A heavy thunderstorm I fell asleep to last night induced me into a series of oddly bloated weirdo dreams and I woke frequently in sweat and confusion. I vaguely recall wandering around in a robe at 1:23 a.m. and finding my roommate in a Cosby-influenced sweater and listening to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." I was confused, also dazed, and I patted the dog's head as I tried to find myself. Nora the Dog licked my hand and I drank a glass of water and went back to bed with a stomachache. I slept like a drunken banshee the rest of the night, dozing deeply, but making hell out of my blankets and thrashing myself all out of sorts until 6:45 a.m. when I cracked open an eye slit and saw with a sparkle in my eye and a grin in my step a Christmas miracle of silent, blanketing snow--the first real patch this neck of the woods has seen this season. Despite my previous night's feverish stitch, I felt renewed, like I was nine-years-old again and looking forward to a whole two months of anticipations and school vacations.
One year ago, I was walking through patches of snow and Chewbacca mud (named so from how it made your feet look after murkily trudging through it for five hours) on the trail, but sunning away at poolsides from my apartment complex in Mesa, AZ, off the trail. This year, I want to make up for the past few years of rushed holiday seasons and set some goals on how to make the rest of 2008 positively nostalgic and dripping with holly berry sap and Christmas wassail.
HOLIDAY SEASON 2008 SUPER-IMPORTANT MEGA-GOALS
1. I will watch the following Gilliland Family Tradition Holiday Movies in no particular order: Home Alone, Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, Elf (recently canonized), Mr. Krueger's Christmas, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (I know it's been getting a lot of attention on this blog, but for some reason we watch it every Thanksgiving).2. I will also watch as many creepy old movies from when we were kids as I can find. This includes: horrifying claymation movies starring misfit toys or the California Raisins, Ernest Saves Christmas, the movie where Dudley Moore and John Lithgow eat puce-colored candycanes that make them fly around, that other movie where Dolly Pardon saves an orphanage of kids and flies around with Santa, and most definitely the classic cartoon celebrations of Garfield, Peanuts, and The Three Chipmunks. Oh, also, the cartoon where Chip and Dale run around inside a Christmas tree. And Disney's Christmas Carol. I'm going to spend a lot of time in front of the television.
3. I must also fulfill the Gilliland Family Tradition of putting ornaments on the tree while listening to the cassette tape of the Beach Boys' Christmas Album. "We Three Kings of Orient Are" is a particular favorite.
4. I will make fudge and eat it, too. I also want to learn to make five new different kinds of hoity-toity winter soups and share them with whoever is around. 5. I would like to frost a sugar cookie people family and then bite off their limbs one by one while the rest of them watch.
6. I plan to more fully utilize the mistletoe concept this year and take advantage of having my fellow only fifteen minutes away in December (as opposed to the two hours without traffic away he be today I say).
7. I'd like to read The Polar Express and shed a tear at the end, just like Mom always did. I don't have kids, so Nora the Dog will have to do.
8. I want all of my Christmas presents bought by November 20th. I know this doesn't give me much time. Damn it.
9. I must spend several entire days in my pajamas with the XBox 360 and William. No showering, no real meals, just bowls of holiday flavored trash and bottled waters. I'm going to rock Fable 2 and Fallout 3.10. I want to wear a disgustingly cheesy Christmas sweater (extra points if it lights up somehow) and wear it either caroling, hay riding, sleigh riding, nativity viewing, or dancing with sugar plum fairies. And get my picture taken.
These goals were stupid. But I had to post something! It's the first day of snow!
10 comments:
xbox "320"? Is that the scaled back version that only lets you play "guitar protagonist" rather than guitar hero?
Sorry. Pointing out other people's faults seems to be my fault these days. I'm not a bitter person.
is it just me, or is everybody celebrating Christmas early? even the institute at ASU had their christmas tree up before the Halloween Dance on Friday night.
Hahahaha, shut up Price. I'm changing that right now. You, too, Will. Sheesh. I get all excited to see my blog comments just to find I'm being made fun of--I'll show you! I WILL play Guitar Protagonist and I'll rock it all holiday season long which starts NOW, Will! Now! Make it last! Merry Christmas!
Oh I love the California Raisins. Jason and I looked forward to that every year.
So far I have watch the Grinch over 12 times with Landon. he can't get enough of "ray who doray, ray who doray, welcome Christmas bring your cheer"
For me Thanksgiving is the movie holiday (and the birthday one). Christmas is just eating a lot.
You can sob through "Polar Express" to TK if you want. It may have to be over the phone. Wait, or maybe NOT ... maybe we'll be at my folks place for Christmas. But maybe we're not leaving until the day before. But maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe, maybe, maybe ...
Oooooh.....that might work! I should just plan on moving into my new place in Rexburg sometime when you are in town! Will you be staying a few days after Christmas? I was planning on moving just after Christmas, depending on the weather. I'll totally read P.E. to Tonnelle. Totally totally.
ah...the california raisins. i loves my dried foodstuffs with a jazz-soul twist.
that klaymation kristmas klassic used to...bother me a bit. there are some odd parts. although the carol of the bells sequence always made us laugh.
no "it's a wonderful life?"
Yeah, claymation is always a bit wacky and nightmarish....oddly stunted movies and faces made of wet clay......it's unnerving. But the Carol of the Bells was great, indeed...that poor little guy who never could bang his head in just the right way. I was also a huge fan of the "Oh Here We Come a-Waffling" bit....bah ha! Mom, did you hear that? The big guy thinks it's WAFFLING and not WASSAILING! Ha! I mean, what's WASSAILING anyway? Bahhah!
As far as "It's a Wonderful Life" goes.....yeah, I considered adding it to the list. In all honesty, I've only seen the movie three full times in all my days. For some reason, my family hates it and refuses to watch it with me. I bought a VHS version in high school thinking I'd purchased the new family tradition, but it was a no-go. My parents hate Jimmy Stewart, I think! How? Why? Who knows? Even with Krueger's Christmas, I have to watch it at church or a singles' ward. I think my parents prefer Christmas miracle movies with an emphasis on the dysfunctionality of the family. Granted, Jimmy's "Wonderful Life" is all about the dysfunctions, but somehow it isn't the forgetting to take your ten-year-old kid to Paris with you, having your second cousin come clean out his crapper in your gutter, shooting your eye out type of dysfunctions. "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!" is not the kind of dialogue that goes well with the Gilliland clan.
Although, one time, I was watching Little House on the Prairie secrectly in one room while my mom was watching television in her room and after a bit I realized that every time I would laugh at silly Laura Ingalls, I would hear Mom laugh in the next room. I finally asked her what she was watching, and she refused to say. That was the day we laughed about how we both watched L.H. on the P. because the Gillilands censored that from the family room way before we ever censored The Simpsons. And that's ALL I have to say about that.
Can I please partake of your soup? I like you. :) I'll cry real tears when you move far away.
Yes, you must tackle each of these goals. I want to help you with most of them, esp the sugar cookie family dismemberment, large mass of holiday cartoons and the mistle toe (how do you spell that)Um...that's all. See you tonight:)
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