Well, here it is New Year's Eve and we're at home. Remember James' cold, the one he caught at work. Well, on Monday it was evident it had been transferred to me.
I slept most of the day yesterday; when I didn't sleep, my nose did a remarkable imitation of a faucet stuck in the open position. Today I had to go to the doctor anyway, to get my pills renewed; the doctor also prescribed an OTC med called "Mucinex" (how appropriate!).
In surfing through programming tonight, we watched a bit of Boomerang's "Hadji New Year" Jonny Quest marathon, and then switched over to Fox Movie Channel for a special I'd heard about. For the past several New Year's Eves, Fox has been doing a marathon of The Poseidon Adventure (they do a full-screen version, widescreen version, and "annotated" widescreen version with production notes at the bottom), but this year they were adding a documentary called Cult Culture: The Poseidon Adventure, about Poseidon Adventure fans. Boy, and they say science fiction fans are weird.
These folks had a convention on the decks of the Queen Mary, where the opening scenes of the movie were filmed, talk about their favorite scenes, and even have produced a musical spoof of the film. It was wonderful, silly and entertaining all at once.
31 December 2003
28 December 2003
Someone Noted What Day It Was
The Discovery Channel is running a special about King Herod tonight: how appropriate since today is Childermas, or Holy Innocents Day, when Herod ordered the slaughter of boys two years old or less to try to kill the baby Jesus. According to one of my Christmas books, this day is considered unlucky and you should not transact business or start any new projects on this date.
26 December 2003
St. Stephen's Day/Boxing Day
Well, neither of us did anything much for "the feast of Stephen": James woke up with a violent sore throat and having had little sleep because of a stuffy nose, stayed home from work to ingest soup and lozenges; I had laundry to do and some painting projects I wanted to work on. The exciting part of the day was chasing a garbage truck down the street. While working on the painting projects (two small shelf boxes that I would like to go in the hall bathroom, a corner shelf for the den, and a formerly black frame turned apple red to frame an apple print for the kitchen), I watched some of fifth season M*A*S*H (my birthday gift from James) and an episode each on the three Lassie TV series DVDs I'd found in WalMart.
25 December 2003
Christmas Day at the Videos, Part 4
This is the last one: a real Christmas miracle occured--the folks at IBM decided after one call came in all morning that they didn't need a whole crew there and sent James home early.
The last film in the queue is one of my all-time favorites, The House Without a Christmas Tree. This is another non-DVD affair highly sought on e-Bay since CBS quit producing the videos several years back. I've seen some comment on Amazon.com that it "looks funny." That's because CBS produced it on the cheap in the 70s on the same videotape they recorded their soap operas on. I've always thought it would come out lovely run through one of those Avid editing machines, the same type they used to give Remember WENN such a nice forties Technicolor look.
The performances are so spot-on in this show I can believe I'm looking through a time-machine's window at something that actually happened in December of 1946. I love Addie--she's smart and resourceful with all the chuzpah I always wished I had. But Jason Robards is superb--his embittered James Mills is on the surface hateful, but the hurt and suppressed love evident in his manner and his eyes saves the character and makes him more than a cardboard villain.
The 1940s atmosphere is a big plus and this has yet another memorable score by Arthur Rubenstein.
And now we're off to dinner! Merry Christmas!!!!!
The last film in the queue is one of my all-time favorites, The House Without a Christmas Tree. This is another non-DVD affair highly sought on e-Bay since CBS quit producing the videos several years back. I've seen some comment on Amazon.com that it "looks funny." That's because CBS produced it on the cheap in the 70s on the same videotape they recorded their soap operas on. I've always thought it would come out lovely run through one of those Avid editing machines, the same type they used to give Remember WENN such a nice forties Technicolor look.
The performances are so spot-on in this show I can believe I'm looking through a time-machine's window at something that actually happened in December of 1946. I love Addie--she's smart and resourceful with all the chuzpah I always wished I had. But Jason Robards is superb--his embittered James Mills is on the surface hateful, but the hurt and suppressed love evident in his manner and his eyes saves the character and makes him more than a cardboard villain.
The 1940s atmosphere is a big plus and this has yet another memorable score by Arthur Rubenstein.
And now we're off to dinner! Merry Christmas!!!!!
Christmas Day at the Videos, Part 3
Just finished watching The Gathering, with Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton. As many Emmy awards and excellent reviews as this movie got when it first premiered in the 1970s, you'd think it would be a staple still, but it's hardly seen anymore.
It's a sad but ultimately joyous story of Adam Thornton, who became estranged from his wife--and most of his family--four years earlier after an argument. His older son has become as arrogant and independent as he is, his older daughter is a hard-nosed political activist, his younger daughter has a happy marriage although her husband's business is floundering, and he hasn't seen his youngest son in years, after he fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Now he has 90 days or less to live and he wants to make amends. With help from his still-loving wife, that dream comes true.
Besides the wonderful performances by Asner, Stapleton, John Randolph, Veronica Hamel, Gregory Harrison, Lawrence Pressman and the rest of the cast, there's a great musical score by John Barry (there's a particular lilting motif that shows up mid-film that I love), the "firework scene," and real winter scenery rather than ersatz snow, with Chagrin Falls and Hudson, Ohio, standing in for "somewhere in New England."
Incidentally, whatever studio produced this movie is losing big bucks not remastering it to DVD. Someone asked me where they could get a copy and I immediately directed them to e-Bay and checked it out myself. The copies of the professional videotape, still in wrap, are going for $40-$50; even previously watched tapes are going for $35.
It's a sad but ultimately joyous story of Adam Thornton, who became estranged from his wife--and most of his family--four years earlier after an argument. His older son has become as arrogant and independent as he is, his older daughter is a hard-nosed political activist, his younger daughter has a happy marriage although her husband's business is floundering, and he hasn't seen his youngest son in years, after he fled to Canada to avoid the draft. Now he has 90 days or less to live and he wants to make amends. With help from his still-loving wife, that dream comes true.
Besides the wonderful performances by Asner, Stapleton, John Randolph, Veronica Hamel, Gregory Harrison, Lawrence Pressman and the rest of the cast, there's a great musical score by John Barry (there's a particular lilting motif that shows up mid-film that I love), the "firework scene," and real winter scenery rather than ersatz snow, with Chagrin Falls and Hudson, Ohio, standing in for "somewhere in New England."
Incidentally, whatever studio produced this movie is losing big bucks not remastering it to DVD. Someone asked me where they could get a copy and I immediately directed them to e-Bay and checked it out myself. The copies of the professional videotape, still in wrap, are going for $40-$50; even previously watched tapes are going for $35.
Christmas Day at the Videos, Part 2
My favorite episode of The Waltons: "The Best Christmas" was next. I enjoyed the entire series of Waltons, except perhaps the final season, but the first six or seven years were the best.
It's Christmas 1937, and Olivia confides to Grandma, with Elizabeth overhearing, that she wants this holiday to be the best one, as the family may be scattered in future years. So everyone plans for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, despite the icy weather. But Grandma and Grandpa are stranded in Charlottesville visiting a sick friend, Ben is trapped at Yancy Tucker's house, Jason and John are helping clear away a tree that has crashed through the church roof, Jim-Bob is late because a friend he's invited for dinner was primping, Erin is still on duty at the switchboard because Fanny Tatum has not returned--and John-Boy, Mary Ellen and Curt, along with Verdie and Harley are busy rescuing Miss Fanny and her niece from their car, which has run off the road into a frozen pond, leaving Olivia and Elizabeth to hold the fort at home. It's a very warm, loving story that ends with a teary reunion on Christmas morning.
The pond rescue scenes are especially good: I know this was probably filmed in August on a hot soundstage, but the snow and ice is so well done that I get the chills just watching John-Boy and Harley wade out into the cold water.
I have a humorous memory of this episode from when it first aired, stemming from Mary Ellen and Curt's treatment of frostbite; they began with applications of cold water, gradually getting warmer--dozens of people apparently wrote to TV Guide, and a representative number were printed in their letters column, screaming that that was not the way to treat frostbite! Some of them were quite upset that The Waltons would "mislead" people into thinking this was correct. It was so stupid--of course we knew in the 1970s that frostbite should not be treated that way, but the show took place in 1937; that's the way frostbite was treated then. Had they used the 70s method of treatment, it would have been anachronistic! Duh!
After this was over, I switched the TV to WPIX to watch the Yule Log while I phoned first James--I was everyone's first call of the day--and then my mother, who was getting ready to go to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner.
It's Christmas 1937, and Olivia confides to Grandma, with Elizabeth overhearing, that she wants this holiday to be the best one, as the family may be scattered in future years. So everyone plans for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner, despite the icy weather. But Grandma and Grandpa are stranded in Charlottesville visiting a sick friend, Ben is trapped at Yancy Tucker's house, Jason and John are helping clear away a tree that has crashed through the church roof, Jim-Bob is late because a friend he's invited for dinner was primping, Erin is still on duty at the switchboard because Fanny Tatum has not returned--and John-Boy, Mary Ellen and Curt, along with Verdie and Harley are busy rescuing Miss Fanny and her niece from their car, which has run off the road into a frozen pond, leaving Olivia and Elizabeth to hold the fort at home. It's a very warm, loving story that ends with a teary reunion on Christmas morning.
The pond rescue scenes are especially good: I know this was probably filmed in August on a hot soundstage, but the snow and ice is so well done that I get the chills just watching John-Boy and Harley wade out into the cold water.
I have a humorous memory of this episode from when it first aired, stemming from Mary Ellen and Curt's treatment of frostbite; they began with applications of cold water, gradually getting warmer--dozens of people apparently wrote to TV Guide, and a representative number were printed in their letters column, screaming that that was not the way to treat frostbite! Some of them were quite upset that The Waltons would "mislead" people into thinking this was correct. It was so stupid--of course we knew in the 1970s that frostbite should not be treated that way, but the show took place in 1937; that's the way frostbite was treated then. Had they used the 70s method of treatment, it would have been anachronistic! Duh!
After this was over, I switched the TV to WPIX to watch the Yule Log while I phoned first James--I was everyone's first call of the day--and then my mother, who was getting ready to go to my cousin's house for Christmas dinner.
Christmas Day at the Videos, Part 1
James wobbled off to work--he had no temp, only a sore throat--fortified with tea, a turkey sandwich, and some snacks--and I wandered into the spare room to sit with Bandit and watch The Christmas That Almost Wasn't. This is a thoroughly silly film, suitable for playing if you feel as if you're going to doze off, although I didn't. Rossano Brazzi plays a comic-opera villain called Phineas T. Prune, who hates Christmas and children, the sets are European gingerbread, and Paul Tripp spreads holiday cheer simply with his smile.
While the movie ran, Bandit told me a long budgie story (he lives a very full life).
While the movie ran, Bandit told me a long budgie story (he lives a very full life).
24 December 2003
Life Happens When You're Making Christmas Plans
James ended up staying home today; he'd been getting more and more tired and sore throated all week. It's not the flu, just the creeping crud that was going around and finally got to him. I went out for a little while this morning: spent a couple of Linens'n'Things coupons on some kitchen gadgets we needed, then spent much too much at the "Giant Book Sale," mostly on "For Better or For Worse," "Baby Blues," "Fox Trot," "Mutts," and "Rose is Rose" compilations, plus the newest Jill Paton Walsh Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane homage.
