christmas

Movie Review: Spirited

I didn’t want to let the holidays go by without at least giving you a good Christmas movie recommendation. A Christmas Story Christmas didn’t pan out for me, so I was a little gun shy of the other well publicized online offering this year: Spirited. Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell in a meta-esque adaptation of A Christmas Carol? And it’s a musical? Despite the fact that it had worse reviews on IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, I decided to give it a shot, because any meta adaptation is at least worth the time to watch it. And I loved it.

Movie Review: A Christmas Story Christmas

On paper, it should be a lot of fun. Get the gang back from the original classic, A Christmas Story, and have them reprise their roles, with the move taking place thirty or forty years later. And when you see just how much Peter Billingsley still looks like himself (as Ralphie), it’s hard not to think right away that this could really work. And thus, A Christmas Story Christmas was born. I’ll admit to being skeptical heading into the film. Sure, it seemed like there was a chance it could work, but there was also a big chance it would

A Very COVID Christmas

I mentioned earlier this month that I usually do an annual newsletter that I called off this year. Part of that tradition is that I write a Christmas-themed short story and include it as the centerpiece of the newsletter. Well, while I might not have felt up to reflecting back on what happened in 2020, I did have an idea for a short story that I wanted to compose in honor of the year. And the good news for you is that, since I don’t have a newsletter to share it in, I’m just going to share it with you

What Makes an Ugly Sweater?

In discussion last night, the topic of ugly sweaters came up, and there was a bit of debate over what, exactly, an ugly sweater consists of and (more importantly) if it’s possible to ruin an ugly sweater. In other words, is there some sort of ideal, platonic form of ugliness in regards to sweaters, and anything more or less than that is veering from that ideal? Now this is a topic I think we can really sink our teeth into. Something that can help us come together and bring us up out of the endless squabbling of the past. So,

A Post-Christmas Thought

I know I said I was taking a break from the blog, but I’m breaking that rule today to pop in and share a thought. I was sitting here catching up with my journal for the last few days. Christmas is fun, but very busy, and so it’s easy to let some things slip past me in the big build up. I was about five days behind, but I like writing my journal. A good way to take stock of what I’ve been up to. Sometimes it seems it’s very same-thing-every-day, but other times huge things will happen out of