Martina McBride got to sing with Elvis – just last year! Lucky girl. I want to sing with some one! Isn’t technology cool? Someday all of us will be able to super-impose ourselves into videos and movies from our Droids or something.
Love Martina’s dress! And Elvis? Glistens! Dang, that guy was cute! Reminds you why he is, you know, the king! O.my.goodness…
Dolly and Kenny.
It got me to wondering how many other songs now mention Christmas being “blue”? I remembered Kenny and Dolly on one of my favorite TV Christmas specials ever with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, 1984. I still play this soundtrack every year and just did so during Baking Day!
Now ~ what other songs have something in them about Christmas being blue, or something blue related to Christmas??? I know there are more!
Lisa B.
You can’t tell it here, but these tags all have a very fine sparkle to them – handpainted by my most wonderful-artistic-amazing-friend, Lisa Bierer, who has seen me through my worst of times and rejoiced with me through my best for 20 years, almost! As if I would put these on gifts and give them away?!? Never!
We scaled way back this year. We have been scaling back yearly, it seems. But we still mananged to get some of our favorites made and even a new thing or two, keeping that oven hot and hopping for hours. There are the wildly popular “Thin Mints,” a shameless and absolutely amazing rip-off of the Girl Scout cookies. The sugar cookies for decorating are made and await a coating of royal icing in delightful Christmas colors. Jovan used her new Pampered Chef cookie press to make the lightest most buttery press-cookies, dusted in colored sugars.
Stephanie has perfected peanut brittle. There are Mexican Wedding Cakes and Gingerbread Men, along with Peanut-Butter Kisses-Cookies and Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls heaped next to our chocolate-dipped pretzels and “Strawberry” cookies (which have no relation whatsoever to strawberries, other than how they look, but really are made from dates and pecans and coconut and Rice Krispies and fashioned to look like a strawberry – a Rhoades family fav from the 1950s and 60s). And more, yes, there is more.
Things change.
One interesting thing this year was computers. Looking around the kitchen and seeing 3 laptops (2 Macs and a PC) open to recipe sites – that was funny. So much for cute recipe cards, huh? It was also quieter and we missed Elise-the-Niece…Well, it was quieter, that is, until the boys and daddies joined us and a chaotic-Christmas-cheer ruckus ensued, fueled, undoubtedly by the pure sweetness of the ‘cane hitting the bloodstream.
The girls swarmed poor Santa
The guys show up for dinner at 6:30
The boys played cards with Aunt Dessa while the girls took our “food orders” for chicken nuggets and muffins, coffee and salad (their imaginary menus were limited and they are sort of pushy as waitresses, these granddaughters of mine). The ‘bebes chased each other, snuck sweets from piled-high trays of goodies and pushed Rudolph’s paw, making him sing the Rudolph song veeeeeery loudly, at least172times (that Rudolph nose was flashing like a traffic light, non-stop for hours!). I seriously wished for some one to decapitate Rudolph. But the grandbebes? Find him delightful.
Gemma was particularly artistic in her interpretive dancing, inspired by her viewing of “Frosty the Snowman.” Averi’s great joys were bringing handfuls of cookies to everyone, or unrolling toilet paper into the, shall we say, “bath bowl”, and I just hope there was no criss-crossing of these activities.
And at one point, so warmed by both this season of good will and by the way they’d been running like banchees, all five grandbebes ripped off their shirts and flung them like confetti into the air, thrilled to be set free from the confines of clothing so they could fully enjoy the twinkling lights and the Christmas music. “We’re nakey! We’re nakey!” Averi exclaimed with glee and they laughed as if it were the funniest thing they’d ever experienced.
Rocky and Tredessa interact with Santa as well.
Ah. It is the little things.
It took awhile to find every shoe and sock and coat amd mitten (and shirt) when it came time to go home with their large trays of cookies and candies. {Sigh}. But we did it…almost. I still have to make the marvelous butter-cookie dough from which will emerge Raspberry Ribbons and melt-in-your mouth Candy Cane Cookies, among other delights, and the Peppermint Bark awaits me this morning. But most of the holiday baking is complete for another year and it is way too much and more than enough and truly not as sweet as the time I got with my girls. And the whole bunch.
Christmas Vacation “Eddie?…Eddie?!…Eddie?!?…If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn’t be more surprised.” C-l-a-s-s-i-c! A must-watch every Christmas and I watched it last night – which is what made me think about John Hughes, the movie-maker.
