"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas..."

My only day off this week began gray and gloomy. It was just starting to rain lightly when I headed for my first errand of the day, the PNC Bank on the White Horse Pike. I didn't linger there very long. I did not like the look of the weather at all. The clouds didn't have the right pearly whiteness for snow...but even if it didn't snow, it looked like it might come down harder.

Went straight to the Haddon Township Library next, mostly to return the Barbie In a Christmas Carol DVD and Seussical CD. I organized the children's DVDs, but there wasn't really much else to do, and it was just as well. The rain was starting to pick up, and I still had other places I needed to go.

By the way, Barbie In A Christmas Carol was a lot of fun. Barbie narrates a cute gender-reversed version of the famous Charles Dickens novella to her grumpy little sister Kelly, who is upset because she can't spend Christmas Eve the way she wants to. Here, the miser is Eden Starling, a lovely but obnoxious diva who is the star attraction of a Variety theater in the Victorian era. Nephew Fred is a magician who is trying to ask Catherine, Eden's put-upon best friend and costume designer, out on a date. Eden forbids everyone at the theater, including Catherine, from going home for the holidays. After all, they have a show to perform, and her shows are far more important than any celebrating! Catherine's devastated. Not only is her family important to her, but she has another, secret place to be on Christmas Eve - she makes costumes for a struggling orphanage's Christmas show and is especially fond of a crippled little girl named Tammy.

Yes, Eden learns her lesson in the usual way...sort of. Actually, the theatrical setting makes this seem a lot like an animated, Victorian-set, female version of the 1988 Bill Murray vehicle Scrooged. Like the protagonist, the ghosts are all women...only here, the Ghost of Christmas Future is more eerie than outright scary, and she does get to speak. Frankly, I found the hyperactive super-fan Ghost of Christmas Past to be far freakier! Catherine represents several characters from book, and her character and her future is much like Karen Allen's character in Scrooged.

The CGI is a marked improvement over Barbie In the Nutcracker. I loved many of Eden's facial expressions, especially when faced with her ghostly Aunt Marie (taking the Jacob Marley role) and the shrill Ghost of Christmas Past. In fact, if you want to show a little girl a CGI Christmas Carol, skip the Jim Carrey version in theaters (I haven't seen it, but the reviews have not been kind) and rent her this instead.

(Heck, maybe Mattel should stick with classic literature instead of overused fairy tales for their bi-yearly Barbie extravaganzas. Christmas Carol and Three Musketeers were really fun. How about a gender-reversed Prisoner of Zenda next year, guys?)

Stopped in Super Fresh on the way home. I was hoping to make stops at JoAnn's and Dollar Tree, too, but the weather was so bad, I cut it down to the one I really needed to make. Much to my surprise, Super Fresh wasn't nearly as busy as I figured it would be on a day with a forecast calling for snow. I was able to buy flour on sale (for bread later), a small lamb chop, bunched carrots (I prefer them in bunches instead of bags, and Acme doesn't sell them loose), chicken drumsticks, and maple syrup (Super Fresh has far better prices on real maple syrup than Acme).

The rain was coming down even harder as I coasted out to Cuthbert Road. I made one more quick stop at WaWa for a Roast Beef and Swiss Ciabatta Melt for lunch before riding home. It was cold, but not windy, which did help with the ride.

Not surprisingly, I spent the rest of the afternoon indoors baking and reading the Whole Christmas Catalog book I bought yesterday and the Christmas Gifts of Good Taste I took out of the Oaklyn Library. I made one of the bags of the Betty Crocker Gingerbread Mix I bought yesterday and two crusty, fragrant loaves of baguettes, the first time I've made bread in months.

In honor of the weather, I ran two Bing Crosby holiday movies while I made the baked goods. Though the 1954 hit White Christmas is probably the better-known of the two movies featuring Bing Crosby and that smash hit holiday song, I prefer the film that introduced it, Holiday Inn. Made during World War II, Inn is, by necessity, simpler and almost a little gritty-feeling, compared to the kind of too-polished White Christmas. A man who is sick of the long-time act he has with his best friend and their girl pal cuts out on Christmas Eve to run a farm...but proves to not be farmer material. The guy finally turns the farm into an inn and night club that's only open on holidays. He hires a cute girl he met on Christmas Eve...but when his former partner shows up, drunk after his former fiancee dumped him for a millionaire, they find themselves competing for a girl's affection all over again.

Yeah, it's light, but unlike White Christmas, there's some real bite under the Christmas fluff. Inn in particular is refreshingly honest about the grind of show business - working more-or-less 364 days a year, with extra shows during the busy holiday seasons, and little time to spend thinking about family and good cheer. The relationships are a bit more realistic, too. Yes, the plot contrivances towards the middle of the film are still a bit silly, but many people have probably told little white lies to the people they love, whether to protect them or just to try to keep them closer for a little while longer.

As I mixed my cookie batter, I happened to look out the window...and realize Bing and Fred weren't the only ones looking into a white world. There was real snow coming down, big fat flakes mixed with the rain, and it was sticking to my porch. The rain-snow mix fell for most of the afternoon and into the evening, and while it never stuck to the street, it made a nice backdrop for dinner. I made a good one, too - Flounder in Marsala Sauce, Roasted Brussels Sprouts (thanks for that recipe, Tina - it's divine), mashed sweet potatoes with honey, and a Banana Muffin.