Thursday, December 24, 2020

A Very Wet Holiday

Began a cloudy morning with breakfast and Happy Days. "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas?" Fonzie, who claims he has a party to attend. Richie thinks otherwise and invites him to his family's house for Christmas Eve. Mr. Cunningham is reluctant to have him - he wanted it to just be the family for Christmas Eve - but even he eventually admits it's nice to share Christmas Eve with someone who's alone for the holidays.

Worked on writing for a while after I ate. Everyone boards the SS Todman, where Gene insists they split into groups. He takes Robert, Sharon, and a few of the others to find Brett and rescue her. Tom wants to find Goodman and get him to reveal where his brother and the crew are being held. 

Broke for lunch at 11. Had a chocolate banana smoothie and an apple cinnamon muffin while watching 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I go further into this Rankin-Bass tale and The Year Without a Santa Claus at this Musical Dreams Movie Reviews entry from last Christmas Eve. 


This time, I had no problems with Uber whatsoever. Both rides were smooth sailing, despite traffic in the morning. Walked around the car to make sure I picked up the right one going home.

Spent most of the day outside, rounding up carts. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. We were a mess almost the entire afternoon. Good thing we had anywhere from three to five baggers gathering carts at any given time. At one point, as one bagger joked, it felt like we had an army of baggers outside! We needed them. The carts kept vanishing. It got so bad by 5, they called me in to take customers, then bag for them. It was so busy, people kept coming to the door and asking if we were open and they could come in, even after we clearly closed at 6. I must have told at least five or six people in cars and another three or four on foot that the store closed early for Christmas Eve.

The weather didn't help. Gusty winds blew carts around, and it remained cloudy and humid. At least it was also warm for late December, probably in the mid-60's. It sprinkled and showered off-and-on briefly all afternoon. Thank heavens the heavy rain didn't start until I was done with work and on my way home. 

Took Jodie's gifts and the bags of cookies for Jesse, Dana, and TJ to her side of the house, then made wild tuna steak, Brussels sprouts sautéed in butter, and whole wheat pasta for dinner. The peanut butter-chocolate swirl fudge I made last night came out perfectly. I sliced it and boxed it while watching White Christmas. I went further into this classic holiday favorite with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney at my Musical Dreams blog in December 2018. 


Finished the night online after a shower with more specials. Watched Little Drummer Boy and Little Drummer Boy Book II on YouTube and DailyMotion respectively. Those two wound up being this year's Christmas Eve Rankin-Bass Double Feature at my Musical Dreams blog. 


Moved to Disney Plus for Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. This is an anthology of three shorts featuring various members of the Disney gang. "Donald Duck: Stuck on Christmas" is more of a riff on Groundhog Day. Huey, Dewey, and Louie wish it could be Christmas everyday...and eventually regret it when the day keeps repeating over and over. It's "A Very Goofy Christmas" as Goofy tries to prove to his skeptical son Max that Santa is real. Mickey and Minnie sell the things that mean most to them in order to buy presents in "Mickey and Minnie's Gift of the Magi."

The Small One is another story about the First Christmas. Small One is a donkey owned by a little boy and his father. He's now too old to carry heavy loads of wood, so the father tells his son to take Small One into the city and sell him. No one will buy the scrawny, elderly animal...until the boy encounters a kindly man named Joseph, who needs someone to carry his wife to Bethlehem. 

Despite the title, Uncle Scrooge is actually the main character in Mickey's Christmas Carol. Mickey has the Bob Cratchit role as his put-upon clerk, and Donald is Nephew Fred. Scrooge learns a lesson in charity from his former partner Jacob Marley (Goofy) and the tiny Ghost of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket), towering Ghost of Christmas Present (Willie the Giant), and scary Ghost of Christmas Future (Big Pete). 

(Oh, and Lauren finally got her package today. She loved everything. She and her parents listened to the CDs after they unwrapped them and put the angel on top of their small tree.)

And here's hoping you have a wonderful holiday season, no matter how you end up celebrating it!

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