Holiday Favorites!

[DALederle]

TV, which is my evening entertainment with my wife, has gone dead for the holiday season. Few new shows or interesting new features until after the ist of the new year.
But every year at this time I watch some of my favorite DVD movies. Most of which my wife likes too but we each have a few that the other doesn't care for. But as a loving couple we sit through each other's politely. I for one would never watch another one of those cooking challange shows. But then I don't watch Survivor either.
Our mutual favorites might surprise everyone, because we think of them as "Christmas Movies" but that's a stretch:
Die Hard, Die Hard 2, Lethal Weapon, Donovan's Reef, White Christmas, A Christmas Story and Jingle All The Way. Not exactly the mushy sentimental stuff, except for White Christmas.
But then I also like:
The Three Godfathers, Miracle on 34th Street (the original only), Christmas in Conn.(also the original, why do they keep remaking movies that were so good in the first place?) almost all the versions of A Christmas Carol (they haven't gotten any one that is exactly like the book) and The Cheaters.
So, just as an amusing off topic subjects what holiday movies do you like?
And what are you're Holiday traditions? My wife and I will stay home and right now we expect to be alone again, as we were last year and on Thanksgiving. Family and children are so scattered now that there's no one who comes to see us anymore. And with my breating problems travel is very limited. So we'll cook a holiday meal for us and watch something on TV or a DVD. Last year we also went out to see a movie as soon as the theaters opened in the late afternoon.
What does everyone else do. This should be a nice long thread with planty of good thoughts behind it.

Dennis A. Lederle

[crfriend]

And what are you're Holiday traditions?

Here at the Cat, Chicken, and Computer Museum we celebrate two holidays right about now: the Winter Solstice and Christmas.

The Solstice is done right properly with an overt feast of home-roasted prime rib with a pepper skin atop it and sinfully-good (and cardiologist-despised) mashed potatoes and other assorted veggies (to keep us regular). Christmas is a team effort where we scratch-make lasagna right from eggs and flour on up (OK, we buy the meat) including lots of stuff from our backyard garden. Next year we'll have backyard eggs!

My wife and I will stay home and right now we expect to be alone again [...]

Sapphire and I will be "alone" as well. It's what you make of it.

I hated -- and I mean hated -- the "holiday season" for decades. It's really only been in the past 10 or 15 years that things have started to "gel" and I've cooled off enough to really appreciate the simpler things in life. Enjoy the time with your family -- even if "family" is your SO, or even yourself -- and do something special, if for no other reason that to ward off the omnipresent darkness that shrouds the northern hemisphere at this time of year (our brethren in the antipodes have it lucky now, but will pay for it come June).

[john62]

We have only the immediate family get together, starts with Church in the morning then a turkey lunch, even if it is 40C in the shade, then sleep it off and start again in the evening with cold meats and salads. Then Australia shuts down for 3-4 wks, people often going to the coast.

John

[Big and Bashful]

Planning on visiting my sisters family for Christmas, since I haven't got any family that don't catch mice. No doubt my sister will spend some time out preaching at one or more of her churches, I won't participate as I never did "see the light". No doubt in the manse the TV will be murmuring away in the corner but we tend to do a lot of talking when we do get together, there is also an assortment of geriatric cats and dogs plus the new addition of egg factories clucking away in the garden to provide stimulus when the conversation is getting tired!

To me that is what Christmas is about, a family re-union and an excellent feed;- I like a good turkey dinner!

[Kirbstone]

Having four offsprings in their 30's, all with spouses, and six grandchildren from 13 down to 2 one can imagine the level of human generated Bedlam we entertain during the Festive Season.
Add to this the daily maintainance of three donkeys, four dogs, three cats, sundry ducks, hens and geese plus at least two dozen doves, you'll probably wonder why I don't cry 'Stop the World, I want to get off!'

This year we are staging a Regency theme for our New Year party, Jane Austin being the author in focus, so guests are encouraged to come in period costume. I am of course 'Thomas Lefroy', the young Irish Lawyer with whom she briefly eloped, and who seems to have been the only real romance in her life, so:

Our viewing this Season will be the filmed versions of her most famous novels....Pride & Prejudice &c.

[Big and Bashful]

Did Thomas Lefroy de-biforcate? or are you going to have to put pipes on your legs?