Thank God for the billboard on the way home, or I might have forgotten to stop at Harry's for the bread for our usual Christmas Eve feast.
Since James was home, we first played one of our favorites, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together and then we settled in to watch the DVD of the extended version of The Two Towers, since we want to see Return of the King some time this weekend. It's not exactly Christmasy :-) but it was a nice thing to be able to do together.
(Before we watched Two Towers, I had James hook up the subwoofer. The new receiver has six speakers, right, left, center, surround left, surround right, and the subwoofer. Since we're going to be shifting the TV and the furniture around, I thought it silly to hitch up all the speakers now. But for Towers we really needed the subwoofer. Oh, boy, does it "woof." The funniest thing was watching Willow. The first time something rumbled onscreen she stepped up to the subwoofer, sniffing suspiciously, then she glanced at the center speaker, then back at the subwoofer, then something really growled and she ran backwards, barking at the top of her lungs! She did it twice before she got used to the subsonics. It really did make the floor rumble!)
Oh, during the Muppets someone knocked on the door; it turned out to be Steve, the guy who cuts our lawn. He brought us an amaryllis plant. I'm usually death to plants and we really have no sunny spot for it, but we're going to try it in the living room and see what happens.
I was half watching Towers and half reading one of my favorite books to read at Christmas, Kate Seredy's The Open Gate. It's not really a Christmas story, but a Christmas event figures in it and it ends the Christmas after the Pearl Harbor attack. Every time I read this book I have the uncontrollable urge to go out to live on a farm despite one of the lead character's admonition of the harshness--alongside the rewards--of farm life.
It's a joyous book, about the Preston family (parents, daughter and son, and the father's mother), who in June 1941 head out to a New York lake resort after Dad loses his job. Through a series of accidents and a little bit of machination by the grandmother, the Prestons end up buying a beautiful but run-down old farm in Orange County. Gran, homesick for the farm life she had when her sons were young, is determined to keep the farm--and she convinces the rest of the family as well. Soon they befriend the neighbors, an elderly couple raising their grandson after his parents were killed on Christmas Eve years earlier, and a Slovakian couple whose roots are truly in the soil.
Of course the inevitable happens on December 7, but the family, like the entire country, proceeds with resolve, and a special Christmas gift makes the first wartime holiday a special one for the Prestons and their new friends.
This all accompanied by Kate Seredy's delightful illustrations!
For dinner we had the usual spaghetti, thick with pepperoni, pork, and meatballs, and then "had Christmas" in the living room with the fire going. James received a plethora of books and a paper airplane calendar; I discovered, besides a copy of The Goodbye Girl and the much coveted Amelia Peabody's Egypt, that I had some pretty baubles, a carnivorous rabbit and a sheep in wolf's clothing (yes, you read that right). I'd seen the latter at DragonCon and laughed over it; James found it in an online catalog.
This should have been it, but we also baked a chocolate-chip chocolate cake to take with us for dessert tomorrow. (As of writing this, we haven't decanted it yet. Wish us luck...)
James is planning to go to work tomorrow, so to that end we are not attending Midnight Mass this year. This has made Bandit extremely happy--this means he can cling to my neck and chirble longer.
Thank God for the billboard on the way home, or I might have forgotten to stop at Harry's for the bread for our usual Christmas Eve feast.
Since James was home, we first played one of our favorites, John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together and then we settled in to watch the DVD of the extended version of The Two Towers, since we want to see Return of the King some time this weekend. It's not exactly Christmasy :-) but it was a nice thing to be able to do together.
(Before we watched Two Towers, I had James hook up the subwoofer. The new receiver has six speakers, right, left, center, surround left, surround right, and the subwoofer. Since we're going to be shifting the TV and the furniture around, I thought it silly to hitch up all the speakers now. But for Towers we really needed the subwoofer. Oh, boy, does it "woof." The funniest thing was watching Willow. The first time something rumbled onscreen she stepped up to the subwoofer, sniffing suspiciously, then she glanced at the center speaker, then back at the subwoofer, then something really growled and she ran backwards, barking at the top of her lungs! She did it twice before she got used to the subsonics. It really did make the floor rumble!)
Oh, during the Muppets someone knocked on the door; it turned out to be Steve, the guy who cuts our lawn. He brought us an amaryllis plant. I'm usually death to plants and we really have no sunny spot for it, but we're going to try it in the living room and see what happens.
I was half watching Towers and half reading one of my favorite books to read at Christmas, Kate Seredy's The Open Gate. It's not really a Christmas story, but a Christmas event figures in it and it ends the Christmas after the Pearl Harbor attack. Every time I read this book I have the uncontrollable urge to go out to live on a farm despite one of the lead character's admonition of the harshness--alongside the rewards--of farm life.
It's a joyous book, about the Preston family (parents, daughter and son, and the father's mother), who in June 1941 head out to a New York lake resort after Dad loses his job. Through a series of accidents and a little bit of machination by the grandmother, the Prestons end up buying a beautiful but run-down old farm in Orange County. Gran, homesick for the farm life she had when her sons were young, is determined to keep the farm--and she convinces the rest of the family as well. Soon they befriend the neighbors, an elderly couple raising their grandson after his parents were killed on Christmas Eve years earlier, and a Slovakian couple whose roots are truly in the soil.
Of course the inevitable happens on December 7, but the family, like the entire country, proceeds with resolve, and a special Christmas gift makes the first wartime holiday a special one for the Prestons and their new friends.
This all accompanied by Kate Seredy's delightful illustrations!
For dinner we had the usual spaghetti, thick with pepperoni, pork, and meatballs, and then "had Christmas" in the living room with the fire going. James received a plethora of books and a paper airplane calendar; I discovered, besides a copy of The Goodbye Girl and the much coveted Amelia Peabody's Egypt, that I had some pretty baubles, a carnivorous rabbit and a sheep in wolf's clothing (yes, you read that right). I'd seen the latter at DragonCon and laughed over it; James found it in an online catalog.
This should have been it, but we also baked a chocolate-chip chocolate cake to take with us for dessert tomorrow. (As of writing this, we haven't decanted it yet. Wish us luck...)
James is planning to go to work tomorrow, so to that end we are not attending Midnight Mass this year. This has made Bandit extremely happy--this means he can cling to my neck and chirble longer.
23 December 2003
Now That Smells Like Christmas...
Slept late this morning and really enjoyed it; actually awoke with some energy!
I spent the late morning/early afternoon making cookies. It was like a lovely flashback to my childhood although my cookie-baking is curtailed compared to my mom's. I made my favorite of the holiday cookies, wine biscuits (recipe here). I used the last of my hearty burgundy and haven't been able to find anymore. Looks like I'll have to visit my mom again just to buy more wine! (Geez! Twist my arm!) Plain old burgundy just doesn't do it.
Mom used to also bake almond bars, molasses cookies, and butterballs (which for some reason they call "Danish wedding cookies" here). I loved the molasses cookies next best, but the only year I tried to make them I ended up with a gluey dough that literally had to be scraped off my fingers. I keep forgetting, when I'm visiting home, to rummage around in the recipe box--an old cigar box--in which lives the classic cookie recipes hand-written on white or blue paper and find the definitive version of the molasses cookie recipe.
Mom baked many dozens of cookies, some which found their way on paper plates to be exchanged with relatives who gave us their wine biscuits, almond bars, etc. She also made them for my best friends' mother, other friends' families, and my godparents (both sets). If we were lucky, someone in the family would make wandi's, a friable, sugar-scattered confection that was twisted on itself and then deep-fried (the closest equivalent I can think of is a funnel cake, but that's not it either: funnel cakes are chewy and these are thin and break the moment you bite into them, showering you with powdered sugar). Wandi's are difficult to make and the older I grew, the less the aunts baked them, so they became the ultimate treat.
When the cookies were done, I ran out for a few groceries and discovered myself suddenly infected with Christmas spirit. Much better than the flu, trust me. :-) Came home to start making spaghetti sauce. Since I don't have my own home made tomato base, I start with a base of three jars of Classico d'Napoli sauce, tomato and basil, no sugar added (read my lips: real Italian spaghetti sauce has no sugar in it), add water since neither of us likes it that thick, and add a cut-up stick of pepperoni, chunks of pork, and meatballs.
It's been simmering for two hours now and has another hour to go. The house smells heavenly, of wine biscuits and "the gravy." Now that smells like Christmas! I sit and sniff as I watch Ask the Manager Christmas specials. But surely Heaven smells of spaghetti sauce, fresh-baked Italian bread, and wine biscuits...
I spent the late morning/early afternoon making cookies. It was like a lovely flashback to my childhood although my cookie-baking is curtailed compared to my mom's. I made my favorite of the holiday cookies, wine biscuits (recipe here). I used the last of my hearty burgundy and haven't been able to find anymore. Looks like I'll have to visit my mom again just to buy more wine! (Geez! Twist my arm!) Plain old burgundy just doesn't do it.
Mom used to also bake almond bars, molasses cookies, and butterballs (which for some reason they call "Danish wedding cookies" here). I loved the molasses cookies next best, but the only year I tried to make them I ended up with a gluey dough that literally had to be scraped off my fingers. I keep forgetting, when I'm visiting home, to rummage around in the recipe box--an old cigar box--in which lives the classic cookie recipes hand-written on white or blue paper and find the definitive version of the molasses cookie recipe.
Mom baked many dozens of cookies, some which found their way on paper plates to be exchanged with relatives who gave us their wine biscuits, almond bars, etc. She also made them for my best friends' mother, other friends' families, and my godparents (both sets). If we were lucky, someone in the family would make wandi's, a friable, sugar-scattered confection that was twisted on itself and then deep-fried (the closest equivalent I can think of is a funnel cake, but that's not it either: funnel cakes are chewy and these are thin and break the moment you bite into them, showering you with powdered sugar). Wandi's are difficult to make and the older I grew, the less the aunts baked them, so they became the ultimate treat.
When the cookies were done, I ran out for a few groceries and discovered myself suddenly infected with Christmas spirit. Much better than the flu, trust me. :-) Came home to start making spaghetti sauce. Since I don't have my own home made tomato base, I start with a base of three jars of Classico d'Napoli sauce, tomato and basil, no sugar added (read my lips: real Italian spaghetti sauce has no sugar in it), add water since neither of us likes it that thick, and add a cut-up stick of pepperoni, chunks of pork, and meatballs.
It's been simmering for two hours now and has another hour to go. The house smells heavenly, of wine biscuits and "the gravy." Now that smells like Christmas! I sit and sniff as I watch Ask the Manager Christmas specials. But surely Heaven smells of spaghetti sauce, fresh-baked Italian bread, and wine biscuits...
22 December 2003
Back in Time
Something different tonight: a collection of silent films originally recorded from Turner Movie Classics; here they are collected on DVD: A Christmas Past - Vintage Holiday Films. The earliest film in the collection was from 1897 (which I believe is "The Night Before Christmas" [at Amazon they have it listed as 1905]) and the latest being "Santa Claus" from 1925. Most of them are rather cute, all are fascinating, especially "Winter Straw Ride," which depicts a group of young women going on a sleigh ride and then chasing the boys through the snow; they seemed to have so much fun in a simple manner in those days! "A Trap for Santa" and "The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus" I found the most interesting: in the first, an abandoned wife and her two children discover a special surprise on Christmas Eve; the other is a mystery story with the great detective "Octavius," sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and a young Peter Wimsey--one with a very funny ending to boot. "Santa Claus" is of note because part of it was actually filmed at the North Pole, showing actual reindeer, polar bears, and walruses.
