The Christmas Toy & How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Celebration #23)

Today was a bit of a wash. It was nice to have the day off from work, but the rest of the day was not particularly wonderful. Josh woke up feeling pretty rough... as if we haven't had someone ill in the family for long enough!!... so we couldn't go visit our friends who have a new baby. Very sad for both the Emperor and me, but you just don't take risks with colds and other people's babies.

Then we were going to visit our old landlords-- but they weren't home. So that was our other big thing of the day that didn't up happening. Doh.

We DID get to go to the park twice though (once to the park next to our house, and once at a nice park up near where we used to live) and both times, the Emperor ran into some little boys about his age. Very fun for him. Not as much fun for me, but, that's life as a grownup sometimes.

Despite not getting to do what we set out to do, we spent a lot of the day out and about so when we got home, we wanted a low-energy celebration. We first set out to watch The Christmas Toy, another Jim Henson Christmas special. If you're familiar with the plot of Toy Story, this is very similar to that, just a few decades older. Basically, there's a toy who was last year's big Christmas present, and he's about to get replaced by this year's present, and it's hard for him to make the mental adjustment.



I thought it was actually pretty cute and sweet. I like the premise in Toy Story but it's kind of um, hm, how do I put this... I feel like some of the social stuff in it is just a little too mean for really little kid. That problem doesn't surface in The Christmas Toy. (Your tradeoff is that it's not particularly funny or anything, unlike TS.)

After that, dinner still wasn't ready (more on that in a sec) so we went ahead and rewatched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Emperor and I watched it together at the tail end of November, but I asked him if he'd like to see it again and he answered with great enthusiasm, so we did it. I think he liked it even more this time. (Possibly because he's just more familiar with Christmas imagery now.) Ah, such a great movie. One of the few things where I actually think it's better than the book (which is great too). Excellent.

Dinner was delicious-- Josh made tofu buffalo wings in the style of the Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk tempeh wingz and some vegan bleu cheese dressing, and then we ate this big sloppy mess wrapped up in tortillas. Very reminiscent of a place we used to eat in Worcester. Mmmm. Junk food. So good.

The Emperor was not in to dinner at all, because we ate way too late and he was just exhausted and crabby. Oops. Sometimes it can be hard (for both him and for me) to remember how good of a day he's had when he has such a sour mood at the end. But here's a picture to remind us all: