HO! HO! HO!

Oh. My. God.

If THIS was/is not the best Christmas ever gift-wise, I will eat my (Santa) hat.

Those of you who get royally jealous of those who get a TON of gifts...look away, NOW. The Surgeon General advises you to do so.

Don't say I did not warn you...

*whew!* Somehow, I don't think I am going to get much sleep tonight...

Current Music: "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" by Wizzard

Happy Christmas!

First things, first...as promised at the beginning of the month, the pictures of both my family and I's trees, both decorated by me, myself, and I.

Got to kick off my festivities through watching an "encore presentation" (original presentation being two weeks ago in my home's "Great Room", a combination of the kitchen and living room) of Gremlins with commentary from the cast AND the deleted scenes with even more cast commentary. This turned out to be even more of a hoot that I imagined it to be...

- Zach Galligan is my new favorite guilty pleasure actor...actually, I don't think I really had a favorite guilty pleasure actor before that statement. But yes, I couldn't help but love Zach, his geekiness, and his comments throughout the picture.

And the fact that in Gremlins, he looked like a young Hartford-era Ronnie Francis, except for the clefted chin, certainly didn't hurt either. ;D

- What made Gremlins' cast commentary different from the rare other cast commentaries to which I've listened is the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 quality it had in parts. Galligan's comments *really* added to that feel. Come to think of it, Galligan and Joe Dante (the director) were the only ones *really* getting into doing the commentary. Coming in second place was Howie Mandel (the voice of Gizmo and a few gremlins), who, along with Galligan, was not afraid to make fun of certain aspects of Gremlins AND the commentary itself. Third place was Phoebe Cates...and that was only made possible thanks to Galligan, who had to constantly jog Cates' memory AND vocal chords. Last place was Dick Miller, whose presence in the commentary really baffled me...yeah, he was/is a good actor and all, but it was not like he had a super-huge part other than his character mentioning that he believed in gremlins.

- I was not the least bit surprised that Dante said his most favorite part of the movie was the one that drags the most...where Cates' character explains to Galligan's character why she hates Christmas. It can't be a Dante movie without some sort of sucky part...even with Steven Spielberg's supervision.

- Whenever Howie Mandel used his Gizmo voice...I kept thinking more of Bobby from Bobby's World than Gizmo. And that's not helped by the fact that Howie admitted to using the same voice for Gizmo, Bobby, and imitating children during his stand-up comedy act.

Overall, in addition to the Gremlins movie itself, I highly recommend the cast commentary for sci-fi/fantasy film lovers, geeks, and/or people who just want some totally different Christmas viewing. Yes, after all of that, I *do* consider Gremlins a Christmas movie. Hey, quit looking at me like that...

Speaking of DVDs/videos...here are a few fun Christmastime YouTube videos...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVhZS1-WZZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=putnlqW2pKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3NhDtfZmd0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QSTcOHe3lE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AC3sZB-v7Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVENmQqQyx4

And some YTMNDs...

http://miamichristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://mythbusterchristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://bbnutcracker.ytmnd.com/

http://patrickswayzechristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://whatischristmas.ytmnd.com/

http://christmastimegman.ytmnd.com/

http://santaclaus.ytmnd.com/

This has got to be the most generous Christmas post I've done ever since I have gotten into blogging. That said, hope today and tomorrow are just like this post to you and your friends and loved ones! :)

Current Music: "Merry Christmas Baby" by B.B. King

Cory Stillman Activated From IR

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=187149

Even though the Canes have been winning lately, Cory is much needed. But, will it get me killed to say that right now, I wish he was a defenseman instead of a winger...?

And it may be off-topic, but I gotta mention the following...tonight, I watched Under the Mistletoe on Lifetime (Shut up). And it turned out to not only be a Christmas ghost story flick (which was what reeled me in via the ads during one of my morning Frasier fixes), but also technically a hockey flick, especially with a few sequences and the ending!! AND, it came complete with a CAROLINA HURRICANES POSTER (circa 2001-02, unless my eyes were deceiving me), along with a ton of other hockey goodies, in the son of the ghost's room. That was a ton of icing on the cake that was a for once pretty decent Lifetime movie, knowing how those things usually are.

Current Music: "Christmas Is the Time To Say I Love You" by Billy Squire

Christmas Time Is Here Again!!

Yes, tis the time of the year for my second most favorite holiday behind Halloween. Just like then, my (greedily huge) Amazon Wish List is VERY RIPE for picking for those of you interested in getting yours truly a gift or two. :D Also ripe for picking are my Card and Stuff Want Lists over at Dieci, my Ron Francis collection site.

Most noteworthy aspects of my celebrating the season thus far...

- My mother and I got the family Christmas tree up the earliest we've ever done the task...November 28th. Before that, the earliest we ever had the tree up was maybe two weeks before Christmas. What probably helped was that this year's tree is a brand new one, featuring lights that change back and forth between multi-color and white. It looks FANTASTIC, and even though I plan to eventually post a photo or two, I highly doubt that photos will do the tree (which, I totally decorated while my mother unloaded just about every single decoration we have...including some we have never used before!!) justice.

- My official Christmas icon for this year over at LiveJournal and at a few message boards is one featuring Link, Zelda, and Agahnim/Ganon wishing all a Merry Christmas, in honor of the fact that my big gift from my folks this year will be a Nintendo Wii. :D

- Last but certainly not least for now...my Christmas playlist, featuring nostalgic favorites and ecelectic versions of traditional tunes. New additions are in bold, additions I hope to have are in italics, AND the playlist is now separated into themes...

Click here for the playlist.

Current Music: "Step Into Christmas" by Elton John