Bryce Moore's Blog, page 258

Update on the Trip

Let's face it, folks. Using a German keyboard takes some effort. I'm on a laptop for a few minutes, and I wanted to write an update for all you faithful fans out there. The trip is going really well so far. Travelling to the airport was an adventure. Heavy snowfall most of the way. Remember, "plowing" is a relative term in Maine. The roads to Augusta were plowed enough that we didn't get stuck, but not exactly clear. One of the few times I've really wished I had a car with four wheel drive. But we made it.



 The flight went smoothly, and the car ride to Heidelberg was relatively uneventful. (Exciting, I know.) Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. I saved $125 by renting the car from a place away from the airport. The original plan was to take public transportation and then walk there, but thankfully a friend picked us up and drove us over there instead. I only drive stick when I'm in Europe, so it had been a year and a half or so. I only stalled twice before we got on the autobahn. :-) Actually, the autobahn was pretty easy driving, comparatively. There are no pesky speed limits to worry about, for one thing. Alas, the car I'm driving isn't exactly an Audi or BMW, but I still managed a respectable 105 mph. I don't think it goes much higher than that. People were still shooting by me. :-)



The kids slept 13.5 hours last night. They only slept maybe a half hour on the plane. They inherited that from me. Denisa, on the other hand, slept maybe 5 hours last night. She just had trouble falling asleep, from what I hear. I fell right to sleep and could still sleep for another 8 hours or so, but here I am, writing to you. :-) On the agenda today is a trip to see the Weihnachtsmarkt at Michelstadt, and maybe a bit of grocery shopping before that. Tomorrow we'll be seeing Heidelberg and Nuremberg on our way to Munich. Pictures will be taken. I'll post them when I can.



For an internet addict, it's strange to be not checking status updates and the news and the weather every five minutes. But my hands aren't trembling quite as much now. It helps that I have such great food to smooth the transition.Glad I didn't start my diet just yet.



Oh, and because I'm sure you're wondering, I watched three movies on the trip: Princess Bride on the bus, and then Bourne Legacy and Total Recall (the new one) on the plane. (Interesting side note: Aer Lingus doesn't censor their movies on their flights. Just in case you're going to be sitting next to your son on a flight any time soon.) Bourne was a decent action movie, Recall was a fairly boring photocopy of the original. Both were diverting, however. I'd say 3 stars for the first, 2 for the second. Princess Bride needs no rating. It's in a class of movie that's beyond such petty things.



And that's all I have in me for now.

The End, and Chances of a Sequel: Vodnik Chapter Thirty-Three

Look at this! We made it to the final chapter at last! It's been a long road. These commentaries haven't been the easiest thing to sustain for 7 or 8 months, but I'm glad I did them, and I hope you've enjoyed them. Let's see . . . what loose ends do I want to comment on this week?



First up, Babka. (SPOILER WARNINGS, once again). She wasn't always intended to be Starenka--not as I was writing the book, that is. But once I got to this scene, she revealed herself in the first draft, if that makes sense. It all clicked together. Babka had been working for Morena all these years, and she'd come to help recruit her grandson. (Plus, it gave me a chance to explain a few more loose ends that had been hanging out there at this point. It also gave an out for Lesana. She's come back to life, but she has no family. Springing her on Tomas's parents wouldn't have gone over too well . . . )



I'm not absolutely crazy about the fact that Katka ends up being absent from the climax almost entirely. But then again, that's what you get when one of the main forces driving the plot is her potentially dying. I had debated having her not be in a coma at all--being with Tomas right up to the end. Katka isn't a weak heroine. She takes an active role in the plot, and helps move things along enormously. It was sad that she got left out, but in the end, it brought more pluses than minuses.



So we have the reunion with Katka, and we have the worries of Lubos dealt with, all in one fell swoop. I was very happy with this last chapter, and it didn't change much through the course of revision.



The last note I'll touch on is the potential for a sequel. That's one of the questions I get asked the most, actually. When's the sequel coming out? Many people assume there's one on the way already. Obviously, the book is set up to be the potential start of a series. I've written thirteen books or so, and I have yet to write a sequel. But most of them are written as sort of a book equivalent to a pilot episode of a television series. The characters are introduced, the theme defined, and the plot handled more or less in one episode. I always thought of Vodnik as the first in a number of books starring this cast of characters.



I haven't written any of those books.



