Thursday, December 12, 2019

Christmas Wrapping

Once again began the day with work...and once again, it was utterly dead the entire morning. Never even got mildly steady. Everyone's in the malls right now. I gathered carts and shelved loose items in the morning and swept and did carts in the afternoon. At least it was a nice day for it. While very cold, in the 30's, it was also sunny and still, with a wonderfully warm sun.

Went straight home after I got out. After I changed and had a snack, I pulled out the bag and two Tupperware containers that hold the wrapping paper, gift bags, and other gift-wrapping items. I want to get Lauren's package out by Saturday at the latest and figured that, while I'm not entirely done with my shopping, I figured I might as well do what I can now. Lauren and Khai's gifts were wrapped in the green, gold, and red pine tree print "Noel" paper I bought last year. My little nieces got the new silver and blue paper from Dollar General for their coloring books and puzzle. I like that the paper was thicker than what I got from Dollar Tree, but those silver snowflakes did drop tiny flakes all over the living room rug.

Watched Arthur's Perfect Christmas while I worked. Aardvark kid Arthur Reed is ready for the best Christmas ever, with tons of tinsel on the tree, a big dinner, lots of snow, and just the right gift for his mother. Things go wrong right from the get-go. His pesky little sister DW wants that one ultra-popular toy no one can find, and his classmates have their own problems. Buster's mom keeps waking him up early for gifts and breakfast, making her son wish they could just relax for the holiday. Muffy, the richest girl in school, is upset when her best friend Francine opts to go to her family's Hanukkah party rather than her big Christmas blow-out. On Christmas Eve, clumsy Uncle Fred and his dog Rory turn up on their way to Florida, creating more chaos. In the end, Arthur and his friends finally learn the importance of what Uncle Fred tells him - "Sometimes, you don't get what you want. You get something even better."

Went online and worked on writing after I finished. Brett and her men arrive at Kingdom of Columbia Eye, where Nipsey happily greets them. He tells them Gene is in with  his cousin, the queen of the land...and that he's encountered a woman he believes may be a legendary princess, even if his cousin doesn't.

Broke for dinner at 7. Had leftover hamburger casserole and sauteed onions and Brussels sprouts for dinner while watching the 1955 TV version of Babes In Toyland. I go further into this early TV "spectacular" at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Babes In Toyland (1955)

Finished the night with another 50's holiday favorite, the 1951 British A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim. Other than an expanded past sequence that shows what happened to Scrooge's sister and how he went from a romantic young man to a miser, this is a pretty accurate retelling of the original novella. It even refers to details that many versions leave out, like the ragged Want and Ignorance children under the Ghost of Christmas Present's cloak and the ghouls Scrooge sees out the window when Marley's there. Sim's performance as the world's most famous miser is considered to be one of the best on record; he's especially good in the end, when Scrooge is enjoying his first really happy holidays in 20 years and is scaring the, well, Dickens out of his housemaid.

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