Christmas wrap up... part 2

Yeah, Christmas was grand. I wrote something or other about it the other day, but it's a distant memory. Probably wasn't very good.

Here is the Christmas village I have in my house:






It's not one of those pricey sets you see at those high end Christmas shops, I got these all after Xmas '08 for half price at Walmart & Walgreens (from a clerk named Wally with his cousin Walter from Wallingford... tee hee hee.)

Still looks pretty lit up:







Wow. That picture sucks. Trust me, they look better in person.

My village has an extra touch in the back:







Yep, Santa ain't the only one coming to town!

Speaking of Santa:







I got this back in 2002. Its a 4 foot tall dancing Santa. I remember seeing them everywhere in 2002. Haven't seen another since.

Mine wears a WWE Nexus hat (shhh, don't tell him they broke up) and a Red Man chewing tobacco fanny pack.





He stands next to my Festivus pole. If the "Festivus yes! Bagels no!" sign makes no sense to you, go watch that Seinfeld episode again.





I have a nativity set in my house at Christmas, and no, I don't let Godzilla near it.

I put up a bunch of trees every year. They are all fake and I love them just fine that way.







Above is the main tree in the house loaded with ornaments (mostly of the wacky pop culture sort.)






This is a great tree I picked up at Walmart for $20. The stuffed animals are just stuffed into the tree. It made for a good way to display the dozens of Xmas plush we seem to acquire.






This is a pretty standard tree. Lights, garland and bulbs. The tree is actually black. Looks nice.
Across the room is a small table top tree decorated the same. I didn't take a picture of it. Just imagine a simple tree.
Actually, since you are imagining it... make it amazing.





In my hall I have this little tree flanked by bric-a-brac.




Finally I put this little retro blue tree on the kitchen table which slowly becomes covered in Christmas cards as the season progresses. I don't send out any cards. I'm a jerk.







I also have a carousel horse wearing a blue hat & flowered leis. There is a muppet on his back.

This has nothing to do with Christmas, I just wanted to share.

Christmas is much more than decorations, I went places, did things and watched others do things... but it will have to wait for another day.

Peace out, homies.

Christmas wrap up... part 1

Wow, I had a delightful Christmas season this year... and it's not totally over yet. I still have a few more visits to Sesame Place's Furry Christmas event scheduled before 2012 strikes.




For me, the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween, but kicks into gear on Thanksgiving morning when I attend the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade.





If you haven't seen it, it's really similar to the Macy's Parade in NY. In fact, Philadelphia's parade pre-dates that and is the oldest in the country.

Then I watch tv & movies. Lots and lots of em.




From Thanksgiving till New Years day I try and see as many Christmas programs as possible. This year I watched such Xmas classics as A Charlie Brown Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone & Frosty the Snowman.

I watched some lesser classics like Batman Returns, Elmo Saves Christmas, Surviving Christmas & The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas.

I also watched some total duds like Alphabots Christmas, Laverne & Shirley's Christmas & Star Wars Holiday Special & The Santa Buddies... but honestly, I loved em all!

For the past several years I have hosted a 12 hour Christmas marathon and this years was a doozy... packed with snowmen, Santas, wookies & Judy Garland it was a total blast.

I collect Xmas shows and this year my DVR is maxed out with holiday episodes of Lawrence Welk, G. I. Joe, Family Ties & Wonder Years.

On December 23rd I was outside in the front of the crowd at Neil Cavuto's Christmas show on Fox. It was fun to see me on tv without hearing a newscaster saying "he was arrested and charged with indecent exposure. The restaurant was forced to throw away all the pizza."













This year I started (and continued) a handful of traditions. On Christmas Eve I read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas". I also tried Christmas wafers and ate fish. But we can talk about that later. Right now I feel like ditching these pants and getting a pizza...

Karen the gifts...

I have watched a bunch of Christmas themed sitcom episodes this month, and I watched most of the Cheers episodes that squeezed some yuletide cheer into the plot.








But my favorite Cheers Christmas moment was not in one of these episodes. It was in a regular season 4 episode called "Cliffie's Big Score.

Take a gander:

Woody Boyd: [the telephone at the bar rings and Woody picks it up] Cheers. [pauses to listen] Yes ma'am, right away.

Woody Boyd: [to Carla] There's some lady screaming her head off.

Carla Tortelli: What she want?

Woody Boyd: I don't know. All I can make out was two-timing.

Carla Tortelli: [yells] Sam. Telephone.

Carla Tortelli: Woody, listen up and learn something.

Sam Malone: [Woody hands the telephone to Sam] Sammy here.

Sam Malone: Oh, hey, I thought you'd like those flowers.

Sam Malone: Yeah, no, no, that sounds like my note, "Thanks for a wonderful evening Barbara, I had a great time."

Sam Malone: Well of course I know your name's Karen.

Sam Malone: Ah, you know, I see your mistake here. You see, you didn't realize that to me Barbara means Karen.

Sam Malone: Well, because, because, ah, because Barbara reminds me of Barbra Streisand, and you know that song about people.

Sam Malone: Well, I am getting to it. Um, you know the line "first be a person who needs people"? Well, who was the first person?

Sam Malone: Well, all right, no, no, the first female person was Eve. And who's the most famous Eve of all but Christmas Eve, right?

Sam Malone: Yeah, what do you do on Christmas Eve but you go carolin', right?

Sam Malone: No, I know, I know your name's not Caroline. But after you go carolin', what you do is you 'karen' in the gifts.

Sam Malone: Yeah, yeah, well, apology accepted, sweetheart. Talk to you in a bit.

The Vespa from When In Rome

Do you know what a Vespa is? Do you recall the movie "When In Rome"?

Neither do I, but about 2 years ago I saw this car at Disney's El Capitain Theatre.

Yep. That's all I got for ya today.

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Happy Life Day, peeps.

Alpha-Bots Christmas

Oh my. Words fail me.

Well, not entirely. But The Alpha-Bots Christmas is one of the strangest things I have ever watched. Strange in an amazingly awesome way.
It starts off with a news bulletin. In black and white for some reason. I'm not sure if this is supposed to indicate that this takes place in the past.
There are some new robots that are now available. 26 of 'em. A-Z. They charge in the box. That's important. Remember that.
Then we see an old time radio and we hear the news bulletin again.
I am confused about the old time radio and black & white footage, but it's the least of our worries.

Oh yeah, they charge in the box, don't forget?

Then Santa shows up and talks to Z-bot. Z-bot wants to go and play, but Santa insists he stay in the box. He charges in the box, you know.

For a product that charges in the box, I am surprised that the box is a simple flimsy cardboard box.

Poor planning.
Then bots A through Y show up and ask him to come play. It's around this time that I noticed that Z-Bot sounds like Orko.
Z-bot insists on staying home. He'd like to play, but Santa is a control freak.
The other 25 bots sail around the neighborhood.

This is how they play. Just flying around. Don't get me wrong, I can't fly, so I would be awesome to fly around the neighborhood... I just expected some rowdier play from these robots.

Something more fun. Like when other robots romp around in movies like Terminator.

About ten seconds later they get bored and go back to Z-bot. They figure they will play with him at his house.
Then they start to slowly spell out letters as Z-bot reads the letter back.

By letter "C" I started thinking that they wouldn't do the whole alphabet. They couldn't... could they?

Yep.

What happens next? Well, you have to watch to find out.

But remember, they charge in the box.

Scroll back up for the video if you dare. Or just close this page and move on with your life. Makes no difference to me.

Guy Hutchinson