I know things that I'd like to write about, of course. Tomas's relationship with Lesana, his continuing conflict with the Bigot Gang. The family dynamics now that Babka's back in the picture and we know Tomas's mother can see mythical creatures, too. Continued training with Lubos. A showdown with Ohnica at some point. All of that is out there, ready to be written. Will I ever write it? I don't honestly know.



If I had a contract in hand, obviously I would write it. But I don't, and my writing time is limited enough (what with a full time librarian job and all) that I have to be selective on what I work on. Since Vodnik, I've written two more books. One of them is finished in final-draft-for-now condition: TARNHELM. It's a YA noir fantasy. The other (GET CUPID) has a first draft completed, and I'm beginning to tackle the second draft these days. The hope is to sell these books. Get them published as soon as possible. After I'm done with the second draft of GET CUPID, I'll move on to a first draft of another book. In the meantime, if my publisher expresses interest in a sequel to Vodnik, you can bet I'll be very interested in pursuing that. Who knows what the future holds?



In any case, my heartfelt thanks to you for sticking with me for this long. If anyone has any more questions about the book, you know where to find me. :-) Thanks for reading!

Gun Control, Mental Illness, Shootings, and Blame

I don't typically write two posts in a day. I don't typically stare at my computer screen, unable to think about anything else other than the horror that's the news right now, either. I'm stunned. Shocked that anyone could do what someone did today. And in my shock, I just have to get some thoughts down. Somehow get some of the awful that's in my head out into the open, so that I can look at it and hopefully somehow manage to deal with it better than I am right now.



I have no idea where this post will go. I have thoughts zooming all over the place right now. But there are some things--some reactions I'm having to how other people are reacting--that I just have to voice. What's the point in having a blog if I don't respond to something like this? Usually, my blog is here for others to read and (hopefully) enjoy. Tonight, it's here for me. Blunt opinions ahead, folks. I don't want to get in an argument. These are the things I personally believe right now. Frankly, I don't really care at the moment  to hear about how I'm wrong or misguided. That can happen on another day. When the emotions aren't as raw. That said, here we go:



When something like this happens, we all want someone to blame. It used to be, blame stopped with the perpetrator. With the man behind the trigger. These days? We're all so worried about "understanding" everybody and every little nuance of a motivation. Clearly the man had to be mentally ill to do what he did. I'm not arguing that. But there are a lot of mentally ill people out there. Almost none of them kill 20 elementary school children. That's because mentally ill or not, people recognize the difference between right and wrong. Yes, I try to be sympathetic, but in cases like this . . . most of the blame has to go to the guy pulling the trigger.



But I recognize it's not all limited to that. There's more than enough blame to go around.




Gun control, or the lack thereof. Don't give me any of that crap about how we shouldn't politicize events like this. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Aurora. Newtown. Kids are dead today, and if any of you try to convince me that gun control wouldn't have helped alleviate some of those horrors. I hear about people arguing that this wouldn't happen if teachers were bringing guns with them to school, and I just shudder. I am not a fan of guns. Any guns. Hunting is one thing, but this obsession with owning guns, with shooting guns, with having multiple guns . . . it makes me nervous, squeamish, and more than a little sick. Of course, I realize that gun nuts are frothing at the mouth already as soon as they read that. I honestly don't care. Let them froth. Getting guns should be difficult. It should require a background check. It should require registration. It should require a waiting period. There should be limits on the types of guns you can own, the types of bullets you can buy. The number of guns you can have. The same holds true for body armor. Register for its use. Keep a database of who owns what. If someone has a bunch of guns and body armor, I think we need to keep an eye on them. At least be aware they're out there.
A legal system that takes forever to get anything done. Could someone explain to me what's happening with the Aurora Joker nutcase? How is he not tried, found guilty, and executed by now? The death penalty's in force in Colorado, and what's the point of having it if not for cases like that? Instead, we all wring our hands and worry about prisoners' rights and fair treatment and . . . I just wonder what about the victims. What about their rights? What about their treatment? Maybe if justice were swifter, people would be slower to commit these crimes.
Video games--Violent video games. I'm a gamer. You all know that. But this non-stop obsession with first person shooters, being played by millions of children for millions of hours . . . It should stop. Yes, plenty of people can play them and not recreate them. But for some people, I personally believe it leads to violent tendencies. Violent fantasies. It's like violence porn. Which leads me to my next point:
Glorification of violence in general. Violent movies. Slasher films with gruesome depictions of pain and torture. Again, I'm not saying that anyone who watches those is going to turn into a killer. But I do believe some people who watch them will get ideas. Will be inspired. And that leads me to: 
Parental responsibility. It's one thing if you're eighteen or older and watching these movies or playing these games. But if you're 14? 12? 10? 8? I'm very uncomfortable about the ease of access children have to this kind of media. If you've been shooting people in a game since you were 10, it's not a stretch to believe you're more violent than you would have been if you hadn't. My kids are disappointed I won't let them play some things or watch some things. But that's my job as a parent. I wish more parents would step up to the plate and follow suit. You're not supposed to be your kid's best friend. You're supposed to be their parent.
Mental illness--People who are mentally ill have trouble gaining access to treatment. That shouldn't be the case. Incidents like this prove that. Our health care system needs to be streamlined, and we need to catch people like this before they ruin so many lives, including their own.


