S and I had planned a trip to Morocco to celebrate the holidays and my birthday, but Morocco decided, just over a week before we were supposed to depart, that they were not interested in having foreigners flooding in, and they cancelled all international flights through the end of the year at least. So, finding ourselves home for the holidays, we got and decorated a real live tree! On the night we went shopping, it was exactly as cold as it should be when one is tree shopping, so S made me up a big travel mug of hot chocolate to keep me warm. And then, of course, there was the obligatory trip to Home Depot to get the necessary additional lights, since we had already decorated the house with the stash that we had.
Speaking of decorating the house, S got the biggest Frosty the Snowman yard ornament I have ever seen! He's about 10 feet tall, and comes with 3 little penguin friends hanging around too.
I got myself in the Christmas spirit by listening to my Christmas records. I got a new record player last year for my birthday after my old one bit the dust, and I got a bunch of new Christmas carol collections this year when S's grandma cleaned out her stock of music. Many thanks to S for his help turning/changing them every 4 or 5 songs!
One of S's complaints about Christmas carols is that they're just the same dozen or so of them recycled by new singers every year. But Amanda Shires did put out a Christmas album, For Christmas, much of which is new stuff. They're not excellent, but the are new and often funny. I appreciate that she's getting out there with new music, and there are a few old standbys, but even they often have new verses or changed lyrics.
And of course, the movies! There was Love Actually, which is an old standby. Great every year. S and I recently watched the new version of Little Women so I haven't returned to the 1994 classic, but might yet.
There were a couple of dumb Hallmark-type movies too. Love at the Christmas Table has a surprising cast, including Dustin Milligan (whom you might recognize as Ted from Schitt's Creek), Danica McKellar (whom you might recognize as Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years). Then there was A Castle for Christmas, starring a Brooke Shields who's had some not-very-successful work done, and Cary Elwes, who does a passable job converting his native British accent into a Scottish one. As expected, it's corny as can be, but has a couple of great scenes with lots of good Scottish music and dancing.
There was one decent new one: Happiest Season. I frequently hate both Aubrey Plaza (a minor role in this one) and Kristen Stewart (a big role), but in Happiest Season they were both okay. Stewart plays the girlfriend of a woman who takes her home for the holidays, even though her family doesn't know she's a lesbian. As S said, "well, it's good to know the heteronormative community doesn't have a monopoly on the Christmas stereotypes." But it was sweet and funny, with one of the sisters providing some excellent comic relief, and Daniel Levy playing his fabulous self.
As for venturing out into the (mostly unseasonably warm) weather in the Lou, the only thing we did was go with our friends the Hs to Garden Glow at Missouri Botanical Garden. It was preceded by a tasty outdoor seating at Sasha's, and then we took in the festive lights!
I have, so far, only made one kind of Christmas cookie this year. It's just us, but there may be more cookies to come as these disappear!
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