Ten on Tuesday

Today's Ten on Tuesday is ten movie and/or song remakes, and I can't do it. When you remake a song, you of course want to put your own original stamp on it, which mostly these days seems to mean making it breathier, adding percussion, and/or slowing   the    tempo     down      to       an        infuriating         laaaaaaaarrrrrgooooooo. None of these things improves a song, imho. I end up just missing the original song that no one wants to play any more, because the remake is the one they're trying to sell. And succeeding, for some unknown reason. As for movie remakes, I really like The Birdcage and... um.... let me think... oh, yeah, The Birdcage.

I could do one of Carole's original topics from last month, except that my lists would be exactly the same as hers. So I'm left with rolling my own. You've probably all heard me rant about my Christmas-related pet peeves, the all-Christmas-all-the-time programming starting way too early on my favorite radio stations, the commercials, the stores all tarted up in October or even earlier, the pimping of all kinds of crazy gimcrackery, the relentless drumbeat of buy buy buy. (Over 50 years ago C.S. Lewis wrote an essay on the subject that remains all too sadly relevant. I don't share his religious perspective, but his remarks on the nuttiness of it all are still right on the money. As it were.) But in the spirit of accentuating the positive, let me try...

Ten Things I Like About the Holiday Season

1. Food, cooking it and eating it. It shouldn't surprise anyone to find this at the top of my list. The turkey and gravy and stuffing and mashed potatoes and winter squash and... well. And I haven't even gotten to desserts.
   
2. Decorating. In its proper time, which let me emphasize is not for several weeks yet, I find it great fun. I even like making ornaments, a predilection I think I was supposed to have outgrown around age 10, at least judging by the reactions of my family. But they smile tolerantly, since it's a harmless pastime, similar to...
   
3. Holiday knitting. This, I admit, one can never start too early. As long as I don't bite off (much) more than I can chew, I quite enjoy the process.
   
4. Online shopping. Much more fun than the brick-and-mortar kind, at least at this time of year. No crowds, no hurry.
   
5. Caroling. Again, the time has to be right, but any way I can sing out loud without (much) annoying my friends and family works for me.
   
6. Grant's choral group's Christmas concert. Watching him sing is always fun too, especially as they always have a good mix of serious and fun.
   
7. Visiting family. Sometimes they visit us, sometimes we visit them. Either way, it's good.
   
8. Blowing off the company Christmas, excuse me, holiday party. My employer's is always on a Thursday night, usually in downtown Boston. The Thursday part actually makes sense, because that's the only night the field people, who after all bring in most of the money, are in town, Friday being their one day in the home office. There is, however, no way I'm schlepping all the way into the city on a school night. I curl up with my knitting and revel in sloth.
   
9. Hitting on the perfect gift. I don't pull this off even once every year, but when I do, there's nothing better. Especially if I made it.
   
10. Finally, when it's all said and done, resolving to get an earlier start on my holiday knitting for next year.