It was a joy to sleep last night, nice and chilly, the room all cold from the fan having run in the window all day. It, however, would have been a sounder sleep had not Tucker started barking. Twice. Not sure what's going on. It's the middle of the night. People can't still be out there setting off firecrackers, right? Not at four in the morning. Very strange.

It was after ten by the time we got up. I took our insomniac hound out for his walk, and then we set off on our errands for the day. We had six Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons that will expire on Monday. We have heard a rumor that BB&B will not be doing as many coupons this year, so I want to get the most out of what we have.

First we stopped at Panera for lunch, or rather brunch, since we didn't have breakfast. Disappointed that the bowls of soup have gotten so small although the price is the same. Next we went to BB&B and spent four of the six coupons: James got two Soda Stream syrup bottles and I bought another Misto and some doggy pickup bags. Not sure what we'll get with the other two coupons. If nothing else, more poo bags. We'll never not need them.

From there we darted over to JoAnn. I discovered I was nearly out of Scotch tape...me, the Scotch tape queen! I got a set with my coupon and James got some Velcro with his. Also went through the clearance stuff and gathered both Christmas and non-Christmas tissue paper at 70 percent off.

A short stop at Petco for more dog food, and then finally a chance to relax at Barnes & Noble, where I picked up a couple of cross-stitch magazines.

We came by Zaxby's on the way home and picked up something for supper and settled in for the evening to watch more Christmas favorites. I'm always let down after Christmas passes. Everything is colorful and beautiful with lovely music, and soon it has to go away. The colors and the gleam and the sounds and the scents and the spirit of Christmas are just so lovely it is hard to let them go: the silvery waterfall of tinsel down the tree, the homey glow of the village, the multicolor glint of the little bottlebrush trees, the glow of the blue candles in the window, the soft chorus of holiday music proclaiming joy, peppermint, gingerbread, warm comforting scents. It means the year has turned and the stench and glare of summer is just around the corner.

Anyway, we watched "Christmas at Plum Creek," the first Christmas episode of Little House on the Prairie, with its "Gift of the Magi" theme; Remember WENN's funny and touching "Christmas in the Airwaves, where Scott's feelings for Betty at the end are just so apparent I want to hug them both; and finally The Little Match Girl with Keshia Knight-Pulliam as the titular character very, very loosely based on the Andersen story (she is a little match girl and Christmas is involved). She plays an angel who comes to earth as a little waif of a match girl who's been sent to earth to heal the fractured Dutton family: a father estranged from his eldest son who not only refused to go into his father's business but who married a girl "from the wrong side of the tracks," a wastrel younger son, a social-climbing daughter, and a wife who desperately wishes that it could be all resolved. Of note, William Daniels as the stiff-backed father and John Rhys Davies as the Irish cop who's so obviously "on the take" that you expect him to twirl his moustache. I actually didn't like this movie when I first saw it. I've read too much history to accept that a rich white family would so easily accept a black street child—but then Molly is an angel after all, with magical matches. Once you can get over that historical hurdle, the film doesn't look all that bad: the 1920s setting is well done, and the Irish servants are realistic rather than the "sure and begorrah" stereotypes they could have been. Pulliam plays Molly with a slight roguishness at times that reveals she isn't really a child; it's a nice touch.

People are still shooting fireworks outside! I nearly had to drag poor Tucker down the stairs to get him to go out tonight!

Labels: Christmas, errands, food, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:34:00 PM

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