I'm over coffee ...

Wait ... no, I mean, I'm chatting with Sia KcKye at Over Coffee, today. :) How could I possibly give up the only thing that exercises my eyelids in the morning?

Care to drop by? There's a gorgeous picture of my dog, Holly, with my guitar, if that's enticing enough for ya ... :)

On that note, how about a picture of Holly playing guitar? We, at the J-S-H residence, wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! Behind the picture is a surprise video, if you only dare to click ...

I'll be back some time in the first week of January when the inaugural issue of Vine Leaves Literary Journal will launch! So excited!

Lots and lots and lots of love to you all!!!
XOXO

I want an Aussie Xmas. Beer, Beach & Barbecue, Baby!

I want to crawl into a corner and hide until Christmas passes. I used to love Christmas. When I lived in Australia. It was hot, festive, full of beer, beach and barbecues in the backyard with raucous dirty-minded family members who filled the holiday season with laughter.

My mother, too, thrived in the environment - spitting out penis jokes using sausages as props. Everyone's free-spirits came out to play. Quite an unusual way to celebrate to the unaccustomed, but a celebration I will always hold close to my heart as the 'essence' of Christmas - pure uninhibited fun.

But now, I live in Greece. It's freaking FREEZING. I am a million miles away from family. My parents and Greek family live on an island eight hours travel from me, and to top it off, Christmas isn't even really celebrated. New Years Day is the day people exchange gifts here. And on New Years Day it is tradition to spend the entire day with family until midnight - a family who don't understand our 'sense of humour', and the whole event (if we even get together, that is) is all too civilised for my liking. I want to hold a bottle of beer in front of my groin, tip it over, and pretend I'm a bloke relieving his bladder, with a comic, almost orgasmic, sigh to boot. Ha! If I did that in front of my old frail Nona ... well, I wouldn't even try to do that.

Anyhoo, what's my point? My point is, Christmas just feels like a chore to me right now. I could totally just spend the entire time at my computer pretending it is just like any other day. But I won't. I'll plod through it. Try and do some fun stuff with S, and with my parents if they manage to get to Athens in this weather. I will try to smile - to be happy - and hope that maybe one day, when I have kids, my dirty mind will rub off on them too, and we can start the Aussie tradition all over again.

What was your childhood Christmas like? Is there anything that you miss about it?

PS: Congrats to Chris Phillips who won C.S. Lakin's Someone To Blame! In the end, she chose the winner with a random number generator because she thought all of the answers were great! Chris, the author will email you directly. Enjoy!