Christmas really feels like Christmas this year. I have a house filled with Christmas cheer, two dogs who have been littering the floor with the remains of numerous Christmas squeaky toys all week, two feet of snow feel, I’ve been eating chocolate like I’m giving it up as my New Year’s resolution (oh wait—I am), and we’ve been doing a bunch of holiday week hosting and visiting (the downside being that I’ve actually had to shower, shave and get out of my pajamas every day, which is part of the fun of being on vacation).
This weekend I had friends over for a video game night. We were going to break in the four-player New Super Mario Bros. Wii game, so I had to run out and buy two more Wiimotes and Nunchucks. It was a costly, but it was worth it. The game is a blast. It’s total old school side scrolling Mario action, but this time with four characters on screen at the same time. We spent the night laughing until we were crying, repeating difficult levels over and over again, and blaming our friend who is the self-proclaimed king of the Mario world every time one of us lost a life, even if it wasn’t his fault. This game is so addicting with its inclusion of all the classic moves from old Mario games, including jumping on enemies, ground pounding, throwing enemies, flying on Yoshi, and so much more. The only real issue with the game is that, while two of the characters are Mario and Luigi, the other two are both Toads—and in all the chaos that ensues on screen, the Toads look way too similar to some enemies and mushrooms, which can be seriously confusing. Oh yeah. There’s one more problem. Once you’ve played with other people, you’ll never want to play it alone, because that would just crush the fun factor.
With a lot of baking going on in my house this week, the slice n’ bake cookie taste test still returns the same results—Nestle Toll House slice n’ bake cookie dough tastes fantastic baked but nasty when eaten raw, while Pilsbury cookie dough gets the medal for best raw cookie dough but can’t compare to Nestle Toll House when baked.
Something else that hasn’t changed is that Best Buy still sux. With gift cards in hand, I went there tonight to pick up the Blu-Ray discs of Paranormal Activity and Jennifer’s Body, both of which were released TODAY. There were approximately 2,000 copies of Paranormal Activity collecting dust, but Jennifer’s Body was sold out! How does a major movie retailer run out of that movie on the first day of release??? Are there really that many horny teenage boys who own Blu-Ray players and got gift cards as presents who are running out during Christmas break to buy a film just because the title suggests that the entire movie is about actress Megan Fox’s body??? Oh. I guess that all adds up, huh? Ah, to be a young, straight teenage virgin who scoffs in the face of a recession at the allure of Megan Fox’s naked body in high definition. What a way to ruin a gay horror lover’s Christmas vacation.
But there was one Christmas miracle this year, even though I hate to give ABC any props since it canceled my favorite new show Eastwick (gonna suck watching the last episode tomorrow night). However, ABC did make a brilliant programming decision this year that seemed logical to me when I was seven years old and Rudolph’s Shiny New Year first aired. They actually aired the show tonight, right before the New Year holiday instead of a couple of weeks before Christmas as has been done for over thirty years. It took over thirty years for them to realize they could garner some Christmas week ratings by showing a New Year’s holiday special between Christmas and the New Year??? Even better, there’s a Charlie Brown New Year’s special on tomorrow night! Two holiday specials to help ward off the post-holiday blues just a little longer. I really do feel like a kid all over again this year.
