Weekly Wrap-Up #34 - Holiday Movies

1. What is your favorite holiday-themed (i.e., specifically involving a winter holiday) movie? Why?

It has to be the original 1947 version of "Miracle on 34th Street". The courtroom scene always makes me cry, especially when the postal workers come in with the sacks of mail for Father Christmas. The 1994 version is okay, but you should see the original if you get the chance.

2. What was/is your favorite holiday-released (i.e., released
around December) movie? Why?

I have no idea. I wouldn't remember what movies were released then unless they had a Christmas theme.

3. Have you seen The Two Towers yet? Why or why not? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

I am planning to see it next week. I am looking forward to it, but also partly dreading it in case it isn't as good as the first one. The first half of the Two Towers where we meet the Riders of Rohan and the Ents is my favourite part of the Lord of the Rings, so I want it to live up to my expectations.

4. What other big (or little) movies released this month have you seen or are hoping to see? Why? If you saw any movie(s), what did you think?

"Possession" - a literary detective story involving the love stories of two modern day academics and the century-old love of the poets that they are studying. I think making the hero an American and adding all the sneering anti-American comments from the British academics was a bad idea. It works better in the original novel, where his outsider status is due to being working-class.
"Sweet Home Alabama" - an excellent rom com, which I mainly watched because I like Reese Witherspoon. I don't particularly like rom coms, but this is the best one I've seen since "The Wedding Singer". I especially liked the fact that RW's New York fiance was not a swine, which made things less predictable than usual (well, a bit less predictable anyway!).
I'm not sure whether "Gangs of New York" is out this month, or not. If it comes out I'll probably go to see it. But will it be worth the wait and live up to all the hype?

5. How are you planning to spend New Year's Eve?

I don't have any plans. I usually just stay in and watch tv.

The alt.callahans Holiday Gift Exchange

On Friday, I found two postcards from Parcelforce in my mailbox, saying that they'd tried to deliver a parcel. I knew that this was my a.c Secret Santa gift, as the postcards were addressed to Isabel instead of my real-life forename. On Saturday I rang to arrange to pick it up from the closest post office on Monday, but at 9 am this morning they tried again and this time I was actually in. Hurray for Sunday deliveries at Christmas!

What I found was a very well-packed box from Kansas in the USA. By 9:05 am, I had unwrapped the box, fought my way through a million electro-statically charged polystyrene pieces and found: a pack of Kansas playing cards, a box of sunflower cookies, a chocolate cheesecake 'cake in a jar' and two local newspapers for Wichita and Winfield in Kansas.

I took the 'cake in a jar' and the sunflower cookies over to my sister's house this morning with a bag of clothes, books and stocking fillers, as I will be staying there over Christmas to cat-sit. I was planning to suspend my low-carbohydrate diet over Christmas anyway, so I am looking forward to eating them.

I like the idea of sending local newspapers with a Secret Santa gift; maybe I'll do that next year too.