Tag: Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Mood Changer

Pardon me while I become “toddler dad” for a minute…

When you become a parent, you lose the option to watch TV … at least when your kids are awake. Most days I watch all the PBS shows (Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Wild Kratts, Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum) or the various stuff from Nick Jr. or Disney Jr. (Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Peppa Pig). My favorite is Bluey.

I blogged about the show (and primarily the dad – Bandit) here:

I Wanna Be Like Bandit!

One of my favorite episodes is entitled Bad Mood. In the show, Bluey’s sister (Bingo) is in a “bad mood.” Bandit, Bluey and Bingo’s dad, IS the bad mood. It is signified by him wearing a Viking Helmet and walking with Bingo standing on his feet. He grunts and stomps through the house destroying block towers, ruining drawings, and throwing things.

Now there have been “a few” times when I have been at work and I’ve been in a “not so good mood.” I have joked with my co-workers that I need to get myself a Viking hat. No one really knew what I was talking about, so I showed them clips from this episode. Whenever a computer would crash or something didn’t work, I’d say something like, “This is when I need my ‘bad mood’ hat!”

One of our crew is transferring to another department and tomorrow is her last night here. Tonight, she said she was going to run out to her car for something. She came back in and was holding this Viking hat, which had two blonde braids hanging down from it. She told me that she wanted to get something to thank me for all the laughs we’ve shared working together.

It made me laugh out loud when I saw it. It also made me sad. I really have come to enjoy the nights that we work together. She loves music and we’ve shared a great many stories about songs and artists. She is also very funny and there are times I am laughing so hard my sides hurt. I am certainly going to miss having her in the building.

I told her when she gave me the helmet that it really won’t be a “bad mood” hat. Mainly because when I go to put it on, I will think about her – I’ll laugh – and that will put me in a good mood.

Thanks for your friendship, your conversation, and the many laughs, Laura! You will be missed, especially by me!!

Quotes for Christmas

In an attempt to get into the holiday spirit, I thought I’d search up some quotes about Christmas.

  • One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas Day. Don’t clean it up too quickly. – Andy Rooney
  • Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling. – Edna Ferber
  • The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. – Burton Hills
  • If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. – Bob Hope
  • To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. – Calvin Coolidge
  • The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood. – Richard Paul Evans
  • Christmas is a time when you get homesick — even when you’re home. – Carol Nelson
  • We are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime. – Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month. – Harlen Miller
  • Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most. – Ruth Carter Stapleton
  • Christmas gives us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the important things around us. – David Cameron
  • Christmas waves a magic wand over the world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. – Norman Vincent Peale
  • Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today’s Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and reliving those of yesterday. – Gladys Taber
  • The true Christmas spirit is putting others’ happiness before our own, and finding you’ve never known such happiness. – Toni Sorenson
  • Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions, a special day to spend in the warm circle of family and friends. – Margaret Thatcher
  • Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection. – Winston Churchill
  • When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things — not the great occasions — give off the greatest glow of happiness. – Bob Hope
  • Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence. – Joan Mills
  • We count down the days just to experience it nearly exactly as we always have. It is so comfortable, familiar, and perfectly nostalgic that, frankly, we have no desire to improve upon it at all. – Joanna Gaines
  • Christmas is a piece of one’s home that one carries in one’s heart. – Freya Stark
  • Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago. – Tom Baker
  • Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. — Thomas S. Monson
  • Before we took down the tree each year, Dad would always say a prayer that we would be together the next Christmas. I cling to that prayer, which serves as a reminder that it’s important to be grateful in the present for the people you love because, well, you never know. — Catherine Hicks