There is Room For One More Christmas Craft

If you are a mom with small children, you may share my plight. It’s Christmas time and every inch of your house is filled with decorations. There is no table top or tree branch that is not filled with something. In order to find the remote control you need a GPS system to alert you as to what Christmas pillow it is under.

Yet, Christmas time is the time for creating. Children are excited and anticipating Christmas projects galore.

This year, I came up with a solution to our lack of space that still allowed us to do projects and fulfill their creative minds.

The creation itself is not innovative. I cut out various Christmas shapes out of construction paper. We had snowmen, stars, Christmas trees and ornaments (circles). The kids decorated these with the supplies of choice (markers, stickers, glitter etc.).

The part the kids were most excited about though is the fact that I hung them from the ceiling.

It gave their artwork center stage because you clearly cannot miss things dangling above your head.

This was a win-win for our family. Not a lot of mess, the kids still got to make Christmas projects and I wasn’t banging my head trying to come up with a place to put yet one more craft!

The only one who kind of suffers from the deal is my 6’3’’ husband who has to dodge and maneuver his way through the living room!

Laugh, And The World Will Laugh With You

I am not an expert on anything. I rarely have strong views about any subject matter. I appreciate other people’s opinions and can usually see both sides to the story.

I used to ponder who the people were that took the time to sit down and write a letter, put it in the mailbox and send it to Reader’s Digest to say they strongly disagreed with a certain author’s point of view. Did they have so much time on their hands or did they feel that strongly about this issue?

Well, I found my answer one day when I couldn’t sit back any longer. A feeling inside my stomach became so strong that I had to get it off my chest or I felt it would burst. I wrote a letter (actually, an email) because I felt so strongly about something.

I began watching Saturday Night Live when I was 4 years old. I was born the year the show began in 1975 so I missed the first four years of production. I got to stay up late on Saturday nights and my whole family watched Saturday Night Live together.

Those early years, I was so entertained by Eddie Murphy’s skit Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood; the spoof on PBS’s, Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood. It was about a black man living in the ghetto. Watching those episodes as an adult; I realize I had NO idea what he was talking about. I also loved when the Land Shark would knock on the door, impersonate a human’s voice and then when the door was opened, would come in and eat the people. That’s always hilarious for a 4 year old!

I remember I loved Gilda Radner and hated Jane Curtin. I had become a critic of comedy at such an early age.

I think my favorite skit was The Olympia Restaurant. It featured John Belushi and Dan Akroyd and everyone was yelling “Cheeseburger” in a Greek accent. I remember running around the house repeating “Cheeseburger” over and over doing my best Greek accent for years. I had to have been the most annoying child when I think back on it. The funny thing is, I’ve seen those sketches in recent years and they really aren’t that funny!

My Dad, Mom and me at the age when I started watching Saturday Night Live

I have missed very few episodes of Saturday Night Live in the past 33 years. I have also read several articles and books about this show and the actors. I can’t say I’m an expert on this subject matter but it’s probably the one thing in my life I know the most about (that is really, incredibly sad).

When I was 24 years old, there was a cast member named Jimmy Fallon who was on Saturday Night Live. He was only a featured player which meant that he didn’t get many skits to act in. This irritated the beejezus  out of me because I thought this guy was a hoot! The reason I liked him so much was because he laughed. He usually couldn’t hold himself together when he was acting. He would start giggling and stumble over his words.

I don’t care how stupid something is; if YOU laugh when telling it; it makes it funny! When you laugh at yourself, the world will laugh with you.

I felt so strongly about Jimmy that I just had to let Lorne Michaels know (the producer of Saturday Night Live).

Somehow, I tracked down his email address from the internet and sat down and wrote him a letter that took me 3 hours to compose. I stated why I felt Jimmy needed to be upgraded from just a featured player to a star and why I thought I had enough credibility on this subject to make this kind of request.

The following week when I sat down to watch Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon was moved to a starring role. I was in shock. I don’t know if it was just coincidence or if my email had made some kind of impact. Jimmy Fallon has his own talk show now. He’s doing quite well. I would like to think I had something to do with his rise to stardom. I keep waiting for him to give an acceptance speech and mention my email to Lorne and how he remembers my kindness all those years ago for believing in him.

I’m a mother now and have 3 small children. I do not let them stay up until 10:30 pm on Saturday nights to watch Saturday Night Live. I would be so annoyed having 3 little kids running around the house yelling, “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger” in Greek accents.