Hope you holiday was a good one. I had 5 days of relaxation. No blackberry, no phone. My family showered me with books. We exchange names and I just handed over my wish list from Amazon thinking I would get one book from the list. I got 6 plus a DVD. I am set for the winter.

My mom got me Pollen which is a really cool book of electron micrographs of plant pollen. There is a companion book called Seeds. They are great coffee table books but better than that they provide inspiration for making metal clay beads. The challenge is to figure out how to make these amazing shapes in PMC.

My brother and his wife got me The Milagro Beanfield War DVD. It's based on a book by John Nichols. It's a story of the impoverished town of Milagro and their triumph over a rich land developer and his political croonies. Great book, great movie. Sweet and funny.

They also got me these....

Bedazzled: 5000 Years of Jewelry
Beadazzled: Where Beads + Inspiration Meet
Paris to the Moon : A collection of essays written for the New Yorker during the 5 years the author spent in Paris
Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl : Doesn't need much of an explaination. I'm half way through this one already. The basic ideas are to be a strong woman and true to yourself, buy classic clothes, and remember your roots and family traditions. The idea of living with your husbands indiscretions grates on me and seems to go against the idea of being true to yourself. I've told Lou a number of times that if he has a "little indiscretion" he'll wake up to find his "little friend" missing...Lorena Bobbit style. It also talks about how secretive the French woman is versus the very open American woman. The book equates secretive with being alluring. That's a hard leap for me to make since I am one of those people who lives life as an open book.
Water for Elephants: A Novel : A story of a young man who becomes a vet with a scraggly circus during the Depression.

Well...I'm back to work tomorrow and since it's 1AM...I think I need to get some sleep.

Have you been thinking about your New Year's Resolutions yet?? Back soon with some thoughts.