I would suggest, should you catch this again on TCM or if you buy the DVD, to do as someone on Amazon.com suggested and turn down the sound. These were probably originally scored to some wonderful theatre organ music; any original scores that went with these productions were replaced with a dissonant mix of bells and really screechy violins that occasionally sound as if they're playing a Christmas carol or two. Pity someone couldn't have resurrected the original scores and found a nice Wurlitzer to play them on!
I would suggest, should you catch this again on TCM or if you buy the DVD, to do as someone on Amazon.com suggested and turn down the sound. These were probably originally scored to some wonderful theatre organ music; any original scores that went with these productions were replaced with a dissonant mix of bells and really screechy violins that occasionally sound as if they're playing a Christmas carol or two. Pity someone couldn't have resurrected the original scores and found a nice Wurlitzer to play them on!
21 December 2003
Small Specials, Big Lights, and Radio Friends
Watched both The Little Drummer Boy (on tape, since the DVD copy is so stinky) and Mickey's Christmas Carol tonight--the latter is one of James' favorites. I love the song.
We also, since we won't have time Christmas Eve, went out looking at some Christmas lights. We drove around the neighborhood for a few minutes, but our local "glitter gulch" a few streets away was muted--I guess someone forgot to flip the switch.
So we drove out to Buckhead via Mount Paran Road to check out this year's display at the Albritton House. The tree is all green this year with a funky multicolor star (unlike the angel shown in the pictures). The ground cover lights are a mixture of purple, blue, and green that looks very cool. It would be nice to try on our own porch had the idiots who built the house bothered to put an outside power plug in the front!!!
Sad news, though: Mr. Albritton was outside talking to the spectators and it's their last year doing this, as they're moving soon. :-(
On the corner of West Wieuca and Powers Ferry they had a living nativity; several sheep grazing about the manger and the Magi pointing out the Star as we passed by.
We came home through my old homebound route, West Paces Ferry Road. West Paces was the best part of the day, except in summer when it took twenty minutes to inch down a couple miles of road due to the traffic and even with the A/C on you were broiling. This is the swank part of town, just like Mount Paran, with big expensive houses. James and I comment--as my parents and I used to comment--about how the folks with money seem to under-decorate while the middle-class folks go all out. A big wreath and a spotlight on it seem to do for a lot of these moneyed folks, while the little house on Pat Mell behind the Eckerds has lights everywhere, inflatable figures, and lighted figures.
Maybe because the folks with money have an image to live up to and can't be caught with tacky home decorations? Fiddle--they can keep their plain wreaths and white candles; I'm glad I don't have an image to consider!
Came home just in time for our annual Remember WENN online Christmas party. Folks bring 1940s era "virtual food" and we gab until a certain time, when every one of us who have WENN's Christmas episode on tape queue it up and try to watch it at the same time. Of course some folks are a bit behind or ahead, which makes it funnier.
At the end is a beautiful song called "You Make It Christmas" which Bandit and I always "dance" to. (Well, I twirl slowly and he sits on my hand looking puzzled, but he enjoys the attention.) Every year I thank God for giving us yet another dance together.
We also, since we won't have time Christmas Eve, went out looking at some Christmas lights. We drove around the neighborhood for a few minutes, but our local "glitter gulch" a few streets away was muted--I guess someone forgot to flip the switch.
So we drove out to Buckhead via Mount Paran Road to check out this year's display at the Albritton House. The tree is all green this year with a funky multicolor star (unlike the angel shown in the pictures). The ground cover lights are a mixture of purple, blue, and green that looks very cool. It would be nice to try on our own porch had the idiots who built the house bothered to put an outside power plug in the front!!!
Sad news, though: Mr. Albritton was outside talking to the spectators and it's their last year doing this, as they're moving soon. :-(
On the corner of West Wieuca and Powers Ferry they had a living nativity; several sheep grazing about the manger and the Magi pointing out the Star as we passed by.
We came home through my old homebound route, West Paces Ferry Road. West Paces was the best part of the day, except in summer when it took twenty minutes to inch down a couple miles of road due to the traffic and even with the A/C on you were broiling. This is the swank part of town, just like Mount Paran, with big expensive houses. James and I comment--as my parents and I used to comment--about how the folks with money seem to under-decorate while the middle-class folks go all out. A big wreath and a spotlight on it seem to do for a lot of these moneyed folks, while the little house on Pat Mell behind the Eckerds has lights everywhere, inflatable figures, and lighted figures.
Maybe because the folks with money have an image to live up to and can't be caught with tacky home decorations? Fiddle--they can keep their plain wreaths and white candles; I'm glad I don't have an image to consider!
Came home just in time for our annual Remember WENN online Christmas party. Folks bring 1940s era "virtual food" and we gab until a certain time, when every one of us who have WENN's Christmas episode on tape queue it up and try to watch it at the same time. Of course some folks are a bit behind or ahead, which makes it funnier.
At the end is a beautiful song called "You Make It Christmas" which Bandit and I always "dance" to. (Well, I twirl slowly and he sits on my hand looking puzzled, but he enjoys the attention.) Every year I thank God for giving us yet another dance together.
20 December 2003
Anachronisms Plus
Between chores today sat down to rest my aching back and watched both eps on the "Little House on the Prairie Christmas" DVD. As I'd mentioned before, the original "Christmas at Plum Creek" has one small anachronism in it, but otherwise is a charming, heart-tugging episode.
I watched "A Christmas They Never Forgot" for the first time in a long time and it's actually worse than I remembered. The characters in "Plum Creek" that seemed so natural are forced here; Melissa Gilbert was such a charming performer in the first story but her lines, as well as too many of the other characters' lines, seemed fake and false, and that hurts the entire story worst of all.
The premise of "Forgot" is that the Ingalls family, including the fictitious adopted Albert, James and Cassandra, and Laura and her new husband Almanzo are gathered at the Ingalls home on Christmas Eve. Hester Sue, the family's African-American friend, shows up with a surprise: Mary and her husband Adam. Lo and behold, as they celebrate, a blizzard blows up and traps them all in the little house on Plum Creek.
As one by one the children go to bed, the adults talk about memorable Christmases: Ma about her first Christmas with her new stepfather, Almanzo about the Christmas his brother told him there was no Santa Claus, a flashback to the Ingalls' Christmas in Kansas (from the Little House on the Prairie pilot movie), and finally Hester's memory of Christmas as a slave child.
The flashback scene is the best: it's taken directly from the Little House on the Prairie novel, and Victor French is delightful as the occasionally uncouth Mr. Edwards. Of the newer segments, only Hester Sue's is vaguely interesting: other black children have told her Santa Claus is a white man and doesn't care about her; her father borrows a Santa Claus suit and delivers an angel doll to her (sent by the plantation owner's daughter) to prove to her that Santa comes in all colors. Carefully skirted, of course, is the fact that Hester Sue and her parents are slaves.
For someone who has read the books, the first two stories are ludicrous. Young Caroline misses her father so much that she hates her stepfather and talks back to both her mother and stepfather; kindly Mr. Holbrook responds to this disrespect by being nice to her--giving her something her father had given him and then sending up a totally bathotic prayer in an embarrassing sequence. Oh, please. First, althought Caroline and her brothers and sisters were unsure of Frederick Holbrook, the fact he married their mother was a great relief to the family, who were having a problem making ends meet. And no child of that era would sass an adult in that manner, even if they were having problems with the relationship.
Even sillier, the package Holbrook gives to Caroline--the scene takes place in around 1840 or so--is wrapped in clearly modern printed Christmas paper with a modern bow! Christmas presents at that time were commonly wrapped, if they were wrapped at all, in white tissue paper tied with red string, but apparently someone figured no one could guess it was a Christmas present if it didn't have Christmas wrap on it. Sheesh. In "Plum Creek," the packages are more accurately wrapped either in tissue or brown paper. It didn't seem to spoil anything.
(Not to mention that Caroline comments that she was sad because it was raining on Christmas instead of snowing. Coincidentally, just as she decides to open her stepfather's gift, it starts to snow. Oh, geez.)
The Almanzo story is equally annoying. Almanzo mentions how strict his parents are and how the children spent all of December 24 cleaning house and are so tired they want to go right to bed after supper: instead Father Wilder sends the boys out to feed the stock and Mother sets the girls to cleaning the table.
Yet five minutes later, when Almanzo doesn't come in from the barn, Father goes out there and does an indulgent song-and-dance to explain why there are presents hidden in the barn, as if Mr. Wilder undergoes some type of conversion between the house and the stable.
It's a shame, because the early episodes of Little House, although they wildly veered from the books, were actually well-acted and had decent scripts. The later shows show none of the loving craftsmanship of the earlier seasons--it's not just "A Christmas They Never Forgot," but the remainder of the season as well. A few months back, I happened to catch the episode where Almanzo is paralyzed after diphtheria. The hand-wringing bathos of the story made a bad romance novel look clever in comparison.
I watched "A Christmas They Never Forgot" for the first time in a long time and it's actually worse than I remembered. The characters in "Plum Creek" that seemed so natural are forced here; Melissa Gilbert was such a charming performer in the first story but her lines, as well as too many of the other characters' lines, seemed fake and false, and that hurts the entire story worst of all.
The premise of "Forgot" is that the Ingalls family, including the fictitious adopted Albert, James and Cassandra, and Laura and her new husband Almanzo are gathered at the Ingalls home on Christmas Eve. Hester Sue, the family's African-American friend, shows up with a surprise: Mary and her husband Adam. Lo and behold, as they celebrate, a blizzard blows up and traps them all in the little house on Plum Creek.
As one by one the children go to bed, the adults talk about memorable Christmases: Ma about her first Christmas with her new stepfather, Almanzo about the Christmas his brother told him there was no Santa Claus, a flashback to the Ingalls' Christmas in Kansas (from the Little House on the Prairie pilot movie), and finally Hester's memory of Christmas as a slave child.
The flashback scene is the best: it's taken directly from the Little House on the Prairie novel, and Victor French is delightful as the occasionally uncouth Mr. Edwards. Of the newer segments, only Hester Sue's is vaguely interesting: other black children have told her Santa Claus is a white man and doesn't care about her; her father borrows a Santa Claus suit and delivers an angel doll to her (sent by the plantation owner's daughter) to prove to her that Santa comes in all colors. Carefully skirted, of course, is the fact that Hester Sue and her parents are slaves.
For someone who has read the books, the first two stories are ludicrous. Young Caroline misses her father so much that she hates her stepfather and talks back to both her mother and stepfather; kindly Mr. Holbrook responds to this disrespect by being nice to her--giving her something her father had given him and then sending up a totally bathotic prayer in an embarrassing sequence. Oh, please. First, althought Caroline and her brothers and sisters were unsure of Frederick Holbrook, the fact he married their mother was a great relief to the family, who were having a problem making ends meet. And no child of that era would sass an adult in that manner, even if they were having problems with the relationship.
