There's No Place Like Home For the Holidays

That's the title of the song covered by many artists and groups, but my favorite version is the Perry Como one.



The lyrics go like this:
Oh! There's no place like home for the holidays,
'Cause no matter how far away you roam,
When you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze,
For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home!

I met a man who lives in Tennessee, he was heading for,
Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie!
From Pennsylvania folks are travellin'
Down the Dixie sunny shore,
From Atlantic to Pacific,
Gee the traffic is terrific!

Oh! There's no place like home for the holidays,
'Cause no matter how far away you roam,
If you wanna be happy in a million ways,
For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home!

Take a bus, take a train, go and hop an aeroplane,
Put the wife an' kiddies in the family car!
For the pleasure that you bring when you make that doorbell ring,
No trip could be too far!

For me, the fun part this year is that I'm in the song!

"From Pennsylvania folks are travellin'
Down the Dixie sunny shore,"

I've been alone, with my friends, or with family in a variety of different places, but this year it's off to my parents' home in Gulfport, Mississippi. I love to spend time with them!

Some people find time with family stressful.



So, let's break it out... Wherever you're home for the holidays.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays - The Good Things Version.

Brian (good things also come in twos)

2) Brothers: I have two brothers. I could count them each as good things, but then I'd have no room for more things. We are as alike as we are different from each other.

We enjoy each other's company and make each other laugh. I'm also putting my sister in-law in there. She's awesome. She's not "one of the boys" but she's awesome.

3) Nephews: I have two of those too! They are also awesome, and quite frankly much cuter than my brothers, and it's not creepy when they sit on my lap.

1) Parents: I have two of those! My mom and dad are precious to me. Yes, I could have just written "Family" instead of the pairs of good things, but then I wouldn't have this fun theme now would I?


Sue (Also sponsored by the number 2, or I'm-too-lazy-to-come-up-with my-own-theme so I'm rolling with Brian's)

2. Two cute kids : We've got 'em. They fill our lives with joy and happiness, and make Christmastime merry, bright, and expensive (especially now that they are tweens!)

3. Two sisters : We enjoy each other's company and make each other laugh. Wait, that's what Brian said about his brothers, but it's true. My sisters are awesome aunties who help me carry on festive holiday traditions with the kids like baking cookies*, and passing around presents from the youngest to the oldest or vice versa, which makes gift opening an epic event, or what my hubby T would call an all-day affair.

1. Two parents : I've got them too! They are "Nonnie and Papa" to my kids, and the inlaws to T. My mom and dad are the ones who started many of our family traditions like passing Oplatki around the Christmas table or the aforementioned gift opening ritual. One of my favorite traditions is when Santa (shh . . . it's really my dad) gives a special gift to each of his girls. This year's Christmas soiree will be at my parents' house, which is good because it takes just 10 minutes or so to get there from here. What's even better is that the day will be filled with eating, drinking, laughing, and love!

* Read my post about one of my favorite family cookie recipes and more in this free holiday ebook. Merry Christmas!

The Friendship Follies

Shhh . . . I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Brian and I are what I would describe as fairly good friends and writing partners. We chat, we laugh, we tease, and we give each other advice and support BUT ...

wait for it ...

Sometimes we just don't get along!

GASP! Perhaps it's hard to believe, but it is indeed true.

We discuss argue points big and little, blog related or not. We have our own opinions and we're not afraid to speak our minds. Once we had a heated disagreement about the use of the word "too." I am not making this up, we really did. I believe I won that battle, but I bet Brian would beg to differ. Recently we've had some talks about keeping up with this blog. Although we both agree on how often we should post, we vary on the amount of free time we have available to do so. In other words, I have have much more time on hand than Brian does as he is busy starting up his own consulting business. (My hubby T calls Brian the silent partner in this blogging alliance, but I sometimes call him something else, ha ha ha!)

Like characters in a movie, a TV show, or a cartoon, we tend to bounce back from our differences, work together, and remain friends in the end. That's all good. Even better is taking a close look at some famous fictional characters who, like Brian and I, sometimes seem like unlikely matches who deep down truly care for each other. Take these three good duos for example:

2. Will and Grace: To be fair, there is one notable difference between Brian and Will - Brian is not a lawyer. No, no, that's not it - he's not gay. However, Will and Grace are a quirky couple of friends. If once upon a time Brian and I were roommates, I think we would have been a lot like them. In this montage from the show, I like how Grace seeks Will's fashion advice and he doesn't hold back his thoughts. The very end of the clip cracks me up too!



3. Harry and Sally from When Harry Met Sally: If you take out the fairly tale ending to this story when Harry finally professes his undying love for Sally, Brian and I are a lot like this pair of friends from one of my favorite movies of all time. In fact, I can imagine us having a conversation just like this:

Harry Burns: There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.
Sally Albright: Which one am I?
Harry Burns: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance.
Sally Albright: I don't see that.
Harry Burns: You don't see that? Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you.
Sally Albright: Well, I just want it the way I want it.
Harry Burns: I know; high maintenance.

And for the record, we both disagree with the premise of the movie that men and women cannot be platonic friends - my take on the subject, and Brian's point of view.

1. Dory and Marlin from Finding Nemo: On his quest to find Nemo, Marlin meets up with Dory who joins in the search. They do not always get along swimmingly, and at one point Marlin believes he should continue his mission on his own. Of course, Dory and Marlin stick together in the end just like us.

Our Go-To Good Condiments

The other night for dinner, I made some fish fillets and fries, and lo and behold, we didn't have any tartar sauce in the house. We also didn't have the ingredients on hand to make homemade tartar sauce, so we turned to the number one condiment 'round these parts . . .