Sixteen Candles “By night’s end I predict me and her will interface.” One of themost-quoted movies for our family. “Fresh breath is a priority in my life.”
The Breakfast Club ~ “Don’t you forget about me, don’t don’t don’t…”
Planes, Trains and Automobiles “Every time you go away, you take a piece of me with you…” LOVE that song and that scene!
Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version) ~ Though I am not a fan of remaking certain amazingly beautiful classics, and this would be one of those, he did do a colorful update and I cannot resist that sweet little Mara Wilson and the final scene in the gorgeous “catalog house”. It is a feast for the eyes.
Home Alone and (6 1/2.) Home Alone 2: Christmas in New York ~ I’d be over these by now if I hadn’t ended up having very resourceful grandsons. They could so pull this off!
Uncle Buck~ My mom l-o-v-e-s this movie and John Candy is pretty irresistible.
Some Kind of Wonderful ~ Which quote? “You should consider whether or not you feel you can deliver the kiss that kills.” Or: “You look good wearing my future.”
Maid in Manhattan(writer) ~ Tagline: This Christmas, love checks in,” plus Norah Jones on the soundtrack!
Only the Lonely ~ The man (John Candy) a cop. The woman – a lonely, shy funeral home worker. The mother, an overbearing, domineering woman who wants her son’s undivided loyalty. Sweet.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Pretty in Pink ~ “May I admire you again today?”
John Hughes.
He practically single handedly created the 1980’s “Brat Pack,” he wrote the teen-age angst of that time. He portrayed the “average kid” with superior skill. He captured the north-of-Chicago neighborhood as the great American hometown with wide, tree-lined streets and big warm-looking houses. He perfected the sights and sounds of chaotic family gatherings with multi-generational conversation going on. He put the right songs in the right scenes, dealt gently with the less-than-beautiful in love, graced movie-goers with believable, flawed, but good-hearted characters. We saw friendship develop, the underdog find love, Molly Ringwald become “the quintessential,” and Saint Bernards take over a household (the “Beethoven” movies, not listed above).
In a few short years, primarily through the 1980’s, the guy gave us great movies. In 1991, disillusioned with Hollywood standards and extreme leftist thinking, he became a voting Republican and Illinois farmer and checked out of it all, only to write under a pseudonym. He died in August of this year at 59. I can’t help but think of him, especially at Christmas, because of how well and how beautifully he paid homage to Christmas in several of his films. And how brilliantly he did it in “Christmas Vacation.”
Oh I miss the garden of spring, bright green and fairly juicy with surging life, growth visible almost hourly.
The garden of summer, strong, tall, spreading and proud established its rightful territory hosting parties for butterflies and bumblebees while birds swooped and circled overhead for entertainment.
Comes fall and the autumn colors dazzle and your head spins with the abundance and fruitfulness: ripe maturity and the reward of the work of your hands. You gather and enjoy as quickly as you can, more than you’d hoped or dreamed for, more than enough. What will you do with the excess? The garden, only months earlier bare soil, became a hypnotic haven overgrown with delicious joy and frolic, intoxicating verdancy, flourishing symbiosis and riotous vitality.
Winter.
Winter. The winds have blown away the brown crispiness from branches no longer green in a purifying poof. And just like that – bare, faded, stark and desolate woody shrubs etch their way across the landscape looking for all the world like death in this blustery cold. I am forced inside where I stand at the window wondering why. What has happened in the Magic Kingdom?
The snow covers it all. The snow keeps falling and floating across the Magic garden Kingdom, and has settled decidedly upon each branch and every surface, carefully tucking itself around all shrubs and trees, blanketing the the 4′ x 4′ squares where vegetables once grew abundantly. There is quiescent hush there now where once the sound of the spade dug deep into earth, the fountains bubbled exuberantly and night fires blazed; children laughed and ran around while little weeds were uprooted and branches were pruned and sugar snap peas were hungrily crunched upon right then and there in the verdant Kingdom.
Covering.
But the snow covers all now and despite my sadness at the loss of earlier, greener days, the snow serves its true purpose hiding the ground, preventing the heat generated by the earth from escaping. This blanket of crystal white inhibits the radiant life energy from abandoning the roots of the trees and bushes and plants and they are graced with warmth and protection (often 40-degrees warmer) in the dark, deep soil of winter, regardless of what happens in the visible. Did you know roots have a life-pulse that continues through even the most frigid conditions? When the branches above have been frozen in their tracks by sub-zero temperatures, the roots are active and ready to spring into action at any moment, growing and spreading further and deeper even during the resting phase of winter. The snow covering is grace. The snow is mercy. The snow is a safeguard, a secure shelter for the deepest, most important, most delicate and valuable resources and treasures.