I'm written out. I'm still numb. And I don't fancy going back and seeing what people are discussing on Facebook or Twitter at the moment. What it comes down to for me is that days like today should not happen, and yet they keep happening. When that's the case, what that means (for me) is that we need to make some changes. We need to figure out what we as a nation need to do to keep days like today from happening again. The solution is not to have us all carry around more guns. We've had decades of that option, and it hasn't gotten us anywhere.




Folks, the zombie apocalypse you all like to joke about preparing for? It ain't coming. So those fifty shotguns and 5,000 rounds of ammo for your assault rifle? Not really necessary.




I'm upset. I'm angry. I'm emotional, and I realize this isn't the time to be making final decisions about anything. But it is the time to recognize things have to start changing.




And that's all I have in me to write tonight.

Posting at Bryce's Ramblings Over the Holidays

The time has come, my friends. I'll be heading out on my vacation next week. Many thanks to the house sitters and Degu sitters and everyone keeping track of my place while I'm gone. I have no idea how often I'll be able to post here. I'm going to try to write posts ahead of time and have them scheduled to go up when they can. I'll also be trying to post some pics to my Facebook page as often as possible. But the fact of the matter is that when you're going to be living out of various hotels and houses for a long time, you really have no idea how often your internet is actually going to work. So if I miss a day or two here or there, try not to take it personally. And if I stretch some movie reviews out to cover some bare spots, don't be too critical.



For those of you wondering, I'll be hitting a ton of cities while I'm away: Heidelberg, Munich, Salzburg, Trencin, Prague, Dresden, Schwarzenberg, Leipzig, Weimar, Gotha, Eisenach, Stuttgart, and home again home again. Some of those cities are the places I served while on my mission. It'll be my first time back since I left in 1999. Craziness. If any of you happen to be in the area of those places (doubtful, I know), drop me a line. :-)



In any case, I hope you all have a splendously awesome holiday season. May your Christmases be treeful, your Hanukkahs be candley, your Festivuses be poleful--whatever you do at this time of year, do it well. Just keep it legal.



Catch ya in 2013!

Book Review: Reamde, by Neal Stephenson

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm a big Neal Stephenson fan. Let that be said right off the bat. I really enjoy how he can make a slew of different, unrelated plots all tie together. He has a flair for being able to keep track of lots of characters and points of view. Typically, his books have a very strong sci-fi edge, even if they're not always 100% sci-fi. Reamde was actually the least sci-fi book of his that I've read. I still enjoyed it, of course, but it wasn't his strongest outing.



The book focuses on a number of characters spanning the globe from China to Canada to Russia to Hungary to the Philippines. You've got Russian mafia, Chinese hackers, British spies. The plot . . . is too complex to sum up in a review. Suffice it to say that a girl goes missing, and the creator of an MMORPG sets off to find her (although it's much much more complex than that.)



It's a long read--1000+ pages. And while I really like Stephenson, I also feel like he can get really bogged down in description from time to time. Then again, I'm a big YA fan, and one of the things I like most about YA is how streamlined it is, so maybe I'm not a big description kind of a guy to begin with. That said, it was frustrating at times how suddenly the back story of a new character, or a lengthy discussion on some setting detail, would derail the story for a significant chunk of pages, without necessarily bringing any big "wow" elements with it. Then again, some of that is due to Stephenson stuffing his book full of viewpoint characters, You have to be able to introduce them somehow. I just didn't feel like it worked perfectly this time out.



I did love the action and the way the plot unfolded, though I felt like much of the book relied heavily on coincidence, something I'm never a big fan of. It's sort of like salt in a plot. A little makes everything just right. A lot, and it's bad for the book's health.