Even sillier, the package Holbrook gives to Caroline--the scene takes place in around 1840 or so--is wrapped in clearly modern printed Christmas paper with a modern bow! Christmas presents at that time were commonly wrapped, if they were wrapped at all, in white tissue paper tied with red string, but apparently someone figured no one could guess it was a Christmas present if it didn't have Christmas wrap on it. Sheesh. In "Plum Creek," the packages are more accurately wrapped either in tissue or brown paper. It didn't seem to spoil anything.
(Not to mention that Caroline comments that she was sad because it was raining on Christmas instead of snowing. Coincidentally, just as she decides to open her stepfather's gift, it starts to snow. Oh, geez.)
The Almanzo story is equally annoying. Almanzo mentions how strict his parents are and how the children spent all of December 24 cleaning house and are so tired they want to go right to bed after supper: instead Father Wilder sends the boys out to feed the stock and Mother sets the girls to cleaning the table.
Yet five minutes later, when Almanzo doesn't come in from the barn, Father goes out there and does an indulgent song-and-dance to explain why there are presents hidden in the barn, as if Mr. Wilder undergoes some type of conversion between the house and the stable.
It's a shame, because the early episodes of Little House, although they wildly veered from the books, were actually well-acted and had decent scripts. The later shows show none of the loving craftsmanship of the earlier seasons--it's not just "A Christmas They Never Forgot," but the remainder of the season as well. A few months back, I happened to catch the episode where Almanzo is paralyzed after diphtheria. The hand-wringing bathos of the story made a bad romance novel look clever in comparison.
19 December 2003
Airspace Over the Pacific
Watched one of our favorite Christmas movies tonight, Mercy Mission. This is a television movie starring Scott Bakula as a rather feckless young pilot who doesn't want to give up his free-agent life as a pilot, despite a pregnant wife, who takes on an assignment to fly a small crop-dusting plane to Australia. His navigational equipment goes on the fritz after he leaves Pago-Pago and he's lost over the Pacific. The pilot (played by Robert Loggia) of the only aircraft in the area, an Air New Zealand flight, is determined to save him. Even James gets teary-eyed as Jay guides his rain-battered Cessna into Auckland airspace.
18 December 2003
Thursday Threesome
Onesome: Chestnuts-- Okay, just which Christmas food won't you touch? I mean, even when Auntie Sarah is serving it up with a big smile!
Gosh...the anchovies in the antipasto, I guess. (I would eat one pickled pepper...) Oh, and there's this really awful looking stuff called "ambrosia." Nonsense. Dark chocolate is the only ambrosia there is.
Twosome: Roasting-- Then again, which Christmas food are you willing to risk life and limb for, even when Uncle George is between you and the platter?
The dark meat on the turkey!
Threesome: on an open fire-- Heh. This line reminds me of a joke! Do you have a favorite bit of holiday humor? How about it?
No jokes, but the movie A Christmas Story works!
Onesome: Chestnuts-- Okay, just which Christmas food won't you touch? I mean, even when Auntie Sarah is serving it up with a big smile!
Gosh...the anchovies in the antipasto, I guess. (I would eat one pickled pepper...) Oh, and there's this really awful looking stuff called "ambrosia." Nonsense. Dark chocolate is the only ambrosia there is.
Twosome: Roasting-- Then again, which Christmas food are you willing to risk life and limb for, even when Uncle George is between you and the platter?
The dark meat on the turkey!
Threesome: on an open fire-- Heh. This line reminds me of a joke! Do you have a favorite bit of holiday humor? How about it?
No jokes, but the movie A Christmas Story works!
15 December 2003
The Antique Christmas Lights Site
Found a blog where yet another person expressed astonishment at finding out the "12 Days of Christmas" were the twelve days after Christmas. I still blame this on advertisers, who use "the 12 Days of Christmas" as a last-minute sales pitch!
Anyway, from that blog I discovered this: The Antique Christmas Lights Site. Fascinating stuff, and even found a picture of how the bulbs in our old eight-bulb candoliers used to look! (There were others of the same size that had ridges on them, as if they were twisted, but Woolworth's didn't carry those.) I remember our candoliers still worked when we finally bought new ones, we just couldn't find the smaller sized bulbs (C-6?) anymore.
Anyway, from that blog I discovered this: The Antique Christmas Lights Site. Fascinating stuff, and even found a picture of how the bulbs in our old eight-bulb candoliers used to look! (There were others of the same size that had ridges on them, as if they were twisted, but Woolworth's didn't carry those.) I remember our candoliers still worked when we finally bought new ones, we just couldn't find the smaller sized bulbs (C-6?) anymore.
Holly Jolly Weekend
No sooner had I returned home Friday afternoon than the decorating of the tree commenced. We had done preliminary set-up the previous night: James fetched the big wooden box containing the ornaments (which, upended, becomes the tree stand) from the closet and moved the loveseat so I could vacuum. As always the lights seemed to take forever.
It struck me as I started work that "Sara," the Christmas tree whose name I chronicled elsewhere, is starting to show her age. I had to wire the top branch on with florist's wire this year, and one of the very small branches right at the top has broken off entirely. I suppose these days 13 years old is quite elderly for an artificial Christmas tree.
I started at four and just in time for Holiday at Pops at eight, I was done. Tired, but happy and chowing down on the delightful fried rice mentioned in "Yet Another Journal," we watched the Boston Pops annual concert. Thank God this at least is still being covered by A&E and wasn't sold off to WBZ and CBS like Pops Goes the Fourth was! The guest were Vince Gill and Amy Grant, this year's Santa Claus was very funny, and as always the sing-a-long had us joining in (the dog gives us such weird looks when we sing).
Saturday morning was reserved for errands, then James went off to the International Plastic Modeler's Society's local Christmas party while I spent a little time cleaning and a bunch of time reading online. There's always a gift exchange and he lucked out and returned with his favorite type of plane, an F104 Starfighter. I wrapped his gifts while he was gone.
When he returned we set off on our yearly trek out to Birmingham for a friend's Christmas party. We don't get to see her that often (now that they've got "real stores" like Borders and Barnes & Noble in Birmingham, she doesn't have to make the trip to Atlanta as much), and all her goodies are homemade; she loves to cook and does it well. James came home with a nice plate of stuffed mushrooms.
The ride was pretty annoying this year; it rained both ways--it's a little over a 2-hour drive. We amused ourselves by listening to Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas episodes both ways.
The inevitable milk run came Sunday morning, then we were off to Stone Mountain Park where the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company was presenting their annual "An Atlanta Christmas" at Memorial Hall as part of what SMP called the "Fruitcake Festival" (yes, they served free fruitcake!). Because of the fruitcake moniker, the usual sketches were joined by a fruitcake-oriented episode of Daniel Taylor's rural comedy Bumper's Crossroads, plus a new Rory Rammer, Space Marshall (a hilarious send-up of the children's radio science fiction series of the 1940s and 50s written by Ron Butler) was also presented--not to mention Grandpa Bumper telling the story of "Ernie the Christmas Snail." The show was presented in two parts and between "sets" we chatted with friends and cooed over new baby Grace.
The weekend ended with James taking me out for my birthday dinner (call it delayed gratification). I'd like to say the entire experience was sterling, but while the three-meat ravioli at Olive Garden was excellent, I was seated where I could get a draft from the front door and I was freezing. OG was crowded and I was so hungry from having forgotten my sandwich before we dashed off to SMP that I didn't even think to at least try swapping seats at our table. I ate my entire dinner in my jacket and hat and was very glad to go home and thaw out and watch Disney World Christmas celebrations on the Travel Channel.
It struck me as I started work that "Sara," the Christmas tree whose name I chronicled elsewhere, is starting to show her age. I had to wire the top branch on with florist's wire this year, and one of the very small branches right at the top has broken off entirely. I suppose these days 13 years old is quite elderly for an artificial Christmas tree.
I started at four and just in time for Holiday at Pops at eight, I was done. Tired, but happy and chowing down on the delightful fried rice mentioned in "Yet Another Journal," we watched the Boston Pops annual concert. Thank God this at least is still being covered by A&E and wasn't sold off to WBZ and CBS like Pops Goes the Fourth was! The guest were Vince Gill and Amy Grant, this year's Santa Claus was very funny, and as always the sing-a-long had us joining in (the dog gives us such weird looks when we sing).
Saturday morning was reserved for errands, then James went off to the International Plastic Modeler's Society's local Christmas party while I spent a little time cleaning and a bunch of time reading online. There's always a gift exchange and he lucked out and returned with his favorite type of plane, an F104 Starfighter. I wrapped his gifts while he was gone.
When he returned we set off on our yearly trek out to Birmingham for a friend's Christmas party. We don't get to see her that often (now that they've got "real stores" like Borders and Barnes & Noble in Birmingham, she doesn't have to make the trip to Atlanta as much), and all her goodies are homemade; she loves to cook and does it well. James came home with a nice plate of stuffed mushrooms.
The ride was pretty annoying this year; it rained both ways--it's a little over a 2-hour drive. We amused ourselves by listening to Fibber McGee and Molly Christmas episodes both ways.
The inevitable milk run came Sunday morning, then we were off to Stone Mountain Park where the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company was presenting their annual "An Atlanta Christmas" at Memorial Hall as part of what SMP called the "Fruitcake Festival" (yes, they served free fruitcake!). Because of the fruitcake moniker, the usual sketches were joined by a fruitcake-oriented episode of Daniel Taylor's rural comedy Bumper's Crossroads, plus a new Rory Rammer, Space Marshall (a hilarious send-up of the children's radio science fiction series of the 1940s and 50s written by Ron Butler) was also presented--not to mention Grandpa Bumper telling the story of "Ernie the Christmas Snail." The show was presented in two parts and between "sets" we chatted with friends and cooed over new baby Grace.
The weekend ended with James taking me out for my birthday dinner (call it delayed gratification). I'd like to say the entire experience was sterling, but while the three-meat ravioli at Olive Garden was excellent, I was seated where I could get a draft from the front door and I was freezing. OG was crowded and I was so hungry from having forgotten my sandwich before we dashed off to SMP that I didn't even think to at least try swapping seats at our table. I ate my entire dinner in my jacket and hat and was very glad to go home and thaw out and watch Disney World Christmas celebrations on the Travel Channel.
12 December 2003
Nostalgia of Two Sorts
James and I talked about it when he got home and he's taking me out for my birthday on Sunday. I really don't like staying out late midweek. Instead we went to Publix to use the last of the $5 off coupons, and we each got ourselves something to supper for when we got home.
Which explains why I was sitting watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer last night eating Wheat Thins spread with ricotta. (Well, it was my birthday, right? I could have anything I wanted. I like Wheat Thins with ricotta!)
Rudolph's another treat I usually leave for my birthday. This year was my...wait for it...fortieth viewing of the show. It premiered in 1964, on what the General Electric people used to call the GE Fantasy Hour, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on a Sunday. (It pre-empted College Bowl, one of my favorite shows even at age eight.)
Poor Dad suffered through all those years of viewing Rudolph, especially after we got a color television in 1972.
