Until 2010, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences only nominated five films for Best Picture. Bizarrely, I never managed to see all the nominees when there were only five, but last year I made it to six and this year I’ve watched all ten.

Fun as it is to see more great films recognized, I like to speculate about which ones would make the cut if the Oscars were as they used to be and only five could score a nomination. Just for kicks, here is my ranking of this year’s Best Picture-nominated films:

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I haven’t reviewed any books since August, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. In fact I’ve read ten novels in the past six months.This would be more impressive if, once upon a time, I hadn’t been an English lit major who read twice that many novels in half the time, plus wrote papers on them. On the other hand, back then I was a full-time student with no responsibilities but reading, while now I’m a full-time mom who–

No. I don’t think I can come up with a negative comparison, when I’ve clearly found time to read and occasionally write about it.

It wasn’t until I compiled this list that I realized I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi and fantasy; only one of the ten books is not sci-fi or fantasy. Which proves that despite my best efforts, I am a geek. (As if Battlestar Galactica being my number one top-ranked show ever wasn’t evidence enough of that.)

In addition to not having a broad representation of genres here, I also seem to have rated all my recent reads very highly. I hope this doesn’t indicate an indiscriminate taste in books; the day the Twilight saga appears on my reading list, you’ll know that’s the case. Until then, we’ll just chock it up to two things: #1, all these books are actually good, and #2, I don’t bother to finish books I don’t like. (If I did, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would make two non-fantasy/sci-fi reads out of eleven–but I quit after 100 torturous pages of it, which is ironic, as I didn’t even make it to the torture scenes.)

Onward to the reviews!

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My favorite albums in my music collection are the Christmas ones, and this year I have a favorite among my favorites: Loreena McKennitt’s A Midwinter Night’s Dream.

As all her albums do, this one captured me from the first melancholy strains of “The Holly and the Ivy”. I know, you’re thinking, “But ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ isn’t a melancholy Christmas carol!” Leave it to Loreena McKennitt to transpose a cheerful tune into a melancholy key. Unexpected, yes–but that’s what fans have come to expect from McKennitt, and the mood she sets at the beginning of the album suits the central symbol of the season–light into dark–and this theme is brilliantly rounded out with the folksy instrumental arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter” as the album’s final track.

My only quibble with the album is that McKennitt recycles the five tracks from her 1995 Christmas album, A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season, but as they’re all excellent carol arrangements/McKennitt originals, that’s not a complaint so much as bemoaning the lack of new material by this incomparable artist.

As it’s a little late to get your hands on this album before the holiday season is over, here are the videos of my favorite tracks on the album for your enjoyment, the first being a chance to see McKennitt herself performing in the recording studio (although, having had the treat of seeing her perform live, I only wish this video showed her accompanying herself on her varied assortment of instruments).

(In the course of writing this post, I discovered that Loreena McKennitt just released a new album in November. Had I known, I would have asked for it for Christmas! Well, if you have yet to get me a present…)

No matter how easy text messages, email, Facebook, Twitter, even blogs make it to keep in touch with loved ones, none of them quite beats the thrill of opening your mailbox on brisk December afternoons and pulling out a Christmas card from a friend or relative (Unless you’re poor old Charlie Brown, and then you don’t know what I’m talking about). Sending cards makes me as happy as receiving them, and thanks to hitting some pretty amazing after-Christmas clearance sales the past two years, I’ve got enough cards stored away for many Christmases yet-to-come.

Except that when I went into my clearance buying frenzy, I didn’t think about the fact that this  Christmas, I’d be the mommy of a nine month-old and have no time to write Christmas cards. Or that I’d want to send personalized Christmas cards, with a picture of the not-so new baby (and possibly his parents).

So, despite having the dozens of Christmas cards in my stationery drawer, I’ll be purchasing cards from Shutterfly.

I first discovered Shutterfly last March, when the Burt Squirt was born and I received a coupon for birth announcements in a packet from the hospital. Since I had a newborn and really didn’t have time to go to a lot of trouble for birth announcements, I checked out the site. The design selection thoroughly impressed me, as did the simplicity of uploading a picture and personalizing the text. All told, I spent about ten minutes creating and ordering beautiful announcements (that I still see hanging on friends’ and family members’ refrigerators), and two or three days later they arrived in the mail, ready to be stuffed into envelopes and mailed. The price was good, too, especially because of the online coupon code I found for free shipping.

My experience as a Shutterfly customer was so good that I won’t consider ordering anywhere else. With 30% off cards and free shipping for orders of $50 and over (and an additional 5% off coupon code), I hardly feel guilty about not using all those cards I already bought. The hardest part is choosing between all of the adorable Christmas photo card and holiday card designs!  (I think I’m going with the Retro Ornaments Green to highlight the family picture I chose for this year’s card.)

And did I mention that for blogging about Shutterfly, I’m getting 50 FREE holiday cards–and you can, too?!

So check your mailboxes this December, because you may just find a Shutterfly card from me! (But if you don’t, it’s not because you’re Charlie Brown. It’s just because you didn’t send me a card last year. *wink*)

Tonight the second episodes of the new seasons of 30 Rock, Community, and The Office air, and I’m only just blogging last week’s premieres. Old news, nobody cares. So here are brief reviews of each because I said in my previous post I’d do it. Anal-retention rears its ugly head.

30 Rock: A good premiere, if for no other reason than Julianne Moore with her god-awful attempt at a Bostonian accent and Elizabeth Banks with her general irritatingness were mercifully absent. A great premiere because Matt Damon returned in his guest role as Liz Lemon’s goofy pilot boyfriend.

Unrelated to the premiere, but on a 30 Rock note: some brilliant person on the interwebs discovered that if you add “Liz Lemon” to the front of Kanye West’s Tweets, he sounds just like Tracy Jordan.

Community: I love how this show is so self-aware. The end of season one left the fresh comedy teetering at the edge of shark-jumping territory by placing Joel McHale’s character, Jeff, in the middle of a love…what do you call a love triangle if it’s got four sides instead of three? As if in answer to the fans’ objections, the Community premiere utilized its trademark meta style to the fullest and took a step back from the rom-dramedyness, reassuring the audience that season two is going to be about the study group we all wish we’d found in college. (Or not.) Plus Señor Chang.

The Office: While I wasn’t wild about the A plot about Michael’s obnoxious nephew, I thought this was the best The Office has been in a while. Mostly because Jim and Pam were back to pranking Dwight. And Dwight was back to making people uncomfortable instead of just being a jerk. And Andy, once again, was thwarted in love. I have hopes that the last season of The Office will be a good one. And yes, I know it’s not the actually last season of The Office–but it is Steve Carrell’s last season, and I refuse to watch the show without Michael Scott. No good thing can come of making a change as drastic as having a new boss on a show that is based entirely around the original boss.