Christmas Season 2024/2025: The Third Day of Christmas - Krumkake, Barbra, and More

 Friday, December 27, 2024

Nice relaxing morning. Have a mild cold that’s making me feel a bit washed out. Told Dale that today felt like a usual Christmas morning for us. Lounging around in our robes, reading, and getting breakfast for ourselves. I had some krumkake with my morning coffee. 

Dale went to the gym this afternoon but I continued to read, blog, and lounge around. It felt quite good to do so. Not a lot of food in the house due to us being away for a while so I made some macaroni noodles with butter. 

Listened to Barbra Streisand's A Christmas Album this afternoon. Mom didn’t have this one when we were growing up but I picked it up for myself in the mid-80s on cassette tape. Can’t believe I’ve been listening to it for about 40 years now. It was the first time I’d ever heard the lead in for the song White Christmas which is often left off. You know, “The sun is shining, the grass is green, the orange and palm trees sway, there’s never been such a day, in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it’s December the 24th and I’m longing to be up North…” I think it’s included more often now on recent recordings. However up until this version I had never heard it before. Anyway, I was thinking about this intro while in Arizona for Christmas especially since John and Dianne have an orange tree in their back yard. I was surprised how well I did without the cold and the snow this year. Anyway, now we’re back home and there’s a little bit of snow on the ground. It’s raining out now so it’s a little messy looking but I guess ya can’t have it all.

I’m on something of a Barbra roll today since I also listened to her other Christmas collection, Christmas Memories. It’s got quite a few selections that are far from being over-recorded including A Christmas Love Song, Snowbound, Christmas Lullaby, and Christmas Mem’ries all of which I really enjoy listening to. And I love her version of It Must have been the Mistletoe which I find surprising hasn’t been covered more often. 

Watched Meet Me in St. Louis tonight with Dale during dinner. We usually watch this in November to tie together the time between Halloween and Christmas. This is one of my all time favorite films. Dale and I always have so much fun watching and we never seem to tire of it. Notable that the story took place only 40 years prior to the release of the film. Currently it would be 120 years ago!  It would be like making a movie now that took place in the 80s.  In fact I first watched this movie just about 40 years ago with my gay college buddies as a kind of anti-Superbowl party. We watched the movie at my friend Paul's house in the family room. His dad was sweet and kind and gave up the big tv and offered to watch the game in the bedroom. 

I was curious about the house used in the film so I used AI to find out the following information: " The 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis was filmed on a soundstage at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, California. St.  Louis Street: A street lined with Victorian homes built for the film on Lot 3 of the MGM backlot. The. street and the Smith family's house were demolished in 1972. The house was later used in the film Cheaper by the Dozen." I've heard the land was sold and that there are condos there now.

Dale picked up some eggnog for me at the store today. I drank some as we finished the movie after dinner.  

Martinmas 2023

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Martinmas snuck up on me this year as it often does. Woke up not feeling well this morning so I cancelled with Noel. Sat around all day which worked out just fine since I don't have the bandwidth to do much more. Work has just been exhausting which is probably why I'm not feeling well. 

Spent time looking through a new Christmas book I picked up last weekend while out shopping with Noel. It's simply titled The Christmas Book and it's published by Phaidon. The book contains more than 200 images of paintings, books, prints, sculptures, textiles, ceramics, and photography, and covers topics such as Advent; the Christmas tree and holiday decorations; gift giving and carol singing; and classic Christmas films and music. It's a delightful publication. 

Checked out some of this blog's previous Martinmas posts where I acknowledge the loss of our beloved black lab, Athena. Had an Old Fashioned tonight in her honor and used a lab themed lowball glass I picked up a few years ago. I still miss her greatly. She reminds me that disparate emotions can coexist within us - the joy of living with her and the pain of losing her. Cheers, Athena, I won't forget you. 

I believe loss can make us cherish even more what we currently hold dear. Sylvester came to us just under two months after we lost Athena. He too is an angel and I'm grateful for his presence. 

Chicken is a traditional Martinmas food. Dale and I decided to make a chicken pot pie for dinner. We use chicken thighs for the dish and the dark meat makes it especially rich. 

We watched Meet Me in St. Louis during dinner tonight. It's a great movie for November as two major parts of the movie cover Halloween and Christmas which this month bridges. The movie is just shy of being 80 years old and I believe only one member of the main cast is still living. Margaret O'Brien, born on January 15, 1937, is 86 years old. She's one of the last surviving stars of the golden age of Hollywood.

June Lockhart, another of the last surviving members of Hollywood's golden age is still with us at 98 years old. As a kid I absolutely loved her in the tv program Lost In Space. 

Some music Dale and I listened to during cocktail hour this afternoon. 

Holiday Season 2021 - Meet Me In St. Louis Part 2

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Tonight we finished Meet Me In St. Louis. 

Last night we stopped it just before the Christmas part so that's what we watched tonight. 

This scene really captures the joy, excitement and anticipation of Christmas Eve. 

Holiday Season 2021 - Meet Me In St. Louis Part 1

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Dale and I stopped at Kowalski's after our second trip to Mom's place to pick up dinner. So full were Dale and I from our Brunch at Heather that we decided to just pick up salads. While eating our dinner we watched Meet Me In St. Louis. 

I've been watching this film since 1986. If you average out how many times I've seen it I'm guessing it would be getting close to around once per year and I've yet to tire of it. 

Dale and I were pretty beat from the previous week and we decided to head to bed just as the Christmas part was about to begin. 

Holiday Season 2018 - A Cozy Night In

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Noel brought me home a little early due to the heavy snow that began to fall. Driving was pretty treacherous on the way back. Noel got stuck on a hill near 50th and Dupont and I had to get out and push. Thankfully we made it to the top. She had been hesitant to take the hill but I told her to so she good naturedly blamed me. I good naturedly told her that she would've made it up if she hadn't stopped about a third of the way up.

 

Once home I took Athena for a walk and we found the Bumble had been blown over by the wind. It ended up being a rather nasty little storm. 

Cocktails with Dale.

And we listened to lots of Ultra-Lounge Christmas music. Including the Toys for Tots jingle with Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Nancy Wilson, and the Chipmunks.

The nasty little storm allowed for a cozy night indoors. Dale and I made baked ziti and watched Meet Me in St. Louis for the umpteenth time. It never gets old.

Holiday Season 2013 - Meet Me in St. Louis

Dale recently posted this on his blog:

"Such a productive weekend that it could only wrap up with cocktails and the first Christmas-themed movie of the season. Go ahead, mock the choice, but I've watched this movie every December since 1978. Once I met Joe he graciously added it to the canon of Christmas movies that we watch each year. Ah, tradition!"

I hope he didn't think I added it begrudgingly. I responded to his post:

"It was one of my favorites before I met you babycakes! I was happy to know you loved it too."

Way back in 1986 I saw this movie for the first time when a bunch of friends and I watched it instead of the Superbowl. Now, having watched it with Dale for so many years, it's become a sentimental favorite.