8pm/Wed 23rd:

Came home after grabbing a few items to add to dinner from Wawa. Got their Roasted Veggie Mac and Cheese, and their Mixed Veggies snack box; reheated a chicken thigh from Safeway, and sauteed some spinach, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Threw some Annie’s Red Wine and Olive oil dressing on the snack box veggies, and voila! Dinner!

I also bought a special snack from Wawa — a soft pretzel! Together, with some mustard and some non-alcoholic beer, it made a fine movie snack:

The non-alcoholic beer is called Bitburger Drive (because it’s meant for designated drivers?) It’s from Germany, and I have to say, it’s better than most American non-alcoholic beers. But it’s a little dry. So I added some lime juice. I know, sacrilege, right?

The near beer even makes a nice head, although I didn’t snap it in time.

The movie I picked?  This one:

That’s right; While You Were Sleeping. Because I will watch anything with President Lone Starr.

Anyway, as I was watching it, my rational mind kept saying things like, oh really? Single women are sad-sacks who are so pathetic they never travel anywhere, or have any family or friends to spend holidays with; and what’s so bad about spending the holidays alone? And she can’t speak up and say, screw you, I’m not working Christmas Day after I just worked Thanksgiving?

To which I said, Shut up.

And my rational mind went on saying, you know that Joe Jr.? She’d have to get a restraining order against him in real life. And that family? You’d run screaming from all that togetherness in real life! And she’d probably be arrested for pretending to be that guy’s fiancee in real life…

To which I said, What part of shut the hell up don’t you understand?

Yeah, this movie hasn’t got the slightest bit of realism in it; it’s a complete and total romantic fantasy, as well as a total holiday fantasy as well. But you know what? I don’t care!

I want Lucy to be liked by Jack’s and Peter’s family — heck, for the length of this movie, I want to be part of that family too. (Although if I heard about how creamy the mashed potatoes are for the hundredth time…)

This movie is perfect after a hard day of dealing with crazy people customers. Even though I still roll my eyes at the idea of, woe is me, I’m single and pathetic — I do get a warm feeling in my heart when Lucy tells the family:

For a time, I was a daughter again — a grand-daughter, a sister…

And no matter what happened at work; no matter what craziness I have to deal with at home; Lucy will find a new family, and not only be accepted, but loved by them. And I can watch it happen and share in her happiness.
****

10:30am/ Thurs 24th:

I’ve been up for five hours straight doing one of my most happy Christmas chores — getting the doll room ready for Christmas.

The Barbies have the decorated the mantle of the Liv lodge; the Our Generation dolls and Journey Girls and my lone American Girl doll and the Best Friends Club dolls and all the 18 inch dolls have their tree decorated, and the fireplace mantle and have left gingerbread folks out for Santa; and Evangeline Ghastly and Mortimer Mort and Angelique de la Nuit and Philomon Mort (my second Mortimer doll; hey, he needed a different name) not only have the fireplace mantle decorated, but are sitting down to Christmas breakfast…

Time for a break. And a movie.

I had lunch for breakfast, since I really need to go grocery shopping:

Homestyle Chicken Noodle soup from Campbell’s. A buttered wheat roll from Wawa (from last night’s stop there.) This morning’s tipple is Sparkling Ice‘s Cherry Limeade. (I really need to get the lime flavored one for tonight.)

And I watched this:

I don’t know if that I’ve had my fill of happy families for the season, but I didn’t enjoy this as much as I did last year. Last year I was filled with retro nostalgia for this show; I loved the parts in the first episode, “Christmas at Plum Creek” where everyone is secretly working to make/earn money for presents. But the ending where Laura gives up her beloved pony, Bunny, to get her mom a stove… and the horse goes to spoiled as shit Nelly Olsson? I wanted to throw things. A kid who has nothing but a horse that she loves has to give it up so that her mom can get a new stove and a rich little bitch like Nelly gets even more things? WTF?

The second episode, “A Christmas They Never Forgot” I actually enjoyed more than last year. It still has the ring of A Very Special Episode since it features young Caroline learning to love her new stepfather in time for Christmas; and neighbor Hester-Sue telling about her childhood in the Civil War, and how her father dressed up as Santa Claus so she could see Santa was a black man. (Although, as an African American woman, I say Some Anvils Need to be Dropped . Thumbs up, Mr. Landon.)

But my favorite parts were Almanzo’s brother, Royal, not even getting a lump of coal for Christmas because he told Almanzo there was no such thing as Santa Claus. (Santa was hardcore back in the 19th century.) And the part where Laura tells the story where Mr. Edwards brings presents through the driving snow because Santa was worried he wouldn’t be able to ford the river and reach “those Ingalls girls”, which if I remember correctly, is the story the real Laura wrote in one of the Little House books. I enjoyed these parts because they feature hilarious tales told by characters about Santa Claus. And the fact that the tellers of these stories end up snowbound is a nice little touch to keep the tales coming — I especially like when they climb out of the attic window to get to the Christmas presents stored in the barn!