The snow covers it all. It unifies the the browns and grays and wheat-golds of the deciduous stand-bys. For this season, this cold and sometimes hope-dwindling time of year, the snow creates a formal gown of beauty for ashes, of gladness for mourning and becomes a garment of praise instead of despair (Is. 61.3). Sandy-the-Dog runs into the white, kicking up the flakes like dust and hundreds of birds fill the air in shock from where they’d been feasting on berries, but soon realize how harmless she is and go back to stake their claim. I laugh at the sight. Life goes on. In winter white.
He gives beauty for ashes
Strength for fear
Gladness for mourning
Peace for despair
When sorrow seems to surround you
When suffering hangs heavy over your head
Know that tomorrow brings
Wholeness and healing
God knows your need
Just believe what He said
He gives beauty for ashes
Strength for fear
Gladness for mourning
Peace for despair
Crystal Lewis, Beauty for Ashes
Hidden under a canopy of mercy on a melancholy winter’s day…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Spring will come again. My roots will be more established, stronger. Have mercy on me, Lord,have mercy…
pictured: The Magic Kingdom (aka my backyard) in September; and now.
“The lights on my tree, I wish you could see, I wish it everyday.”
I grew up with very traditional Christmas music. The 1960’s were when you could purchase an LP for $1.98 at the supermarket full of all the classic songs like “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” and “A Few of My Favorite Things” by various artists including Johnny Mathis or The Ray Conniff Singers. Occasionally you’d buy an album by a stand-out like Bing Crosby. I still treasure the 2 Christmas records I have by him.
“Merry Christmas, Darling,” by the Carpenters was my first sort of non-traditional Christmas pop-song. I’d hold my dad’s little transistor radio (which I’d snuck from his second dresser drawer) to my ear, and, at barely 11, sing along with Karen, trying with all my heart to understand her longing.
Through the years more and more Christmas music has been added to the songs I love. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers have produced some great stuff. Lee Greenwood sings a couple that always pierce my heart. The Partridge Family album still makes me laugh and I even enjoy a Motown Christmas. Harry Connick Jr. is great for seasonal cheery tunes as well as some sacred and I do love the 90’s Mariah Carey album. And let’s not forget that Amy Grant, is a Christmas-music genius.
Looking Back
But this year, I am feeling very traditional again. I am reaching back to music I grew up with, the songs my mom played on the Hi-Fi during my early days. I am less about the pop side of Christmas and anything that has been produced since 1970 and on, and sort of loving melodies that have been recorded so many times no one even remembers who did them first (like “Winter Wonderland”) and some that have been recorded a lot but the first recording is all that matters (like “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby).
The cool thing now is, of course, that “Merry Christmas, Darling” is a classic. It IS one of the old tried and true songs of the season. And now I understand the deep sentimentality. For I wish, if I might “have the wish that I wish for tonight,” to gather everyone I love from near and far together during these long, dark winter nights to laugh and remember, to sing and make merry, to be close and bask in the 6-7000 lights on my tree. And we could play Karen and sing…
That I wish you a Merry Christmas
Happy New Year, too
I’ve just one wish on this Christmas Eve
I wish I were with you, I wish I were with you.
Bed space is limited here. So if you are going to come and see me and make my wishes come true, please call in advance.
pictured: The Moslander family Christmas card, 1968. Jeanie, Joey, Timmy, Tammy and Danny (Love love love to my siblings! Please note: I was reading from The Children’s Book of Knowledge – which is why you are all so successful and smart. You may thank me with a very nice Christmas gift.)
Today is trash day and I threw away enough leftovers this morning to have fed the whole group again! Tsk. I mean that gravy? Was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Really. Amazing! If I do say so myself. Lots of other wonderful food, too, by all the great cooks who came to the table. Stef & Wrex’s famous Red Hot Jello, and Tristan’s homemade bread (o the toast I have enjoyed this week) and Dessa’s corn casserole and Tara’s o-so-creamy mashed potatoes and Leah’s Mexican Pasta (the woman cooked like it was all in her court) and Stormie’s fabulous, fabulous pumpkin pies and so much more. It was 6 or 7 meals in one!
