of funny as I was wearing my own uniform for work. He told me about how he had gotten his medical scrub pants caught on one of the rolling tables they use to hold medicines. He described how he was walking down the hall while the table was being dragged along behind him. I guess you had to be there, but the way he told it was gave me a pretty good laugh.

His old pair of pants was ruined as they had a hole where they had been caught. He said that from now on, he was only going to purchase discount medical scrubs as he couldn’t afford to buy new pants every time he ruined a pair. My neighbor John is a pretty funny guy! I can’t wait to see him again and hear some funny stories.

One of the greatest artists of all time is Picasso. The artist painted thousands of paintings and has had a lasting impact on the art world. His paintings are coveted by art lovers everywhere. That’s why drama occurred when a new trove of paintings were discovered when a French electrician came forward with the art.

The electrician says that he was given the art after installing a burglar alarm for the master artist. Picasso’s heirs are claiming that the art was stolen and want it back. The art has been confiscated by police until the case can be sorted out. The art has been looked at by experts and is believed to be genuine.

Over the years I’ve always just bough Hannukah gifts instead of make them because I’ve never really had the time to make any of them. But this year, I was determined to break that streak and make at least one gift this year.

I picked up quilting as a hobby over the summer and thought that I could try and make a Hannukah themed quilt for fun and give it to my daughter. So I went online with my CLEAR Wimax and found some patterns for what I was thinking about doing.

Out of all the quilts that I considered making, I settled on a dreidel quilt that I thought would be nice for my daughter to put on her couch in her apartment around Hannukah time to be fun and festive. IÕm actually almost through making it too, which will give me a little bit of breathing room before I have to start cleaning my house and getting every little thing ready for everyone to come home for Hannukah. I love having everyone home, but itÕs also so stressful until they finally come.

I can’t tell you how many hundreds of quarters I dropped into the video arcade while playing PacMan. Classic game – what did you play?