Ack! Look at the time! I’ve got to go grocery shopping!

4:05pm/Thurs 24th:

Went shopping and grabbed everything I could  find breakfast related for tomorrow morning. (My mom is getting lunch and dinner.) Came home and had lunch (leftovers from dinner last night.) Afterwards, I decided to make a “Grinchy Drink” that I learned to make last year (and made a few changes to the recipe):

Normally I use lime flavored Sparkling Ice drink, but I didn’t have time to run to Safeway today. The original recipe calls for Mountain Dew, ice cream and green food coloring. My version is:

Take some Mtn. Dew/Lime Sparkling Ice, and put it in a glass.

Put some plain yogurt/ ice cream in the glass. If you want it really green, put in some food coloring. I don’t, so it turns an absinthe green. I used Coconut Milk Yogurt from So Delicious. The coconut milk really makes this drink.

Put a straw in that sucker and slurp it on down! Yum!

So after snacking on PopChips and dip,  I decided to watch something I hadn’t seen before.

One of my previous Christmas videos was the episode of Supernatural called “A Very Supernatural Christmas”. But I don’t watch Supernatural anymore (since Season Nine – grr! Don’t get me started on why!), so I decided to watch my other favorite show of the weird and strange, Grimm.

“Twelve Days of Krampus” has some stuff that if you haven’t seen the first three seasons will make little sense; but it starts with the good stuff — asshole teens stealing Christmas presents. They go under a bridge to generally behave like little jerks; then, Santa’s Evil Brother, Krampus, shows up to wail on them with his whip. One teen runs off; the other teen is stuffed into Krampus’s sack, and then Krampus mic drops some coal before leaving the scene. Good times.

This was a fun episode when it was focusing on Nick and Hank tracking down Krampus.The other parts I guess were okay; but I admit that I skipped over much of Seasons Two and Three to watch this episode. So now I have totally spoiler-ed myself. But I still like the fact they actually dealt with Krampus, and not some random pagan entities like in “A Very Supernatural Christmas”. Nick and Hank actually beat up a Santa (and get caught on camera, with a kid wailing in the background, “Mommy, why are they beating up Santa?”) Needless to say, their colleagues never let them forget it. Like I said, good times.

6pm/Thurs 24th: around 6pm/Thurs 24th:
(Yeah the time is off because I’m writing this after watching Grimm.)

And now it’s time for THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS EVE MOVIE — but first, dinner!

Motto green tea soda; Annie’s Light Spinach and Artichoke pizza. (I don’t know what’s light about it, but it tastes good.)

And now – for realsies — THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS EVE MOVIE!

No; I’m not copying the Nostalgia Critic; it didn’t even make his original Best Christmas movie list — which is total bullshit.

THERE IS NO OTHER MOVIE THAT TOPS THIS ONE FOR CHRISTMAS.

NOT ONE.

My sister and I saw it when it first came out at the theater, and the one thing we loved was that THE VILLAINS DIDN’T GET STUPID AT THE END. (See Bond Villain Stupidity for more details.)

I have watched this movie on DVD every year since 2005 (or earlier; I checked out it of the library before getting my own copy), and it has been my Christmas Eve movie since then. Even back in the 80s, I thought this movie should have come out at Christmas instead of in the summertime.

And apparently, some poll said that 62% of Americans don’t think Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

Well, 62% of Americans are DEAD WRONG.  And even — God help me —  Fox News agrees with me! (This is either a Christmas miracle, or a sign of the impending apocalypse.)

But how can anyone not think this is a Christmas movie?

It’s got families – John and Holly McClane; Karl and his brother, Tony (evil edition). It’s got The Holiday Party from Hell — being hijacked by terrorists thieves would be a welcome relief for most people. It’s got Alan Motherfucking Rickman, playing the world’s most suave terrorist thief. It’s got snappy dialogue:

Gruber: I wanted this to be professional; efficent; adult; cooperative. Not a lot to ask. Alas, your Mr. Takagi didn’t see it that way; so, he won’t be joining us for the rest of his life.

It’s got the world’s best buddy cop story – and John and Al don’t even meet until the end of the movie! (This isn’t a spoiler; you’ve had almost 30 years to see this movie – and why haven’t you?)

McClane: Is the building on fire?
Al: No; but it’s gonna need a paint job and a shitload of screen doors.

It’s totally An Ass Kicking Christmas.

Have a good Christmas Eve!

(Part Five coming soon!)