Posted by td @ 12/25/2002 09:45 AM PST

A very Merry XMas Day to everyone, and revel away the hours, as I will with my sisters and friends.

Armed with my 3rd cup of java, I will merrily prepare trays of marzipan, Italian wafer rolls,
truffles and various and sundry sweetstuffs, to tote with me. I am the Jewess bearing gifts from the East (Las Vegas), so don't beware.

My wishes for '03: Peace on Earth, peace for Israel, and a Houdini act for Saddam. My personal wish is for a very prolific year in DVD releases.

To William Lurie: According to my relative in the DVD business, the very inside scoop is that there is a massive Dick VD collection coming out this year, as well as several other TV series. Mum's the word.

Posted by KT @ 12/25/2002 10:33 AM PST

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! God bless us, every one!! Happy Holidays! OK...I've run out of cliche holiday greetings and phrases. I'm sitting at home today enjoying a cross between the "Christmas Story" marathon on TNT and the "Trading Spaces" marathon on TLC (which I am taping so I can watch it back in New York whenever I want because I don't have cable there.)

We will soon be leaving for my aunt and uncle's house to spend time with their family (which is a REAL joy, let me tell ya *ahem*) and my dad's parents. I'm excited to see my grandparents, but my uncle's family--not so much. Anywho, I hope everyone is having a spiffy day and eating loads and loads of carbs. I don't know about you guys, but I'm stockpiling the food...hehe!

My Christmas wish: I wish that everyone could live peacefully without fear of bioterror or war. I wish that people could be more tolerant of people who are not like they are. I wish that there was a cure for all those horrible diseases that are out there. I wish that Dr. Eric would come back to the Met. And I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you and your family and friends choose to celebrate.

Oh!! My dad found this letter the other day that I wrote when I was seven and living in England. I think it's cute. Here goes:

"Dear Father Christmas,

Please may I have a big truck and a Speak and Spell please. And do not bring me too much sweets. And a Jabba the Hut and an activity centre. And please make other children's Christmas happy, too. I love you. Thank you.

Love,

Jason"

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Posted by Jason @ 12/25/2002 11:16 AM PST

Lots of snow and lots of fun. We have live music at our house now....
And things are happening. There is turkey and cake. And Holly the Sharpei dog has decided that Christmas is the best holiday of all for dogs!
Happy Wednesday Christmas everyone!
Back to work tomorrow 8-(
But until then....... celebrate!

Posted by Jrand55 @ 12/25/2002 12:31 PM PST

Merry Christmas to one and all
and also all and one. Things
are delightfully relaxing around
here. No live music, sadly, but
my mother's love of npr
(northewest pubic radio, for
those of you outside the area)
means that classic christmas
music can be heard all over
the house. So far I've been
exceedingly good about
christmas food comsumption,
but then, dinner hasn't
happened yet...
My Christmas Wish, aside
from peace on earth, is that
everyone might have some
kind of music with their
christmas celebration. No
celebration would be complete
without music.

Posted by Ann @ 12/25/2002 12:58 PM PST

All the presents are open now. I think. My nieces and nephew had a sleigh-full of presents this year. We even had them open some of Santa's presents this morning, instead of opening everything last night. Of course, my nephew, John Michael stayed up later than I did playing with his new almost-remote control helicopter - so much so, that he already went through one set of batteries! My niece, Alyssa, has been sitting and sleeping happily all day watching all the fun and madness around her. And my niece, Alexandra, is over at her grandparent's house today - although she was mighty cute when she fell asleep after her windfall last night of Disney and Barbie accessories.

Myself, I'm doing well. The cough seems to be under control - finally went to the salt-water gargles this morning. And I'm having a nice day of doing nothing. I did cook brunch for everyone, but eggs and bacon (in the oven) are no big stress for me.

My wish for this Christmas: For everyone to see the good in everyone else, and, consequently, in themselves. That not matter how bad we're feeling; how poor (or rich) we may be; how lost we may feel at times; how sad we may feel - that we all have something to be thankful for. The least of all - and the most of all - is the fact that we're alive, and that we're able to experience all that life and God and gods throws our way. There truly is good in this world, and, for some strange reason, sometimes all we see - and look for - is the bad.