We sang karaoke like maniacs.
Wrex reeeeeeeallly loves to sing those country-boy-tractor-woman-lovin’ songs! Us girls all did a rousing rendition of “You make me feel like a natural woman!” And songs by the Monkees were popular!
The people who got the “wear black” memo.
Left: Dessa. Leah, Stef, Ali, Stephanie, Dave, Stormie. Right: three cooks in their aprons.
Those Thanksgiving boots were made for walking.
Ali, Stormie, Jovan, Stef, Tara, Tredessa
Boots were definitely the fashion footwear of the day.
We played the arguing game* and Wii.
And a certain rather large contingency disappeared into the basement for XBox 360…or something? Dave even brought out his childhood electronic football game so the kiddos could see an antique toy. : )
*The “arguing game” is actually Cranium Party Play-Off, available at Starbucks.
Sweet children ran and tumbled and jumped and spinned round and round.
Gavin and Guini, Hunter and Gemma, Averi and Samuel and Moses. They got along so well and were so sweet!
Family, by blood, by the Spirit, by choice.
Tredessa and Tara; Andy and Leah
Leah and Tara; Tara and DP; Stefanie and Wrex (aka “Sexy Wrexy”)
Did you see the full moon last night, first all huge and orangy just emerging over the horizon and then bright in the blue, white-puffy-cloud sky? Oh it was gorgeous (from my seat in the car in the church parking lot where it took a full half hour to warm up!). The stars were twinkling and the dry snow shimmered in its moonlit bath while I listened to a rather decent selection of Christmas music on Cozy-101.* And it was frigid, frightfully lung-freezing cold at 19-degrees, but there is something so pure, so quiet in that.
This is the only time this year I plan to romanticize winter. It happened. It was beautiful. Now let’s get back to a regular Colorado winter. For crying out loud.
*I want Delilah’s job (weekdays 7pm – midnight on Cozy!). And that cannot be her real name? Come on.
Let’s not rush into Christmas without considering a certain other “holiday” which does not get enough mention, in my opinion. There are some Thanksgiving movies out there. Here are 5 I like in no particular order…
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Neal and Del (Steve Martin and John Candy) are hilarious in this 1987 movie about a business man desperate to get home in time for Thanksgiving and forced to travel with an obnoxious, yet engaging shower-ring salesman. If you can watch it on TV, probably better, as the language on the DVD is pretty, wellllll – watch out!
Quotes of note:
[waking up after sharing the same bed in the motel] Neal: Del… Why did you kiss my ear? Del: Why are you holding my hand? Neal: [frowns] Where’s your other hand? Del: Between two pillows… Neal: Those aren’t pillows!
“My dogs are barking.” ? “You’re going the wrong way.” ? “I have, uh…two dollars and a Casio.” ? “Git’ yer lazy butt out of that truck!” ? “Honey, I’d like you to meet Del Griffith.”
And? It has one of my all-time favorite songs, “Every time You Go Away ~ you take a piece of me with you.”
Oh, yeah. Funny movie! You’ll laugh.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
Why must you see this before Thanksgiving again? Don’t ask that. Just do it! Do you really know anyone wiser than Linus, more vulnerable than the sympathetic Charlie Brown, more capable than Lucy (mygosh that girl is smart and such a choleric!), more talented than Schroeder, more loyal than Marcie, or more apt-to-question-her-feminine-identity-as-an-adult than Peppermint Patty? And could there be, other than Gemma or Guini, perhaps, a cuter little sister than Sally? Come on people, enjoy this o-so-sweet classic again. And again.
[after singing “Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother’s House We Go.”] Charlie Brown: Well, there’s only one thing wrong with that. Linus van Pelt: What’s that, Charlie Brown? Charlie Brown: My grandmother lives in a condominium.
About a Boy.
This isn’t actually a Thanksgiving movie-because they don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving in London, since it is an American holiday. And though it ends with a Christmas scene, and even though the main character is a man living off the royalties of his late father’s kitchsy Christmas song (which he loathes), it isn’t “Christmasy-enough” for me to watch it in December. So, I enjoy it near Thanksgiving.
Wil (Hugh Grant) is living a hip, but shallow and pointless life compared to his friends, “My life is made up of units of time. Buying CDs – two units. Eating lunch – three units. Exercising – two units. All in all, I had a very full life. It’s just that it didn’t mean anything.” He passes himself off as a single father so he can meet single moms (feeling they’ll be grateful for his attention, but easy to leave behind when they want commitment). His game is interrupted by the eccentric Marcus, an odd 12-year old who desperately needs lessons in being cool, but is known for breaking out singing oldies in class (songs that make his wacky “suicide granola” mother happy).