Still, even with all that, the pages kept turning quickly for me, and I enjoyed the book. Do note that it's pretty adult fare. Plenty of language, violence, and the rest. A good read, even if not up to par with some of his better books.




View all my reviews

On the Power of Arbitrary Numbers on the Calendar

Yes. It was 12:12 and 12 seconds on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of this millennium, let alone century. And for that one brief second . . . what happened? The planets aligned? Peace reigned over the world? The Mayans got ready for a big apocalypse?



Well, I watched it tick off on the online clock with TRC, who has the stomach flu, and so I was grateful for a momentary way to distract him. But other than that, why in the world do we feel like that time is something significant? It's not like this was some solar phenomenon. It's not like our calendar system is the only one in existence.



And yet, there I was, tuning in to "watch it happen." Even though there was no real "it" to watch. Everyone on the globe experienced that second, whether they were watching numbers tick away or not. So why did it seem important to "be a part of it"?



Part of me wonders if this isn't a remnant sort of belief in the powers of astrology. It's just that since we as a people are now so relatively distant from actually understanding what the stars and planets are doing, we have turned to other more observable markers of time: our own system. Gone are the days of watching the sun's movement--building Stonehenge and the like. Replaced instead by a bunch of people staring at man-made objects that tell us what time it is, and where significance is only important in an entirely man-made context. There's a deeper meaning there, but I'm too tired at the moment to go searching for it too diligently.



We like to look back at our ancestors and think about how quaint they were, with their beliefs in various gods and mystical powers. But at times like these, I have to wonder how different the present day really is.



And that's my deep thought for you for the day.

Dreams Come True: Applying to SFWA

Almost thirteen years ago, I signed up for a class taught at BYU: Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy. It was taught by Dave Wolverton, a man I'd never heard of before. But it was creative writing, it was fantasy, and I wanted to try my hand at it. I was on my mission in Germany when I signed up. It sounded like fun.



I remember the first day of class, when Dave sat us all down and said he wanted to emphasize one thing right off: doing this was difficult, but it was possible. You could get published. You could succeed. He said it just took determination and hard work. Having just come back from a Mormon mission, I was chock full of determination, and I knew all about hard work.



I loved that class. I learned a ton. The text was Scott Card's book I linked to at the top of this post. I looked forward to going every day, and I had a blast. Then I got a B+. For a guy used to getting only As, that seemed to be a sign. If I couldn't even get an A in a beginning creative writing class, who was I kidding that I'd be able to be published. All that determination flew out the window. I thought I couldn't cut it. I doubted myself. I set aside the books I'd been working on, and decided to just give up. (Inspiring, isn't it?)



And yet I'd had so much fun writing. A year later, I took another creative writing class (from Doug Thayer, in case you were wondering). Just for fun. Because even if I couldn't get published (I reasoned), I could still have a good time. I enjoyed the class, did well, and took another--this time from Louise Plummer. The focus was writing for children and young adults. It was my favorite class yet. She liked my writing, and I had even more fun doing it.



I remember sitting down in her office one day and tentatively asking her if she thought I might get published one day. She didn't even hesitate. "Of course you will. You've got it." I have no idea if this is what she tells everyone who sits in that chair and asks her that question. (It ought to be. There's already a ton of self-doubt in writing. You don't need people stomping on what little confidence you have left.) But it stuck with me. I could do this.



One of the other tricks with writing is that it's very hard to determine how well you're doing--especially in these days of self-publishing and vanity presses. "Getting published" isn't necessarily a sign of "succeeding." But there's an organization that's out there: SFWA. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Membership is reserved for only those people who have published in SFWA approved venues. I looked at that membership as a badge of honor--something to shoot for. If I could get to the point where I could join SFWA, then that would Mean Something. (Yes, maybe it's a bit schmaltzy, but I'm a writer. Sometimes we schmalz.)



When I got the deal for Vodnik, I was beyond excited (to say the least). One of the first things I did was go to apply to SFWA. That's when I discovered that Tu Books--because it was so new (I was only the fourth book published by them)--wasn't yet on the approved venue list. I had a book getting published, but I couldn't join SFWA. I wrote my editor, and she assured me they were working on becoming an approved venue. (What does this take? It takes establishing that the publishing house is "for real." They pay a good advance. They don't require the author to pay to print his/her book. They print more than 1000 copies of the book. That sort of stuff. Oh yeah--and they've been doing this for more than a year. That's where Tu had trouble. Too new.)



