Holly Dazed

Started out a sunny, chilly morning with this week's Brunch With the Beatles. "The Beatles In 1966" was the theme today. Along with live songs from their final concerts as a group, we heard "Nowhere Man," "Good Day Sunshine," "In My Life," "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," "Paperback Writer," "Rain," and "Yellow Submarine."

I called Mom as soon as I was finished with my Banana Corn Pancakes. Not only was Mom in a far better mood than when I talked to her last week, she had good news. She's finally decided that she's going to come up for Rose's party on Christmas Day, whether Dad and Anny and the boys do or not. She's not done with her shopping, as she and Dad have been concentrating on remodeling the former garage and don't have a lot of money, but she was baking cookies when we were on the phone.

After Mom got off and the show ended, I put on Christmas records and started my own baking. I always make five kinds of cookies to give to adults, families, and groups during the holidays. I started with the Peanut Butter Cookies, which are the simplest. I found this recipe for New-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies last year on Betty Crocker.com. It starts with a yellow cake mix. Since I was broke at the time, I thought it would be a great way to save flour for the more difficult cookies. They came out so well, I decided that would be my permanent Peanut Butter Cookie recipe.

I ran Christmas music and records while I baked. Holli-Daze is a Peter Pan LP from 1974 featuring four Christmas-themed Looney Tunes stories. Mel Blanc does all of the voices (even the ones normally done by other actors, like Granny and Elmer).  "'Twas a Sight Before Christmas" has Bugs getting interviews from the Toons on their opinion of Santa when his own nephew claims he doesn't believe in the jolly old man in red anymore. "Bugs the Red-Nose Bunny" is also Santa-themed. Bugs, Porky, and Speedy Gonzoles head to the North Pole to help Santa out when they hear that Rudolph has come down with the flu. "Holli-Daze" takes Bugs and Granny to the western town of Holly, where Sheriff Yosemite Sam mistakes them for bank robbers. (This seems to be one of the few times in any Looney Tunes media Sam's played as a good guy.)

My favorite segment is "Santa Claus-strophobia." Millionaire Elmer has a big problem. He thinks he's Santa Claus. He offers his entire fortune to anyone who can cure him of this belief. Bugs overhears him and passes himself off as a psychologist and Daffy as his nurse in order to get to Elmer and his millions. After many couch-side gags (and a couple of attemps by Elmer to make passes at Nurse Daffy), Bugs finally comes up with a suggestion that makes all three of them happy.

Christmas With the Looney Tunes is from the early 2000s. I picked this cassette up from the Wildwood CVS around 2002 and have listened to it at least once a holiday season since then. While none of the voice actors here are the originals, there's some rather cute material, including "The Halle-Looney Chorus," Taz and Bugs' version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," and Daffy's "All I Want For Christmas Is More, More, More."

The Eagles game wasn't nearly that fun. Though the Minnesota Vikings don't have nearly the sterling statistics they do, the Eagles were a bundle of mistakes and penalties, including one for Nick Foles that ruined a possible touchdown. They were down 10-6 when I left for work, and would go on to lose 48-30.

Work was even more of a pain. It was busy when I came in, quiet when I left. A lot of my customers were grouchy, grumpy, cranky, or just plain obnoxious. I don't know if it was the full moon, they were upset about the game, or they all just came in from the malls. It's probably just as well that we were quiet when I finished. I was ready to tear out my hair when I finally shut down without a relief.