Hark the Herold Angels Sing...and Get Tough

I once again began my day by sleeping in and reading The Great Santa Search and my wonderful new Bowery Boys books in bed. I didn't get moving until quarter of 10! When I did get going, I had grits for breakfast and watched the only Care Bears holiday special to date, The Care Bears Nutcracker. Originally a Care Bears Family episode (complete with the original credits), this is a very, very loose retelling of the famous ballet.

Actually, one of the things I like about the Care Bears version is that it's up-front about how loose this story is. The ballet teacher says right away that there's more than one way of telling this story...and one involves a little girl who just lost her best friend. When some of the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins come down to Earth to cheer her up, they get involved with helping an amnesiac Nutcracker save Toyland and the Sugar Plum Fairy from the wicked Vizier.

I didn't head out to the Acme until almost noon. When arrived, the store was busy but not crowded...but the back room was hopping. Today is the Acme's annual Employee Christmas Party. I had to grocery shop today anyway, so I figured I'd join in (despite being off today). My cookies joined spinach dip, layered bean-and-cheese dip, potato and pasta salads, barbecue pork and hot roast beef sandwiches, baked ziti, green bean casserole, carrot cake, home-made pumpkin whoopie pies, deviled eggs from the deli, chocolate-covered pretzels from the bakery, a huge cheesecake, potato chips, and tons of Hershey's Miniatures. I had the pasta salad, baked ziti (I know - tons of carbs), a slice of carrot cake, a pumpkin whoopie pie, a chocolate-covered pretzel, a little spinach dip, and a couple of Miniatures. Chatted with several cashiers and deli people who were on their breaks as well.

After I finished eating, I still had a ton of shopping to do. My vegetables desperately needed to be restocked, as did my whole wheat flour. Wanted to grab eggs and Smart Balance Butter, too, before everyone else does for their baking. Needed peanut butter and low-sugar strawberry spread for the muffins I intend to make later in the week.

When I got home, I put everything away, then put on Angels With Dirty Faces and worked on Pumpkin Bread for a present. Angels is one of the several movies James Cagney made with Pat O'Brian, and probably the most famous. Cagney is a former reform-school kid who is now a major gangster. O'Brian was his best friend as a kid; he's now a priest who takes care of orphan street kids. Ann Sheridan is the girl Cagney used to tease whom he now rents a room from. The Dead End Kids (Leo Gorcey, Billy Hallop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsley, and Bobby Jordan) are some of O'Brian's urchins who admire Cagney's criminal endeavors...maybe a bit too much for the good father's taste. Humphery Bogart is Cagney's crooked lawyer and partner.

This is one intense movie! I really enjoyed it, though melodrama usually isn't my thing. Everyone did very well, even the kids. Cagney and O'Brian were friends in real life as well and always play off each other beautifully. I liked Cagney with Ann Sheridan, too. They looked quite natural and relaxed together (even if I'm not entirely used to Ann Sheridan as a brunette).

After the pumpkin bread finally came out of the oven, I decided to go for a walk. I had to run some errands, anyway. Needed to go to the ATM machine at the bank to deposit my paycheck and to WaWa for milk. I strolled around the neighborhood between errands, looking at lights. There was one house on Newton that had a tree almost entirely wrapped in gorgeous blue-and-white LED lights. It looked magnificent against the black sky.

After I got home, I made tilapia with spinach with mushrooms and onions for dinner and switched to the original 1947 version of Miracle On 34th Street. After that, I ran a couple of winter and Christmas-oriented Donald Duck cartoons, including Toy Tinkers and the debut of everyone's favorite mischevious chipmunks, Chip N' Dale.

Alas, I didn't really get to watch much of the cartoons. I spent a frustrating hour trying to get a fish bone out of my throat. I really panicked, and while it did come out (right before I got in the shower), my throat is still a bit sore.