3 in 24

We took a pretty good whack at the Christmas spirit thing. We really did. No word of a lie.

I never use that expression. But a guy I worked with many years ago did constantly. "No word of a lie."

I am not sure of his intelligence level. His philosophy was no food shopping. He was young, married, two kids and they did not food shop. They went out every night for supper - McDonald's, Burger king etc. I am not quite sure how that worked, what they did for breakfast and lunch, but that was his philosophy and he stuck to it. Said it was no more expensive than shopping and a lot more fun.

I imagine his kids today weigh 430 pounds each. At least they were not exposed to the unforgivable trauma of food shopping.

Christmas Eve, man - we really went at it. Watched "A Christmas Carol" - George C. Scott version, naturally. And right after that we watched "It's A Wonderful Life." Clarence got his goddamn wings again and Zuzu knew it.

Zuzu. What an incredibly ridiculous name.

If I was George Bailey, I would kill my brother Harry. Harry gets all the glory, all the attention, everybody kisses Harry's ass. And he's so damn clean cut. You can never trust a man who looks clean cut. At least George had a bit of a wild shock of hair falling over his forehead. And when he was thrown into "No George" world, he had a wild look in his eyes. I liked that look. He looked capable of serious violence. Get Harry out of the way and George is The Bailey in town.

Just a thought.

You gotta love James Stewart, though. What a unique guy and what a unique way of talking. I just wish he threw that loose banister thing threw the window just once in the movie.

So we took quite a risk watching those two movies back to back on Christmas Eve. Who knows what kind of vibe you could trigger under those circumstances.

We survived it.

I love Scrooge in the cemetery, kneeling before his own grave, pleading with and crying in the company of the Ghost of Christmas Future, saying: "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from,  the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me."

"Good spirit, your nature intercedes for me and pities me. Assure me that I may yet change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life."

I love that scene deeply. A man who has laid out before him the consequences of his current approach to life, with the subtle message that he can change the outcome with an altered life.

We all need a moment like that, baby. And apparently we need a ghostly spectre to accompany that moment, to provide exactly the gravity we need to initiate change.

As if all that was not enough, on Christmas day my son Keith spent about an hour and a half setting me and The Ole Lady up with Wifi. I could not believe it would take that long. I tried it once and hung up on the poor woman after five minutes. You would think you just call up and say OK, my numbers are 3 and 9 and bing bang boom the magic works its way through the airwaves.

Not so and thank God for Keith's patience. We signed up immediately for Netflix streaming, something I have been dreaming about since I was a small boy.

As the day wound down and the family departed, I dialed up Love Actually. The first movie to be streamed (??????????). Yeah we book ended it. Already watched it earlier in the week, but we love the goddamn movie and it was the perfect way to end Christmas day.

So three Christmas movies in 24 hours. We took a solid whack at Christmas spirit and were rewarded with hours of escape, smiles, thoughts and sensitivity.

I'd say it worked out pretty good.