Posts

Christmas Movie #2: Santa Girl

Image
"Fleeing the family business and an arranged marriage, Santa’s daughter chooses a magical adventure of her own: College.” Cassandra Claus is Santa’s only daughter.   She’s a teenager.   She is slated to take over the family business this year.   And she is scheduled to marry Jack Frost, Jr., around the same time, so that the Kringles and Frosts can merge the family businesses.   This is an arranged marriage and the two teenagers have never met.   Cassie is not super into it, but she understands she has family responsibilities. Cassie is dragged out of bed by her assigned elf slave, Pep.   She eats candy for breakfast and whines.   I would probably whine, too, if an elf yelled me out of bed in the morning.  This is around August. Pep has delivered Cassie some mail with her breakfast tray.   What’s this?   Cassie got into college in The Real World!   She is so excited because she really wants a chance to meet regular people and make friends.   She isn’t sure how

slow start

We're only on movie #2, and I’m already a day behind.  Sorry!  I have a cold and it’s holding me up.  I’ve been watching the movies; just not writing about them.  I’ll catch up.   

Christmas Movie #1: Holly Star

Image
“Home for the holidays, a broke puppeteer knows there’s a treasure buried somewhere under her town.  To find it all she has to do is die – almost.” You had me at "broke puppeteer." We open with a bunch of people in a warehouse kind of place, making a soda commercial.  There are three people dressed in full-body blue leotards, with gloves, working a few small puppets on a little set.  They look weird, but we get no explanation for these get-ups.  Since their arms reach into the set to manipulate the puppets, I imagine it's some kind of suit that becomes invisible on film?  Like a green screen situation...?  Actually, I don't even know what a green screen does.  But let's not spend too much time on this.  We need to talk about the puppets.   They're old-timey wooden puppets and they are terrifying.   The gist of the commercial is that Santa needs his "Wizz" (I don't want to drink a drink called Wizz) to get energy to perform h

12 Days of Christmas Movies: Introduction

Dear Carrie, Let's get this movie marathon party started! You know the rules:  I will watch and review/recap/discuss 12 Christmas movies in 12 days.  I realize the actual , original rules we previously discussed required me to watch 12 Hallmark Channel Christmas movies in 12 days?  But I don't know if that's really going to work for me.  For example, I tried to start watching a recorded movie last night, but due to circumstances beyond my control (the Patriots were on TV) the TV was unavailable to me and I had to watch something on my iPad, which pretty much leaves me with Netflix.  Also, the Hallmark Christmas movies that look "good" don't come on until closer to Christmas, and I think I should get this ball rolling now.  So here's what I propose: 1.  12 movies in 12 days 2.  I will stick to recent TV movies, i.e. no Christmas Vacation or Elf .  Only recent, made-for-TV movies, and I will aim for a high cheese factor.  I'll try to mak

breakfast

Image
I have been drooling over this this pretty food blog for the past few days, so when presented with my own especially delightful breakfast this weekend, I felt compelled to take a picture of it: My photo is not that great, but the meal was. Cristina's eggs: Crunchy toast with a bit of olive oil, topped with charred tomatoes, spinach, and poached eggs, and then finished with sprinkles of balsamic and parmesan. Now go check out Simply Breakfast ! It makes me wish I had leisurely mornings.

Mission 6: Take a Multivitamin

Take a multivitamin every day. I do this already. Plus I take all kind of other supplements depending on what strikes my fancy on any given week. I have high blood pressure so I'm taking some Omega business and some COQ10 business... and I can't even remember why I'm taking bee pollen right now. Energy? Anyway, I take plenty of vitamins, including the regular multivitamin. Done! Next mission: "Keep the Outside Out." This involves removing our shoes at the door and creating "a transition space to minimize unwanted outdoor pollutants in your home." I like the thought of this, actually - spring in this snowy town is a mess. There is mud and sand and road salt everywhere, the dog hair is everywhere, dust and leaves are flying around... I would love if it would be possible to keep some of that to a minimum. Will try to implement with my family and will report back! Stay tuned!

Mission 5: See the Glass as Half Full

I think it's become obvious by now that I am not "making changes" once a week. I'm okay with that. It's mainly the blogging assignments that define my schedule on this project and sometimes I just can't blog once a week. So... it's going to be 52 changes over a general period of time, then. Okay? Mission #5: Develop an optimistic outlook. This has actually been a good lesson for me, and one that I do keep thinking about every day, which is good, I think. The objective is to see the glass as half-full. Now, I am simply not myself if I am not worrying or stressing about something, so I have been trying to channel that worry and negativity into more positive thoughts. Recent examples: (a) My condo complex just took away half our parking spots and we basically have to compete for the few spots there are or else park 3 blocks away. Everyone races home at 5:00 and peels around looking for one of the empty spots. It's pathetic and demeaning. I wan