Monday, December 17, 2018

The Lights of Oaklyn

Began a busy day with breakfast and Arthur's Perfect Christmas. This Arthur is young aardvark Arthur Reed, who is looking forward to a fabulous holiday filled with snow, glittering trees, a huge traditional meal, and his mother opening one special gift. Things go wrong from the get-go. Rich girl Muffy gets into a fight with her tomboy best friend Francine because Francine went to her family's Hanukkah party instead of her big Christmas bash. Buster's mother keeps getting him up early because she thinks it's Christmas Day. Her son wishes she'd just relax and enjoy their own kind of holiday. DW wants that one wildly popular toy no one can find, and clumsy Uncle Fred shows up unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. In the end, Arthur finally realizes that, as Uncle Fred says, "sometimes, the things we hope for aren't the things we get. We get something better."

Headed out to run a few errands as soon as the cartoon ended. First stop was the Oaklyn Post Office. I needed to send out Lauren's Christmas package. To my surprise, though it was past 11:30, they were empty. There was one other person who was leaving just as I was coming in. I got everything out with no problems.

It was a gorgeous day, sunny and relatively warm, probably in the lower 50's. I decided to ignore the blustery wind and run a few more quick errands. Dollar General is less than a block from the post office, so that was my next stop. I didn't find what I was looking for, which was vanilla. I did get two Hot Wheels for my nephew Collyn's birthday (which was last week - it'll go out in the box for his family), a birthday card for his sister Lilah (hers is next month, but I'm going to send her card and gift in the box too, so they'll actually be on time this year), and a box of red velvet cake mix for the cupcakes I'll be making for Dad and Charlie and his men this weekend.

The CVS is just a block from them. They did have vanilla, but I wasn't paying six bucks for a tiny bottle. I did get a bottle of Dawn dish washing detergent on sale. My bottle at home is half-empty. They weren't busy either, and I was in and out.

Since I was out and about, I did the Oaklyn Library today. Other than one older man who came in to talk to the librarian (and just had to mention I work at the Acme), they were quiet today. I looked over the DVDs and board books, but there wasn't really that much to do. I was done in a half-hour.

Got home by 1:30. I had a quick lunch, then started my second batch of cookies. I got the recipe for Newfangled Peanut Butter Cookies (now known as Cake Mix Peanut Butter Cookies) off Betty Crocker's website in 2012, when I was very broke and looking to cut corners. The resulting cookie was so delicious, it became my go-to peanut butter cookie recipe. Here's the recipe on the Betty Crocker website.

Put on The Flinstones Christmas Carol while I worked. Fred Flinstone is playing Scrooge in a local play. His constant rehearsing is getting on everyone's nerves, especially Wilma's. He's forgotten to buy Christmas presents and to pick Pebbles up from daycare. Wilma has enough on her plate as it is. "The Bedrock Bug" is going around, making half the cast sick and forcing her to take their roles. Fred does eventually learn his lesson, thanks to a surprisingly accurate retelling of the story and a spooky trip to a department store after-hours.

Went right into the biscotti after I cleaned up from the peanut butter cookies. I decided to try a new recipe this year from those issues of Prevention Magazine Linda Young sent me a while back that uses a little less butter. (It also originally used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, but I didn't have any, so I went all-butter.) It's...not bad. Not really much different from the old recipe. I didn't add the dried cherries and pistachios called for in the recipe. Instead of baking them twice into hard rusks, I roll them or flatten them into shapes, then sprinkle them with colored sugar.

Watched Christmas In Connecticut while I worked. Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is a food columnist for a major women's magazine whose articles about her husband, baby, and cozy Connecticut farm are wildly popular. Her publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) invites Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), a soldier who has never had a home-cooked meal, and himself to her farm.

There's one small problem. Elizabeth is a city girl who lives in an apartment in New York and can't boil water. Her scrumptious dishes come from her friend Felix (S.K Sakall) who runs a restaurant. To save her skin and that of her editor (Robert Shayne), she convinces snobbish architect John Sloane (Reginald Gardiner) to let her invite them to his farm and promises that she'll marry him. That all falls apart when she realizes how handsome and charming Jefferson is. After a Christmas of in-and-out judges, missing babies, and cows running off, Elizabeth finally learns that honesty really is the best policy, especially where love is concerned.

Cute holiday fluff with some nice performances, especially from Sakall and Greenstreet as the two very different bosses.

Worked on writing after I finished the biscotti. Leia and her boys disembark from the Falcon at a frozen crystal air field. They're met by kindly old Lady Gerda, one of the Snow Queen's emissaries. She takes them through the town to her mansion. Leia is more interested in discussing politics, but Luke is amazed by the snow-covered city.

Did A Star In the East, the Oscar-winning vintage short that comes with the Christmas In Connecticut DVD, while I ate a quick leftovers dinner. Master of accents J. Carrol Naish plays Tony, a hotel owner in the Arizona desert whose customers drive him crazy with their incessant demands. He's convinced there's no goodwill left in the world. Nonsense, says a mysterious drifter. There's goodwill in the heart of everyone, especially at Christmas. A young Hispanic couple arrives shortly after, begging for a room. His wife gives them the shed. Turns out the girl is expecting...and her blessed event brings together the hotel's residents in ways Tony could have never dreamed.

 I bundled up and went out for my annual walk to look at lights. Every year around the middle of December, I go for a stroll around Oaklyn to admire the various light displays in the nearby neighborhoods. It's a great way to let off the extra sugar from cookie-baking, and the lights displays in town are always so festive! Some people decorate their houses and whole yards with tons of lights. Others just outline their porches, their houses, or a window or two. There's houses with lit wreaths in the windows, or plastic candles. Still other folks opt for the floodlights that project red and green sparkles on the front of their homes. I saw more inflatables this year than I have in a while. Favorites included Minnie Mouse, a penguin, and a unicorn gathered around a Christmas tree, the Christmas Vacation "Family Truckster" with a giant tree on the roof, and two Grinches, one holding a candy cane and one a blue stocking.

Took out the recycling, then finished out the night at home with A New Kind of Love. Samantha (Joanne Woodward) is a fashion buyer in New York who has been invited to Paris with her boss Leena (Thelma Ritter) and the owner of their company, Joseph Bergner (George Tobias). They head to Paris to check out the spring fashions. While on the plane, Samantha first encounters Steve Sherman (Paul Newman), a writer whose swinging bachelor lifestyle has lead to him being fired and sent to Paris. They do not get along well at all. She thinks he's a jerk, and he thinks she's a boy.

She reconsiders her severe style of dress and cynical attitude after joining an all-women parade for "semi-maidens over 25." She gets a makeover to try to dress as sophisticated as possible. It works too well. He thinks she's a prostitute. Hoping to get back at him for the earlier snub, she plays the role to the hilt, giving him all kinds of wild made-up "stories" that he posts in his column. Trying to find more stories gets her into trouble with her boss and his fiancee Felicianne (Eva Gabor). Now she has to figure out how to come clean, all while admitting to herself that she actually likes this guy.

Fairly typical romantic comedy of the early 60's is livened by a nice cast (Maurice Chevalier performs several of his old hits during the party before the women's parade), the chemistry between real-life married couple Newman and Woodward, and the Oscar-nominated couture costumes. I especially like that Woodward's character is a little tougher than usual for this kind of thing, certainly more than most of Doris Day's "semi-maidens." Even after she falls for Steve, she doesn't quite give up that tough side, and it's kind of refreshing.

If you're a fan of either of the leads or of romantic comedies from the 60's, you can do far worse than this romp through Paris.

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