Christmas Day 2012

Christmas morning the kids came down, as required, in their pj’s and looking photo ready. First to open a gift was YaYa, who received a beautiful hardbound sketch book!

Lulu was next. Alas, she chose to open a very small package, no doubt thinking it was jewelry of some sort. I’m afraid it was her least expensive gift, a cute pen I included at the last minute. She was still very gracious J

Then Smiley opened up his art set

Ginger opened a Rapunzel storybook from LuLu (she earned it as an award from her math tutor)

YaYa and LuLu, in turn, each opened up a brand new sleeping bag for them each to use on sleepovers!

Smiley then opened some Darth Vader slippers!

Ginger opened a Disney Rapunzel doll!

YaYa opened a monogrammed sketchbook

Lulu opened her ‘big’ gift – a Fijit interactive, alien looking thing. In lime green, naturally!

Smiley opened up a Star Wars Lego set

Ginger got a Barbie doll

YaYa opened a sketching/easel set

Lu opened a brand new pink and purple basketball!

Then Smiley opened his ‘big’ gift, a kids tablet known as an InnoTab2S!

After Lauren opened her art set, it was time for YaYa’s big gift – a 16MP shock-proof digital camera that retailed for nearly $300, but that we purchased new on closeout for $50. It’s better than my camera for pete’s sake!

Along with it she got a memory card too!

LuLu followed up by opening a brand new pair of roller skates!

Smiley opened up a Star Wars jigsaw puzzle and puzzle glue

While Ginger opened up her big gift – a Barbie closet!

Lu then unwrapped a pottery wheel and extra clay, just what she asked for!

Smiley then unwrapped a glow in the dark football, the ‘equivalent’ gift of the sleeping bags

Ginger then opened up an outfit that came with a matching ensemble for her doll!

Then she opened her ‘equivalent’ gift, a butterfly PillowPet

Finally, Smiley opened up a chirping cricket stuffed animal.

When I type all of the above out, it sure seems like an over-the-top Christmas. But it’s four kids remember. While we’ve never struck out or gone gonzo on Christmas in the past, I remember being largely dissatisfied with last year’s crop, and so we took pains to do well this year.

The kids all got one ‘big’ gift. They each got an art set of some sort, and a set of pajamas, and the sleeping bag/equivalent, plus a few extras. Careful long-term planning (and a K-Mart layaway) made the difference between a bust and a boom this holiday season.

So far the results have been good. Lu uses her basketball in the house all the time, to our annoyance. The InnoTab has been in constant use, as has YaYa’s camera. Ginger’s worn her outfit, and Lu made Lisa an ashtray with her pottery wheel and used the roller skates at Incrediroll; she also took her sleeping bag to a sleepover on New Years and decreed it “awesome!”. The art sets are all in use, although Ginger’s was too babyish and needed an upgrade.

So far – a hit!

Later that day, after a pancake breakfast with my father-in-law and his Lisa’s step-mom, and a good nap, we treated the kids to a movie at the Value Cinema (Frankenweenie), toured the decorated houses along Candy Cane Lane, and dined at McDonald’s.

A nice, relaxing, wonderful Christmas!

I hope yours was as well.

Overkill

No one was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame this year, a clear message from the BBWAA that 'steroid era' players would be punished, and tarred and feathered as a generation, not just as individual offenders. I agree, keep confirmed, routine roiders Bonds and Clemens on the outs, at least long enough to make a point. But Biggio? Piazza? Tim Raines? The 32 other guys on the ballot? Many of these guys are HOF worthy, even the pre-roid Bonds. Overkill guys, overkill.

4 Flicks

Exorcismus is a British film about a teenage girl who begins to show signs of demonic possession and becomes the subject of an exorcism in her home. Yes, yes, it’s all been done before. I’ve seen just as many of these cookie cutter Exorcist rip-offs as you have, and probably more, and you don’t have to waste your breath telling me they’re usually a waste of time.

But . . .

I liked Exorcismus. I reallllly liked it. Of course it’s largely the same storyline as The Exorcist, but so what? Think of it like an apple pie: all share the same basic ingredients (apples, flour, sugar), and all bake at the same temperature for the same amount of time, but there’s a world of difference between your Mom’s apple pie and what you’ll find at the local 7-11. Sometimes it isn’t about the recipe; it’s about the quality of the baker.

Exorcismus had dang good bakers.

From the start the film looked and felt like someone cared about it. The acting was convincing, the disintegration of the family appallingly gut-wrenching, and the plot twist unexpected. Yes, there’s some anti-Catholic bias at points, but In a word, well in two words, it was damn good.

It’s available for streaming on Netflix. Please, watch it.

Grade: A+

After Porn Ends is a documentary that explores the life of several notable porn stars long after their careers on screen have ended. The film itself doesn't adopt a moral stance one way or the other, but it’s painfully obvious that some of these people entered the industry because they were emotionally damaged, a few far worse than others, and neither the career nor exiting it did much to help their problems. By and large, however, the former stars have created successful ‘normal’ lives, with 9 to 5 jobs and families, and few of them speak of regretting their time on screen.

The male stars seem to have enjoyed an easier transition to the ‘regular’ world, and I’m sure your first instinct is to chalk that up to societal sexism. You could be right, but based on the documentary I would wager it has much more to do with the men having stable, loving relationships at home than any sociological theory.

By the way, some of John Leslie's artwork was breathtaking.

Grade: B

Yellowbrickroad is a film about a small town whose population just got up and walked off into the woods one day in the 1940’s. By the time investigators began to search for them, there was only one seemingly mad survivor left.

In the present day an investigative journalist is given some never before seen documentation about the case, and along with a small group of professionals he sets off to recreate this mass migration. As you can guess, the forces at work in the ‘40’s begin to ply their trade on this group, and one by one they begin to slip away from the bounds of civilization.

What saves this from being a ho-hum, been there/done that film is a dark and all together depressing finale that lingers with you days later.

Grade: C

Craigslist Joe is a documentary about a man who, for 31 days, lived and traveled the length of America relying solely on the generosity of people he found on Craigslist. It’s a sweet, sometimes funny testament to Gerald Ford’s notion that “most people are mostly good, most of the time.”

With that being said, Joe has a few inherent advantages that skew his experiment. He is accompanied by a cameraman and is open about the focus of the documentary, a fact which eases some concerns strangers would have about security. In some cases the camera no doubt ‘forced’ a person to act above his nature, and the fact that this was an experiment and not a case of panhandling opened some wallets.  Joe is also a male, and I think a woman attempting this same journey would meet with quite a few more shady moments than he did.

Grade: B+

A New Record to be Set

Despite Dan W's opinion that it lacks the panache of my book record, I've set a goal to watch between 400-500 movies in 2013. I'm up to 11 or 12 so far, not including a clunker that was so awful we turned it off after 20 min.

Junie at Chuck-E-Cheese