It continued to rain and ice as I got dressed. I tried to call Uber, but the only car I could get wouldn't be there for 25 minutes! I'd be too late. I ended up taking the bike, despite the roads being frosted with snow and slush at that point. I was still ten minutes late, but it could have been worse. At least there wasn't any traffic.
Thank heavens that was the worst that happened all morning. I was only alone for the first hour. From 10 AM onwards, I never had fewer than three college-age boys helping me gather trash, sweep, and push carts. Good thing I did have all that help. We were just as busy today as we were yesterday, especially once the snow ended around 9:30 and the sun started coming out. Between the mess inside and the rapidly improving weather, I couldn't have been happier to spend the rest of the morning with the carts, dodging shoppers and the men taking down the Christmas tree lot.
By the time I got off work, it was sunny and much warmer, in the lower 40's. It had become such a nice day, I went home, changed, and went back out again to deliver the cookies and cards to my neighbors across town. I caught Brittanie's husband just as he pulled up in the driveway and was able to give their cookies and card to him, but everyone else's were left on porches or in mailboxes.
I debated eating out, but I'm going to be doing that a lot on vacation later this week and early next week. I opted to have lunch at home instead while watching Christmas Eve On Sesame Street. I go further into this sweet holiday trip to the most beloved fictional neighborhood in New York at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Switched to The Bishop's Wife after lunch. Henry (David Niven) is the bishop of the title. He's so obsessed with getting a wealthy and selfish older woman (Gladys Cooper) to donate the money to build his lavish cathedral, he's neglected his daughter Debbie (Kathryn Grimes) and his sweet wife Julia (Loretta Young). He literally gets divine intervention from Dudley (Cary Grant), an impossibly debonair angel. Everyone who meets him comes away spiritually enlightened, even a cab driver named Sylvester (James Gleason) and their eccentric friend Professor Wutheridge (Monty Wooley). Julia is especially charmed by Dudley...too much for Henry's liking. He worries that he's lost his dear wife forever, until the Professor reminds Henry that he's human, while Dudley is not.
Young is simply luminous as Julia, who is so lovely and gentle that you can understand why a bishop and angel almost come to blows over her. Niven is also excellent as the worried bishop, and Grant makes the perfect angel! This is a great, cozy movie to watch while snuggling next to the Christmas tree on a cold Christmas night.
After the movie ended, I went on YouTube and was surprised to discover a Match Game marathon. This one had all of the episodes made on or before Christmas Eve, including one from 1978 with a damaged tape that's extremely rare today. Charles complained in 1976 and 1977 that he hadn't been allowed to play Santa again. (He played Santa ONCE before that, in 1973.) Christmas Eve on The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour brought a choir of panelists singing before an electronic tree, Jon Bauman sporting a Santa hat and beard that eventually migrates to the contestant, and Marty Cohen reminding everyone that Hanukkah is in a few days. Christmas Eve in 1990 brought us Marcia with two bandaged fingers (something about what she and her husband did at home).
In addition to repeating the Match Game '76 and '90 episodes, we had other shows from Goodson-Todman. The lady from yesterday's Card Sharks lost to a woman who came back on the Money Board to win at least some cash. She was playing a very excited Hispanic gentleman as the show ended. The Bill Rafferty-hosted syndicated Card Sharks only lasted a year and is much rarer today. The Christmas episode had contestants playing for an organ on the regular round, then one actually found the car after winning cash on the Money Board.
It was the battle of the Browns three days before Christmas 1978 on Family Feud. The brown Browns got the best of the regular rounds, but they had trouble with the Fast Money round. They did much better with that in the next episode, after beating a family called Smith.
The ladies continued to beat the tar out of the guys on Password Plus. Debralee Scott and Gina Hechit made it to the Alphabetics again by the end of the episode. Gary Collins had a far easier time helping his contestant with the Super Password bonus round after he was the answer to one of the Password Puzzles!
Here's all the episodes from tonight, including the marathon!
Put on A Disney Channel Christmas after the game shows ended. This is actually two older specials blended together with new material at the end. Jiminy Cricket narrates the first half, giving us the "Waltz of the Flowers" with the Frost Fairies from Fantasia, the romantic skating tale "Once Upon a Wintertime," and the classic shorts "Donald's Snow Fight," "Pluto's Christmas Tree," and "The Art of Skiing." The middle section is given over to sequences involving magic, parties, winter, or gift-giving from Peter Pan, Bambi, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Snow White. After the dwarfs' party ends, we get four more shorts, Donald's "The Clock Watcher," the lovely black-and-white "Mickey's Good Deed," and the two Santa Silly Symphonies, "Santa's Workshop" and "The Night Before Christmas." The new material is the past sequence from Mickey's Christmas Carol, which was so new when this came out, Jiminy says it's "now appearing in theaters."
Moved to two very different specials revolving around the two most famous events on Christmas Eve at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog next. I went further into 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Small One at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog in 2019 and 2022 respectively.
Finished the night back at YouTube with two vintage holiday cartoons featuring Raggedy Ann and Andy. The Great Santa Claus Caper is the first of the two, originally released in 1978. This very Chuck Jones production has Comet taking the rag dolls to the North Pole to deal with an imitation Wil E. Coyote who wants to cover Santa's toys in unbreakable Gloopstick and charge money for them. After he gets his paws on Raggedy Arthur, the duo discover that their love for each other is stronger than any Gloopstick.
Snowden: Raggedy Ann and Andy's Adventure was a direct-to-video special created around Target's holiday mascot in 1998. This is the cartoon that the darling little Gosling stuffed toy I found at Salvation Thrift last year is based around. Marcella, the Raggedys' owner, accidentally leaves them behind at Grandma's when she's called home. Ann wants to go back right away, but Andy loves playing with the forest animals so much, he wants to be one. After dodging a cat with a mouse, trying to fly with a cardinal, and bouncing with a bunny, the two toys decide they're happy being dolls and going home to Marcella.
And as Jiminy Cricket said earlier tonight, from all of us to all of you, Merry Christmas! Here's hoping you have a wonderful holiday season with all the people you love to match with.
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