"To Drive the Cold Winter Away....."

By which I mean, to feel cozy at the prospect of the mercury dipping below 70°.

But even so, sipping mulled wine and gazing happily at our Don't-You-Dare-Take-It-Down-Before-February-2 Tree feels like Yules of Yore, (meaning, not of my Youth, but of Years Yet... oh, shut up.)

But I do like spiced wine and I do like the glittering bead garlands of the tree and I do like the over-populated creche scene, (a heathen in-law looked at it and said, wow, that supposed to be Jerusalem or the east Village, or what...? Magnanimous at this festive time, I forgive him and pity him his ignorance.)

Not much time left to savor the victual delights of the season.
One last bit of "fancy" cheese - is there much tastier than Sartori's Bellavitano? I should like to know about it if there is!
Thank God for Aldi, it's the only way I'd ever have such a treat in my house, (we were almost banned from Whole Foods after Himself consumed pretty much the entire contents of a "dome" of samples once. I was made very aware of the... frugality? of my holiday larder by the aforementioned in-law. The prospect of Himself losing insurance coverage will no doubt preclude us ever again entertaining the guy in a manner he finds acceptable - if that isn't the very definition of Silver Linings I don't know what is!)

My Mother... she may have been the only person I know who also enjoyed mulled wine. And she liked cheeses as much as I. Her last Christmas is a memory that will continue to haunt and delight me.
"Lo, how a..."

Speaking of "Christmas Carol" Movies...

... (and I was,) Himself and I have a conceit that technology will soon give us the power to watch classics, old favorites, even cult films, and recast them without altering anything else about the film.

So I, for instance, would be able to watch his favorite, Gone With The Wind, same direction, art directions, etc, mostly the same cast, but Errol Flynn as Rhett. (So sue me, I don't get Clark Gable.)

We celebrate Scroogeapalooza ever year, a marathon in which we even watch filmed versions of the Dickens classic that we don't like (I regret having given away the VHS of the otherwise boring musical with the HYSTERICALLY fay Marley of the great Alec Guinness.)
I hope to be able to add an Irish big screen production this year that I saw the trailer for last, (when we were able to add some not very good Golden-Age-Of-Televsion iterations into the mix.

We sit around eating Christmas cookies, (I have developed a recipe called Scrooge's Change of Heart, that I need to remember to share,) drinking toddies, and imagining the perfect hybridization of them all.
Alistair Sim, but he has to do that bit that Patrick Stewart, oh, Edward Woodward is PERFECT, doesn't that Belle break your heart, I don't care that it's not in the book, gotta add that little scene where, make her costume dirtier for pete's sake....

Okay, I want to combine these two activities.
Joel Grey was fantastic, so was Angela Pleasance, but I want them to use the Lord of the Rings tricks and make this glorious woman seem to only come up to about Scrooge's elbow without changing her proportions in any way, and make her the Spirit of Christmas Past.

She can keep the lipstick if she wants, but she MUST keep the hair.