Finding That Christmas Spirit

I've spent the last couple of days battling the elements and my own annual holiday reluctance. For starters, it's been about 4 degrees the last two days. Sure, the high made it all the way up to 12, but with wind and the desolate chill of the night dropping further in the other direction, I'd peg the mean temp at about four degrees for the last 48 hours. This year, only my hot water froze. Last year it was all of it. So I spent the weekend shower-free. More fun.

I moved the space heater into the bathroom and cranked it up to max, closed the door and hoped for a quick thaw. It was quite the contradiction. I'd walk into the bathroom and it would be 90 degrees. So hot and stuffy it was hard to breath. Then I'd walk out, close the door behind me and the rest of the apartment has to be in the high forties. It took time, and the piercing heat of a 14 degree high today, but we did it. I came home to hot water in the shower.

I've also spent most of the last couple of days sipping ginger ale, monitoring my fantasy football championships, and watching some festive holiday movies. I have two first place finishes and a third so far, and my one other team earned a trip to the finals next week. So that's been good.

On the Christmas front, it's another ambivalent year. I didn't get smashed at the office x-mas party again, I did worse. I got just buzzed enough to sing karaoke for about two hours. You should've seen me knock Tears for Fears out of the park. I also filmed most of it. Why? Who knows? But it was disgustingly awful. Although I did get to covertly film a couple of nice sets of cleavage. I had a co-worker make out with me after a Christmas party for one of our brokers two weeks ago. So maybe I had the camera out in case she wanted to get even more randy.



If it's going to be this cold, it should just snow already. Because then at least I could go outside and play with the pup. But when it's this cold, there's no playing. So instead I can sit around and re-rank the greatest Christmas movies of all time. When I last left off, this is where we stood. Here's what I'm thinking right now:

Rank. Film (Year Released) Last ranking...peak position

10. The Santa Clause (1994)...9...4
I still like Tim Allen in this role, but it looks weaker compared to the classics. And the kid is still annoying as all get out.

9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)...10...9
I still haven't gotten the chance to rewatch this in the last couple of years, but every time I see the cover of the Jim Carrey remake it makes me miss the original just a little more.

8. A Christmas Carol (1986)...8...8
I wish they'd run this on tv. I can't find it anywhere on the Internet illegally, and I don't really want to pay solid money for it. I can wait you out, WB11.

7. Elf (2003)...6...6
Will Ferrell. James Caan. Artie Lange? Why not.



6. Scrooged (1989)...5...5
Just rewatched this Monday night. Still solid, but anything here between 6-9 can be flip-flopped in any order.



5. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)...7...5
Watching this now. I jumped this over Scrooged because Chevy Chase is a smidge better in his starring role than Bill Murray.



4. Frosty The Snowman (1969)...4...4
Watching this next. I'm partial to the classics.

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)...3...3
Holding steady. Just rewatched this prior to Lampoon.



2. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)...2...2
Hoping I can catch this on tv here in the next couple of days. I love the '60's Fu Manchu that Burl Ives' snowman character had. How'd they know it would be so popular?



1. Bad Santa (2003)...1...1
Also rewatched this last night. It's the post-modern masterpiece of new Christmas movies. An instant-classic.