Christmas 2021: Part II

 

With the kids gone, it was time for my girl and I to have a little quite time, and enjoy our own Christmas.

We started our day by ordering some breakfast from Panera. Well, sort of. While my girl got a bagel with cream cheese, I ordered a turkey bacon bravo sandwich. We had so many eggs from the pizzas the past couple days that I was sick of all breakfast related foods.

After eating, we let the dog do his thing with some Christmas treats and new toys.

He still has several more treats, but the toys did not survive the day.

With the dog fully content, we proceeded with opening the gifts from each other.

The Christmas elves must have been talking with each other because my girl filled in the two blanks of Amazing Spider-Man comics my brother didn't get. She also got me this awesome Archie: 80 Years of Christmas digest.

I'm not sure where she found this cool G.I. Joe beer can, but its pretty awesome. This is a legit can from the 1980's by Schell's Brewery. I'd never heard of it until today, and have no clue if it was intended to be related to the Hasbro license.

I also got this amazing Probe Droid from the 1980's Turret & Probot Playset from Kenner's The Empire Strikes Back line. I toyed (no pun intended) around with adding this one to my vintage collection, but never did. Now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

You can't have Christmas without great snacks that you wouldn't normally buy year round. This year I got some Pocky, S'more Moose Munch, caramel apple coffee, and a Walker's rich fruit pudding. I can never finish the latter, it's simply too big. But, man, do I love trying.

One of the things I have been kicking around in my head is that when I redo my kitchen, I'm going to do it in an homage to the Fallout series. This will include red plates and utensils, as well as appliances. To help me in starting with that, I got all of these great Fallout themed items.

Above is the re-released Jones Soda Nuka-Cola Quantum and two drinking glasses. Below is the official cookbook, a new coffee mug, and some hand towels.

I also got these awesome metal signs to hang up.

This is a great start in implementing my plan!

Last up, I got two more cartoon series on DVD, and a couple CD's!

Beetlejuice and Heathcliff will fit in nicely among my collection, and are ones I have been eager to revisit. I'm so incredibly backlogged though, so I don't know when I'm going to get to these. I may have to bump them up on the watch list.

These two CD's in the "Now" collection are awesome on so many levels. First and foremost, I have to correct myself. While it may look like two CD's, each one is actually five discs. What makes these so great is that the title, "Forgotten 80's" is no joke. There are so many obscure and great tracks from artists that never saw an official CD release, or if they did are stupid expensive. This is a great way to fill in so many of those gaps. Each set contains a whopping one hundred songs!

We finished the day by ordering some Indian food, and settling in with Don't Look Up. This movie may boast a star studded cast, and even has some funny moments. However, quite frankly it's a very depressing movie. Overall, I didn't enjoy this one.

My goal is to finish the night off on a more positive note, and for that, I'm turning to the Netflix film, Klaus. I'm also going to flip through my new cookbook while watching it.

Though we had some up and down moments with the kids, overall it was a great visit, and an enjoyable Christmas. It's sad that it's over, but also relieving at the same time.

I hope that all of you had an equally great holiday. Here's to you, your family, and to a new year on the horizon. Merry Christmas!

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Christmas 2021: Part I

 

I know I promised more posts today, but holy cow, I was not expecting the bigness that this Christmas was to be. It was an incredibly full day that left no room for Blogging.

Everything kicked off with the kids making a breakfast pizza for us all.

The pie started with a layer of queso cheese spread across the curst. This was topped with tatter tots, bacon, red peppers, cheese, and eggs. When it was all baked up, they served it with a side of salsa. It was really delicious, which was surprising to me because I am not a fan of bacon.

After breakfast, we enjoyed some time opening our stockings.

Stockings are traditionally stuffed with assorted small gifts and candy. Mine was nothing short of this as well, but I only photographed the two biggest highlights from it (above).

After opening these, we decided to call our respective family members, and this included me calling my mom. We have a tradition of opening our gifts to each other together over the phone. This year I got this awesome complete collection of Inspector Gadget.

The kids then wanted to open the presents they had under the tree, and this is where things got a little overwhelming. How to put this...

When I say kids, I mean her son and his wife. The two of them met when going through a difficult period in their lives which saw them both briefly homeless. They both have severe mental disabilities, and while they've managed to get themselves stable, they don't have much. Well, my girl decided she was going to rectify this in 2021, and this resulted in her buying so many gifts that it took them a whopping three hours to open. Mind you, these were just the gifts from her to them. I didn't even bother putting what I got them under the tree because there wasn't any room.

