Welcome To the Christmas Classic

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a peaceful day (and was on the nice list). Since its Christmas, I won't write anything super long. After allowed want to spend time with family and friends.

That's why I'm going to list my top ten favorite Christmas movie classics. Many are movies or shorts that you've probably heard of, but there might be a few you haven't seen or thought of as Christmas movies. So if you need a break from everyone or just want to find the right movie tonight, please enjoy my Christmas movie classic list.

10) Miricle on 34th Street (original) - I put this movie higher on my list because it's more of a Thanksgiving movie for me rather than a Christmas one. It's the movie I watch with my family to signal that it's the start of the Christmas season. I know there's a 1994 remake of this movie, but I personally think that nothing beats the original.

9) The Santa Clause - I remember when this movie came out. It was funny and I thought it was cool that the guy from Home Improvement started in it.

8) White Christmas - I love the music and dancing in this movie. It helps me to remember to "go to sleep counting my blessings".

7) Christmas Vacation - even if everything goes wrong you can still have an amazing Christmas.

6) A Christmas Carol - The one with George C Scott has definitely grown on me over the years, but I also love the Mickey Mouse version with Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge and the Muppets version is also a treat to watch. It's hard to go wrong with any version.

5) A Charlie Brown Christmas - It's a classic enough said.

4) The Thin Man - Not many people might know this movie (it came out in 1934). It's a really funny murder mystery that takes place in New York at Christmas and though Christmas isn't the focus of the movie, the main characters throw a fabulous party and are shown opening their presents.

3) A Christmas Story - I love watching this with my dad. He has told me that it's very close to what his childhood was like. It's also hard to not feel bad for Ralfie when he is forced to put on the pink bunny suit.

2) How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The animated one that's 25 minutes long, not the live action one. There's just something so amazing watching this movie. It's short, has fun music, catchy songs, and a sweet moral. I'm pretty sure I have the whole thing memorized.

1) We're No Angles - This movie really needs more recognition, especially as a Christmas classic. It's got Humphrey Bogart playing the leader of three escaped convicts trying to escape Devil's Island on Christmas. They come across a shop keeper and his family down on their luck, while their nasty cousin (played by the original Scherlock) threatens to ruin the shop keeper. The three escaped convicts initially plan on robbing the shop keeper, but things take a turn after several hilarious incidents. Seriously check this movie out. It is one of the best Christmas movies out there.

There are a ton of Christmas movies to watch and more come out each year. These are just the ones that I enjoy watching. You don't have to agree with me (in fact I might have left some favorites out), but these are the movies for this time of year dearest to my heart.

Merry Christmas everyone!

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week.

Welcome to the Holiday Blues

Christmas is supposed to be "the most wonderful time of the year." At least that's what the radio, movies, advertisements, and the media keep telling me. It's a time to spend with family and friends. To share and create memories.

So how come I've been feeling so down?

I'm not going to lie. I cried almost every day this week. It seems silly right?

Part of me was realizing that I needed to upgrade my tech and how pretty soon, everything I own will become obsolete. This should have been an obvious realization. After all, change seems to be the only constant in my life. Anyone who has ever seen an ad for Radio Shack from the 90s knows that everything they used to sell individually is available in a smartphone and/or laptop.

Did you guys know that the last VHS player was built in Japan this year? Yeah, VHS is pretty much gone know. If you have a bunch of home movies, you might want to consider making digital copies. Apple is ditching the analog headphones with their latest iPhone. DVDs players are become less common. Not to mention that kids today have no idea what a floppy disk is (they just think it's a universal symbol for "save").

I think the reason I'm so sensitive to all these changes is because I'm finally realizing how quickly time goes by when I'm not paying attention. I didn't realize until very recently that my loyal laptop from college was pushing seven years. It still works, but it's definitely having issues.

Ten years no long seems like a long time. When I was 15, I felt completely different from how I was at the age of 5. I can't say the same thing about looking back at my teens from my mid-twenties. I think a part of me realizes how much time has passed. I've grown a lot since I graduated college and even more since I graduated high school.

It probably doesn't help that I'm still constantly being mistaken as a teenager.


Feeling down at this time of year is not unusual. Between mass consumerism and realizing how much time has passed since you last had the time to take a breather. Time seemed endless as a kid. I felt like I had all the time in the world. I thought I could do anything and everything.

While setting up my Christmas decorations and cleaning my apartment, I found some of my old journals. I started rereading some of them. There's a lot of bad spelling and I had horrible handwriting, but it was interesting to see my inner thoughts as an 11 year old. I mostly wrote about food (go figure right).

