The Honest Scrap Award

I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas. Though I remain at my in-laws, immersed in familial gaiety, I am taking time out from the festivities to thank Meredith of Austenesque Reviews for providing me with The Honest Scrap Award, given to bloggers who write from their hearts. With the reception of this award I have the option to pass it along to seven other deserving bloggers and/or share ten honest things about myself. I am going to pass on the former, not because I don't know of many bloggers who more than fulfill this qualification but because I am such a novice at blogging that it feels presumptuous, but I will share some honest truths about myself which are, hopefully, laugh worthy. Enjoy your holidays - the party is not over yet!

1. I was run over by a llama when I was four. No permanent injuries were incurred but I do have a lasting aversion to the creatures as a result.

2. Most ladies love shoes, but do their fathers? Mine has more than 300 pairs, far more than I do, though I still have a large enough collection that my husband insured it.

3. My favorite book of all time is not Persuasion but The Little Princess by Francis Hogson Burnett. I have read it once a year since I was six.

4. According to my mother-in-law (and to her infinite satisfaction) I have the appetite of a truck driver.

5. I am a huge klutz and my hands bear the scars of the many attempts I've made to dismember my fingers in the kitchen. I end up in the ER about once every two years, needing to be stitched back together.

6. Since I was 18, I have desired a collection of antique, silver, chamber candlesticks (you know, the ones with the loop handles) but have yet to purchase a single one. They are both hard to find and expensive, but I have great hope that at some point I will have a respectable assortment.

7. My sister and I once had a cheese fight, which is exactly what it sounds like. Kraft singles were the weapon of choice.

8. My husband was my college roommate, and my best friend, before we started dating. We were originally drawn together because we are both confirmed Rennies (a.k.a. those geeky people who show up at Renaissance Festivals in costume).

9. At a family reunion when I was 14, my father took us to see the house in which he grew up. Finding an open window he stuck my brother through it and instructed him to open the front door, allowing all of us - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins - to break in. We have a picture of us assembled on the porch together in which I look completely mortified by such shenanigans.

10. I am not insane (I promise!) but I do speak to Anne Elliot in my head. She finds our modern world rather fascinating, if somewhat vulgar, and sends her warmest wishes for a happy New Year.