Christmas isn’t over yet–not here, at any rate–and we still have a carol contest going.
Entered by Erlene–What Began in a Manger, by Carroll Roberson.
If you haven’t entered yet–well, the contest closes Dec. 31.
Tag: Christmas 2020
A Movie for Our Cyber-Christmas Party
Let’s throw in a laugh-yourself-silly movie along with all the other festivities in our cyber-Christmas party!
A Slight Case of Larceny stars Mickey Rooney and Eddie Bracken as two extremely silly guys who acquire a failing gas station and get rich quick by stealing gas from the big station across the street. Big Business tries to crush these guys, but they underestimate the power of sheer looniness.
It’s not a famous movie, but it is screamingly funny. Patty can’t remember exactly how she found it for us: it wasn’t an easy search. But it’s worth it–you’ll laugh your socks off.
Meanwhile, it looks like a hot Monopoly game is starting in the parlor, next to the table with the fried calamari rings and Erlene’s brownies. I once made a heaping dish of squid-rings for a Christmas party, it took me literally all day in the kitchen, and they were gobbled up to the last crumb in just five minutes. So much easier to whip up imaginary snacks!
Let’s Start the Party!
Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s Christmas Day! Christ our Savior is born! So we whoop it up.
As of this moment, we open the doors to my imaginary Victorian mansion to all who wish to attend our cyber-Christmas party. That’s me on my imaginary harpsichord. I hope somebody brings an accordion. You can’t have a polka without an accordion.
Come one, come all! They won’t let us get together for a normal Christmas, and everybody I know lives so terribly far away–but to the imagination, all distances are imaginary. So let’s get together for good cheer, good food, fun and games and singing–and who wants to join me on the porch for a good cigar, while we watch the snow come down? Don’t worry, we won’t have to shovel it.
I’ve given Crusty the butler the day off, so just open the door and announce yourself–with a comment–and come right on in. Let’s see how many of us we can can jam into our cyber-living room.
All pets are welcome, too.
Joshua & Jeremy, ‘The First Noel’
Here are our own friends and esteemed colleagues, Joshua and Jeremy, with an instrumental performance of The First Noel. Hey, guys–bring your guitars to the cyber-Christmas party!
‘On This Day Earth Shall Ring’ (‘Personent Hodie’)
I’m surprised no one has entered this in our Christmas Carol Contest–glorious 14th century Christmas hymn, On This Day Earth Shall Ring, more properly Personent Hodie, sung here by the Mount Holyoke College Vespers. We sang this, long ago, in our middle school Christmas concert. Before they outlawed wholesomeness.
As for the contest, the leader from the first day is still the leader with 25 views on the day it was requested… and still leading on Christmas Day itself. So many of you haven’t entered!
And don’t forget to show up for our cyber-Christmas party…
Our Tree Is Done! (And I’m Done For)
Two hours of non-stop motion, much of it consisting of bending up and down–and our Christmas tree is decorated! Huzzah! I’m beat!
You’ll pardon for posting a picture of last year’s Christmas tree. Our camera’s been temperamental lately.
Why is it such a big job? my sister wondered. “You must have an awful lot of ornaments.”
Forsooth, we have a prodigious lot of ornaments! And I know the history of each and every one, too. Many of them once belonged to family members who have passed on but are certainly not forgotten. I couldn’t bear to leave those off the tree.
After I sleep, or crash, or just plain plotz, we shall throw open the doors of our imaginary Victorian house for our cyber-Christmas party. I hope you all can make it! We’ll have carol singing (with my imaginary harpsichord), all sorts of games, and food and drink like you wouldn’t believe.
But for now I feel like I just fell down the stairs, so see you in a bit.
My Newswithviews Column, Dec. 24 (‘Did We See… a Pterodactyl?’)
I don’t know about you, but I needed a break from politics. After all, it’s Christmas.
So I wrote about our pterodactyl. I’m sure I’m the only Newswithviews columnist who’s seen a pterodactyl.
Yes, I know, the libs will jump all over it. “See? See? We toldja he was crazy!” But as Lou Costello once said, I saw what I saw when I saw it–and I don’t care what a bunch of leftids think. They believe in much more ridiculous things than the occasional pterodactyl. I prefer not to mention any of them here.
P.S.–Don’t forget out cyber-Christmas party! All are welcome! Bring imaginary snacks and board games and party fixin’s. We’re going to have a blast!
‘God Bless Us, Everyone’
This is the theme music for the 1984 movie version of A Christmas Carol, starring George C. Scott as Scrooge: God Bless Us, Everyone, by Nick Bicat. The rest of the movie’s pretty good, too!
Progress Report: O, Christmas Tree!
Don’t let this happen to you! (It happened to me once, and once was enough.)
We have just erected our Christmas tree in our living room. It has a slight tilt to it: so hard to get it straight when you’re lying under it, tightening the bolts in the tree stand. So we’ve tied it to the bannister. At least that way it can’t fall into the living room. It might not fall at all.
No, the decorations don’t go on today. The whole thing is too big a job for one day (gettin’ old *sigh*). That comes tomorrow: the tree lights from Grandpa’s store that he had in the 1930s–and they still work. And all those ornaments, each with its own little bit of family history.
We’ve never had cats who tried to climb the tree and pulled it down. Which is not to say that Robbie and Peep didn’t have a grand old time “helping” Daddy set the tree up. Our cats mostly love to sleep under the tree; Robbie’s already snoozing on the tree’s blanket.
It suddenly occurs to me that I haven’t yet wrapped Patty’s presents. A few more minutes’ rest, and back to work!
(Don’t forget to show up for our cyber-Christmas party–you’re all welcome, we crave your company.)
By Request, ‘Masters in This Hall’
I had only heard this carol once, years ago, but I never forgot it. Thank you, Phoebe, for entering it in our carol contest–Masters in This Hall, sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale. (I seem to have missed the one with the CC button for lyrics, but this one is too nice to get rid of.)