They gave me this awesome complete series of the 80's Dennis the Menace cartoon. Love it! My classic cartoon collection is coming along nicely.

By the time they got done opening their gifts it was around 1:30 PM. Needing a little down time and break from everything, we decided to all sit down and watch The Matrix: Resurrections on HBOMax. 

It honestly wasn't bad, though it's definitely one of those movies you need to pay complete attention to if you want to keep up. There's room for a sequel by the end of it, and I can honestly say that it was good enough that I would check that out.

What I particularly liked about it was how it was handled as a whole. It paid homage to the original, building on it at the same time, while not just rebooting it. There's a reason why things are the way they are, and it works well. Would I have liked to have seen Lawrence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving in their respective roles? Absolutely. However, their recasting works well, and again, there's a reason for it.

After the flick, I brought my presents down for the kids and gave them to them to open. I then sent them on a scavenger hunt around the house with each envelope having a clue to the next. Inside each one was a gift card to a fast food joint.

For dinner I stepped into the kitchen to show my stuff. The end result was bone in prime rib, a recipe my mom used to make called those potatoes, whole roasted carrots and fresh baked rolls.

After letting dinner settle, I busted out the finale, these two delicious cakes that I made the day before.

With everyone miserably full, we called it a day, sending the kids on their way. My girl and I finished the night off by calling my brother and opening the gifts we got for each other over the phone. As usual, my brother went overboard, being very generous.

He filled five of the seven gaps in the issues I was missing form 100 - 199 in my Amazing Spider-Man collection. Just two more to go, and I'll have a consecutive run from issue 86 - 441. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Lastly, my brother got me the new Game & Watch Legend Of Zelda. He got me the Super Mario Bros. one last year, and I have to admit, I really dig these things.

I really hope that Nintendo keeps going with this series. There are so many classic games from the NES that could be released this way. This particular gem has both the classic NES games, The Legend of Zelda, and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, as well as the original Gameboy game, The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening. As an added bonus, it also has a classic Game & Watch style game called, Vermin.

My girl and I still have gifts for each other. However, we are both so incredibly exhausted at this point. We'll have to get around to these another day, which is fine by me. I love drawing out Christmas as long as possible.

Until then, I hope you all hade a Merry Christmas! God bless.

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Merry Christmas To Me

 

You work hard all year for your money. You manage your responsibilities well, and you pay all your bills. So what better way to say, "Congratulations," to yourself then to give yourself a little something under the tree.

This year, my gifts to me, from me, took a whole lot of thinking and consideration. In fact, it took so much thought that I was surprised that the second item even arrived on time. It was looking like it wouldn't get here until the following Monday, then suddenly changed status to out for delivery on the 23rd.

I can now set up all my Drednoks, and have them play around on their brand new Thunder Machine!

This thing is so rad! You can pack so many figures in, on, and around it!

Yikes, how would you like to be stuck on a road trip with these lot?

Regarding the second item, that was a complete nine issue set of Secret Wars II. I just haven't opened the box yet to take photos.

***UPDATE*** You can see them "HERE".

While this mini-series has been on my want list for a while, it wasn't a high priority. That is until Disney started talking about casting the Beyonder, and issue number one being his first appearance. I had no interest in this relatively "cheap" set skyrocketing in price for that simple fact, and decided to grab it while it was affordable.

As an "Honorable Mention", I also got my box from Valaverse which (unless there was an error) should contain my six inch Sgt. Slaughter figure.

This figure wasn't intended to be a Christmas gift, but the timing worked out perfectly that it arrived just in time to go under the tree. I'm looking forward to opening this one, and adding it to my Classified series. I just don't see Hasbro making a Sgt. Slaughter figure any time soon, if at all, and this one is pure awesome looking.

More Christmas related posts will come as the day progresses, so if you find yourself with a little down time today, please do feel free to come take a look!

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It's Finally Here!

 

Merry Christmas!

As you fill your day with family, friends, fun and festivities, take a moment to remember the true meaning of the day. The birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Praise his name.

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Christmas Eve 2021

 

The tree and stockings are up, the presents are wrapped, and there's nothing left to do but enjoy the day before Christmas. For those of you who caught my Christmas Traditions post last year, you know I'm not about to let this day come and go in the blink of an eye.

