Disclaimer: there will be commentary on “The Rise of Skywalker” at the end of this entry. Once you get past the Mystery of the Finial Dobler, it starts. Stop there if this concerns you.

On the 26th, I went to hang out with Jackie, going to a restaurant named Luigi’s in Pacifica that didn’t have anyone in it, but the food was delicious, and then hanging out at the mall using our gift cards. Mostly I heard about the ridiculous rules that the marathon she’s running at Disney World has that are quite insane and unfair. After I got home, Roger invited us over for pie, so we hung out there for a few hours. Evan eventually came in after dinner and was very entertaining again (more Shen Yun snark!).

I was amused at Roger feeling grumbly about Evan being in the house, because Evan broke a drawer and washed his sweaters and then draped them over wood. “So it hasn’t been a very good Christmas around here.” I restrained myself from saying, “Dude, last year Mom had the flu for Christmas, this is NOTHING.” Or heck, hoarder house issues.

I guess I will be here past the 26th because we are going to get together with the relatives in Folsom on Saturday...and Roger’s going! I was so shocked! Well, in “normal” families (if such a thing exists, I guess) I guess you’d meet the family sooner than 2.5 years of dating...well, okay, Roger’s met a few coincidentally because they ran into my aunt and uncle and Kristen...but I was still like, wow, meeting the relatives, I’d be utterly freaked out at that. Not my problem, obviously, and I’m sure Roger will get along great with everyone. But still, I’m a bit “eek!”

In other Hallmark news, does anyone remember the “finial dobler” (or whatever it was) from Christmas At The Plaza? Well, THE MYSTERY HAS BEEN SOLVED! After much Google fail on my part, I eventually found this link which clarifies that the word is a French one (despite my taking French yonks ago, I don’t remember this word), which explains the failure.

”Christmas at the Plaza: What is a ‘finial d’arbre’ tree topper?
Hallmark’s new romantic movie Christmas at the Plaza left viewers a little confused when the actors kept uttering the phrase “finial d’arbre.”
However, viewers were left confused by two words uttered with surprising frequency in the movie. A large part of the plot seems to revolve around the characters finding a finial d’arbre from 1969.
English speaking viewers expressed their confusion at these two unfamiliar words that the cast seemed to be continuously saying.

I now know the term "finial d'arbre" which is a tree topper. And is uttered every 4 minutes by someone in the movie. (In fairness, this is her research and I appreciate this level of semantic particularity).
Keep us updated. I’m on pins and needles.

It turns out that a finial d’arbre is a type of Christmas tree ornament that sits atop the tree. “Arbre” is French for “tree,” and “finial” refers to the shape and type of ornament, typically decorated with leaves or leaf-like motifs.

Hallmark themselves helpfully offered a definition for Twitter users with the following post.
Finial meaning: a distinctive ornament at the apex of a roof, pinnacle, canopy, or similar structure in a building or an ornament at the top, end, or corner of an object. D’arbre meaning: French for tree. Interesting!

One Twitter user suggested a fun drinking game to go with the movie.
Drink every time she says finial d'arbre too late you're dead.”

That is absolutely a legitimate drinking game. I love this. Mystery solved!

Okay, now that that’s done, I have commentary on The Rise of Skywalker. From here on in, there are spoilers, so be forewarned if you care.

The Rise of Skywalker:

I’m going to be an outlier here because I overall actually liked this movie. Go figure, eh? I figured I’d be “meh” about it, but overall I liked it. It’s not gonna be my favorite in the canon compared to the original three, but in general it finished well for me.

* This one definitely has moments of humor, both situational and the occasional snarky line, so that pleased me. I kind of feel like the non Marvel sci fi fantasy movies don’t have that going on as much these days. I enjoyed the younger trio hanging around and snarking on each other, especially with uh, whatever Finn didn’t say and refused to say.

* I read spoilers as of about 8:30 on the night of the movie release and did have freakouts of OMG THEY KILLED CHEWIE! and OMG THEY WIPED C3P0, WHY DID I NOT READ SPOILERS FOR THIS, and then thought, “Yeah, if I didn’t read spoilers for that, it means they ain’t gone.” Yeah, there were several fake deaths and then “oh, never mind, they weren’t blown up” in this, but hell with it, I’m still glad those folks weren’t dead.

* The whole “Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter” thing: I know a lot of people who were upset that that got retconned and they thought the idea of Rey coming from nobody was interesting. I disagree, I didn’t find that interesting at all, because MOST people come from nothing. (For example: Finn and Poe.) In this world, the Force is a thing that runs in families, that is significant. Does anyone remember that Taran from Prydain came from literally nobody? Was that interesting? Did anyone care? God, I didn’t.

I do not like that Palpatine is somehow still alive and they don’t even bother to explain how or why (really, they couldn’t have said “cloning” once? That would have covered it) at all though. That did annoy me. But I did want Rey tied into some family with the Force, and while I am still disappointed to this day that she’s not Leia’s daughter officially, it makes more sense that she’d be related to someone.

I wish Leia was in it more. I realize they literally did the best they could on that one, there’s not much you can do. But that said, it was fairly unclear as to what the heck Leia did that made her die. She said Ben’s name and then died? Huh? Kind of wish they’d done that a bit better or at least made it clearer even if we couldn’t see her.

I was amused that Hux was the mole and ONLY because he wanted Kylo Ren to lose. And he got a traitor’s reward there.

I cannot bloody stand Kylo Ren, but I could deal with Ben Solo. I don’t approve of them kissing, but hell, after that he died so what the hell. Incidentally, my mother said “Are they brother and sister?” during that moment.

It turns out my mom is not very clear about anything going on in Star Wars. And by that I mean, as we were walking out of the theater, she said that she thought the stormtroopers were the good guys because “they’re always walking around Disneyland” and wearing white. I told this to my friend Jackie the next day and she was all, “yeah, on patrol.” Then Mom asked about “the red ones.” Red stormtroopers? According to some random ornament I saw in the Hallmark store the next day, that exists.

I saw some article about how love is dead in Star Wars, and that is true. What they did to Kelly Marie Tran genuinely sucks (and the excuse for her not being on the adventure is terrible). Finn actually had a lot of instachemistry with Jannah that was cute (wait, you’re ALSO an ex stormtrooper?!), and I did enjoy Poe’s non-relationship (or whatever that was) with Zorii being all “no kissing” at him. I don’t get what the heck was going on with that girl and her changing moods about Poe every 2 minutes, but she was fun.

I still hate that we’re down to one Jedi, but the various dead Jedi finally kicking in so Rey can hear them was nice. Her refusing her evil grandpa was good, Kylo/Ben being dead is all righty by me. Rey deciding to be an adopted last Skywalker is sweet. Overall, I think I’m fine with this, albeit some elements of this one could have been better. I’m amused at Chewie getting a medal, the random lesbian kiss, etc.

So, it was better than I was expecting.

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