Monday, November 04, 2013

Glimmerberry Holidays

Began today with the first holiday program of the year. I kept things simple as I had breakfast and got the laundry together with the DVD version of the Disney Very Merry Christmas Songs sing-along show. This is an expansion of one of the most popular of the original video Sing Along Songs series, which has lyrics that appear on-screen accompanied by the music. While we do get three songs from Disney Christmas direct-to-DVD features ("As Long As There's Christmas" from Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, "Winnie the Pooh's Jingle Bells" from A Very Pooh New Year, and "The Best Christmas of All" from Mickey Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse), the other songs are all popular holiday tunes either performed by the Disneyland Chorus or, in the case of "Let It Snow," "White Christmas," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," originators Bing Crosby and Gene Autry. It's hardly the most necessary DVD, but if you have kids who are Disney fans (and don't mind the lack of sequences from TV cartoons, Pixar movies, or more recent Disney projects) it makes for fun holiday background music.

Hit the laundromat around noon. It was a gorgeous day for a walk. The air was chilly and crisp and smelled wonderfully like fall. I think most people took down their Halloween decorations over the weekend. A few houses still had elaborate displays (and one or two already had Thanksgiving decorations up), but most just sported uncarved pumpkins, scarecrows, hay bales, and the last of the fall flowers.

The laundromat was a little busy, but not too bad. In any circumstances, I didn't have a big load. I would have waited to get this done again, but I work earlier tomorrow and Wednesday and didn't want to wait for my next day off on Thursday. I was in and out in less than an hour.

When I got home, I ran The Glimmerberry Ball Movie while getting the laundry organized and having leftovers for lunch. This "movie" is really three episodes of the 2009 Strawberry Shortcake show with a holiday theme stitched together. All three revolve around Strawberry and her pals preparing to celebrate "First Frost," their Christmas/Halloween hybrid. In the first, Blueberry Muffin gives Lemon Meringue a huge book that she's more interested in. The book goes to each girl like a bad fruitcake until it finally gets back to Blueberry, and she learns to put more thought into her gift-giving. The second story has all of the girls overly enthusiastic to have the best carved Glimmerberry. Strawberry's more upset that in their excitement over the berries, they may be losing the spirit of the season. They prepare for the ball of the title in the third story, only to find a pair of mischievous chipmunks living in the hollow tree they're using as a ballroom. The gags have elements of the Donald/Chip and Dale shorts of the 40s and 50s, as the girls and the rodents fight over who gets to use the log...until Strawberry reminds them of the importance of charity and seeing things in a different light.

Thank heavens work wasn't anywhere near as bad today as it was yesterday. We were busy, but not overwhelmingly so. I even had time to do some returns. Treated myself to my first Coconut Wreath (Russell Stover milk chocolate coconut patty that's only out during holidays - the only milk chocolate I'll eat) after work. I deserved it after yesterday.

No comments: