With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I would offer my favourite things from this holiday season. Of course, my list may be different after Christmas, but at the time of this writing (on December 24th), this would be My 10 Favourite Things About Christmas 2011.
10. The Return Of The NBA On Christmas Day
I'm a big basketball fan, but I'm not a huge NBA fan, so I honestly didn't care whether the NBA returned for this season or not. I was more than happy to focus on NCAA basketball and CIS basketball in Canada. But since it was announced that the NBA was returning on Christmas Day, and I saw that the Miami Heat were playing the Dallas Mavericks in an NBA Finals rematch, I relished the opportunity to yell "Suck It LeBron!" at my TV on Christmas Day. (Twitter users, please join my mission to have #suckitlebron trending at some point during the NBA Season.)
9. Visiting Niagara Falls
We go to Niagara Falls a number of times each year, but nothing is better than seeing the Falls in the Winter when the snow and ice have formed. It's an unbelievable sight, and we always make sure to take advantage of the fact that we live so close to the Falls by making an annual Winter trip.
8. Getting A Phone Call From My Friend Randy
This entry may seem a little out of place, but I had to include it because in the week prior to Christmas, Randy had something pretty unbelievable happen to him...not once, but twice. The first time, he was sitting in his car in a mall parking lot waiting for his wife, when the door opened, a woman got in and sat down and started yelling and swearing at him about his attitude, before looking at him and screaming "OH MY GOD, THIS ISN'T MY CAR!" and running off. When he stopped laughing, he called me to tell me the story.
Three days later, he was once again waiting in his car while his wife was shopping (don't ask me why he waits in the car while she shops, I have no idea), and while I am talking to him...it happens again! I can actually hear someone in the background open the door, and then say something...and then say "Oh, I'm so sorry", and Randy say "Happens to me all the time." Then he tells me that another woman tried to get in his car, and I didn't believe him. So, what does he do? He gets out of the car and goes over to the woman (a few cars away) and gets her to confirm so that I can hear it.
Moral of the Story: Randy needs to lock his car at the mall.
7. Our Christmas Tree
This year's Christmas tree was quite an adventure. This was the first Christmas for Devena and I under one roof, so we both had full Christmas trees and ornaments, and trying to figure out what made the A list and what was relegated to the B list from each house was an interesting task. We ended up getting it figured out, and I think it looks fantastic...the best tree I've ever had. Take a look and see if you can find the following ornaments: all 4 characters from The Wizard of Oz (and the Witch!), Indiana Jones, and Where The Wild Things Are.
6. Holiday Favourites On Galaxie
I love Christmas Music. Period. If you don't, there's something seriously wrong with you. This year, we've been listening almost non-stop to the Christmas music on our satellite (Bell, Channel 936). There is also another station with the same music but with the traditional yule log burning on the screen. My favourite Christmas song: Holly Jolly Christmas. Fact.
5. Taylor University's Silent Night
This is one of the most amazing basketball traditions I've ever seen. At Taylor University, they have an annual 'Silent Night' game, where everyone in the crowd remains completely silent until the team scores their 10th point, at which point they erupt and make an incredible amount of noise for the rest of the game, culminating in the entire crowd putting their arms around each other and singing "Silent Night" at the end of the game. Watch the video...guaranteed goosebumps.
4. Yoda Christmas Card
Yes, I had seen the cartoon online, but I was thrilled to actually find this card in a store last week. I bought multiple copies of it. Don't be surprised if you get one from me in the next couple of years.
3. Father-And-Son Elf Shirts
For as long as I can remember, A Christmas Story had been my favourite Christmas movie, all the way back to Grade 5 when I went to see it at the Odeon Theatre in Guelph with Christine McEvoy, in what was essentially my first date ever. I just now realized that, on that night, I was younger than Lucas is now. Wow.
In recent years, a new favourite Christmas movie has emerged in our home, and that is the Will Ferrell classic Elf. So when Old Navy released these "Son of a Nutcracker" Elf shirts, it was a no-brainer that Lucas and I needed a matching set.
2. Devena's Christmas Baking
I had never really been a huge fan of Christmas Baked Goods. I was always a salty snack person (chips, popcorn, etc...) instead of loving sugary treats or baking. But when I started tasting the things that Devena makes for Christmas, my tune changed in a hurry. Shortbreads that melt in your mouth (just ask anyone who has ever tried them!), Seven-Up Cake, Christmas Mice, and that traditional Italian favourite: crostoli (pictured above). My girl makes the best. If you were lucky enough to get a package from her this season, you know what I'm talking about!