With the pandemic hopefully behind us, this year we'll be playing host to Sandy's youngest son and his wife, which should make things fun. Their mom went way overboard for them, but I suppose that's to be expected.

On Christmas I'll be in the kitchen as usual for most of it, making up lunch and dinner. As of this writing, I'm still fine tuning my menu for the day, which doesn't leave me much time to get it together. Fortunately, her kids volunteered to take care of breakfast, so I don't have to worry about that one.

In addition to pacing the day of presents, I've come up with a fun scavenger hunt for her kids. I'll be hiding six envelopes around the house, each one with a clue as to where the next is. To help incentivize them to keep on the hunt, each envelope also has a gift card inside. At the end of it, there will be a twist, which I won't spoil just yet.

What I'm struggling with the most is what movie we'll watch midday. With theaters open, streaming options are not as plentiful as they were last year. Hopefully I'll come up with something because I have zero interest in going to the theater.

Leading up to the day, I also went on my annual trip to Toy Exchange to meet up with my brother and exchange gifts. It was here that I picked up my traditional Christmas Eve item(s). Again, going back to my Christmas Tradition's post, I always give myself a gift on Christmas Eve to help get me through the excitement. This year's selection was awesome, if I do say so myself!

The Cobra S.N.A.K.E. Battle Armor was a "figure" I had wanted to add to my collection for the longest time, but I never took the plunge on ebay. It was just never the right time when I came across one.

Finding this one in the wild, 100% complete, was certainly a no brainer to nab up, and I'm glad to finally have it in my collection. I was a little shocked at how small it was, but I suppose it makes sense considering the size of the figures. Had I known this, I can't help but feel like I would have made it a larger priority to get sooner.

Legendary Wings was a game my brother and I got to rent from the local grocery store back in the day, and while I remember it being difficult, was still fun. I'm trying to be careful with my NES game buying because I have a tendency to get out of control with it, and I really do want to focus on the games we actually had as kids prior to branching out. There are actually only five or six games left on my list from my childhood, so I'm not doing too bad.

This one I did have as a kid, and no, it's not accounted for in my above note of five or six games. I had already deducted The Punisher from the list. This game was so difficult back in the day, but so much fun. It's a side scrolling rail shooter, and one that would have been so much better if it was compatible with the Zapper. Sadly, it wasn't.

While I was at Toy Exchange, I knew I wanted to pick up something Star Wars related, but I didn't know what. I looked at a few vehicles and creatures, but ended up passing on them because I already had my heart set on a G.I. Joe vehicle. Then my eyes caught these two double sided mugs from Deka.

I actually had the one below for the longest time as a kid, and used it to rinse my mouth after brushing. It eventually got incredibly dirty, and thrown out. I'll be adding these to my collection of Burger King glasses, keeping them all in the same display case together.

I had to walk away from Toy Exchange before I ended up with A Cobra Rattler and Serpentor Air Chariot. They're on my list, but not something I needed right away. Of course, I rectified the Air Chariot during my trip to Echo Base.

All of this stuff is awesome, and in and of itself would have made for a fantastic Christmas! I'm fortunate to be blessed with the ability to buy these kinds of things for myself, and thank God for every minute of it.

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Christmas In The 90's

 

Christmas in the 90's for me weren't as memorable as the ones in the 80's, or the last ten I've had with my girl. Instead, this was a time when a lot of change was taking place. I was changing from a child to a young adult, and with it, my tastes heavily skewing from my days of playing with action figures.

My family was changing too. Years of being shifted from country to country, and state to state for our parent's jobs had taken its toll. My parents were on the verge of an inevitable divorce, my brother and sister, who were also older, were also very different people. My sister was a young woman, having graduated high school years ahead of my brother and I. As for my brother, while we were only a year apart in school, he too was trying to find his own way in life, not really having any time or desire to hang out with his younger brother.

It was very obvious that the Christmas's we were accustomed to as young kids were over. While we still woke up and opened presents together, it was hardly the family experience we once had. However, this didn't stop my mom from doing the best she could.

Some of my favorite gifts of my mid to older teenage years came in the 90's, and despite the overall sadder memories associated with those years, I still look back fondly on very specific items. They were important to me because while I didn't know it at the time, they were integral in a way to things I cherished as a child, or that continued to shape me as an adult.

Star Wars was something that connected me to my childhood as a young adult. It was the one thing that I carried with me for a lifetime, only parting ways with it in my forties when I finally burned out.