(Dad made a devil's bargain on that TV that I sometimes think he regretted. He only paid cash for things, and had only saved up $500 for a TV but the new XL-100s--solid state, which is why we finally bought one; my uncle Ralph's tube color set seemed to be constantly in the shop--were $600. I had $100 I had been ostensibly saving for the Italian class' trip to Italy in our senior year. I really didn't want to go away anywhere with a bunch of strangers anyway, and I decided $100 on a TV would be a longer-lasting deal than going to Italy for a week. So I offered him the $100 with the understanding that the TV was "one-sixth mine," a fact I'd remind him of when I wanted to watch Rudolph or Charlie Brown Christmas or The Homecoming and, of course, The Waltons. Dad preferred Westerns and cop shows and hated "sappy" family-type programming, but Mom took advantage of the situation. The only thing I couldn't watch in color was Little House on the Prairie. My dad hated Michael Landon because he had left his wife for a younger woman the minute he'd made it big.)
I love Rudolph no less now than I did when I was eight; a great, well-paced story, puns, engaging characters, and wonderful songs. "There's Always Tomorrow" is a particular favorite. The DVD even has the infamous "peppermint" scene restored (it was in the first showing, but not in subsequent broadcasts; the scene was replaced by Santa picking up the Misfit Toys, which was not in the original broadcast. The DVD has both), but unfortunately Rankin-Bass couldn't find a decent color copy of the original credits, in which the cast and crew members names were on packages dumped out Santa's sleigh at the end, and on which Billie Richards' name was spelt properly.
We also watched the Christmas episode of one of our favorite series, Good Neighbors. This funny, charming and warm BBC series started life as The Good Life, but when they syndicated it here in the States they didn't want the title to conflict with the flop Larry Hagman/Donna Mills series from 1968. Thankfully they were able to retain the pun in the title: the protagonists' surname is "Good."
This is a wonderful series--I see it chided online at times as being "funny, but old-fashioned." So be it. It's one of my favorite comedy series of all times. If you haven't been graced with a viewing, you've missed a treat. The premise: on his 40th birthday, feeling he's done nothing useful with his life, Tom Good convinces his wife Barbara to quit the rat race with him. They own their home, so they become self-sufficent to live, raising vegetables in their big back garden and on their allotment, and keeping two pigs and a goat and chickens. Their neighbors, and best friends, are Jerry and Margo Ledbetter. Jerry is an executive at the same company Tom left and Margo is his social-climbing wife. Margo, particularly, is a delightfully snobby character who is saved from two-dimensionality by wonderful writing--she has a warm heart; it's just all tucked up in her social aspirations and the Pony Club set--and her portrayal by Penelope Keith. The rest of the cast is perfect as well: Richard Briers (seen most recently in Monarch of the Glen and the adorable Felicity Kendal as the alternative-living Goods and Paul Eddington (Yes, Minister) as harried Jerry.
Every episode is funny, but the Christmas episode is particularly hilarious: persnickety Margo sends the Ledbetters' entire Christmas--tree, decorations, food, drink--back in the van it was delivered in on Christmas Eve because the tree is six and one-quarter inches too short! Of course the company will not redeliver by Christmas, so the Ledbetters, instead of exhausted themselves on the social scene for a week, spend a fun and happy day at the Goods, making do with a roast chicken, veggies from the garden, Tom's home-made "peapod burgundy" wine, and newspaper Christmas crackers and decorations. The Goods' 15p spent on Christmas is much more well spent than Margo's hundreds crammed in a delivery van, both for them and for us.
Which explains why I was sitting watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer last night eating Wheat Thins spread with ricotta. (Well, it was my birthday, right? I could have anything I wanted. I like Wheat Thins with ricotta!)
Rudolph's another treat I usually leave for my birthday. This year was my...wait for it...fortieth viewing of the show. It premiered in 1964, on what the General Electric people used to call the GE Fantasy Hour, at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on a Sunday. (It pre-empted College Bowl, one of my favorite shows even at age eight.)
Poor Dad suffered through all those years of viewing Rudolph, especially after we got a color television in 1972.
(Dad made a devil's bargain on that TV that I sometimes think he regretted. He only paid cash for things, and had only saved up $500 for a TV but the new XL-100s--solid state, which is why we finally bought one; my uncle Ralph's tube color set seemed to be constantly in the shop--were $600. I had $100 I had been ostensibly saving for the Italian class' trip to Italy in our senior year. I really didn't want to go away anywhere with a bunch of strangers anyway, and I decided $100 on a TV would be a longer-lasting deal than going to Italy for a week. So I offered him the $100 with the understanding that the TV was "one-sixth mine," a fact I'd remind him of when I wanted to watch Rudolph or Charlie Brown Christmas or The Homecoming and, of course, The Waltons. Dad preferred Westerns and cop shows and hated "sappy" family-type programming, but Mom took advantage of the situation. The only thing I couldn't watch in color was Little House on the Prairie. My dad hated Michael Landon because he had left his wife for a younger woman the minute he'd made it big.)
I love Rudolph no less now than I did when I was eight; a great, well-paced story, puns, engaging characters, and wonderful songs. "There's Always Tomorrow" is a particular favorite. The DVD even has the infamous "peppermint" scene restored (it was in the first showing, but not in subsequent broadcasts; the scene was replaced by Santa picking up the Misfit Toys, which was not in the original broadcast. The DVD has both), but unfortunately Rankin-Bass couldn't find a decent color copy of the original credits, in which the cast and crew members names were on packages dumped out Santa's sleigh at the end, and on which Billie Richards' name was spelt properly.
We also watched the Christmas episode of one of our favorite series, Good Neighbors. This funny, charming and warm BBC series started life as The Good Life, but when they syndicated it here in the States they didn't want the title to conflict with the flop Larry Hagman/Donna Mills series from 1968. Thankfully they were able to retain the pun in the title: the protagonists' surname is "Good."
This is a wonderful series--I see it chided online at times as being "funny, but old-fashioned." So be it. It's one of my favorite comedy series of all times. If you haven't been graced with a viewing, you've missed a treat. The premise: on his 40th birthday, feeling he's done nothing useful with his life, Tom Good convinces his wife Barbara to quit the rat race with him. They own their home, so they become self-sufficent to live, raising vegetables in their big back garden and on their allotment, and keeping two pigs and a goat and chickens. Their neighbors, and best friends, are Jerry and Margo Ledbetter. Jerry is an executive at the same company Tom left and Margo is his social-climbing wife. Margo, particularly, is a delightfully snobby character who is saved from two-dimensionality by wonderful writing--she has a warm heart; it's just all tucked up in her social aspirations and the Pony Club set--and her portrayal by Penelope Keith. The rest of the cast is perfect as well: Richard Briers (seen most recently in Monarch of the Glen and the adorable Felicity Kendal as the alternative-living Goods and Paul Eddington (Yes, Minister) as harried Jerry.
Every episode is funny, but the Christmas episode is particularly hilarious: persnickety Margo sends the Ledbetters' entire Christmas--tree, decorations, food, drink--back in the van it was delivered in on Christmas Eve because the tree is six and one-quarter inches too short! Of course the company will not redeliver by Christmas, so the Ledbetters, instead of exhausted themselves on the social scene for a week, spend a fun and happy day at the Goods, making do with a roast chicken, veggies from the garden, Tom's home-made "peapod burgundy" wine, and newspaper Christmas crackers and decorations. The Goods' 15p spent on Christmas is much more well spent than Margo's hundreds crammed in a delivery van, both for them and for us.
Friday Five
1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
What snow? Even in RI the chances of a "white Christmas" were only 1 & 3. In Georgia the chances are nil. Two years in a row we had an inch of snow right before Christmas, but it was melted by the next day.
Anyway, I love the cold. The air is so nice and refreshing to breathe. In the summer it's always thick and smells bad.
2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
Home with my mom.
3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
We have spaghetti on Christmas Eve, then attend Midnight Mass at a friends' church. We used to go down to James' mom's house for the day, but the two hour ride one way simply got too much after being up until 2 a.m. after Mass. We go the Saturday or Sunday afterwards where we can go to bed a little earlier. This also extends the holiday into the 12 Days of Christmas. On the Saturday closest to January 6 we have an annual Twelfth Night party. I've never done the thing with the bean, though.
4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
We give to the Can Bank at this time of year.
5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
A physical gift or something more esoteric? I'd really like perfect health. If it has to be a physical gift, I dunno. A PT Cruiser, or maybe a new computer.
1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?
What snow? Even in RI the chances of a "white Christmas" were only 1 & 3. In Georgia the chances are nil. Two years in a row we had an inch of snow right before Christmas, but it was melted by the next day.
Anyway, I love the cold. The air is so nice and refreshing to breathe. In the summer it's always thick and smells bad.
2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?
Home with my mom.
3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?
We have spaghetti on Christmas Eve, then attend Midnight Mass at a friends' church. We used to go down to James' mom's house for the day, but the two hour ride one way simply got too much after being up until 2 a.m. after Mass. We go the Saturday or Sunday afterwards where we can go to bed a little earlier. This also extends the holiday into the 12 Days of Christmas. On the Saturday closest to January 6 we have an annual Twelfth Night party. I've never done the thing with the bean, though.
4. Do you do anything to help the needy?
We give to the Can Bank at this time of year.
5. What one gift would you like for yourself?
A physical gift or something more esoteric? I'd really like perfect health. If it has to be a physical gift, I dunno. A PT Cruiser, or maybe a new computer.
11 December 2003
A British Christmas
Incidentally, what we watched before bed last night was a 1987 London Weekend Television production called Christmas Past, which the Discovery Channel showed for several years in a row before dropping it. This was a delightful "programme" about how British Christmas customs--many of which we also adopted here in the United States--developed in just a short time in the mid-1800s. The special uses old newsreel and film footage, personal reminisces from older people, including the late 6th Marquis of Bath, and a couple of recreated Dickensian scenes to illustrate Britain in pre-Industrial, Victorian, and war times.
I was lucky enough to find the companion book, also named Christmas Past, on the sale table at the original Borders Books in Atlanta many years ago. I love all the Borders branches, especially the big two-story affair in Buckhead, but I miss that original store: they always seemed to have some surprise in store, especially during the holidays.
I was lucky enough to find the companion book, also named Christmas Past, on the sale table at the original Borders Books in Atlanta many years ago. I love all the Borders branches, especially the big two-story affair in Buckhead, but I miss that original store: they always seemed to have some surprise in store, especially during the holidays.
Thursday Threesome
Onesome: The-- What is the "bestest" Christmas decoration in your mind? You know, the one that says, "This is Christmas!"
Oh, the tree, definitely, multicolor lights and silver icicles and all (and it's not a real tree without that "tinsel"!). When I was a kid I would get my lap desk and go write under the Christmas tree, or lie on my back underneath the tree and look at the wondrous glittery-bright colorful road before me.
Twosome: Christmas-- What style of Christmas ornaments do you like to see? Are you a glass ball person? ...or how about that bow thing? Maybe Christmas Muppet characters everywhere? Hmm?
Despite our growing Hallmark ornament collection, I have a real fondness for glass ornaments; they don't have to be balls. I like unusual shapes--"figurals," they're called--and colors. I have figural French horns and bells which I found one year in PharMor (sigh...I miss PharMor), and other figurals like an 1930s type car with a wreath in the front which I found at Hobby Lobby. I have a set of satin balls in different colors which, at least when I bought them, were very rare. I also like "different" ornaments. For instance I have a cloth ornament that is a unicorn in a stocking, and a couple hand-made from beads.