1. The Return Of SNL's Christmas Song
Last week's episode of Saturday Night Live featured an unexpected reprise of one of my favourite moments on the show: Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan performing their original Christmas song. Enjoy Tracy Morgan as the highlight, and click here if you want to see the original from 2006.
Since I didn't really write anything throughout the week, we'll call this one my Sunday Night TV Week in Review.
Hell's Kitchen I've had a tough time getting into it this season, and I think it's because I can't stand Whoopi...oops, I mean Tennile. All she does is holler in fale-dramatic monotone at the camera in her interviews. It's cringe-inducing. I expect Ariel and Kevin to be in the final two.
Top Chef I'm really enjoying the Las Vegas themed season, and the chefs are all very charismatic and likeable. My favourites this season are Kevin, Brian, and Jen, who I think I have a little bit of a crush on...and who I'm picking to win the whole thing. Saturday Night Live I thought Ryan Reynolds was a pretty funny host, and the guest spots were pretty entertainin. Scarlett Johanssen in the Porcelain Fountain commercial was pretty funny, as was Elijah Wood in the Andy Samberg Digital Short. But nothing compared to the unexpected Lady Gaga-Madonna catfight (yes, it was really them) in the Deep House Dish sketch. And I must admit, I did enjoy the Celebrity Family Feud sketch. Jason Sudekis' Richard Dawson impression was surprisingly accurate, but leave it to SNL to leave nothing sacred and poke fun at the MacKenzie Phillips/John Phillips relationship. It was awkward and hilarious all at once. I was quite surprised with how much I enjoyed Lady Gaga's performances...it certainly is a spectacle when she performs live. Survivor Everyone is talking about how Russell is this season's big villain, but he's nothing compared to how ignorant and crass Ben was. I'm glad he's gone, and that he got his verbal comeuppance at Tribal Council from Jaison. I always provide a link to Jeff Probst's blog at EW.com, as well as Dalton Ross and Josh Wolk's video series Survivor Talk, but make sure you watch this week's episode of Survivor Talk where they interview Ben. If you couldn't believe how he acted on the show, you won't even believe the things he said to Dalton and Jeff.
Amazing Race First of all, at the beginning of the episode, I was already pining for last week's awesome "Eat The Wasabiiiii" sound effect, but alas, we had to move on in Vietnam. I liked the idea of a moving pit stop, as the boat moved down the river to an unknown location.
Marcy reminded me of an older version of Liz Lemon, Tina Fey's character on 30 Rock. It's a shame I won't have any more episodes to see if that was a fair comparison, as she and her archery-lovin' boyfriend got the boot this week after they tried to randomly assemble Vietnamese letters into a word without asking for help (?????).
Did Brian and Ericka really refer to themselves as "Team Zebra" as they linked their hands together? Really? That's the card you want to play? What's next, when they have to go into the rainforest, we're going to hear how Brian will excel at the challenge because he has "Jungle Fever"? Come on...
And I'm not sure what was more disconcerting: watching him tear apart a VCR with his bare hands, or listening to her keep yelling "Use the Hammaaaahh" is that Boston accent. Once again, they finished near the end, second last, and he still gave an "Oh yeah, baby" (but no throat slash), and a lame analogy about how he's a lion and lions stalk their prey from behind. Keep dropping behind, Mr. Lion...and watch the gazelles and Team Zebra run off into the sunset.
- I was reading a story yesterday that I found astounding. The internet service in parts of Africa is so slow that they ran a test to see what would be faster, an electronic transfer of data, or a data card strapped to a carrier pigeon. The pigeon won. Click here to check out the story. - Look what album is being released on November 3rd. I'm quite excited to say the least. Greatest Hits plus 2 new tracks! And a limited edition 2-disc set. - Less than a week of Big Brother left. If Natalie doesn't get evicted on tonight's episode, I'm going to be furious. - We got this album through work this week, another in a long line of lullaby albums featuring the music of pop or rock artists. But let's be honest...is this really the best name for this album? - The season premiere of Saturday Night Live is coming up on September 26th, and the host is Megan Fox, with U2 as the musical guest. Should be good, and gives me an excuse to post this picture of Megan Fox. - I'll leave you with two great quotes that I read this week:
1) Poker is a game of skill until the poker gods shit on you.
2) A Friend with Benefits is like a unicorn that craps cupcakes. Fun to imagine, but not real.