When Marcus becomes a target for school bullies, Wil starts to understand the importance of his role in the young boy’s life. They could have named the film About Two Boys, because initially, the 38-year-old Wil resists being an adult, but once he ever-so-charmingly steps into the young boy’s life, Wil begins to finally understand that “No man is an island,” or rather as he says it: “Every man is an island. I stand by that. But clearly some men are island chains. Underneath, they are connected…” And so, this movie warms our hearts when we think of the people, the times and the circumstances that have connected us and with whom we shall celebrate Thanksgiving, grateful for the people we love. Sweet movie.
Pieces of April
The “black sheep” of the family, the one child the mother has only one good memory of, tries, with all her heart to make amends on Thanksgiving. Her siblings dislike her for past mistakes, her complicated and withholding mother has terminal cancer and anything that can go wrong is just going wrong. As odd as April may seem, you cannot help but love her, root for her and understand her very empathetically by the end. Because at some time or another, we have all been her. Or is it just me?
Quotes:
April’s mom about enduring Thanksgiving at April’s apartment: This way, instead of April showing up with some new piercing or some ugly new tattoo and, God forbid, staying overnight, this way, we get to show up, experience the disaster that is her life, smile through it, and before you know it, we’re on our way back home.
April, describing her “role” in her family: I’m the first pancake. Evette: What do you mean? Eugene: She’s the one you’re supposed to throw out.
April [becoming somewhat emotional over some old-fashioned turkey shaped salt and pepper shakers that Bobby-the-boyfriend bought]: We had these when I was a kid. [sad pause] April Burns: The one time [my mother] let me hold them she said, “Be careful, they’re worth more than you are.” Bobby: Well, that’s terrible. April Burns: Next year they were gone. Bobby: So, what happened? April Burns: A hammer I was holding fell on them.
Scent of a Woman
1992. Rated R for language. This film surprised me. I had seen the trailers and they all seemed to support the title. I feared it was going to be about some dirty-old-man obsessed with women. But it was Al Pacino, after all, so I tried it out anyway, and wow! In this Oscar-winning performance as blind, retired Army Lt. Colonel Slade, he was a.m.a.z.i.n.g! He plays a man filled with somewhat-controlled, darkened (both in his sight and in his heart), gloomy rage and harbors life-sucking anger towards himself; a man born to be a hero, but with no deposit for his legacy.
Then you’ve got Chris O’Donnell playing Charlie Simms, a prep-school student totally out of his league with the regular crowd there, he, a poor scholarship recipient. To earn money to get home for Christmas over the Thanksgiving weekend, he is hired to “watch over” Colonel Slade and an education for them both becomes inevitable. Charlie learns about the Tango (great scene with Gabrielle Anwar), women (warning on his passionate discourse on women…just warning) and fast cars. The Colonel finds a worthy recipient for his protective instinct and life’s heritage.
The “family Thanksgiving” scene is anything but warm and fuzzy, but you can’t help enjoying how the Colonel irritates and baits the twerp-of-a-nephew. Not exactly a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
When the reserved, and innocent Charlie is being taken advantage of by school officials and parents of boys with no integrity (Philip Seamore Hoffman is great in his role as one of Charlie’s weak, partying classmates who is torn between doing right and following the money-crowd), the warrior in Colonel Slade emerges as he takes on the school, the parents and the classmates themselves urging them to let Charlie be the man of character he knows him to be. The speech is a stand-up-and-applaud moment!
This is a movie about a bitter man who needed love and needed to love some one, and a young man who needed a hero to help him become the person he was created to be. It’s about what there is to love in life and all the reasons living is so wondrous. It is a connection between two men whose highest virtue is integrity and it’s about love. And women. Hoo-aah.
Honorable mention:
Holiday Inn, which covers most all of the holidays in a year, with a special focus on the bookend Christmases of the movie, has a great Thanksgiving song/scene with Bing Crosby. Down in the dumps because Fred Astaire has stolen his sweetheart, he sings: “I have plenty to be thankful for…” Bing is wry and tender and the guy can sing!
For your Thanksgiving entertainment… from Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Uh, yeah. Thanksgiving is only 5 days away. Planning a menu and buying a turkey right about now would be a good thing.
