Spent the rest of the morning beginning one of my favorite parts of the holiday season - cookie baking! I made the recipes that use cake mixes as bases today. I first made Cake Mix Peanut Butter Cookies in 2012, when I was broke and looking to cut corners. The resulting cookies were so delicious, I've used the recipe for Christmas every year since. Chocolate Yum-Yums come from the craft book Christmas Is Coming 1987. The original recipe calls for devil's food cake mix and nuts, but I thought red velvet cake mix and white chocolate chips were more festive. I even replaced a little oil with some buttermilk, which many red velvet cake recipes call for.
Listened to unique Christmas music collections while I worked. Something Festive! doesn't look like a Christmas album. It's bright bird pinata cover screams Cinco Del Mayo, not Epiphany. The song selection is a bit more holiday-oriented. A&M founder and owner Herb Alpert gets two numbers with his Tijuana Brass, "Winter Wonderland" and "Jingle Bell Rock." Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 do "The Christmas Song." Liza Minnelli performs the heartbreaking ballad "Raggedy Ann and Andy," while Claudine Longet gets the gentler "Snow."
Things picked up with the first volume of A Very Special Christmas. This 1987 collection ups the energy quota with The Pointer Sisters' "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and John Cougar Melloncamp's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Bon Jovi is a "Back Door Santa," Stevie Nicks does a gorgeous "Silent Night," and Run-D.M.C tosses rap into the mix with "Christmas In Hollis." (Hey fellas, mind if I join your Christmas? I love chicken and collard greens!)
Switched from rap and hard rock to soul and R&B for Soulful Christmas. Brook Benton's "This Time of the Year" and a lovely Patti LaBelle "Blue Christmas" and "Winter Wonderland" are my favorites here. We also have Sonny Til and the Oreoles asking "What are You Doing New Year's Eve?" and claiming "It's Gonna Be a Lonely Christmas."
Returned to the world of Frosty during lunch after I packed up the cookies and put everything away. Frosty's Winter Wonderland brings Frosty back, but he's lonely when the kids go inside. They make him a "snow wife" he dubs Crystal, but she's not "all livin'" like him at first. It's not until Frosty makes Crystal a simple gift of love that she's finally able to be with him. Meanwhile, Jack Frost is jealous of Frosty's popularity with the kids. He'll do anything to get Frosty's hat and his magical ability to move.
Called Uber after I finished lunch. Alas, I couldn't get a driver for 20 minutes. Maybe it's just as well. I was able to do some quick chores. The driver did pick me up on time, but it still meant I was 5 minutes late to work. It took them almost 13 minutes to arrive going home. At least there was no traffic either way.
On one hand, we had 22 little kids and 20 older ones today, and as you can likely guess, no one went outside on a snow-covered playground. On the other hand, they were surprisingly not that bad. Bathroom breaks got a little crazy, but that was the worst of it. They mostly colored or played with magnetic tiles. I joined the kids coloring. Drew myself making cookies this morning on one side, Hilary the Sugar Plum Fairy and Jeff the Cavalier dancing while Annie the Rag Doll watches happily on the other. Read one of the littlest girls The Bernstein Bears Go to the Dentist when she requested it.
There was a box waiting for me when I got home. I hadn't ordered anything. It turned out to be a revival of my annual Kimberly Clark box from Lauren. She and her parents own small stocks in the company and usually send me a box of their products. I kept the box of Kleenex tissues, the packs of tissues, the Cottonelle wipes, and the Thermos cup. I'll give a friend the Viva paper towels. Might see if I can donate everything else somewhere. (Oh, and incidentally, Lauren says she got my box today. She loved everything I gave her, and her parents loved their CDs.)
Switched to Match Game Syndicated during dinner, after I took the laundry downstairs. No idea why Buzzr jumped way, way ahead to the second week of the syndicated series. Debralee Scott and Patty Duke joined in to hear David Doyle attempt impressions (and Brett and Charles not get what they were supposed to be).
Worked on The WENN Nutcracker Suite next. Betty hears Mr. Eldridge and Gertie talking as she prepares porridge for the next day. Gertie tells Mr. Eldridge that Princess Pirlipat, the Betty look-a-like who rejected Prince Scott after he became a Nutcracker, now has the music box with Cavalier Jeff. Jeff was turned into a wax doll dancing on a music box by the Mouse King. She also suspects he has the Christmas Star Sword, the family heirloom that had been stolen from Scott when he turned into a Nutcracker. The Nutcracker insists on sitting next to Betty's bed, though he can't sleep. He insists that his name isn't Scott, that he doesn't know who he is, but Mr. Eldridge knows better.
Finished the night with holiday episodes of favorite game shows when I finally remembered to get the laundry out of the dryer and bring it upstairs. I had no idea Fun House had a Christmas episode until tonight. It was pretty cute, too. Kids dressed children in the audience as Rudolph, pushed a "sleigh" with flying "reindeer" while dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus, and raced through a Fun House decorated with tinsel garlands and fake snow.
Christmas goes way back on game shows. What's My Line's holiday episode in 1955 featured the Salvation Army Band and Johnny Marks, who wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." (Which the Salvation Army proceeded to play.) Christmas 1972 on To Tell the Truth introduced three female mall Santas and three gentlemen who claimed to be snowmobiling across the colder parts of the world.
Bob Barker was out sick during Christmas 1974 on The Price Is Right, so Dennis James filled in for him. Alas, he didn't have much luck with the games. I don't think anyone won their Pricing Game in this episode. The Showcases went better. One brought in Santa Claus (Johnny Olsen) to give a list of gifts. The other was gifts that represented A Christmas Carol.
Christmas is for families, too. Wheel of Fortune brought in family duos to play together during Christmas week 1992. A mother and her son had apparently dominated all week, and continued to do so that night. They were the only ones to get any money or prizes, and they won the bonus round, too.
Hollywood Squares got their Christmas party on in 2001 with Terri Garr, Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Mull, Andrea Martin, Jean Louisa Kelly, Loretta Divine, Brad Garrett, and author John Saul, among others. The contestants played equally well, with one lady getting to the bonus round and choosing to keep her big bucks rather than risk an extra question (that she would have been wrong about anyway, as it turned out).
Celebrate the holidays game show style with these festive episodes!
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