I saw that the Justin Timberlake episode of Saturday Night Live is re-airing this Saturday. This is a MUST-WATCH if you haven't seen it. I can't stress that enough. Also, I've found new videos of Motherlover (the uncensored version!) and Plasticville which actually work, so the embedded videos on the May 10th and May 11th posts are working again. If you haven't seen them yet, check out the links, and watch the show on Saturday. Not just for those two sketches, but for The Barry Gibb talk show (see pic below) and many others. By far, the best episode of the past decade. Now that TV season is over, I'll be updating the blog list on the sidebar. I'll be removing the links to Lost until it's back in January, except for Long Live Locke, since Erika Olsen usually continues to write there periodically in the off-season. I will be adding her other blog, According To E, as a new link on the side, and I highly recommend that you check it out. Any of my readers who have their own blog, and would like a link, let me know.
- I hope you all had a good long weekend. The weather turned out to be quite nice, except for a bit of wind and some chilly evenings. It was a busy weekend for Lucas and I, as we had a christening for my beautiful niece Sophia on Sunday, and then a reception afterwards. And then on Monday, we went to Wellesley for a BBQ and Birthday Party for my friend Dwayne. Lucas had so much fun playing with the 20+ kids that were there, and it was a pretty relaxing afternoon for the adults, just sitting around in the back. It was a fun day, with good weather...too bad Lucas couldn't stay up late enough to enjoy the fireworks. I'm trying to decide what I liked most about Dwayne's house, and it's a toss-up between the most beautiful kitchen I've ever seen, and the urinal he's installed in the bathroom in the basement (which is referred to as 'Man Land'). - I really enjoyed the series finale of Scrubs, it was quite emotional watching it as the last episode. I had heard that it may be renewed with a new cast based around the new interns, but for all intents and purposes it was the final episode for the regulars. I come to find out this week that it has been renewed for next season by ABC, and that the cast members (including Zach Braff!) have signed on for a minimum of six episodes each. Why build up to the series finale if you're coming back!? Don't get me wrong, more Scrubs (with the regular cast) will always be fine by me, but after you get invested in closure, it's a surprise. But it will be nice to see more of the best bro-mance on TV. - Two of the most ridiculous Entertainment News items I've heard, and they came out within minutes of each other: They are apparently making a Ghostbusters III, and Lorne Michaels is considering making a movie based on the horrible Macgruber sketches from SNL. - Speaking of SNL, the season finale with Will Ferrell was pretty good. Not as good as the previous week's Justin Timberlake episode, but still pretty solid. Always fun to see a new Celebrity Jeopardy, and kudos to Tom Hanks for taking part.
A few final thoughts on Survivor: Tocantins since the finale was this past Sunday:
- I was concerned when the hint for one of the final immunity challenges was a spider. If it had anything to do with real spiders, I would not have been able to watch. It was tough enough watching the nature footage all season with the damn giant spiders! But that big spider maze was pretty cool. Credit to the producers for a good challenge. - I also really enjoyed the final challenge with the ball/maze. The endurance challenges can get pretty repetitive, so I'm glad they did something that involves dexterity, like they did in the final challenge of Fans vs. Favourites with Amanda, Parvati, and Cirie. - The Coach 'lie detector' test was laughable and absurd. Hours after the finale, it was all over the internet that the guy he went to is a known fraud whose credibility on these tests is ZERO. You'd think he would have looked into his credentials, but of course not, and now he looks like an even bigger fool. - I've often thought that it's a shame that they don't 'deliver' the votes from the location to the Live Reunion Show in a cheesy fashion like they used to, and I was thinking that on Sunday night. On Monday morning, Dalton Ross's recap from EW.com stated almost EXACTLY word for word what I had been thinking, so I'm just going to cut and paste his words (including the video clip)...
Not quite as bummed as I am that Jeff Probst no longer delivers the votes stateside in an awesomely ridiculous manner, but bummed nonetheless. (Seriously, check out the clip below from the Vanuatu finale. Start at the three minute mark and enjoy seeing Probst bushwack, skydive, and motorcycle his way into Los Angeles. Simply amazing.)
- Over 4,000 visits and counting now. Just a reminder that the Comments section is always open. Hoping to hear from more of you!
