These are a few of my favorite things

It's getting that time of year. Are we making our list and checking it twice? I love buying gifts! I admit it! I see things when I am out and think, this would be perfect for this person or that person. I do hate going to Toys R Us, however. It's like a different world out there. So for the grandkids I find myself ordering from T.V. or shopping at Costco. It works for me and they don't seem to mind.

I thought I would let you know about a few things that I absolutely love. If Oprah has her list, can't I have mine? Mine are books.

1. The IF Books. It's a series of little books that ask questions. There is a Christmas IF book, If book for the Soul, If book for the game of life., etc. They are good to have for a gathering of friends or just to sit back and comtemplate your answers. A few of my answers surprised even me!  Examples.....from the IF book, Questions for the Soul.....

IF you were to pick a spiritual place to get married (other than a religious structure), where would it be?

IF you found out you were terminally ill and could do one thing to put your soul in order, what would it be?

If you could teach someone you know one life lesson, who would it be and what would they learn?         

2. Passing Time in The Loo (Volumn I)

This is an absolutely amazing book. I found it at Restoration Hardware some time ago. I knew it was special when my husband picked it up while I was shopping and when I had finished shopping he was still reading it and said: THIS book has everything in it and it's great. I asked him if he was going to buy it and he said, NO.....I don't need it! So I bought it for him and I have bought several as gifts and everybody LOVES it and yes indeed it has everything in it. It has Business and Leadership, Personal Effectiveness, Quotes and Anecdotes, Biographies, Literary Classics, Modern Literature, Health and Fitness, (skimmed over that one) Word Power and finally Expanding Knowledge. Here are some examples of the Quotes and Anecdotes section.

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them. --Adlai Stevenson

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.---John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach

Your mental health will be better if you have lots of fun outside of that office. ...Dr. William Menninger

The gravyards are full of indispensable men......Charles de Gaulle

The American people want leadership which believes in them, not leadership which berates them.........Lyndon B. Johnson

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.....Greoge Eliot

3.Famous Last Words, Compiled by Ray Robinson........a wonderful little book

"Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it! Women must try to do things that men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others."...................Amelia Earhart   (I have been to the Amelia Earhart Museum in Atchitson, Ks.)

"Am I dying or is it my birthday?"..........Lady Astor

"Tenderest love to all. Farewell, am going soon, Alice."  Alice James.........(google her.....very interesting)

"Well, folks, you'll soon see a baked Appel."  George Appel.....He was put to death  by the electric chair for killing a policeman in 1928.

"You're up on your beautiful Appaloosa stallion. It's a fine spring day. We're riding through the woods. The bluebells are all out, and the sky is a clear blue.".... Paul McCartney on his wife Linda, after her death.

and my personal favorite...........

"Good, a woman who can fart is not dead." ...Comtesse De Vercellis

4. Shop Girl by Steve Martin......found in in Costco, in paperback. 

5. The Pleasure of my Company by Steve Martin......if you can afford the audio book, get it! It is about a man who has O.C.D. and one minute you are laughing and the next you are crying.

I am sure there are more things but it is getting late and I want this entry to get posted.

Chocolate is always a good choice, uless you are one of the few who do not care for it.

Now, somebody come up with something I can get my mother for Christmas.....she has stated she doesn't want anything, doesn't like Christmas and has never acknowledged anything I have gotten her. It's looking like Fruit of the Month club, unless you can give me some ideas??????             Anne