Christmas Round Up

[red_b_rackham]

Part of this is to brag a little, but mostly this post is because it's 1:30 in the morning and I just got back from having such a wonderful fun night with my aunt (junk food and a Christmas chick flick double feature - The Holiday and Love Actually) that now I am wide awake and feel like posting.

Things to do for Christmas:

• Shopping
• Wrapping
• Mail a couple packages
• Baking

Yup, I am completely done shopping for gifts, and wrapping them. (I am not disgusting, just efficient. Ok, more like SUPER excited about Christmas and couldn't help it and got all that stuff done early and mostly HATE trying to shop with the rest of the world so I try to finish shopping by the first week of December).

And I'm half done baking. I spent most of today doing sugar cookies, and reminding myself it will be worth it when they're done. For the record, I don't cook or bake - I'm not good at it, and I don't enjoy it. But last year I was all motivated and made a bunch, and everyone really liked them (except for the horrible Red Velvet cookies, but hey, I said I was going to throw them out and they said they'd try them, so, not my fault there) and anyways, my Mom is so bogged down with her online school, she's not going to making any of her usual wonderful batches of cookies (minus shortbread, which admittedly, I don't particularly enjoy but everyone else loves), so I kind of feel like I have to take up the slack or everyone's going to be super disappointed with the lack of sugar cookie-age. The problem with sugar cookies tho, is that they are so. much. bloody. work. The dough is so finicky, and it's just incredibly time consuming. And I haven't even iced them yet - that's tomorrow. All day. Uhf.

Anyways, while icing the cookies tho, I will be watching more Christmas movies, which just make me so darn happy. I have my list of MUST SEEs every Christmastime, and then every other one I manage to fit in is just gravy. I like to put them on while I'm wrapping, and baking, so I've been "using up" the ones other than my absolute favs (saving them for last, like dessert :P). So, below is the list of the Christmas movies I own/like to watch at Christmas, and the bolded ones are the MUST SEEs. The striked through are those I've watched already (or had on in the background, at least).

• Jingle All The Way
• I'll Be Home For Christmas
• Charlie Brown Christmas
• A Very Muppet Christmas
• Muppet Christmas Carol
• Home Alone
• Scrooged
• Elf
• The Santa Clause
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas
• Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer (old claymation one)

I also have this pack of old "holiday" movies that I've had for a couple Christmases and for some reason never watched, so this time I made time for them. Two of them weren't really Christmasy, so I'm not sure why they're in this "classic holiday pack", but ah well.

• A Christmas Carol (1938) - Never seen it before, and to be honest, I don't know if I've ever actually seen another full on Christmas Carol adaptation outside of the Muppet Christmas Carol (this is excluding various TV specials or stuff like Scrooged which or loose/re-imaginings of the Scrooge storyline), so I couldn't help comparing all the lines. It was ok, but there seemed to be very little reason for Scrooge to have a change of heart in this version compared to others, and other than the fact that Tiny Tim used a crutch because his leg was crooked, there was literally no indication he was at all ill until Scrooge randomly asks the Ghost of Christmas Present if the kid will live, to which the Ghost replies he'll probably die by next Christmas. Bit weak overall - stuff like that.
• Boys Town - It has Mickey Rooney in it, and I've never seen anything with him in it (as far as I remember) except Breakfast at Tiffany's, where he plays Holly's angry landlord, so I was constantly weirded out by seeing this like... 15-year-old looking kid, who is that landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany's. He was kind off the charts awesome, tho, I have to say. His acting was pretty great, he had a real spark. The movie as a whole was just ok, kind of forgettable and rather over the top of cheesy in that typical old movie way.
• The Singing Nun - With Debbie Reynolds! This was cute, but kind of pointless. It was nice, but I didn't really feel like there was really all that much story or an ending. It was kind of one of those movies that just starts, goes along, and ends, and there could be more or less, and it doesn't really matter.
• Christmas in Connecticut - This was unexpectedly fantastic. It was, of course, very predictable, but it was funny and sweet, and the chemistry between Barbara Stanwyck and the main guy was so great.

Then there's Love Actually, which I watched way back when it first came out and for some reason really didn't like it - but I can't remember why, now, because it's incredibly sweet and adorable and heart-warming. And The Holiday, which I don't restrict to just Christmas viewings but haven't watched in a very long time (please marry me Jude Law, PLEASE. YOU ARE PERFECT.) and Die Hard, which I also don't restrict to Christmas and don't exactly think of as a Christmas movie, but which my Dad says is the best Christmas movie of all time and I'm sure we will watch it.

Anyways, I hopefully will post another round of art before too long, but in case I get too busy (as is likely to happen - you should see my calendar right now YEESH), have a wonderful Christmas. :)

~Red

P.S. The latest (and hopefully not last) episode of Community, entitled "Regional Holiday Music" and all about parodying Glee hardcore? One of the best episodes ever, abolsutely hilarious, and I cannot get those songs out of my head. Thank you cast and writers, you made life. Baby Boomer Santa, thank you for MTV... Baby Boomer Santa, thank you every-thiiing...!