However, in December of 1992 when I got this awesome letterbox VHS set, it also started my desire with collecting home video releases of the films. In essence, with the exception of comic books, this is what I collected for the longest time.

Christmas of 1992 was also the year I got my leather jacket. Yeah, I was one of those kids.

As an overweight and awkward teen, I had a difficult time my first two years of high school. Then I found my people. It's funny how when I look back on it, people used to frown upon us. We had long hair and / or facial hair, we smoked cigarettes, and we often listened to our heavy metal.

Despite our questionable image, we weren't bad kids. We didn't steal, vandalize or fight. We were the best of friends, and would give each other the shirt off our backs if asked. We just wanted to live our lives, and were fortunate enough to find like minded people to do that with.

I was big into Metallica by 1993, and all over their massive Live Sh*t: Binge and Purge CD / VHS box set. I played the heck out of the whole thing, and eventually gave it to my brother. However, when he got out of physical media in the early 2000's, it came full circle back to me, and remains in my music collection to this day.

All the more of an integral part of this tale is that I got into Metallica as a result of one of my buddies in high school. He actually gave me a CD version of Metallica's Kill 'Em All from his own collection.

I spent most of my time in my bedroom...well, when I was home. Whether I was listening to music or not, one thing I was most definitely doing was playing my Sega Genesis. Christmas of 1994 brought with it the Sega 32X attachment, and a slew of terrible games.

Yes, much like many others, I had a behemoth of a Sega setup. The core console sat on the large deck, which also housed the Sega CD, and on top of all this sat the 32X. It was a pain to configure, sporadically worked, and as I said above, had terrible games, but I loved it!

1994 was the last Christmas my family spent together as a whole, and with all us kids over the age of eighteen, those days of gathering together and sitting around a tree opening presents ended. Over a decade would pass before I found myself in a position to really get back into the Christmas spirit.

For me, it is first and foremost a time to reflect on the true meaning of the day. A time to thank our savior Jesus, reflecting on all he's done for us through his birth, death and resurrection. To enjoy all of his blessings through a holiday that brings with it a special time to spend with loved ones, to enjoy the spirit of giving to others, and revel in the delight of receiving.

Though we are still a couple days away, I wish a Merry Christmas to you all!

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A Christmas Story...And Its Forgotten Sequels

 

Ah, A Christmas Story. It's that timeless classic shown every year by Turner Broadcasting, and the film that many people truly associate with the holidays. It's heartwarming, bringing a viewpoint from a time when things were just simpler. It also spawned three horrific sequels / spin-offs that people often forget about.

The original film was released on November 18th, 1983, and while it made an impressive twenty million dollars at the box off on a three million dollar budget, left theaters after its run with little to no lasting impact. A Christmas Story was vaguely remembered by fans, but not the coveted cult classic it would become. In fact, your average person on the street wouldn't even know about the movie.

While it would occasionally appear on cable television throughout the 80's and 90's, this endowment of equating the film to the holiday season wasn't ushered in until 1994. This was when Turner Broadcasting acquired the rights to run it in syndication, and did so by airing it across all three of its networks that year. Popularity quickly increased, and in 1997 TNT began airing the film for twenty-four hours straight starting at 8:00 PM on Christmas Eve. Despite all the streaming services that have come over the recent years, this is a tradition TNT still holds, and will be doing so again in two days.

What many people don't seem to remember is the oddly titled Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven Of Bliss, which came and went in the blink of an eye in 1988. The made for TV special followed the Parker family (of A Christmas Story) on a summer vacation, and stars a young Jerry O'Connell as fourteen year old Ralph.

At first the film only aired on The Disney Channel, but was soon also showing on PBS. It would eventually see a VHS release in 1993, but remained relatively forgotten.

With the popularity of Turner's broadcasting of the original film in 1994, Hollywood once again returned to the Parker family. This time for the film, My Summer Story. This film takes place the following summer of the events which occurred in A Christmas Story, and this time stars a young Kieren Culkin as Ralphie. Other notable cast members included Charles Grodin as The Old Man (AKA Mr. Parker), and Mary Steenburgen as Mrs. Parker.

While it manages to capture the tone of A Christmas Story, it ultimately suffers for simply just not being good. Though the cast members are trying, they simply don't hold up to the originals. The film inevitably flopped.

Then came the ultimate abomination. The official true sequel to the film. 2012's A Christmas Story 2.

