Games for Christmas

Began the morning with early work. Unlike yesterday, it wasn't busy. I ended up in the register once very briefly to cover for another cashier early in the day, and that was it. Did the trash and recycling and hung up gift cards in the morning. After lunch, I did returns and alternated sweeping the store with the head bagger. I did have to go out and do the carts every once in a while, which kind of got chilly. Despite a bright day and warm sunshine, it was bitter cold, in the lower 30's, and very windy.

Needless to say on such a frigid day, I went straight home after work. Started in on the next batch of cookies after changing and having a snack. The biscotti I make are different than the hard rusks many of you dunk into hot drinks. I roll them into candy cane and wreath shapes, cover them in sprinkles, and bake them once. This is another recipe that came out of Prevention Magazine. It originally called for dried cherries and pistachios, but for Christmas, we keep them plain.

Ran Mrs. Santa Claus as I worked. I go further into this TV extravaganza at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Mrs. Santa Claus

Finished the cookies at 4:30, in time to start writing...but I didn't end up writing. I thought I'd give the Roku another shot. After I set up my Roku account on my laptop and two more attempts at getting the password in, I ended up calling Comcast. The customer service guy sent me to the Internet Service people, who helped me set up a second router with a new name and password. That did the trick. It went through. Both men were very nice and helpful, and I easily finished the set-up and added more apps.

One of those apps is for Pluto TV, a free streaming service that just happens to carry Buzzr. I came in just in time to have a quick leftovers dinner and catch the last Match Game episode of the evening. Buzzr's been pushing their "Betty White Christmas" theme for a while, which pretty much means Betty is in all episodes of Match Game and Password Plus this week. She livened up an episode from 1976, including rolling up Gene's pants legs when he talked to the panelists on the upper desks.

Sale of the Century was pushed back to 7 in early November. The format here was a little different than what I watched a few months ago. In what I'm guessing was a late 80's episode, instead of playing for all the prizes in the end, the contestant plays an extra bonus round to win a specific prize and cash. The more they return, the bigger the prize. The new champ won a wide-screen TV in literally the last second during the bonus round.

I haven't seen the Monty Hall Let's Make a Deal since the mid-80's. It's pretty much the same game as the current version with Wayne Brady. People in wacky costumes are chosen from the audience and given money or a small prize, then get the chance to trade up to something else. Sometimes, they may actually get a bigger prize or more money...but lurking under boxes and behind doors are the "Zonk" prizes, goofy "prizes" like pigs or a camel that mean you win nothing. Among the contestants today were a grizzled old cowpoke, a woman astronaut, another woman who was a baseball player, a mouse, a man dressed as a pig, and his wife, who was a sailor in a flotation device. The cowpoke ended up the winner of the Big Deal of the Day, netting a washer and dryer along with other appliances.

Betty White returned for Password Plus, hosted by her then-husband Allen Ludden. White joined Joanna Gleason, the Baker's Wife in the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods, for a real duel of words. I'd seen the ladies on the show before, and they both did really well...and did even better tonight. Each managed to help her contestant get to the Alphabetics bonus round at least once, and I think they both won, too.

After two more newer Supermarket Sweep episodes, we moved on to the mid-80's version of Card Sharks. They were doing their "Young People's Week," i.e, having kids between the ages of 11 and 13 as the contestants. The little boy and girl they had on the show were just too adorable! I loved their answers, particularly the little boy. The girl won, and while she didn't really have much luck on the bonus round Money Cards, she did still manage to nab a nice chunk of cash in a savings bond.

Worked on my last batch of cookies all through the night. The recipe for Cherry Coconut Bars is another one from The Betty Crocker Cooky Book. It's basically lemon bars with a super-sweet cherry coconut custard filling instead of citrus. Even with the cooking spray I put on the bottom of the pan, the bars still crumbled when I cut them and packed them into the boxes and container to be given away.

(Those, incidentally, were the last of the cookies. Tomorrow, I'll start in on the other baked goods - cupcakes and two loaves of bread - and candy.)

Finished the night with The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. Gene Rayburn joins singer Jon Bauman in this combined version of the two most famous "goofy panelists" game shows. I've been enjoying it. As much as I like the 70's Match Game, it is cool to see celebrities I recognize from my own childhood. I did hear that Gene wasn't crazy about doing this - there were apparently changes to the format of Hollywood Squares, and he would have rather worked with original Squares MC Peter Marshall - but I've had fun. (Of course, keep in mind that I've seen two episodes of the original Hollywood Squares on YouTube. I'm more familiar with the version from the late 90's with Whoopi Goldberg.)