My Favorite Movies-An American Christmas Carol

A new version of the all-time family favorite starring Henry Winkler. It is Christmas Eve 1933, and the townspeople of Concord, New Hampshire, are trying to hold onto their Christmas spirit in the face of the Great Depression. But old Mr. Benedict Slade is ruining what Christmas hope the town has left by mercilessly repossessing their prized goods. Alone in his apartment, Slade is visited by three ghosts--Christmas Past, Present and Future--who take him on a fantastic journey through time that will show him the tragic consequences of his actions if he doesn't mend his ways forever! Adapted from Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol." This movie was made in 1979.

 

My Favorite Movies-The Christmas Star

Here's a heartwarming made-for-TV holiday tale which stars Ed Asner as a grizzled escaped convict who bears a striking resemblance to a certain jolly old elf. Hiding out from the cops in a suburban neighborhood, Asner is befriended by some local kids who think he's the real deal. Will he use the children's trust to help him unload some counterfeit money or will they teach him the true meaning of Christmas? This is a Disney presentation.

My Favorite Christmas Movies-The Family Stone

Cover of The Family Stone (Widescreen Edition)
I enjoy watching this Christmas movie. Poor Meredith! She does need to learn to relax! Love the twist in the storyline. It worked out for the better...definitely!
 
Set in the fictional town of Thayer, Connecticut, the story focuses on Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker), a successful Manhattan executive whose uptight, conservative demeanor is a sharp contrast to that of her boyfriend Everett Stone's (Dermot Mulroney) liberal and rambunctious family. He has four siblings:


Amy (Rachel McAdams) is a school teacher pursuing her Masters Degree, and an NPR supporter, who had previously met Meredith and took an immediate disliking to her.

Thad (Tyrone Giordano) is a deaf and gay architect who lives in Boston and is contemplating adoption with his African-American partner Patrick (Brian J. White).

Ben (Luke Wilson) is a stoner who makes documentary films and lives in Berkeley; he finds an immediate attraction to Meredith.

Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser), A housewife who has a young daughter, Elizabeth (Savannah Stehlin), and is expecting her second child.

The Stones' father, Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), is also an architect, and their mother, Sybil (Diane Keaton), a bohemian type who is dealing with the recurrence of a fatal illness. It's implied that she had breast cancer previously, which has since metastasized.




The title is a play on the family's name and a reference to an heirloom ring that Everett wants to give to Meredith when he proposes to her.  

I Heard the Bell On Christmas Day

Beautiful version of this song by Casting Crowns!

Nostalgic Christmas Toys

I was thinking of Christmas as a child, remembering all the toys we had when we were little and how different things are today. Technology is the new toy today. I have such good childhood memories of how excited I was for Santa to get there and I could barely go to sleep! I decided to look up some of these old toys we used to have when we were children and I remembered one in particular that was my absolute favorite, Showboat Theatre. Love, love, loved that! My favorite Wizard of Oz characters came with it and I used to sit for hours playing with it. Well, I came across this website that has a huge list of old time toys and as I scrolled down, I found my Showboat!! Oh my gosh! I was so excited when I saw they had pictures of all  the toys! There it was! So I thought I would post some of these pictures of the ones I had or my brothers and cousins had that we all used to play with when we were kids. Here goes:

My favorite

I lost this outside playing on the porch and found it melted the next day in the middle of the road!

My cousin and  i played this all the time!

Record players were a big thing back then!

I had completely forgotten about this one until I saw the picture!

This has been around a long time!

I had one of these and today you would never see one in my house!

My girlfriends and I played jacks all the time on the porch! Such fun!

This was another favorite we all used to play with.

My youngest brother loved the train sets!

This was my cousin's game. We enjoyed racing the marbles to the finish!

These were so much fun!

Red Ryder BB Gun.

This was something my brothers liked.

This was a cool toy. I enjoyed looking at the pictures.

 Hope you enjoyed looking at the old toys from yesteryear! Do you remember any special toys from your childhood? You can find these and many more at: http://www.timewarptoys.com/gallery.htm

Getting things done!

Well, in the last few days, I scrubbed my carpets, downstairs, steps, and hallway only, cleaned the furniture in the living room with my new Bissell, and steam cleaned my dining room and kitchen floors. I was truly amazed at how dirty the water was when emptying the bucket in the scrubber! Disgusting! I feel better now knowing they are clean. Now I'm just waiting for the next time my cat decides to vomit on my clean carpet!!
I know it will happen sooner or later, but I have my little Bissell machine for small cleanups. All this cleaning drives me crazy! So much work to be done for the holidays! When I start with the decorating I just clean as I go. I could dust and two days later, the dust is back! It takes me almost two weeks to decorate. This is why I'll be starting soon. I can only do a little every day since I work evenings....cleaning....doctor's office's!! But it always gets done! I'm like the energizer bunny. I just keep on going!!

More of Did You Know?

Well, I turned on my television this morning and on one of the music channels...Sounds of the Seasons...they are now playing Christmas music until at least New Year's Day. Those big holidays are just around the corner. As I was watching the music channel, I wrote down some of the info they were displaying while playing the tunes. Here goes:

1. In Russia the gift giver is Grandfather Frost.
2. Americans chow down on 22 million turkeys at Christmas compared to 45 million at Thanksgiving!
3. The Charles Dickens 1843 story Christmas Carol, has been filmed over 200 times. I love the Scrooge story!
4. The world's largest gingerbread man was baked in Olso, Norway in 2009. It weighed 1,435 lb. Now that's a big man!!
5. Christmas tree angels were introduced in the 1850's.
6. Say it in writing! About 1.5 billion Christmas cards are sent a year in the United States.
7. During WW11, crowds gathered in Times Square to celebrate the holidays with a moment of silence followed by chimes.
8. Jingle Bells was published by James Pierpont in 1857.
9. New York city, Boston, Hartford put up the first community Christmas trees in 1912.
10. There are about 15,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States.

I thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you.