This abysmal failure ignores everything established in My Summer Story, possibly for the best, and instead churns out a script very liberally borrowed from the original. It copies and pastes every landmark from the first film from "Oh fudge," to a grumpy Santa Claus, a leg lamp, Chinese food for Christmas dinner, and Flick getting his tongue stuck.

It's horrific in every sense of the word, and truly shocking that despite Hollywood's best efforts, they weren't able to tarnish the beloved original cult classic. It's fortunate that not many people know about these films.

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Holiday Playlist

Nine days to go, and Christmas will be here! If you've been keeping up with me this holiday, you've been watching a lot of cartoons and films to help make each day a little easier to wait through. Well, today, we're adding to that entertainment with some of my favorite holiday tracks!

 

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The Twelve Movies Of Christmas

We're less than two weeks away from my favorite holiday of the year, and as each date clicks off the calendar, I get more and more excited. To help with the anticipation of the day, I'm filling my days with some of my favorite Christmas themed movies from the 80's and 90's!

It's fitting that the first movie on this list (going alphabetical), is also my favorite. Praise The Dark Knight all you want, I love me some Batman Returns. That movie is sheer perfection! From start to finish it builds on the fantastic 1989 film, making things bigger and better as it goes. The cast is superb, and the film itself masterfully crafted.

I got to see Die Hard film for the first time with my dad when he got the film on Laserdisc back in the day. While at the time I would have never equated this film with that of a Christmas movie, in my old age, I buy into it.

I mean, come on, who doesn't like this movie? Is it perfect? Not at all. But what it has is heart. It's iconic, and a classic staple of the holidays. It's as much a part of Christmas as the Macy's Day Parade is for Thanksgiving. You just can't have the holiday without it on the TV.

Hey, Vern! Remember that time Earnest Saves Christmas? I do! I saw it in the theater with my mom and brother in 1988. This was back in the day when Earnest movies were hysterical in every sense of the word, and kept kids rolling on the floor. Not only that, but the film also has Santa Claus. You can't you beat that. Know what I mean? Ernest was the guy who taught me that when you don't want to try someone's food to just politely tell them, "I can't eat on an empty stomach."

When my mom and dad took us kids to see Gremlins in the theater it scared the ever loving crap out of me and my brother. So much so that my grandmother had to come pick us up from the theater. As I grew older, and gave the film another try, it quickly became one of my favorite films of the 80's.

I saw Jingle All The Way for the first time on VHS long after it had been released on home video. Naturally, the thrill of the hunt for toys drew me in, and even I found myself wanting a Turbo Man. Though I never got one. 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation may not be the best among the series of films, but it still has a lot to enjoy. I never understood why the kids changed from film to film, or why they even seemed to get younger, but this never hindered me from enjoying this classic. Turns out, this was Anthony Michael Hall's fault for not wanting to reprise his role in the second film, and instead went on to star in Weird Science. Ever since then, it became a running gag to recast the kids from film to film.

When my buddy (at the time) had a double date with a couple girls from school, we decided that it would be the traditional dinner and movie gambit. After a bite, we took them too the theater hoping to have a showing of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which would have been our second time seeing it together in the theaters. Instead, we got stuck seeing Kathy Bates in A Home Of Our Own. Man, that sucked.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles took me a couple viewings to really get behind, but when it finally did, and the gags started clicking with my young mind, I kind of dug it. It's probably my least favorite films on this list, but it's still a classic.

East meets West in what would be the first Rocky film I ever saw as a kid. In fact, it wouldn't be until I owned my own set of the (at the time) five Rocky film VHS box set that I would finally get to see the whole story. Still, nothing screams holidays like an uppercut to the jaw on Christmas day. Just ask Ivan Drago!

My mom and I didn't see many movies together in the theater. In fact, I think I can list all of them on one hand. Gremlins...sort of, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Ernest Saves Christmas and...Scrooged will always be the one I enjoyed the most. It was just a nice afternoon with me and mom, and this classic film. I was really happy when my dad got this one on Laserdisc, and watched it a ton throughout my young teen years.

Trading Places was a film I didn't get to see until I started building my own VHS collection shortly after high school. I remember my buddy and I, same guy I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas With, would make it a weekly thing to go to the local video stores and spend all the money we had on movies. It was a lot of fun to just hang out and watch flicks, which we did a lot.

But, there you have it. Twelve Christmas themed flicks that can help you too count down these last few remaining days until the holiday. Enjoy! I know I will!

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