Threesome: Song--...and your favorite Christmas Song? Is there one that just sets the season for you when you hear it? I mean, even when you're in a "Ho-Ho-Humbug" mood?
Just one? Well...my favorite Christmas song is probably "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (though I'm really fond of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells" and "Round and Round the Christmas Tree" and...well, see what I mean?). My favorite Christmas carol (two different things) is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." (Don't forget the comma! as Siegfried Farnon would remind you.)
Onesome: The-- What is the "bestest" Christmas decoration in your mind? You know, the one that says, "This is Christmas!"
Oh, the tree, definitely, multicolor lights and silver icicles and all (and it's not a real tree without that "tinsel"!). When I was a kid I would get my lap desk and go write under the Christmas tree, or lie on my back underneath the tree and look at the wondrous glittery-bright colorful road before me.
Twosome: Christmas-- What style of Christmas ornaments do you like to see? Are you a glass ball person? ...or how about that bow thing? Maybe Christmas Muppet characters everywhere? Hmm?
Despite our growing Hallmark ornament collection, I have a real fondness for glass ornaments; they don't have to be balls. I like unusual shapes--"figurals," they're called--and colors. I have figural French horns and bells which I found one year in PharMor (sigh...I miss PharMor), and other figurals like an 1930s type car with a wreath in the front which I found at Hobby Lobby. I have a set of satin balls in different colors which, at least when I bought them, were very rare. I also like "different" ornaments. For instance I have a cloth ornament that is a unicorn in a stocking, and a couple hand-made from beads.
Threesome: Song--...and your favorite Christmas Song? Is there one that just sets the season for you when you hear it? I mean, even when you're in a "Ho-Ho-Humbug" mood?
Just one? Well...my favorite Christmas song is probably "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (though I'm really fond of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells" and "Round and Round the Christmas Tree" and...well, see what I mean?). My favorite Christmas carol (two different things) is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." (Don't forget the comma! as Siegfried Farnon would remind you.)
10 December 2003
Christmas Sighs and Christmas Joys
Well, I was disappointed by I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown last night.
Lucy and Linus' little brother, Rerun, wants a dog. That's the storyline in what should have been a short, funny little story. Instead they stuck it into an hour timeslot; even without the commercials it probably ran 42 minutes and the story was stretched out to the limit. The animation was very crisp and nice, Rerun got off one really good line ("They were having a contest about crabby older sisters at school. I won!"), and there was one funny visual sequence with Snoopy collecting the musical notes that "poured" from Schroeder's piano; they tumbled into a wastebasket, then Snoopy used them to decorate a musical Christmas tree.
Aside from the story being overlong, the kids' voices sounded too old in many instances, especially Lucy. One of the charms of the original stories was that they used real children's voices; most of these voices sounded like teenagers. (I'll probably find out they were all 9- and 10-year-olds; maybe it's just all those hormones in the milk and in chicken--they sure didn't sound like little kids to me.) The story meandered too much, and in one really absurd scene, Lucy was so out of character that it was sad: seeing that Snoopy's brother Spike is thin from his trip from Arizona, she volunteers to nurse him (you even see her in a nurse's uniform). While Lucy's softer side has come out occasionally--she collects candy for Linus and then takes him home from the pumpkin patch in It's the Great Pumpkin, for example--I can't see her nursing a stranger, especially a dog!
Sorry, this won't be on my annual list any time soon.
On the other hand, I can watch my old Ask the Manager Christmas tapes and still get a laugh at the verbal banter between Dana and Joe and later Dana and Dan. The programming is long gone--indeed TV38 in Boston has been "Borg-ized" into just another UPN station--but the absurd antics of these guys still bring the chuckles--and the occasional tear.
Lucy and Linus' little brother, Rerun, wants a dog. That's the storyline in what should have been a short, funny little story. Instead they stuck it into an hour timeslot; even without the commercials it probably ran 42 minutes and the story was stretched out to the limit. The animation was very crisp and nice, Rerun got off one really good line ("They were having a contest about crabby older sisters at school. I won!"), and there was one funny visual sequence with Snoopy collecting the musical notes that "poured" from Schroeder's piano; they tumbled into a wastebasket, then Snoopy used them to decorate a musical Christmas tree.
Aside from the story being overlong, the kids' voices sounded too old in many instances, especially Lucy. One of the charms of the original stories was that they used real children's voices; most of these voices sounded like teenagers. (I'll probably find out they were all 9- and 10-year-olds; maybe it's just all those hormones in the milk and in chicken--they sure didn't sound like little kids to me.) The story meandered too much, and in one really absurd scene, Lucy was so out of character that it was sad: seeing that Snoopy's brother Spike is thin from his trip from Arizona, she volunteers to nurse him (you even see her in a nurse's uniform). While Lucy's softer side has come out occasionally--she collects candy for Linus and then takes him home from the pumpkin patch in It's the Great Pumpkin, for example--I can't see her nursing a stranger, especially a dog!
Sorry, this won't be on my annual list any time soon.
On the other hand, I can watch my old Ask the Manager Christmas tapes and still get a laugh at the verbal banter between Dana and Joe and later Dana and Dan. The programming is long gone--indeed TV38 in Boston has been "Borg-ized" into just another UPN station--but the absurd antics of these guys still bring the chuckles--and the occasional tear.
09 December 2003
Christmas Life Rule #245:
Don't write out cards while watching Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. The story is a little cutesy trying to fit all the Santa myths into one coherent narrative, but it works pretty well, it has the voices of Keenan Wynn and Mickey Rooney, the Rankin-Bass stop-motion work is flawless, and the songs are great.
So if you get a card from us where one of the signatures looks a bit wonky, that's probably just because I was signing while belting out "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" along with Kris and the Winter Warlock. :-)
Watched A Charlie Brown Christmas as well last night. Occasionally chat about the "Peanuts" specials comes up, with people discussing the relative merits of early and later ones. I think the first four were the best and then they gradually lost quality. Charlie Brown Christmas comes with another Yuletide Peanuts story on the DVD, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. It's pretty bad, just a series of gags from the strip, with an inane thread about Sally and a kid she thinks is named Herald Angel, but no real plot like Christmas or Great Pumpkin or Charlie Brown's All-Stars had. There's a new special on tonight, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown which I'll check out, but I'm not holding out much hope. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised instead.
I worked with an assortment of cards this year, not a single design. I used to prefer multiple designs when I was in my 20s, but started to prefer a single design, something I thought represented myself or later my husband and I. It was a nice change this year to pick out a design that I thought was appropriate to the individual I was sending it to. But next year I'll probably return to the single design, since there's not that many good assortments out there.
Ironically, after finding a nice font to print on the gold-framed holly labels and signing and stuffing the cards and rubbing on the stamps (drat, I ran out of Christmas stamps, too), I forgot and left the cards on the desk this morning!!! Utterly typical of life, as February Callendar would say.
So if you get a card from us where one of the signatures looks a bit wonky, that's probably just because I was signing while belting out "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" along with Kris and the Winter Warlock. :-)
Watched A Charlie Brown Christmas as well last night. Occasionally chat about the "Peanuts" specials comes up, with people discussing the relative merits of early and later ones. I think the first four were the best and then they gradually lost quality. Charlie Brown Christmas comes with another Yuletide Peanuts story on the DVD, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. It's pretty bad, just a series of gags from the strip, with an inane thread about Sally and a kid she thinks is named Herald Angel, but no real plot like Christmas or Great Pumpkin or Charlie Brown's All-Stars had. There's a new special on tonight, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown which I'll check out, but I'm not holding out much hope. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised instead.
I worked with an assortment of cards this year, not a single design. I used to prefer multiple designs when I was in my 20s, but started to prefer a single design, something I thought represented myself or later my husband and I. It was a nice change this year to pick out a design that I thought was appropriate to the individual I was sending it to. But next year I'll probably return to the single design, since there's not that many good assortments out there.
Ironically, after finding a nice font to print on the gold-framed holly labels and signing and stuffing the cards and rubbing on the stamps (drat, I ran out of Christmas stamps, too), I forgot and left the cards on the desk this morning!!! Utterly typical of life, as February Callendar would say.
08 December 2003
The table mentioned in the December 6 entry is finished, incidentally, and sitting on the porch to cure and deodorize of its Krylon smell. The top, with rub-on gold leaves spotting it, came out quite pretty. I'd prefer silver against the dark blue, but no one had silver and it's a little different to boot.
Christmas Cassettes Part 2
Ah, here we are starting the second side of the cassette case. Some of my very favorites are here, starting with the Revels tapes. The Revels originated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now there are over a dozen groups all over the country. They began re-enacting medieval Christmas celebrations and music and the earliest cassette reflects that. They have also done European carols, American folk music, Irish songs, Russian and Scandinavian offerings, and Victorian celebrations. This year the Revels is doing a Scottish Christmas.
And of course there's Mannheim Steamroller. I love their arrangement of classic carols which makes some of them sound brand new. The arrangement of "Silent Night" always makes me cry.
Here's an antique music box album--lovely tinkling tunes. Old English carols by the York Waits and St. George's Canzona and Sneak's Noyse. Carols on dulcimer and more commercially, the Singers Unlimited. Two cassettes of Christmas harp music. Peter, Paul and Mary and more Bing Crosby. Truly a collection of riches.
And of course there's Mannheim Steamroller. I love their arrangement of classic carols which makes some of them sound brand new. The arrangement of "Silent Night" always makes me cry.
Here's an antique music box album--lovely tinkling tunes. Old English carols by the York Waits and St. George's Canzona and Sneak's Noyse. Carols on dulcimer and more commercially, the Singers Unlimited. Two cassettes of Christmas harp music. Peter, Paul and Mary and more Bing Crosby. Truly a collection of riches.
06 December 2003
Angels and Santa Claus
Not getting a lot of Christmas things done in my effort to get a small drop-leaf table finished in time for next weekend so I can place our ceppo with its small Christmas tree atop it (there's no room near the door anymore, as in this pic, and it was in the way there; it looks terrible up on the bookcase, where it's ended up the past two years). The table is painted in shades of blue and right now only needs some touch up to be finished before a concluding clear coat of Krylon on the top.
Cheered myself during the bulk of the painting watching The Little Match Girl. It's odd I enjoy this movie so much because I hated it when I first saw it. History buff that I am, I found it very unrealistic that a little African-American girl would be taken in so readily by various members of a rich white family in a 1920s big city (always suspected "Port City" was actually Philadelphia). I've read too many books of the time and knew how black characters were usually treated.
But I got to the point where I could go with the flow. The 1920s atmosphere is perfect, William Daniels gives a bravura performance, they have Irish servants who don't go all "sure and begorra" on us, and Keshia Knight-Pulliam gives Molly a roguishness that's quite charming even as she lights her magic candles and turns the situation from hopeless to holy.
I've also fallen in love with the German pyramid that's a motif at the end of the movie and regret that I don't have the money to buy one. We stopped by a light display last night on the way home from supper and they had a tent with a vendor selling Christmas ornaments and foods. The man traveled to different parts of the world to purchase these ornaments: he had been to Thuringia and other parts of Germany and returned with marzipan and stollen, blown glass ornaments and many different sizes of German pyramids, from one level to four levels. Most were Nativity scenes, but one small one-level pyramid had the Nutcracker characters instead. The cheapest (like the Nutcracker one) were $60.
