Sunday, December 24, 2017

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Started off a cloudy Christmas morning with the last chapter of A Christmas Carol and two American Girl holiday stories. In the Civil War-set Addy's Surprise, Addy Walker is trying to earn enough money to buy her mama a nice scarf for Christmas. She also wants all her family to escape from slavery to freedom for the holidays. But freedom has a cost, as the pastor at her church reminds her. Though she and her mother give up their money to the church to help newly freed slaves, they still get some wonderful gifts on Christmas Day.

Depression-era girl Kit Kitteredge is also facing a difficult holiday in Kit's Surprise. Her father is out of work, and even though her family's boarding house is doing well, they're still short on money. She takes a job caring for her grouchy Uncle Hendrick to earn the cash for their electric bill and spends all her time dealing with him. On top of that, she gets into an argument with her best friend Ruthie over make-believe and Ruthie offering to pay for their after-Christmas outing. It takes Kit creating a special gift for Ruthie to make her understand the healing power of faith and imagination.

Did Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas as I made coconut pancakes for a special Christmas Eve treat. This sweet direct-to-DVD anthology features three holiday stories showcasing the regular Disney characters, two based after classic Christmas short stories. Huey, Dewey, and Louie wishes it was Christmas every day in "Donald Duck: Stuck On Christmas." They instantly regret their decision when they're constantly repeating the day over again...until they finally change things for the good and learn how much their family means to them. Goofy sets out to prove to his son Max that Santa is real in "A Very Goofy Christmas." "Mickey and Minnie's Gift of the Magi" is based after one of the most popular O.Henry short stories. Mickey needs to make money to buy Minnie a Christmas gift. He sells what means the most to him to get it, but the two discover that the only thing they really need for a happy holiday is each other.

Headed off to work shortly after Once Upon a Christmas ended. Thankfully, it wasn't anywhere near the madness that yesterday was. It did get kind of crazy around noon. Otherwise, it was steady in the morning, dead from about 1:30 onwards. Probably just as well. Even with fewer baggers than planned (one called out, another quit), we still had more than enough help. We had so much extra help, I was outside with two other guys by the end of the night, even though there were no carts to gather and absolutely nothing to do. I have no idea why the managers sent us all outside. (And in fact, I point-blank told one of them to stop freaking out when they were fussing at me over checking the schedule to see if anyone else was coming in. I'm tired of the night managers picking on everyone, including me.)

The moment the clock switched to 5:55, I signed out, rushed home, changed, grabbed the candy for the party, and hurried back out to Dad and Jodie's house. They were still pretty full at 6:30. Khai and a bunch of the neighborhood kids were checking for rare Pokemon on Pokemon Go, playing with Dad's old toy train, and watching the live-action version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Freeform. Jodie was still putting out food. I barely walked in the door when she made me a roast beef sandwich. There were also turkey, ham, mussels in tomato-basil sauce (yum, I love mussels), macaroni salad, cucumber salad, Caesar salad,  potato salad, rolls, meatballs, shrimp cocktail with a very potent cocktail sauce that cleared my sinuses, and a cheese and pepperoni tray. (The crackers were already gone by the time I got there - I just sliced myself a chunk of brie.) Along with the sandwich and cheese, I had the mussels, a roll with butter, four meatballs, macaroni salad, the last of the Caesar salad, and tons of shrimp.

Dad and Khai's father Craig were watching the late football games with a couple of other guys in the living room. The best of them was probably the Jaguars-49ers game. Jacksonville apparently hadn't done well early-on, but woke up enough by the 4th quarter to make a comeback and win 44-33. The Seahawks did even better, knocking the Cowboys out of the playoffs with their 21-12 victory. After playing so well last week, the Giants got absolutely crushed by the Cardinals, 23-0.

Oh, and it sounds like I'll be going to Dad and Jodie's brunch around 10 tomorrow. Jessa and I will go to see The Last Jedi at 3, and will then go straight to Vanessa and Mark's to have dinner with them and Vanessa's daughter and Jessa's good friend Brittany.

Finally headed home around 7:30. It had started to rain sometime in the interim, a fine, misty rain that didn't do much more than make my knees and jacket a bit damp. I delivered a bag of cookies and a card to my friend Erica, who lives around the corner from Dad and Jodie, then rode around for a little while to look at lights in their neighborhood.

Spent the rest of a rainy night at home, watching holiday specials while chatting with Lauren online. Ran through A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown, 'Twas the Night Before ChristmasA Garfield Christmas Special, Muppet Family Christmas, Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Small One, the Tom & Jerry Oscar-nominated short "The Night Before Christmas," and the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Ended the night with something a bit more unique. The Jimmy Stewart old-time radio show "The Six Shooter" had Stewart's character relating his own western spin on A Christmas Carol to a little boy. Scrooge is a stingy old ranch owner, Bob Cratchit is his head foreman, Nephew Fred owns a livery stable, and Scrooge's fiancee is a schoolmarm. Ultimately, the story teaches both the boy and his crotchety old aunt a lesson in the Christmas spirit.

And here's hoping that your holiday is equally merry (and a lot drier)! As Jiminy Cricket said on A Disney Channel Christmas yesterday, from all of us to all of you, Merry Christmas, and the very happiest of holiday seasons!

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