Today I did Boring Adulting Things. I took a shower (you laugh, BUT I AM SO COLD AND I DO NOT WANT TO BE NAKED AND WET), started cleaning up my bedroom, caught up on TV shows, got a good chunk of my packing done, got the car washed and gassed, packed up the Christmas gifts and put them in the car,
and attempted to iron on this design. It did not go well, sigh. I hate irons. I haven't ironed on a design in years and I have no idea why it "bled through" on the dark transfer paper. Also, for all the pressing I did, the edge was still rolling up. So it's both pressed too hard and not pressed hard enough. The hell?

Also, here's the pic I made of Mom's scarf.

Shiny Unicorns are brainstorming Valentine's Day/love-themed shows and I was trying to think of some polite way to say "leave me out of this one, I literally have nothing." Sigh.

I wanted to mention this entry from the other day, from the perspective of someone who definitely wants a gift, but doesn't actually want/need anything unless it's too expensive to buy. "I’d love to get something totally unexpected yet absolutely perfect," sounds like Matthew Dicks (note: teacher/author/storyteller/wedding DJ/walking chaos magnet dude) saying his wife always comes up with something perfect like that. Whereas I never seem to manage that, I'm like shopping for Bev's husband (in the comments) with whatever I get being left in the bag. Sigh. Oh well...present angst is over in less than a week, right?

Dawn found an inflatable Baby Yoda at Safeway and drove it down to give to me, saying we can set it up in the hotel room (I note she has two inflatable dachshunds, which she had up in the living room on Monday). I love it. I want to put it up on my patio, but am afraid it will get stolen if I do that...I dunno.... I think I'll leave it in the box and then drive it down and see how that goes.

Obviously this is a Dull Entry Day and I'll need to post this before I go to rehearsal tonight, so the rest of it shall be Hallmark reviews.

Ghosts of Christmas Always:

This is a well done movie, AND is officially the most different/revamped version of the ghosts/scrooging story I've ever seen. It's gotten good reviews all over the place. I like the characters (the lead guy in particular is very enjoyable). My only quibble is that the plot and who exactly is being "scrooged" is confusing and I hope someone can explain it to me someday?

So Past (a feisty Asian lady with a buzz cut, do not know actress's name), Present (our blonde heroine, Katherine) and Future (Reginald velJohnson in an ascot) finish an assignment on a lady named Susan in Present's hometown, and she decides to hang around a bit before she goes back to the realm from which she sprung. She meets a cute guy there who's nice and actually can see her, which should not be possible. That guy, Peter, is next year's target, except "the book" and their handler, Charlie (who I suspect is probably the first official NB in a Hallmark movie), don't exactly give them any information as to why he needs scrooging, and also frankly...he doesn't seem to NEED scrooging? Like his family runs a grocery store chain ("Food Stuff," I think) and his grandfather was big on charity and food donation, his dad is a business obsessed hardass, but Peter himself seems fine, his one issue is maybe he shouldn't take over his dad's business?

So after that's resolved, the ghosts go back to HQ, where they're told by Charlie "Um, oops, we meant ROBERT Peter, not his son Peter." Problem is, the ghosts don't have their own magic, they just get magic powers for one person and now they've "used them up" or something weird like that, so they have to do the job in like 9 hours without their usual abilities. This requires them to hit up Peter and get him to do the job for them, which leads to Peter being told to go to Susan, the previous Scrooge target, and let her know that that dream she had WAS real. Susan gamely shows up at some event that Robert's at and offers to sing and does a fabulous job of it all. I'm not totally clear on what happened with this, but I guess he got the spirit?

And THEN we're told this is all a Scrooging of KATHERINE...Marley...(though frankly, the Marley bit is just as a name drop, doesn't seem to come up otherwise). We''re taken back to Katherine's past in the...40's? 50's? during which she and her best friend go to the grocery store and meet Peter's grandfather, and then Katherine gets hit by a car. Her best friend ends up being Peter's grandmother (who died before he was born) and they dedicate a community center (now out of business after grandpa died and businss-obsessed son didn't care) to her. Now, if anyone DOESN'T need a Scrooging, it's this girl. Also we're told that the ghosts all died on Christmas, which I guess is how they get the job (Xmas death + wanting to do more).

Finally, Future (who sadly hasn't gotten to do much but be charming yet) says if Katherine goes through "The Great Unknown" door at work, she can presumably get together with Peter because she can imagine a future with him. So she does that, comes back to life, and happily ever after!

So...sweet plot, but confusing on the Scrooging?! The actors are great and the guy in particular does an excellent job of striking an amusing tone and not taking himself too seriously as a rich kid and being nice. Three and three quarter stars (only deducting for plot confusion).

Quotes:
"Dickens was a real piece of work. HE got Scrooged one year, and..."
"What, this wasn't dramatic enough? You needed another ghost?!":

Lights, Camera Christmas:

I love the premise of this. I love the actors in this. I'm a happy camper.

Kerry (Kimberley Sustad, of my beloved Hallmark cat movies, who manages to be a realistic lady of Hallmark) wanted to be a fashion designer, but that didn't go so well, so she has her own store in her hometown of Twelve Oaks, Colorado, with her mom. The movie "My Favorite Santa" is filming in town, with the "King of Christmas," Brad Baxter (John Brotherton). John Brotherton was absolutely a delight in last year's Christmas Contest, and he's a delight again now, mixing "cocky actor" with a sense of fun and not taking himself too seriously, and inviting himself over to Kerry's house :P It's absolutely cute as shit and I love it so. Why can't someone like that exist IRL?

Anyway, when the costume designer quits and some people on the movie like Kerry's store, the director guy buys out her store (then wants to take half of it back...good god) and then she gets asked to be the designer temporarily, and then permanently when they can't get anyone else. I'm not sure how plausible this would be IRL, but the movie set is fun, and also features a nice lady costar and a divorced couple named Jill and Caleb who are back together again just to make this one movie. They get back together again and that's very cute.

I note that this movie is told in flashback, as the framing story is that a year later (?) or whatever, the movie is having a Q&A with the actors in town. Kerry is invited along with her mother and gets dragged onstage. The budding romance broke up when she got a job in NYC and he got a movie in London...except she turned down the job to follow him and he had a freakout and turned down the movie. Boy, does she do a double take when she finds out he did the movie after all. She moves to LA (with mom) to do costumes for Jill and Caleb in the sequel.

Afterwards, Brad gives an excellent case of Christmas Grovel and they immediately make out at the party. I love this.

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