Twelve twelve twelve. The day we've all been waiting for. Doomsday? Lucky day? To me all the date really signifies is that we only have 12 more days left until Christmas eve. It means I need to work on my Christmas cards, finish my shopping, bake some cookies, wrap some gifts, bake some more cookies, and listen to Christmas carols until my ears bleed.
Bah, humbug, indeed.
But, today is the day we celebrate the number twelve. I remember turning twelve. It seemed a huge mile marker. In the spirit of that feeling of joy, here is a list of twelve things I love. These twelve things are listed in no particular order beyond what I thought of next.
1. I love the library because it has all kinds of good stuff to entertain and enlighten me. And it's all free. Unless I'm really late returning something, and then they just take the money out of my checks. Just kidding! They just pay me a reduced rate to balance things out.
2. I love to go snowshoeing. I will love it even more after we get some more snow. We have about three inches. Three more would be great. We might get more this week which caused me to shout a hip hip hooray when I looked at the extended forecast this afternoon.
3. I love getting Christmas cards from family and friends. I would love to get cards from enemies too, if I had any and they cared to write once a year. I like to see how everyone's family has grown over the year, and I like to look at the pictures on the cards and read the messages printed inside. We've gotten many already, and it should be only another week or so until I get mine sent out.
4. I love gingerbread men. I love them. I love the red hots and raisins they are decorated with. For the past couple years, when my family gets together for our Christmas, I make gingerbread men and let the kids decorate them. I really should take pictures. Some of them are so full of red hots it's crazy. This year I got some new cookie cutters. Ninjabread men. My nephews LOVED it, and so did everyone else. The ninjabread cookies are gone, and it's now time to make more.
5. I love book club. I have two book clubs. One with my friends, and one with the library and my library friends. The library club meets the last Wednesday of every month (except Nov. and Dec. when we meet a week earlier so as not to cramp our holidays). I love meeting with people and discussing a book we've all read, or at least looked at the cover of, or thought about reading. Neither of my book clubs is very strict when it comes to that. Library book club meets next week. We're reading A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg. My other bookclub meets at some yet to be named date next month and we're reading Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb. I love my book clubs.
6. I love reading to kids. I should amend that. I love reading books that I've picked out to kids. It's so much fun to introduce a child to the wonders of books. I love it when I get to introduce them to some of the authors and illustrators that are great at their craft. Mo Willems is my favorite author/illustrator to read to any kid. If you haven't had the chance to read a Mo Willems book, do so as soon as possible. They are delightful.
7. I love the relationships I have encountered while working in libraries. I love the kids who come in on a regular basis and know what I'm like and seem happy to see me. I love the patrons who come in on a regular basis and chat with those of us working behind the desk while they peruse for their next book. I love that I know what some of them want before they do. I love leading them to books that they wouldn't have picked up on their own. I love talking to them about what they just finished reading and what they want to read next.
8. I love chocolate.
9. I love traveling. I will go just about anywhere given the opportunity. I love seeing new places. I love exploring new places. Hot, cold, sunny, rainy, snowy, it doesn't really matter too much. Generally I bring a book with me so that I have something to do while traveling and it's a good back up plan for inclement weather.
10. I love finding the quotes for these blog postings. I also love finding the pictures and/or videos. Usually the post leads to the quote, but sometimes it works the other way. Sometimes I start with one and then have to change it to something else. Sometimes the pictures spark more ideas than what I already had. Sometimes a pictures says it all. Sometimes it just hints. It's fun to search for inspiration.
11. I love cutting out snowflakes. While I was coming up with the final two things on this list, I cut out a few snowflakes. After I finish the posting, I'll hang them on the windows in the library. They'll join the other four I made last week. The two boys who were in here last week when I hung them up with impressed with my mad snowflake cutting skillz when they saw my yoda flake. Yes, I love making snowflakes. All it takes is paper and a decent pair of scissors.
12. I love all colors. When asked what my favorite color is, I always answer with, "I don't have one, I love them all. Except maybe puce." I love mixing paints. Blue with yellow, add a little white, then a little brown, then a little more yellow and see what you get. I love how the colors change from one to the other, and leave spots of half mixed in between. It's not so much the destination as the journey when I'm mixing colors. The journey from blue and yellow to a sage-y green is fun.
And there's my twelve things for the twelfth day of the twelfth month in the year two-thousand-twelve.
A clock struck out the hour of twelve, and the bird in the hedgerow was still singing as we marched out to the roadway, and followed our merry pipers home to town.
Patrick MacGill
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