James did buy me something sweet: One of the glass ornaments they had was hyacinths in a pot. He remembers me, in reference to buying books, always quoting the verse of the Gulistan of Moslih Eddin Saadi, which goes
"If of thy Mortal Goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."
I've also finished reading Jeff Guinn's The Autobiography of Santa Claus, which is a charming little book telling Santa's story in his own words, from when he began giving gifts even before becoming Bishop of Myra, to when he became ageless and began to pick up friends and followers, some from real life, to be his helpers (you can guess some of Santa's helpers: Charles Dickens, Clement C. Moore, Washington Irving, but there is at least one very odd one). Santa tells Mr. Guinn a good story: I admire Leonardo daVinci even more now since he was the one who devised how to make Santa's reindeer and sleigh fly! Layla, which is the real name of Santa's wife, seems to be a charming person who's not above ribbing her husband about his weight--how natural is that?
Cheered myself during the bulk of the painting watching The Little Match Girl. It's odd I enjoy this movie so much because I hated it when I first saw it. History buff that I am, I found it very unrealistic that a little African-American girl would be taken in so readily by various members of a rich white family in a 1920s big city (always suspected "Port City" was actually Philadelphia). I've read too many books of the time and knew how black characters were usually treated.
But I got to the point where I could go with the flow. The 1920s atmosphere is perfect, William Daniels gives a bravura performance, they have Irish servants who don't go all "sure and begorra" on us, and Keshia Knight-Pulliam gives Molly a roguishness that's quite charming even as she lights her magic candles and turns the situation from hopeless to holy.
I've also fallen in love with the German pyramid that's a motif at the end of the movie and regret that I don't have the money to buy one. We stopped by a light display last night on the way home from supper and they had a tent with a vendor selling Christmas ornaments and foods. The man traveled to different parts of the world to purchase these ornaments: he had been to Thuringia and other parts of Germany and returned with marzipan and stollen, blown glass ornaments and many different sizes of German pyramids, from one level to four levels. Most were Nativity scenes, but one small one-level pyramid had the Nutcracker characters instead. The cheapest (like the Nutcracker one) were $60.
James did buy me something sweet: One of the glass ornaments they had was hyacinths in a pot. He remembers me, in reference to buying books, always quoting the verse of the Gulistan of Moslih Eddin Saadi, which goes
"If of thy Mortal Goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."
I've also finished reading Jeff Guinn's The Autobiography of Santa Claus, which is a charming little book telling Santa's story in his own words, from when he began giving gifts even before becoming Bishop of Myra, to when he became ageless and began to pick up friends and followers, some from real life, to be his helpers (you can guess some of Santa's helpers: Charles Dickens, Clement C. Moore, Washington Irving, but there is at least one very odd one). Santa tells Mr. Guinn a good story: I admire Leonardo daVinci even more now since he was the one who devised how to make Santa's reindeer and sleigh fly! Layla, which is the real name of Santa's wife, seems to be a charming person who's not above ribbing her husband about his weight--how natural is that?
04 December 2003
Razzleberry Dressing and Harness Bells
Probably the first Christmas special I remember, besides Amahl and the Night Visitors, is Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It was so chopped up in subsequent television broadcasts--most of the time the Broadway show framing sequences were cut entirely--that I was overjoyed to see a video version; I bought the DVD almost the moment it came out. The text, although abridged, is pretty much completely Dickens, unlike some modern versions, and the songs are wonderful, not surprising since they were written by a real Broadway writing team, Jules Styne and Bob Merrill. I can’t tell you which is my favorite; I love them all. As a child, young Scrooge’s "All Alone in the World" touched me most; after I fell in love the first time "Winter Was Warm" had special meaning. "We're Despicable" has always been hilarious (and when I was very small, chilling, with those mouths opening!), I loved the wordplay of "Ringle, Ringle," and "The Lord's Bright Blessing" making me tear up every time. In New York in July, though, all I could hear running through my head was the wonderful opening song "Back on Broadway."
I realized last evening I've been watching Magoo's Carol for 41 years!
Operating in nostalgic mode yesterday, I was also reading Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot. I have an entire Windy Foot web page, since these were some of my favorite books in elementary school, so there's no need to explain the plot, but I marvel reading this book every year at the energy these folks have! This is a 1940s farm where there's no milking machine and cooking and heating is still done with wood, and there's very little time for just sitting and relaxing--Dad falls asleep on the sofa Christmas day, but he's just been up all night helping a cow give birth! Toby manages to do chores, keep the woodbox full, and rebuild a big sleigh to fit his pony, plus go skiing and sleighing, gather berries, do minimal Christmas shopping, and wrap gifts! Whew!
But y'know what? Most of it seems like so much fun!
I realized last evening I've been watching Magoo's Carol for 41 years!
Operating in nostalgic mode yesterday, I was also reading Sleigh Bells for Windy Foot. I have an entire Windy Foot web page, since these were some of my favorite books in elementary school, so there's no need to explain the plot, but I marvel reading this book every year at the energy these folks have! This is a 1940s farm where there's no milking machine and cooking and heating is still done with wood, and there's very little time for just sitting and relaxing--Dad falls asleep on the sofa Christmas day, but he's just been up all night helping a cow give birth! Toby manages to do chores, keep the woodbox full, and rebuild a big sleigh to fit his pony, plus go skiing and sleighing, gather berries, do minimal Christmas shopping, and wrap gifts! Whew!
But y'know what? Most of it seems like so much fun!
Thursday Threesome
Onesome: I'm dreaming of a white Christmas- Are you hoping for a white Christmas this year, or are you somewhere you seldom see snow?
Oh, I always dream of white Christmases, but even in southern New England there's only a one in three chance of having one. In Georgia it's downright impossible, although for the past two years we have had a small (1-inch) snowfall a few days before the holiday, only to have it melt by the next day (or the same afternoon!).
Twosome: With every Christmas card I write- Have you begun the cards? Do you write a personal note in each one, or just sign a generic greeting and your name? Or maybe print out the ol' yearly form letter to let everyone know what's new for you?
No, I haven't done the cards yet, sadly. I really should mail them out on Friday. I have the stamps already, though, that being the hard part. I used to do a yearly newsletter, but since almost everyone I know has computer access, I just assume they're keeping up with us on our website. In certain cards I do write a personal note.
Threesome: May your days be merry and bright- What do you do for the holidays to ensure they'll be merry?
Chill. Christmas is not a gift-giving competition, nor a decorating contest, nor the Pillsbury cookoff. If your friends and family judge you by what expensive bauble you buy them, or if your house looks like Martha Stewart had decorated it, or how many different kinds of goodies you can bake, you need to find new friends and avoid those family members.
The Question of the Week is: Have you ever had a holiday disaster? Something that seemed horrible when it happened but now you can laugh about? The dogs got the turkey, the gifts you ordered on-line didn't make it in time, the cat knocked over the tree, whatever. Share your holiday disaster with us!
I can't say I've been involved in any disasters. I do remember occasionally having colds at Christmas, and one year I had the chickenpox for Thanksgiving. Now I do remember sad Christmases, especially 1983 when my cousin was killed by a drunk driver three days before Christmas.
Onesome: I'm dreaming of a white Christmas- Are you hoping for a white Christmas this year, or are you somewhere you seldom see snow?
Oh, I always dream of white Christmases, but even in southern New England there's only a one in three chance of having one. In Georgia it's downright impossible, although for the past two years we have had a small (1-inch) snowfall a few days before the holiday, only to have it melt by the next day (or the same afternoon!).
Twosome: With every Christmas card I write- Have you begun the cards? Do you write a personal note in each one, or just sign a generic greeting and your name? Or maybe print out the ol' yearly form letter to let everyone know what's new for you?
No, I haven't done the cards yet, sadly. I really should mail them out on Friday. I have the stamps already, though, that being the hard part. I used to do a yearly newsletter, but since almost everyone I know has computer access, I just assume they're keeping up with us on our website. In certain cards I do write a personal note.
Threesome: May your days be merry and bright- What do you do for the holidays to ensure they'll be merry?
Chill. Christmas is not a gift-giving competition, nor a decorating contest, nor the Pillsbury cookoff. If your friends and family judge you by what expensive bauble you buy them, or if your house looks like Martha Stewart had decorated it, or how many different kinds of goodies you can bake, you need to find new friends and avoid those family members.
The Question of the Week is: Have you ever had a holiday disaster? Something that seemed horrible when it happened but now you can laugh about? The dogs got the turkey, the gifts you ordered on-line didn't make it in time, the cat knocked over the tree, whatever. Share your holiday disaster with us!
I can't say I've been involved in any disasters. I do remember occasionally having colds at Christmas, and one year I had the chickenpox for Thanksgiving. Now I do remember sad Christmases, especially 1983 when my cousin was killed by a drunk driver three days before Christmas.
03 December 2003
Empty Stockings by Denis Hamill
Fourteen-year-old Rory Maguire dreams of becoming a sportswriter and helping his family escape the shabby, vermin-infested walkup they share in Brooklyn in 1963. He also longs to get inside the mind of his father, disabled from a fall at work and unable to collect his due because his lying foreman said he was drunk; a war hero who was not acknowledged because he was in the Merchant Marine rather than the "real" Armed Forces--and lusts after a local attorney's classy daughter.
I really enjoyed this book although at points it was really sad to see the Maguires working harder and harder and losing ground at every turn. All the players in the story seemed particularly realistic, including the hard-working but sarcastic and callous Italian butcher Rory works for, a man determined that his son will have a professional job rather than also working as a butcher, only to find his dreams crumbling when the local supermarket steals his business, and the reactions in the community after President Kennedy is assassinated.
Don't expect a warm and fuzzy holiday story: this one has sex, gang violence, and some stark realities of life. But the tough Maguires are worth reading about.
I really enjoyed this book although at points it was really sad to see the Maguires working harder and harder and losing ground at every turn. All the players in the story seemed particularly realistic, including the hard-working but sarcastic and callous Italian butcher Rory works for, a man determined that his son will have a professional job rather than also working as a butcher, only to find his dreams crumbling when the local supermarket steals his business, and the reactions in the community after President Kennedy is assassinated.
Don't expect a warm and fuzzy holiday story: this one has sex, gang violence, and some stark realities of life. But the tough Maguires are worth reading about.
"Merry Gentlemen"
We watched this last night: the Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small that aired during the show's second season. It's a particular favorite of mine for the quiet holiday preparations and the lovely 1930s British atmosphere: I can almost feel the draughty halls of Skeldale house, smell Mrs. Hall's joint of beef cooking and the odor of the fires in the room, taste the Christmas cake and the contents of Mrs. Pumphrey's hamper from Fortnum & Mason. Siegfried is such a manic character in most episodes that it's also nice to see his soft side--even while he plays a practical joke on snoopy Tristan. Skeldale's furnishings and wallpapers remind me of my grandfather's house and I feel warm and happy there.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
Of course the moment Thanksgiving was over, I pulled out my Christmas music.
(Actually I’ve been playing it occasionally, surreptitiously, for weeks, music I downloaded from Usenet--out-of-print stuff--and my new Revels CDs, "Christmas in an Irish Castle" and "A Celtic Feast in Song." And of course the Holiday Music channel has reappeared on DishNet.)
