If listening to A Charlie Brown Christmas on vinyl wasn't enough, at the start of the holiday season I received two of these Hallmark decorations as gifts. In the following weeks I bought myself the two others as they were released leading up until Christmas. Although I've made it clear that I'm a fan of Christmas clutter, what actually makes these decorations blog worthy is that they're all wirelessly linked to play accompaniment to each others songs. It was actually a pretty smart hook to make you want to go out and pick up the others.
I created a short video and took some photos of the collection to share. Charlie Brown, Lucy, Shroeder, and Snoopy have been a big hit with everyone that I've had over, and we've had fun setting them up in all corners of the loft to hear them still play their parts. The trick now is going to be finding room for all of this new stuff after Christmas.
Our annual family gathering on Christmas day has become one of the last remaining traditions that our extended family continues to honor each year. As our group has grown it's become more difficult to orchestrate these large gatherings, but I think we'd all agree that without the holiday we might go the entire year without ever seeing everyone. Growing up you start to realize just how few and far between moments like this really are.
Last Christmas I got a Flip Cam and had asked for it specifically because I wanted an easier way to capture home videos. In between dinner, energetic games of Pictionary, and one too many glasses of wine I managed to capture a nice sampling of our family gathering from that December 25, 2010. With my Flip Cam at the ready, I guess we'll see what pans out this year.
Earlier this week I finished reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and wanted to talk a bit about my thoughts on the book and what the experience of reading it was like. I've kept this spoiler free so you can check it out for yourself.
Wallflower is an interesting read, saturated in all of the heavy coming of age experiences that you might expect a teenager to be privy to. The central character is Charlie, who shares his high school life in the form of letters addressed to the reader (us) - an anonymous person known through a friend of a friend. It's an interesting concept that gives the book a realism and casualness that makes you believe Charlie is real kid.
I'm 27, and although the book is bound to be a more profound read for those in high school, I found myself constantly reflecting on my own stories and the people I grew up with. That's the charm in Wallflower. High school is messy, you don't really know who you are yet, but you're so eager to grow up. Charlie is an outcast, who's awkwardness is continually cringe worthy. He's also a bit too heavy on the crying, which I felt was a bit disingenuous the more it seemed to happen.
The story takes place in the early nineties, which I found refreshing considering the lack of Internet and cell phone drama. I remember going home after school and feeling separated from what was going on - that's not really the case anymore. The letters Charlie writes help to create a blunt recollection of events that he either doesn't understand yet or that he's contextualizing for the first time. He befriends a couple of high school seniors who essentially give him a crash course in growing up. I liked the fact that reading the book felt like you were in on the thought process - a kind of behind the scenes treatment to the actual story that was inspiring the letters.
There's also some pretty heavy (if not a bit stereotypical) themes in terms of how family life, suicide, sex, and drugs are all weaved into the mix. The fact that Charlie is so passive in how deals with them actually make these themes biting enough to seem fresh. Charlie is always striving to give things more meaning or value, but still couldn't seem to overcome his lack of social awareness. It actually served to make the book a bit more poetic while endearing us to Charlie's circumstance.
Overall, the book was kind of messy and scattered; an every-teenager story dotted with heavy plot points left with open ends. And I think that's fitting. High school in retrospect is a blur and there are key defining moments that we all use to give it meaning after the fact. Even in the small window of a year that Wallflower takes place in I think that's still true. In high school we spend so much time trying to find out who we are, what we want to do, where we want to be and go, that part of the experience is just embracing the confusion for the sake of trying to be happy in the midst of everything.
I'm glad high school is behind me, frankly. But, if you want to be taken on your own nostalgia trip The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a great book to do it with.
On a side note, this book is also going to be released as a film in 2012 starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. I always love comparing books to the movies that follow them, and this one is going to provide some pretty interesting arcs if they can pull it off correctly. I'll have to write a follow-up in the new year.