[Kirbstone]

I'm under starter's orders from the wife, who organises these things. I've been instructed to dress like that character as portrayed in the film 'Becoming Jane', in which Ann Hathaway played Jane and James McAvoy played Lefroy.

Although James is himself a Scot, in this film his character was Irish, from Limerick, and Kilts &c never came into the equation. So, it's a cravatte, waistcoat, frock tailed coat and pants. Over the bottom half of the pants I'll wear my creamish 'kilthose' or thick socks, as was the custom at that time....So it's to be tubes !

Incidentally, the rural parish church used in that film in which Jane Austen's father preached is Clochlee, Co. Wicklow, not far from me here. Also the 'Big House' where Maggie Smith as 'Lady Gresham' lived, with the long lake in the grounds is Kilruddery, also not far away.....All supposed to be Hampshire!

[sapphire]

Hey, I made the sausage that will be going into the lasagne! I also made the butter that we'll use on the garlic bread.

Movies: the original Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, Bad Santa, Dogma, The Lion in Winter, A Baeutiful Mind, and all those wonderful chick flicks from 2003: Love, Actually; Under the Tuscan Sun; Something's Gotta Give; Calendar Girls.

[Big and Bashful]

sausage in lasagne? That's a new one on me!
Must admit I have a wonderful recipe for a chicken lasagne, no sausage in that one either!

[DALederle]

Sapphire:
Have you seen and did you enjoy Letters To Juliet? My wife and I saw it and I actually enjoyed it to.
Even though it was very much a "chick flick" as they call them.
I recomend it highly!

Dennis A. Lederle

[sapphire]

I've always loved sweet Italian sausage in spaghetti sauce, so using sausage in lasagne seemed a natural. This year, I made sweet Italian sausage for the first time. Yes, I made butter too. Best butter I've ever had.

No, I didn't see "Letters to Juliet", but my friend and I saw "RED" and had a great time!

[DALederle]

Sapphire:
Yoou must see Letters to Juliet sometime. I give my personal guarentee that you will like it!
If you don't you can...who knows! I've been wrong before!
So many times I lost count.
I also saw RED and that was a fun movie.
But my pick for this year is "Unstoppable!" which was a pounding rush if there ever was one.
Very simple plot but good character development. But "wow!" on the special effects all the way.
Really good movie!

Dennis A. Lederle



In my other life I'm a secret movie critic, complete with mask and cape!
Grok?

[skirted_in_SF]

I must admit that I'm not much of a movie person. But a mention on one of the NPR news shows several weeks ago inspired me to check one of favorite movies out of the library Thanksgiving week. It is the 1993 production of Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. I saw it in the theater when it was released and fell in love with Ms Thompson. I watched it twice over Thanksgiving weekend and enjoyed it just as much again.

[sapphire]

Unstoppable was fun.
Loved the way they layered dreams in Inception.
Harry Potter was unsatisfying
I thought The Town was Ben Affleck trying to be Sean Penn (Mystic River)
Wall Street II was a satisying sequel.

Think I'll go see Black Swan this afternoon

Maybe I'll go see Tron: Legacy on Wednesday (cheap day for seniors and 3D is free)

I'll probably go see the Chronicles of Narnia, The Tourist, Tangled, and Rabbit Hole.

Waiting for The Tempest to wander out here to the 'burbs.

Much Ado About Nothing, eh? Kenneth Brannaugh and Emma Thompson?? I gotta find that one! Mel Gibson's Hamlet was also a gem.

But the classic that permanently damaged my brain was a 1961 production of The Mikado on Bell Telephone Hour starring Groucho Marx as Koko

[DALederle]

Going to see the new Narnia movie tomorrow. No Bears game on TV until Monday night!
Plan to see Yogi Bear! Yes that;s how low I can get. Actually most the kid's movies they make today are far more inventive then the regular movies being made. Wnat to see: Mega Mind, Tangled, etc. Watched Shrek Forever After last night, again. It's a little lke releiving parts of my childhood watching these kids movies that I wish were around when I was a kid. I also like some 1950s old sci-fi.
The original Day The Earth Stood Still, Them, Destination Moon (by my cousin, Robert A. Heinlein), Rocketship RXM, Invaders From Mars (the original in the version shown in England, where they explain all the different UFOs) and Forbidden Planet. Don't make them like that anymore.
My all time favorite Christmas movie is A Christmas Story (Yes, the one with the lamp).

Dennis A. Lederle

Grok?