We are staying in Louisville all Christmas week because of my on-call duties, so we didn't get caught in Minnesota's big snowstorm. I went to work for a few hours today.... hardly anyone was there, and even fewer when I returned from lunch hour after delivering McDonald's (ugh) to my family nearby at home. So by mid afternoon, I was back home wrapping gifts in the basement while Tiffany made delicious pumpkin bars from a family recipe. We all watched Shrek the Halls for about the dozenth time (I wasn't too impressed when it premiered a few weeks ago, but now I appreciate all the gags and tidbits within... and I love hearing Gingie's Christmas horror story!) and parts of Rudolph (perhaps my all-time favorite Christmas TV special).
We set out at about 6:15 p.m. for a short excursion to see Christmas lights, with 55 classic holiday tunes loaded on my MP3 player to set the mood. Ben got little sleep last night; he likes to watch Spider-Man 3 in bed very late while the rest of us are snoring --kids these days know that, if you let them, they can watch anything at any time of day thanks to DVD and TiVo. He didn't take a nap and was obviously ready to crash, so I had to take an efficient yet worthy route. There are a few cool displays in our own neighborhood, so we saw those on our way to Brown Park, which is a block away from where I work. Not bad, but then we journeyed on to the St. Regis Park area. There is one particular residential section made up of about a dozen blocks that really do it up... perhaps the most beautiful Christmas lights I have ever seen.
When we first arrived, I said "Wow, Ben, isn't this neat?" There was a pause, then he replied "You woke me up!" However, he soon proclaimed them to be "awesome," and as we saw more blocks that were even more impressive, he proclaimed "These are the ultimate Christmas lights!" So I said, "Well aren't you glad I woke you up?"
"No."
Then he fell back to sleep, and is still sleeping.
Tiffany and I were going to treat ourselves to Fazoli's real Italian real fast on our way home, but it was closed, so we settled for Taco Bell. Then we finished wrapping gifts whilst my stepson indulged his latest habit, taking long showers. (We later discovered that he is very curious about girls now-- funny).
Currently, they're all asleep in our king sized bed (like those Who kids in the Grinch cartoon), and as usual I am up late catching up on stuff. I just realized that I seem to have a new annual tradition: this is at least the second or third time I've stayed up late on Christmas Eve to set out all the goodies and straighten the front rooms while listening to/halfway watching that naughty Bad Santa movie starring Billy Bob Thornton. I like it; it's very funny, but I wouldn't recommend it to decent folk because it is quite raunchy. At its core it does have heart, though, with a kid in trouble and even a romance or two mixed in.
My favourite Christmas movies are the original Miracle on 34th Street (which I haven't actually seen in a few years) and A Christmas Story (which I couldn't *not* see even if I wanted to avoid it). I have my college roommate Chris Ewald and his then-girlfriend Danielle to thank for first introducing me to that wonderful movie. Somehow I hadn't seen it upon its original 1983 release, but it was re-released to theaters in 1984 and that's when we all drove from Eastern Illinois University (where Burl Ives -- Rudolph's Sam the Snowman -- once studied) in Charleston over to Mattoon, Illinois to watch it. Chris and Danielle had already caught it the first time around and wanted to take me since they liked it so much. Thanks again, wherever you are!
And now back to Bad Santa and getting ready for bed....
We set out at about 6:15 p.m. for a short excursion to see Christmas lights, with 55 classic holiday tunes loaded on my MP3 player to set the mood. Ben got little sleep last night; he likes to watch Spider-Man 3 in bed very late while the rest of us are snoring --kids these days know that, if you let them, they can watch anything at any time of day thanks to DVD and TiVo. He didn't take a nap and was obviously ready to crash, so I had to take an efficient yet worthy route. There are a few cool displays in our own neighborhood, so we saw those on our way to Brown Park, which is a block away from where I work. Not bad, but then we journeyed on to the St. Regis Park area. There is one particular residential section made up of about a dozen blocks that really do it up... perhaps the most beautiful Christmas lights I have ever seen.
When we first arrived, I said "Wow, Ben, isn't this neat?" There was a pause, then he replied "You woke me up!" However, he soon proclaimed them to be "awesome," and as we saw more blocks that were even more impressive, he proclaimed "These are the ultimate Christmas lights!" So I said, "Well aren't you glad I woke you up?"
"No."
Then he fell back to sleep, and is still sleeping.
Tiffany and I were going to treat ourselves to Fazoli's real Italian real fast on our way home, but it was closed, so we settled for Taco Bell. Then we finished wrapping gifts whilst my stepson indulged his latest habit, taking long showers. (We later discovered that he is very curious about girls now-- funny).
Currently, they're all asleep in our king sized bed (like those Who kids in the Grinch cartoon), and as usual I am up late catching up on stuff. I just realized that I seem to have a new annual tradition: this is at least the second or third time I've stayed up late on Christmas Eve to set out all the goodies and straighten the front rooms while listening to/halfway watching that naughty Bad Santa movie starring Billy Bob Thornton. I like it; it's very funny, but I wouldn't recommend it to decent folk because it is quite raunchy. At its core it does have heart, though, with a kid in trouble and even a romance or two mixed in.
My favourite Christmas movies are the original Miracle on 34th Street (which I haven't actually seen in a few years) and A Christmas Story (which I couldn't *not* see even if I wanted to avoid it). I have my college roommate Chris Ewald and his then-girlfriend Danielle to thank for first introducing me to that wonderful movie. Somehow I hadn't seen it upon its original 1983 release, but it was re-released to theaters in 1984 and that's when we all drove from Eastern Illinois University (where Burl Ives -- Rudolph's Sam the Snowman -- once studied) in Charleston over to Mattoon, Illinois to watch it. Chris and Danielle had already caught it the first time around and wanted to take me since they liked it so much. Thanks again, wherever you are!
And now back to Bad Santa and getting ready for bed....
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