Living Here in the Shire

It will never not please me how different the Christmas cards I get from my various places of employment are.

For example, here we see a card from my agent's office:

Nice, simple, classy. Non-denominational holiday/New Year's card. It has a nice signed message (I always like seeing my agent Lauren's signature; it makes it feel more personal) on the inside and a calendar on the back. Now for BYU's:

A lovely Nativity scene with a beautiful Christmas message inside, signed by the First Presidency. I love them both for different reasons, though, honestly, the second warms my heart more. Especially considering the gift I got a the department Christmas social today.

A Holy Bible, with its own signed, meaningful note.

I appreciate the humor in the comparison, though I smile unironically.

This actually leads in well to a post a friend asked me to write. For those uninitiated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), we fast once a month, the first Sunday of the month. We do this to show our obedience and faith in God and to ask Him for blessings, if needed. If you, like me, are single in a place full of other single LDS people (like I am), odds are good that you'll have a "break the fast" social dinner, where everyone gets together and eats soup or taco salad or noodles or something else cheap to make in quantity. It basically looks like this:

Yesterday, ours was soup and rolls. And an excellent s'mores pie. Nothing like it!

Anyway, while dining on this food after a day of not eating or drinking, I made a comment about the similarities between Mormons and Tolkien's hobbits. A friend suggested that I blog about it. So, here's the comparison.

Granted, there are differences. You're not likely to find pipeweed (of any kind) or alcohol beyond the cleaning variety at an LDS meetinghouse or in our homes. But, consider....

Both groups are fond of food and getting together in social events, especially dinners.

Both have strong connections to home and family.

Both like music and dancing.

 

Both groups are known to live in the West.

And both are known for their young people leaving for a while for "adventures" and returning different.

(I might also make a comment about "the small and simple things" here).

Anyway, this was my comparison. Nothing behind it; just some fun details I noticed. May it please you as well as it pleased my friend.

There are no debuts this week, but I do have some news of my own. I am doing a giveaway for an ARC of Arts and Thefts on Goodreads, and it starts Friday, December 8. So, keep an eye out for it!