I grabbed the tape case first, and have been listening to those cassettes this week. The case holds sixty, but I have managed to tuck four more at the top and two on either side and the carrier still zips. I used to have more, but I replaced some of my favorites with CDs when the tape ends started to crumple between seasons, distorting the first songs on the album. These tapes, like my CDs, run the gamut of different styles. In general, I don't care for a lot of pop singers, especially recent ones. I have no Amy Grant or Boyz2Men or Nsync or Wynonna or anything of that ilk. I do have Perry Como and John Denver and Steve and Eydie, etc., but I like to go for the unusual and different and not the fifty-fifth rerecording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." When Oxford Books in Atlanta closed, for instance, I grabbed a bunch of cassettes recorded in England that recreates "the waits," carolers of old. They sing medieval and 17th century carols. Another album is "Christmas in Europe," with songs like "Still, Still, Still," "Il Le Ne," and "Past Three O'Clock."
The collection is well-represented in New Age instrumentals, Windham Hill, Tony Elman, etc. There are even the amusingly baroque "What if Mozart Wrote...", two albums of Christmas songs done as chamber music. A brass lover, I have the Canadian Brass and other brass albums. I also have colonial/Early American type albums, with the songs done on hammered dulcimer and other period instruments. One of these contains "The Huron Carol," a song I remember hearing frequently as a child which seemed to have later disappeared. It is a song told from Native American point of view of the birth of Jesus--his father is the "Great Manitou," and instead of swaddling clothes he is wrapped in rabbit skin.
It's a funny thing about Christmas music, how it makes you feel so much at home. James isn't much of a Christmas person, but there are still things that scream "Christmas" to him. I grew up on Perry Como singing about the reindeer with the scarlet proboscis, but to James Christmas is Gene Autry singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Up on the Housetop," etc. So I gave him his very own Gene Autry Christmas album last year, to go along with the "Dr. Demento Christmas" CD I bought him the year before. (I have to confess I enjoy most of this one myself! Especially "Christmas Dragnet." I get a fit of the giggles when the "How most folks call 'em 'green onions,' but they're really scallions" bit begins.)
(Actually I’ve been playing it occasionally, surreptitiously, for weeks, music I downloaded from Usenet--out-of-print stuff--and my new Revels CDs, "Christmas in an Irish Castle" and "A Celtic Feast in Song." And of course the Holiday Music channel has reappeared on DishNet.)
I grabbed the tape case first, and have been listening to those cassettes this week. The case holds sixty, but I have managed to tuck four more at the top and two on either side and the carrier still zips. I used to have more, but I replaced some of my favorites with CDs when the tape ends started to crumple between seasons, distorting the first songs on the album. These tapes, like my CDs, run the gamut of different styles. In general, I don't care for a lot of pop singers, especially recent ones. I have no Amy Grant or Boyz2Men or Nsync or Wynonna or anything of that ilk. I do have Perry Como and John Denver and Steve and Eydie, etc., but I like to go for the unusual and different and not the fifty-fifth rerecording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." When Oxford Books in Atlanta closed, for instance, I grabbed a bunch of cassettes recorded in England that recreates "the waits," carolers of old. They sing medieval and 17th century carols. Another album is "Christmas in Europe," with songs like "Still, Still, Still," "Il Le Ne," and "Past Three O'Clock."
The collection is well-represented in New Age instrumentals, Windham Hill, Tony Elman, etc. There are even the amusingly baroque "What if Mozart Wrote...", two albums of Christmas songs done as chamber music. A brass lover, I have the Canadian Brass and other brass albums. I also have colonial/Early American type albums, with the songs done on hammered dulcimer and other period instruments. One of these contains "The Huron Carol," a song I remember hearing frequently as a child which seemed to have later disappeared. It is a song told from Native American point of view of the birth of Jesus--his father is the "Great Manitou," and instead of swaddling clothes he is wrapped in rabbit skin.
It's a funny thing about Christmas music, how it makes you feel so much at home. James isn't much of a Christmas person, but there are still things that scream "Christmas" to him. I grew up on Perry Como singing about the reindeer with the scarlet proboscis, but to James Christmas is Gene Autry singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Up on the Housetop," etc. So I gave him his very own Gene Autry Christmas album last year, to go along with the "Dr. Demento Christmas" CD I bought him the year before. (I have to confess I enjoy most of this one myself! Especially "Christmas Dragnet." I get a fit of the giggles when the "How most folks call 'em 'green onions,' but they're really scallions" bit begins.)
01 December 2003
25 Day Until Christmas
Today, unencumbered by yesterday's decluttering delay, I did my first Sunday of Advent decorating. This usually involves the outside of the house.
Several years ago, one of the "in" craft things was something Michael's called a "mailbox huggie," a piece of plastic curved like a saddle to sit over a "country style" mailbox (as opposed to the ones of my youth that were mounted on the house next to the front door; remember when the mailman used to walk his route and come right up to your door?) and having small hooks to fasten items to. The idea is to decorate the huggie with flowers or vines and set it over your mailbox. I wired mine with a pine bough, complete with pine cones, on either side along with a big plastic red bow; they recommended fabric bows, of course, but knowing the two or three hard rains (at least) we get during the holiday season, plastic seemed more weatherproof and less likely to look limp.
The easiest task was to remove the Thanksgiving banner and mount the angel banner in its place. The angel's white skirt is sadly yellowing; it looks as if this banner will require replacement next year. In the strong Georgia sun, even in winter, these big banners rarely more than last two years before they begin to fray.
The glass doors have a small wreath the size of a dinner plate, faux evergreen with one each bright matte finish ball in blue, red, green, yellow and purple, with gold tinsel between the ornaments adding a metallic glint. It can be seen well from the street, unlike the big wreath on the front door, which is sadly obscured by the screen. This, since it is sheltered by the porch roof, is decorated with a big wired red velveteen bow and Christmas colored "picks." Even with the porch light on it doesn't show up, so I gave up last year and bought it a set of lights. Against the gold door foil, it looks rather nice, although I wish I could find silver door foil or at least red-and-white striped like one year to make the wreath stand out more. The conventional door foils found come in only red, green, or gold and do not make the wreath "pop," as they say on the decorating shows..
I also set out the Advent wreath; I'd despaired in finding the proper set of candles and was delighted to find them, in all places, JoAnn. Various sources I have consulted say different things about the candle colors. White is recommended in some places, all purple candles in others. Several of the Lutheran sites recommend blue. Other sites say three purple and one rose-colored (pink) candle that is lighted on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
I learned this differently, that the rose-colored candle was lit on the third Sunday. The explanation, from a Lutheran site, is that the "...joyfully colored pink candle is reserved for the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday. 'Gaudete,' which means 'rejoice' in Latin, is the opening word of the traditional Introit for that Sunday: Rejoice!… the Lord is near. (Philippians 4:4).
I also packed Thanksgiving items up for next year. More decorations will go up this Saturday, on St. Nicholas Day.
Several years ago, one of the "in" craft things was something Michael's called a "mailbox huggie," a piece of plastic curved like a saddle to sit over a "country style" mailbox (as opposed to the ones of my youth that were mounted on the house next to the front door; remember when the mailman used to walk his route and come right up to your door?) and having small hooks to fasten items to. The idea is to decorate the huggie with flowers or vines and set it over your mailbox. I wired mine with a pine bough, complete with pine cones, on either side along with a big plastic red bow; they recommended fabric bows, of course, but knowing the two or three hard rains (at least) we get during the holiday season, plastic seemed more weatherproof and less likely to look limp.
The easiest task was to remove the Thanksgiving banner and mount the angel banner in its place. The angel's white skirt is sadly yellowing; it looks as if this banner will require replacement next year. In the strong Georgia sun, even in winter, these big banners rarely more than last two years before they begin to fray.
The glass doors have a small wreath the size of a dinner plate, faux evergreen with one each bright matte finish ball in blue, red, green, yellow and purple, with gold tinsel between the ornaments adding a metallic glint. It can be seen well from the street, unlike the big wreath on the front door, which is sadly obscured by the screen. This, since it is sheltered by the porch roof, is decorated with a big wired red velveteen bow and Christmas colored "picks." Even with the porch light on it doesn't show up, so I gave up last year and bought it a set of lights. Against the gold door foil, it looks rather nice, although I wish I could find silver door foil or at least red-and-white striped like one year to make the wreath stand out more. The conventional door foils found come in only red, green, or gold and do not make the wreath "pop," as they say on the decorating shows..
I also set out the Advent wreath; I'd despaired in finding the proper set of candles and was delighted to find them, in all places, JoAnn. Various sources I have consulted say different things about the candle colors. White is recommended in some places, all purple candles in others. Several of the Lutheran sites recommend blue. Other sites say three purple and one rose-colored (pink) candle that is lighted on the fourth Sunday of Advent.
I learned this differently, that the rose-colored candle was lit on the third Sunday. The explanation, from a Lutheran site, is that the "...joyfully colored pink candle is reserved for the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday. 'Gaudete,' which means 'rejoice' in Latin, is the opening word of the traditional Introit for that Sunday: Rejoice!… the Lord is near. (Philippians 4:4).
I also packed Thanksgiving items up for next year. More decorations will go up this Saturday, on St. Nicholas Day.
Angels in the Bishop's Home
Had to run to Kroger for a couple of things yesterday and they had the DVD of The Bishop's Wife for a good price, so I grabbed it. I remembered this movie from when I was very small, not the story so much as the sermon of the empty stocking. It seemed to have disappeared for many years, then turned up again on cable.
I suppose I'd liked to have seen this made in color, especially for the beautiful woodwork of the bishop's home and the old-fashioned store windows, but it glows with color nevertheless, even in black and white, and the use of shadows (as in Dudley's first appearance) would have been lessened in a color film. It reminds me how different some things were years ago: trees (not shaped or shaved) decorated on Christmas Eve, the tabletop trees that were so popular, and downtown window shopping.
Some things never change, though, and that includes the glow and tears at the end when the Christmas sermon is read:
I suppose I'd liked to have seen this made in color, especially for the beautiful woodwork of the bishop's home and the old-fashioned store windows, but it glows with color nevertheless, even in black and white, and the use of shadows (as in Dudley's first appearance) would have been lessened in a color film. It reminds me how different some things were years ago: trees (not shaped or shaved) decorated on Christmas Eve, the tabletop trees that were so popular, and downtown window shopping.
Some things never change, though, and that includes the glow and tears at the end when the Christmas sermon is read:
"Tonight, I want to tell you about the story of an empty stocking. Once upon a midnight clear there was a child's cry. A blazing star hung over a stable, and Wise Men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down through the ages. We celebrate it with a star hung on a Christmas tree and a cry of bells and gifts-- especially with gifts. We bind them and wrap them, and we put them under the tree. You give me a tie, I give you a book; Aunt Martha always wanted an orange squeezer, Uncle Harry could use a new pipe...oh, we haven't forgotten anyone, adult or child. All the stockings are filled -- all that is, except one, and we have even forgotten to hang it up: the stocking for the child born in a manger. It's His birthday we are celebrating, you know. Don't let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most, and then let each of us put in his share -- loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched-out hand -- all the shining gifts that make peace on earth."
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