Sending Christmas Cheer

Did my errands today; ran to the Acme to get my paycheck and do some Christmas shopping, then to Wal Mart to get a new bra (I ended up getting one that was exactly the same as the old one - it was the only brown one). I had a quick slice of pizza at Tu Se Bella near FYE for lunch.

After I dropped off my groceries, I headed right back out again to make a quick trip to the Oaklyn branch of the post office and PNC Bank, which are within two blocks of each other. Now I know why Linda calls it the "post awful." There was a long, none-too-happy line when I got in, and only one frazzled man to tend to them. (Apparently, there was another man working, but he was on lunch.) This is one thing on a Saturday in mid-November, but only having two people with no one to cover them on a Friday afternoon in mid-December is just stupid (and bad planning). When all was said and done, I did manage to send the two boxes I needed to send out, after fifteen minutes worth of hassle in a building barely bigger than the stamps on the envelopes.

The Bank was quieter and went much quicker, and I made it home with enough time to rake the front yard before it got dark. It was a little wet and muddy, but I really wanted to clear a path for my landlady and me before the next round of storms. I'll do the side path again next week.

I cheered myself up and added to my Christmas spirit with two classic holiday films after raking and during dinner. The Bishop's Wife was the last of the three famous holiday movies released in 1947 (the others were It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle On 34th Street) and the second to deal with angels. An urbane angel named Dudley (played by the urbane Cary Grant) is called on to help a confused bishop who wants a fancy cathedral to be built (David Niven) and get him to realize the importance of the smaller, less elaborate things in our lives...and to notice his beautiful wife, Julia (Loretta Young). All three leads are marvelous in this sweet comedy/drama, with fine support from Monty Woolley as a professor friend of the Bishop's and Elsa Lanchester as the bishop's breathless maid.

Linda is a huge fan of the 40s-set Addie Mills TV movies and sent me The House Without a Christmas Tree after I admitted how much I liked the Addie novel The Thanksgiving Treasure. Addie is a spunky, horse-crazy girl growing up in a small Nebraska town in 1946. She desperately wants a Christmas tree, but her gruff, taciturn father won't allow it, despite the encouragement of her grandmother. Addie does finally get her tree from her school...but what she does with it and her dad's reaction are both classic and hearbreaking. I like how realistic and true to the 40s this seems, despite the obvious shot-on-video 70s look. I especially got nostalgic when the kids did the Pledge of Allegiance in front of the flag. We did that every day in Cape May Elementary. I half expected the kids to follow with a rousing rendition of "You're A Grand Old Flag," just like we did.

Today's post office trip concludes my Christmas present shopping. Starting next week, I'm going to concentrate on baking, mostly gifts for family and neighbors and for the Acme's Christmas party next week.