Happy Christmas, Etc.

Happy Holidays, everybody. I hope yours is spent with those you love and that they bring you joy.

We’ve had a good Christmastime thus far. Last night we got together with our larger family.  My mother grew up in this area, and all of her siblings (and their children and grandchildren) still live here. We always gather with them for Christmas Eve and share food and fellowship with one another and then do a little Dirty Santa.  It is strange how they keep changing. One of my cousins has completely blacklisted the entire family for some reason, so she no longer shows up to that shindig. Sometimes her children drop by, but they didn’t this year.  One of my other cousins now does stuff with his new wife’s family, so he was absent, as was yet another cousin for reasons that weren’t disclosed to me. It feels so weird to not have such a full house, but I get it; things change. Many’s  the time when we’ve not gone to that particular party because we’ve been elsewhere. But I enjoyed the time we had with those who were there.

This morning we had brunch with my parents, my brother, and his wife.  That was a new tradition, but a good one. Later this week we’ll be visiting my wife’s family in Kentucky. When we get back, my sister will be in from her life in South Korea. Like I say, things change, but it is still good.

The important part of Christmas is family and love, and I’m so happy to have those things.  But I have to admit I really like Christmas presents. I love opening things and receiving gifts.  I guess it just brings out the kid in me.

And with that, I get to share my Christmas haul with you all.

For years and years I always asked everybody to get me fun socks. I was tired of wearing boring white and black socks. I wanted my feet to have some fun. But for the longest time no one seemed to understand that.  At best I’d get a couple of pairs of argyle socks, and that was it. Then several years ago my wife found some good stripy ones and a few others with fun designs. I made sure that I praised them to high heavens to everyone, and now I have a lovely collection of fun socks. This year my wife got me these most excellent Jaws socks, and I just love them. She also got me some Scrabble socks for some reason. That’s a game I haven’t played in years, but I sure will wear the socks with joy anyway.

Most years my wife and I buy each other some fun “nerd” shirts. This year she got me this excellent one of Peter Cushing holding up a cross to keep the vampires away. I cut them off in this photo, but she also got me a couple of collectible dolls – one Frankenstein, one from The Fog. I used to hate collectible toys, but now I love them.

Then there is an X-Men comic, a collection of Paul Naschy films (who made a bunch of silly werewolf films), the three Doctor Who specials with David Tennant’s brief comeback, and Thrillers From the Vault, which features some great-looking B-grade horror movies with guys like Boris Karloff, a collection of Psycho films, and a UHD version of the classic anime Akira. Good stuff, one and all. Color me thankful.

I feel like I’ve been saying this for the last several years, but thanks for hanging in there with me. The blog yet again went through several changes.  The biggest, of course, was that I gave up the music. I can’t say that I regret doing that, as I do think it was time, but I do miss it. I keep thinking about returning to it in some new way (some way that won’t have my real name associated with the files), but that’s just a flighty dream at the moment. 

I appreciate all those who have stayed with me through this transition into just talking about movies and things. I know most of you don’t care, that most of you just wish I’d share some more music.  I’m very thankful for those of you who do care and who comment and chat about cinema with me.  But I’m also thankful for those of you who are still signed up for the emails even though you probably ignore them or have shifted them to spam. It is nice to pretend that the nearly 1,000 of you that are subscribed actually enjoy my writing.  And that’s  sincere, not me being snarky. I do realize that many of you aren’t interested in movies, but it makes me happy that you haven’t unsubscribed yet.

Anyway, I just want to say thank you.  This blog still means a lot to me.  And I truly do hope your lives are full of good cheer and joy this time of year.