Late last week, I got word that Tu Books had become SFWA approved. I've now applied for membership. I know it doesn't really mean anything from a big picture standpoint. But it means something to me. It means I've reached a mile marker that I'd set for myself a long time ago. And if there's one thing I've learned about writing, it's that you need to celebrate those mile markers. Finishing a draft. Signing a contract. Getting an agent. Sending submissions out. Those are signs of progress. Of success.



And today, I feel very successful.

Satisfying Climaxes: Vodnik Chapter Thirty-Two

Here we are. The climax of the book at last. The gist of this chapter remained more or less the same throughout the revision process. (This should go without saying, but just in case: SPOILER WARNING for this entire post.) It was always planned that Tomas beat the vodnik, of course. This isn't the sort of book where good loses to evil in the end. (A personal pet peeve of mine, actually. I've seen some books and movies that are one tone through the course of the story, and then try to pull a surprise at the end and shift tones. I hate that, and I don't think I'd ever do something like that.)



In the first draft, Tomas beat the vodnik by breaking one of his cups. He just kicks it off a shelf, it shatters, and the souls take it from there. This really wasn't satisfying at all. It's too easy, for one thing. For a climax to really feel like a climax, I think it needs to have some weight. To have some sort of smart thinking on the part of the main character. Or some courage--something meaty. Just happening to be able to kick a cup at the right time? Not very commendable. It also made the vodnik look a lot dumber than I wanted him to. If his cups were that easily broken, what kind of an idiot would have have to be to make them that accessible.



So I made the cups unbreakable. Much better. And I made Tomas take a huge gamble on his Rasputin abilities. He had to be aware of what he was doing. It had to be a conscious decision on his part. Otherwise--if it were just dumb luck--that wouldn't work. At the same time, I didn't exactly have a ton of time to explain everything that was happening. I think it all ended up making sense: Tomas has almost died by soul-stealing once before. Because of this, his Rasputin abilities have made him immune to soul stealing. (Certainly of the vodnik variety. I suppose there might be other variants out there . . . ) The cups can only be broken by a soul that has escaped from one of the cups. When the vodnik tries to steal Tomas's soul, Tomas is momentarily ensnared, but breaks free with his Rasputin powers. This in turn lets him break the other souls free, and they take it from there. The hints are all there for this to be possible at the end. Little mentions of weaknesses of the cups and how the Rasputin talent works. And they all come together here in this chapter.



I find that for a climax to really feel like it was done right, it has to take piece of the plot and put them together in a way that just fits. Like the final piece of a puzzle. At first, everything seems all over the place and jumbled, but at that last moment, it all comes together, and you see how it has to end this way. How it all led up to this. It's better if it's not predictable, naturally. But even a predictable climax that fits together properly is much better than one that just comes out of right field. I've always felt that Brandon Sanderson's climaxes are well done. I loved reading them in his writing group--seeing how everything came together at the end. I try to have that happen in my books, as well. Hopefully it worked.



One last note--the bit about the vodnik potentially being Lesana's brother. This was very much planned all along, though I won't say whether or not he really was her brother. He certainly could have been. Any Slovak reading the book would have wondered what happened to the brother. He was young enough that he should have become another vodnik, of course. Could have, at least. But I really didn't want the villain to be purely . . . villainous. A friend described the vodnik as chaotic neutral (using D&D terms), and I think that's pretty close to what he was. Maybe leaning every so slightly to chaotic evil, but quite firmly in the neutral camp most of the time. He had a very skewed view of morality. He loved Lesana, that much is clear, and he wanted to be with her. To possess her more fully. He just couldn't decide how best that could be handled.



Anyway--that's it for this week. Only one more commentary to go! Thanks for reading!

Bryce's Handy Christmas Gift Guide

Do you have a beloved geek in your life? Someone who needs some holiday presents, but when they tell you what they want, your eyes glaze over, and you stop being able to understand the words coming out of their mouths? Or maybe you want to surprise them with something special. Look no further, my friends! Let Bryce help you out, with the list of Stuff I Already Have and Love or Wish I Had So I Could Love.



Don't ever say I didn't do anything for you.



Basically, I'm just going to spit out things that I think are awesome, and when I run out of time for this blog post, I'll stop. Easy enough, right? Click the pictures to see more info about each item.