As much as I would love to go back and relive all the good times and visit with friends and family who have passed away, I can't. I can only move forward. It's tough to let go of things and sometimes I've just got to accept the feelings I feel (crying and all) and be thankful for what is happening in the present.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week...which also happens to be Christmas.

Welcome to Holiday Cards

Call me old fashioned, but I love getting snail mail. No, not bills. I mean snail mail from friends and family. There's something about getting home after a long day and finding a letter in my mailbox.

I have a few friends who write me letters (and I write them back). We usually include a quick update on our lives, a few plans for the future, and the latest book we're reading. We still try to stay connected via social media and texting, but I love the feeling of pen to paper.

I like sending holiday cards to my family, especially the family I haven't seen in a while and I know I won't see before the end of the year. I include a quick update about my life. Sometimes I add in a few details about how my family is doing.

As I write these letters I start to realize how much has stayed the same and how much really has changed. Time seems to be slipping more and more away from me as I'm getting older. There are many days where I think that it was only last year that I was still at school, but really it's been nearly four years since I graduated.

I'm not going to lie, I can't wait to see what the future holds, but part of me can't let go of the past. Maybe it's because the adult world is a lot more complicated than young me ever realized. Time always seemed to move so slowly when I was a child. It felt like things would always be as they were. I don't think I knew any better.

"Time waits for no one." I don't remember who said this, but I remember it was in the movie Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The movie is about a young girl who suddenly discovers she can go back in time. Instead of using this power for anything heroic, she uses it to eat the pudding her sister stole from her and avoid awkward conversations with a boy she likes. In the end she realizes that she can't keep leaping through time and has to accept the past and move towards the future.

The past is the past and the future is going to show up sooner rather than later. As the years go on, my list of holiday card recipient is going to change and likely shorter. Nothing in life is preminant, even if I wish it was.

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far. Now I need to finish these letters, before I realize it's 2017.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y'all like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome to Preparing for the Holidays

The entire last quarter of the year should be called the Mad Holiday Rush. It all starts in October (or August depending on stores near you) when Halloween decorations are everywhere. Suddenly all of the food is pumpkin flavor and Hocus Pocus is on TV every weekend.

Thanksgiving is neatly smushed between Halloween and New Years. For the most part this holiday is dedicated to stuffing yourself silly and having three weeks worth of leftovers in your freezer. The most stressful parts of Thanksgiving are buying all the food, cooking all the food, and hoping no one brings up politics at the dinner table (hard to do after a couple of glasses of wine).

There are a lot of holidays in December, but I think everyone can agree that the one Americans are obsessed with the most is Christmas. Heck we get to start listening to Christmas music even before Thanksgiving on the radio and there are so many other holidays at this time of year too (my favorite being the winter solstice).

Granted Christmas is a lot of fun if you celebrate it. You might get to see loved ones you haven't in a while. There are beautiful light displays to go look at. There's a nostalgic feeling like anything can happen during this holiday. Magic seems to be real.

Of course here's a lot that goes into preparing for Christmas (so much so that it makes the holiday last through the whole month). There are presents to buy, decorations to put out, a montage video of the entire process to put on Facebook. You need to get that prefect tree (real or fake) that will fit just right in your living room. Mine is up, I just haven't bothered to put the ornaments on yet.

Having a check list is nice to have. That way I don't forget anything (or anyone). It's probably best to start a check list early (like a few months early), that way when December rolls around getting everything done will be a breeze. I try to get all my Christmas shopping done well before Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it's okay to snag some last minute deals (so long as everything arrives on time).  I sometimes pick up a few things right after Christmas to save for next year.

Holiday card writing and present wrapping can take a while too. I like to start soon after Thanksgiving to give myself plenty of time to find all of the presents (I'm pretty good at misplacing hiding things).

There's also the mental and emotional prep that comes with the season. For some people this is the first time in a whole year or longer that you'll be seeing your family. It might be heartwarming and joyous. It could also be a total disaster (especially if politics and drinking are mixed).

Some people get really sad during this time of year. Holiday depression is a real thing with tons of articles on the internet about it. It can be difficult be around all the festivities when feeling down.

The holidays can be very overwhelming too. There's a lot going on and being around a lot of people can be draining (especially for introverts and people who like the quiet). I like to have a space set up where I can retreat to if I'm feeling like things are getting too much. There's nothing wrong with excusing yourself from a party or celebration if down time is needed.

I hope everyone has a peaceful holiday season because December has only just started and already things are busy.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.