If you didn't see Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's follow-up to 'Dick in a Box' on Saturday Night Live last night, you'll want to check this out. (The YouTube video I'm embedding now on Sunday morning at 9:40 am has 307 views, I expect it to be over 2 million by tomorrow. )
- I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend, and a good Easter with your families and loved ones. Lucas and I had a great day in Guelph today with my family, and a wonderful meal. It was nice to see my Uncle Frank who was here from Montreal, and great to spend some time with Uncle David on Skype since he couldn't make it. Lucas and I made a homemade key lime pie yesterday to bring, and it was tasty! Lucas did some major work squeezing limes and grating the zest for the pie. He is a great helper. - My Survivor prediction was correct, so seeya Joe, and thanks for the Double Leg dinner you won me by having an infected leg. Sure was a close call, though, considering my pick Brendan likely would have been gone if joe hadn't been evacuated. (On that note, I'm reminded of the scene from the first episode on Season 5 of The Wire regarding the definition of a person 'being evacuated'. Look it up...) - Kudos to Sean A. at Brantford for turning my session around in the last half hour before I left. And nice work on the zingers. Three-for-three. Well done. I love playing with that guy that was in seat 5, who criticized me for being sarcastic as he was sarcastically criticizing. Beautiful irony. - I was watching Flight of the Conchords the other night and recognized Eliza Coupe, who plays Denise on Scrubs (Jo the chubby chasin' intern). Funny to see her in another role...her character Lisa was quite entertaining. - I was flipping around on TV on Saturday Night and came across Bob Saget at the Just for Laughs Festival, so I thought I'd watch a bit because he's now this cult icon who everyone thinks is hilarious for his profane comedy, so I stopped and watched a bit. Um....not funny at all. It was just brutal. So I flipped past, and here's the fun part. The show was on the Comedy Network (channel 46), and when I flipped forward, it went to channel 47, which just happened to be showing an old episode of America's Funniest Home Videos. So I had a laugh flipping back and forth as he's making some lame family joke on AFHV, and then flipping to him on screen saying 'F*ck, C*ck, Sh*t!' (no joke, that's actually what he said as I flipped.) - An animated series of Bob and Doug MacKenzie? Seriously? Is this how we celebrate classic Canadian comedy? - I posted last week that SNL was getting pretty bad again. Well, the Zac Efron episode was weak, but not horrible. I do have to give credit where it's due, however, and mention that Weekend Update made me laugh out loud at least 4 times. - Amy Poehler's new show Parks and Recreation was ok, but I anticipate it being much better in the future, and getting rid of some of that 'Pilot Rust'. I'll give it a shot. - Amazing Race was entertaining tonight. How do you forget to bring your bags??? Unreal. The karaoke trannies were hilarious, especially when the Hobbits apparently had no idea they were men! And they sure are editing Jaime and Cara into the hated team, which is ridiculous because if anything, Jaime is the only one who is saying anything controversial at all. Cara looks embarrassed every time Jaime flies off the handle. How awesome is it that the Hobbits have racked up five hours of penalties in 2 episodes? - Well, I would have hoped for more response to Saturday's post requesting readers to comment and introduce yourself in the Comments section. I understand some of you want to read in private, and that's fine, I'm just happy you're reading at all. I was just hoping to give an oppurtunity to create somewhat of a community in the comments for future posts. I hope some of you will come out of your shell eventually. :)
- Great to see Michigan State win last night at the Final Four and advance to the championship game on Monday night. What a thrill it must be for them to be playing for the championship in Detroit. I correctly picked North Carolina vs. Michigan State as the championship game in my bracket, but still finished second in the pool by a measly two points. - I saw that Seth Rogen was hosting SNL last night, so that seemed like it had a lot of potential. I recorded it and it was one of the worst episodes I've seen. It was painful. It's shocking to me how the show can have such a resurgence at the beginning of the season, and then be so horrible. And it wasn't just the Sarah Palin-Tina Fey stuff that made it great again, the other parts were solid too. I don't understand it. - Snow Patrol is opening for U2 in Toronto? I couldn't stop laughing when I saw that. Oh, the irony! - Nice to have a new episode of Survivor after 2 weeks off, but they really need to do a better job on the editing. This season it's painfully obvious every episode which team is going to lose and go to Tribal Council just based on how much airtime the tribes are getting. It's like they've decided to build the story for the tribe that loses, and then show one meaningless scene from the other tribe. Coach is quickly becoming the most hated contestant ever....I can't stand him. Even more than fake-accent Ace from last season. - Lost was a good episode, and a turning point for Kate's character. She was quickly becoming a background entity who was losing anything interesting and compelling about her, but this episode really turned that around. The final scene with her and Aaron was heartbreaking. I have a couple of theories that I think might be close to what is happening, but I'm not going to post them because, frankly, I don't want to be right. I'd much rather not know and be surprised, which is why I try not to theorize. I've tried not to look at previews for upcoming episodes so that I just go in blind each week, but I happened to see next week's preview, and.....wow. Can't wait. - I got a pretty good response to my Condiments post. I'm going to try and post more single topic, longer posts instead of these rapid-fire, bullet-point posts. I'll still do these, but going to try and expand a bit.