2. Ranch dressing! It's not just for carrot sticks or chicken nuggets anymore. My kids will dip almost anything into ranch dressing and eat it without complaining. We use it on tortilla wraps and sandwiches, and with those pillowy puffs of pizza dough goodness known as beer nuggets - an NIU favorite! Three out of four of us in the family will actually use ranch as a salad dressing. Which reminds me of a silly joke: What did the bottle of ranch say when someone left the refrigerator door open?
"Hey, close the door! I'm dressing in here!"

We discovered that fish fillets are not too bad with ranch dressing. Then, we discussed our other must-have-in-da-house condiments (Yes indeed, we have quite the intellectual dinner conversations.) Anyhoo, here's our other favs:

3. Ketchup! (or if you prefer catsup) No big surprise there. Who doesn't like ketchup?

1. Barbecue sauce! I love Sweet Baby Ray's the best, but we did bring some home from a BBQ joint in Toledo that was really tasty. We use BBQ sauce on grilled meats like ribs, for pulled pork or chicken, on mini-meatloaves, in chili, and as a dipping sauce of course.

What are your go-to good condiments? Do you like salsa?

I voted, did you?

Short and sweet, and mostly tongue in cheek.
Three good things about voting in today's election:
2. No waiting at my polling place.
3. No more political commercials on TV (I can now focus on the Christmas adverts that started before Halloween. Groan - I'm talking to you Target.)
1. I got a cute little red, white, and blue sticker as proof of carrying out my civic duty.
Here's to democracy in action!

Oh Snap! Goofy Good Pics

Just recently, I took a look at the overloaded memory card on my digital camera and came across some goofy good photos that I took with the intent of sharing them on this here very blog. Then, I invited Brian to join me in this endeavor, so here goes nothing:

Sue

2. One day I spilled some water on my kitchen counter and it looked like a bunny!

3. Some of the letters on my laptop wore off, and I am too cheap to pay $5 per key for replacements so I stuck on some scrapbook stickers. The missing letters didn't bother me so much, but T and the kids kept complaining!

1. Miss O's well-loved polar bear needed a bath, so here he is soaking in the a bowl of warm water. He's been her BBF (Best Bear Forever) for almost 10 years thanks to my good friend Robin who gifted Polar Bear to her when she was just a tot!


Brian

I on the other hand have selected pictures that I did NOT intend to share here. I had to go through my iPhoto pictures to find some that I have not posted on facebook or elsewhere. I'm not sure about these, but I think they are a public debut.

2) Uh Oh! Emergency Underpants. Who doesn't need these from time to time?




3) Is this a tiny dessert... or does my friend Steven have huge hands?




1) It's us! This is Sue and me - and Cindy... and a bunch of other people's hands... but I needed to use my own fingers for the rabbit ears. This is probably from our sophomore year of high school around Christmastime.



There ya have it - five goofy good pics, and one blast from the past that was posted without my permission (not really, I had the final edit) Do you have some photos stuck in your camera, memory card, phone, or a big box somewhere in your attic or basement? Post a comment below or send your photos to threegoodthings@att.net, especially if you have goofy good shots of Brian! Thanks so much! Happy Friday!

Branching out to a Vlog

Brian kick-started the blog again last week, after we both took a bit of a summer hiatus. We hope you missed us! Now, we are in the midst of the autumn season, and before you know it - BOOM, winter will be here! With that in mind, we would like to share with you good things about fall. I know what you're thinking if you've been a long-time Good Things fan, they did that last year. You're right! We did. But if you missed it, you can read this ol' post. If you rather not, or you're just too lazy, you can simply watch these videos. That's correct, I said videos, or as they say in the blogging world - a vlog!

Enjoy!

I will begin, but first a disclaimer: I am an amateur without fancy equipment or editing software and I'm camera shy. Just think of me a Howard's mother from The Big Bang Theory or Wilson from Home Improvement.



And now here's Brian's 3 good things about Fall:

Falling Into Goodness

Aside from the obligatory autumnal pun, I hardly need to point out to those of us in the northern hemisphere that the equinox has passed and we have fallen into Autumn.

Sue and I haven't written anything in quite a while. Sue posted last on August 15, and I haven't written anything on my own since Memorial Day. Apparently, I took the summer off. Oh I've been writing (check out the notes page on my Facebook) just not here. Recently however, I've had some stresses happen in my life that reminded me I need to write about good things. So, here goes.

I moved to a new apartment. Moving is supposed to be one of those top-10 stress-inducing things.

I lost my job. Yeah - that's no fun either.

I got a cold. But it's a Man Cold!




So, please allow me to use Scripture to turn that around a bit. My view of the world comes from this place.

We know that God's plan for us did not include brokenness; broken finances, broken health, broken lives, broken homes, broken relationships, and the brokenness of our own sins. When that brokenness occurs, we can be sure that he will use whatever happens to create something good.

We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose,
Romans 8:28 (CEV)

Paul wrote that from prison. Yeah... kinda helps me put my life into focus, don't you think?

Right! So, now let's talk about the good things.

2) I have a new place! I get to rearrange furniture, hang pictures, organize cabinets, and try new things. This is fun for me. It might not be your favorite thing to do, but it's really fun for me.

3) I'm financially OK - though I don't have a job right now. I have an amazing opportunity to explore what I want to do, and what I might do. I don't have to run out and get another job right now. That's a pretty amazing feeling and I know what an extraordinary opportunity this is. Please pray with me that I don't waste it. I'm exploring building my own Social Media Consulting business and doing more voiceover work than I have before. I can strategize about that all day - actually doing it scares the crap out of me.

Jesus looked at them and said, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”
Mark 10:27 (CEV)

That's just it, I may be gifted in certain areas and those give me some opportunities, but without God's intervention, I'm not going to be successful.

1) With my cold... I sound sexy... Like when Phoebe had a cold.



So, look for a Good Things About Fall post coming next week!