Saturday, December 21, 2013

Desperately Searching For Christmas Spirit

Boom, baby, Carol and I crammed in two Christmas traditions this week and we are better for it.          

Love Actually. Yeah we watched it again. The most unbelievable movie in the history of movies. Unbelievable in the sense that you have to suspend disbelief to watch it.

I always hated that phrase - "you have to suspend disbelief" - but it is true in this case. This movie is not rooted in reality in any way, shape or form. It is cheesily romantic, the plot is mushy with ridiculous occurrences - like Colin, the English dude who decides his love life will explode in America - so he travels to Wisconsin - and the first bar he walks into, he meets three, gorgeous, sexy ladies who invite him back to their house to meet the fourth gorgeous, sexy lady. They have only one bed and are too poor to even afford pajamas, so Colin has to spend the night in bed with the four of them - naked.

That is only one mild sub-plot.

One more. Hugh Grant plays the Prime Minister. Need I say more?

But it doesn't matter. The movie oozes Christmas spirit, it oozes love, it oozes romance, it is touching, emotional and funny.

We love this movie and it ignites Christmas spirit and raw emotion in us every year.

I came across a web entry ripping the movie apart. I assume it was tongue in cheek - you could not possibly proceed from the assumption that the movie was made to be taken seriously. This person ripped every little thing - plot, actors, acting, clothes, coincidences. It was actually pretty funny.

I cannot hear "Love Is All Around" without thinking about this movie. Or Bill Nighy. With a ferocious smile.

 I am vibrating at the speed of life right now because I hurled myself upstairs after watching our second Christmas tradition. The David Letterman Christmas special. Yeah, baby this one will rock your soul and tickle your funny bone.

We had to make concessions this year. Jay Thomas could not make it. So John McEnroe stepped in to tell the Lone Ranger story and to knock the meatball off the Christmas tree.

It wasn't the same but McEnroe did a pretty good job of filling humongous shoes.

And then........................Darlene Love performing "Baby Please Come Home" accompanied by Paul Shaffer's orchestra and a choir or two.

Darlene loses no power from year to year. The song is  powerful and it rocks and she makes it happen. I have to replay it every year; one listen is not enough. And last year on Christmas day I played it for my brother and he dug it, so now that will be part of the tradition this year.

Get ready, Edward - Darlene will rock your bones on Christmas day.

We used to have one more tradition. "A Christmas Carol" on Christmas Eve. The George C. Scott version. We watched it with the kids. Not the kids as kids, the kids as adults. And their women.

Carol and I loved this tradition. But it got away from us and I am sad that it did.

"Are you in love, Ebenezer?"

Banking dudes: "You don't know us." Ebenezer: "Nor do I wish to."

Lines that we looked forward to, along with others. And laughed about.

But things change and traditions melt away.

Anyway, a couple of solid emotional highs this week synced right up with this Christmas thing.

Traditions are cool, baby. Doesn't matter what they are, doesn't matter what you think of mine or what I think of yours. Traditions are comforting. They tend to inspire emotion and memory and softness and love.

These are all good things in this arctic world we live in.

Christmas has not burrowed into my heart yet and it is running out of time. I have not listened to "Winter Song' yet, not even once. Or "And So This Is Christmas" or "Imagination" (which I have linked to Christmas in my heart.

But we did "Love Actually", we did the David Letterman Christmas special.

They made us feel good, they flashed our memories, they made us softer and they made us smile and emote.

That is some pretty good bang for your buck.

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