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Kindle Paperwhite--I don't have an eReader, but if I did, this is the one I'd get. Crisp, clean text, back lit, great battery life, and it's in the Amazon biosphere, meaning there are just a ton of books to choose from.



Lost Cities--A fantastic two player card game. Easy to learn, easy to play. Perfect for you if you want to play with the board gamer in your life, but don't actually want to invest 10 hours each time you play a game. One game takes 15 minutes or so. Nice!



Lego Mindstorms 2.0--Certainly not for the faint of wallet. But the ability to build working robots out of Legos and then program them with your computer?!? What's not to love?



Rocksmith--This is *without a doubt* one of the best presents I've ever gotten. I can play the electric guitar now. I couldn't play it a year ago. Period. A year later, I still play almost daily, and I love love love it. It's available for PS3, XBox 360, and Windows. This bundle comes with a guitar and the game--everything you need to get started. (Assuming you have the console, of course.)






Lord of the Rings Card Game--The best solo card game I've found out there. Tons of expansions available. Another one of my favorite gifts from last year. It lets me play strategy games all by myself. No friends needed! :-)



Nintendo 3DS--TRC loves and adores his and uses it all. the. time. He can play games, shoot stop motion video, take pictures, watch Netflix--the whole shebang. 






Hmmm... This book. Vodnik? Yeah. All the cool cats are reading it. :-)






Ready Player One--One of the best books I read last year. Perfect for the techie/pop culture fiend in your life. Chock full of 80s goodness, with a sci-fi/gamer twist.






One of Denisa's favorite kitchen tools. A modern pressure cooker that won't blow up on you. :-)  It's electronic and super easy to use. Cooks beans, meats, soups, rice--you name it. She loves it.






Aerolatte Milk Frother--I use mine to make the best chocolate milk ever. Just add some Nesquick, mix it up with this little puppy, and you've got awesome goodness in seconds or less. 






A PS3--The best bluray player out there. Oh, and it plays Playstation games, too. But mainly this is my media-consuming device of choice.






Believe it or not, but the whole family loves This Old House. Well, maybe not DC--but even TRC enjoys reading it. Maybe it only appeals to me because I live in an old house myself, but I always look forward to each issue every month.






You can't beat this cook book for variety and easy recipes that taste great. A favorite of mine for years. I assume you all already have one, but you know what happens when you assume . . .






A friend of mine turned me on to this book. Fantastic. Tons of recipes for every cookie you can think of. It's a reissue of an old book, so that means you get a ton of classic recipes. Perfect for Christmas baking--or whenever.






It got some bad buzz at the beginning for being  too easy, then too hard, but it's been patched beautifully, and I still regularly play Diablo 3. Brings back old memories of earlier Diablos. Good times.






My current Leatherman of choice. I never leave home without it. Period. Because you never know when you're going to need it.




That's all I have time for, folks. But there you have it--a list of toys and things that I either use a bunch myself, or my family does. I vouch for all of them. Happy shopping! :-)

It's Mikulas Time--Slovak Traditions in America

While all you suckers were just hanging out doing nothing special last night, my kids were busy cleaning their boots, getting everything ready for Mikulas to come. And come he did. Luckily, both of my kids avoided getting the dreaded potato (which Mikulas brings to naughty children in Slovakia). Instead, they made out with some sweet candy, and some presents. (Milukas doesn't traditionally bring presents. He must have been swayed by their capitalistic American surroundings . . .)



It's really interesting to me to participate in traditions that I had no part in growing up. In many ways, they seem very contrived to me. I'm outside of them, and so I don't really "get" them, in much the same way that it's really strange to me to hear about the Christ child bringing presents, instead of Santa Claus. (Though that definitely would make kids care about that whole nativity thing a little more . . .) It makes me wonder what Denisa thinks about Thanksgiving, really. (Though in some ways, American holidays I think are easier for outsiders to understand, just because they've been portrayed so often in pop culture. Not many movies in America about Mikulas that everybody watches.)



But the nice thing is that we've done this every year since we got married. So it's not a Slovak tradition to me anymore so much as a Bryce tradition. It fits right in with Groundhog Day. :-) Just with more of an actual . . . you know . . . real history.



And here are the kids with their loot (Home Alone and Muppet Christmas Carol, because Mikulas apparently likes Christmas movies.) They're looking a little tired (the kids, not the presents) because I woke them up so I could see their reactions before I left for work this morning. Poor kiddos!