My Favorite Christmas Movie

So, last night I made a mad dash to Giant Eagle to buy the Peanuts Christmas Special so that we could watch it with Sam before he went to bed. Sam was so excited to find out that there is a show to go along with his "piano music". I decided we might as well make a production over it so, we put the boys in their PJ's, made up some popcorn (Sam even pressed the buttons on the microwave and chose a big bowl so that he could share it with Daddy), and all 4 of us plopped on the couch to watch. I remember Sam and Mike getting under a blanket together, Sam shoving popcorn into Mike's mouth (he was sharing...), I started feeding Ray, Charlie Brown talked to Lucy the psychiatrist and then nothing... Apparently I took a 20 minute nap and woke up to the sound of the menu screen playing the same 30 seconds of music over and over again. Oh well, Ray feel asleep too and I'm sure we will be watching it again. Hopefully next time I will get to catch Linus' monologue. Mike said that watching the Peanuts rekindled his Christmas spirit and the true meaning of Christmas (way to go Linus!). This morning I took the plastic sleeve that comes over top of the actual dvd case and cut out the picture of the Peanuts characters, wrote a message about Sam loving "piano music", punched a whole in it, tied a ribbon on, and Sam and I hung it on the tree.

After we tucked the boys in bed Mike made himself a cup of hot cocoa and I opted for some ice cream (chocolate moose tracks nonetheless) and we watched Home Alone. I don't think I have sat for a whole viewing of this movie in about 10 years. I picked it up a few weeks ago at Target for $6 (I figured it's a classic so, why not?). I didn't realize it was a John Hughes production until this year and the "Ferris-eskness" of it is certainly there. I stayed awake for the whole movie and it was just as funny as I remembered. We even watched some of the bonus materials like, "Where is Buzz now?" although I'm not sure I believe that he is an impersonator of Elvis impersonators.

Did I mention that Peanuts and Home Alone are not my favorite Christmas movies.

White Christmas. Danny "f-ing" Kaye, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and that really skinny girl with the crazy legs - Michael would know her name along with most of the other actors in the movie. Vera Ellen, that's it! I looked it up (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047673/). Every year, we watch White Christmas with my Mom and Michael. There is something about it - the music, the dancing, the soldiers, the snow at the end of the movie... Or as the professionals would put it, "A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general." We have our own versions of some of the songs and I think by now my mom and I have a pretty good rendition of "Sisters" down. Our favorite song to sing along goes something like this, "I wanna wash my hair, my face, my ass, in snow". It's a real Vermont Volleyball if you know what I mean!

Happy Christmas Movie Watching!

P.S.
[after Bob has found out about Phil and Judy's phony engagement]
Judy Haynes: It's just that she's always been something of a mother hen.
Phil Davis: Yeah, and we wanted Mother Hen to leave the nest so that Little Chick could... I guess we laid an egg.
Bob Wallace: An egg? Brother, you laid a Vermont volleyball!

P.P.S. Mike just informed me that the Arena Grande is showing White Christmas. Maybe a date night at the movies is in order!