Light Up the Neighborhood

Began the morning with breakfast and It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special. Buster is directing the Toons' big holiday show, but nothing is going right. Montana Max, who is stuck in a wheelchair after a skiing accident, sabotages the show, and Babs gets jealous of Cher when she sees Buster whispering in her ear. Upset after Monty is giving the directing job, Buster is literally ready to jump out of the film. He's stopped by a large white bunny with a familiar laid-back accent who shows him what life in Acme Acres and for his friends would be like if he was never on Tiny Toons.

Watched Card Sharks while getting organized to make my last batch of cookies. Looked like Christmas 1978 or 1979, from the men's hair and suits. We had two guys with accents playing, a young Hispanic man and a somewhat older British man. The Brit won the round and did all right on the Money Cards.

I spent the rest of the morning working on the Cherry Coconut Bars. These are basically lemon bars with a cherry-coconut custard filling instead of lemon. They're rich, super-sweet, but oh-so tasty. This may have been the best they came out in years. The cookie base baked perfectly and smelled terrific. The custard came out just right. (And at least I didn't almost forget the coconut this time, like I did last year.) 

Watched Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol while I ate lunch and packed up the bar cookies. I went further into this classic TV animated special at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog back in 2019.

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

Hurried out after the show ended. I arrived at the Thomas Sharp School just in time. Once again, we were busy, with 20 pre-schoolers and kindergartners who hadn't been outside at home or school in almost a week. The blacktop was clear enough for the older kids to go out and play a ball game, but the younger ones still had to stay inside. Once again, they were incredibly rowdy until we got them settled down with toys, coloring, and books. I spent most of the evening working with the kids at the table with the magnetic tiles. I helped one boy build a space station, admired the geometric shapes another made, and shook my head as two more built a tall tower they kept knocking over, screaming with delight, before they'd build it back up again. One of the little girls wandered in and out. Another little girl and her family even gave me a gift card to Dunkin' Donuts and two Christmas shortbread cookies.

Had dinner at Crust n' Cravings on Collings after I left the kids. They were quiet except for the two guys making pizza and vacuuming and Action News. I ate a slice of chicken bacon ranch and a slice of broccoli tomato while half-listening to Channel 6. A mother and her grown daughter were just settling down with cheese steaks when I left.

Spent the next hour riding around, looking at lights displays in West Collingswood and Oaklyn. I traditionally do this about a week before Christmas, on a night after I've spent the day baking cookies on a hot stove. Since I was already out on the bike, I stayed on the bike instead of walking. I love how festive the local towns get at this time of year! I saw houses with electric candles in the window, with just the roof outlined, with the entire house wrapped in lights Clark Grizwauld-style. My favorites of the inflatables were the two Santas riding dinosaurs (Finley and the kids in the after-school program would love those) and a pig in a Santa hat. 

When I got home, I took a shower, then watched This Christmas. I go further into this R&B musical about a black family gathering for a memorable and melodramatic holiday season at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

This Christmas

Finished the night with two more holiday variety specials on YouTube. The Perry Como Winter Show is a more general holiday special from 1973 (complete with commercials that include recipes using Kraft products). Perry takes Sally Struthers, Jack Burns, and Avery Schriberer from the Metromedia Studios in sunny Califoria to wintry Vermont. Struthers, Burns, and Schriberer play broken toys who admit that they're glad they have each other. Schriberer insists that Como take him to sit on Santa's (Burns) knee. Como and Struthers have a romantic moment in the kitchen late at night over a sandwich. The group the Establishment perform chorus numbers and join in for a very peculiar tribute to vintage Hollywood. Struthers does Mae West, while the Establishment parodys Astaire and Rodgers and MacDonald and Eddy.

The 1966 Andy Williams Christmas Show is far more homey. Though we do have a very strange Osmond Brothers number "Whistle While You Work" with them as elves and a comic opening to "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," most of the show revolves around either Williams singing "Winter Weather" with his brothers, or Williams, his huge family, and his French then-wife Claudine Longet. He and Claudine get to sing a very sweet "Love In a Home" from Lil' Abner together. Williams finishes with a simple "Silent Night" on a bare stage.