Accentuate the positive.

Look for the silver lining.

Stiff upper lip.

Move On.

Live. Laugh. Love.

Love.

Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 12/25/2002 01:00 PM PST

Beautiful sentiments all. I knew that you Hainsies/Kimlets would come up with the best in Christmas wishes and that is why this site will soon be the most popular site on all the Internet. Why, do you know what Mr. Mark Bakalor e-mailed me this morning? He e-mailed me to tell me that yesterday, despite the smaller number of posts, was our best day ever in terms of page views and such. I do not know what that means, but apparently the joint was jumping. Today, even if we only have these seven posts, they are cherce and lovely and filled with hope and charity and kindness and merriment and mirth and laughter and legs.

Ann - you have our permission to PIG OUT.

Now, let's have more Christmas wishes and more posts and more Christmas Cheer and Tide and Surf.

Posted by bk @ 12/25/2002 01:12 PM PST

My Christmas wish: That the world is not pushed into war.
Peace and love to everyone.
Have a good day on your side of the world whilst we over here sleep off our Christmas excesses.

Posted by Tom Guest (from OZ) @ 12/25/2002 01:20 PM PST

I urge everyone to see "Catch Me If You Can" - what a delightful movie! So much fun - can't wait to read the book it was based on.

In other news, clicking on my name will bring you to an irreverent review of "CHICAGO"..

Enjoy ;)

Posted by Craig @ 12/25/2002 03:59 PM PST

Happy Holidays to everyone!

And if anyone wants some snow, please let me know and I'll send some over to you. We've got more than enough to spare here in New Jersey.

My wish for 2003: May we be blessed with Peace within our borders, Good Health within our families, and Contentment within our hearts.

Posted by Susan Gordon @ 12/25/2002 04:04 PM PST

First Merry Christmas to all (including the lurkers who never post). We have a white Christmas in NYC... just enough snow to make it interesting but not enough to make it hazerdous.

Thanks K.T for the info.

Tom of Oz - From yesterday's Ken Mandelbaum, more Wicked casting. In addition to Kristen Chenowith as Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba, we have Norbert Leo Butz as Fyero, Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible, Kirk McDonald as Bog and (tentatively) Robert Morse as the Wizard.

To Luckie: Phoebe says Woof Woof which is Merry Christmas in dog talk.

My Christmas wish is that the warmonger in the White House realizes that killing more people is not the answer to world peace and that someone discovers what is.

Posted by William E. Lurie @ 12/25/2002 04:29 PM PST

JMK - NO more Christmas piano until next year!

Posted by Jrand55 @ 12/25/2002 04:33 PM PST

JR--you read my mind!! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a lot of Christmas music, and I always manage to come up with interesting (I think, anyway) arrangements, it's just playing the same thing over and over and over to people who are not listening gets to be tiresome after a while. I loved the comment above that Christmas should always have music. I agree. I always haul out my Percy Faith Christmas CDs and give them a spin on Christmas. Merry, Happy and other jolly adjectives to all!

Posted by JMK @ 12/25/2002 05:48 PM PST

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL YOU HAINSIES AND KIMLETS!

Here I am at my brother's house--stuffed to the gills. I sneaked upstairs to write this post on my brother's computer. Everyone is downstairs watching the Lakers game. My niece is a Laker Girl and has been for four seasons, but today she gets a day off. It's good to see her. We opened our gifts after the Christmas repast. The menu was as follows:
Fruit-stuffed Pork Tendorloin
Enchilades
Tamale Casserole
Southwestern Meat Loaf
Ceasar Salad
Scalloped Potatoes
Cranberry Relish
Rolls
Unfortunately, no cheese and ham chunks.
Dessert consisted of chocolate dipped cream puffs, coconut cake, apple pie and homemade cookies.

My Christmas Wish is like all of yours --
PEACE ON EARTH. GOODWILL TO ALL.

Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 12/25/2002 06:14 PM PST

Dear Craig,
How much credibility can you give Dalai, the panner of CHICAGO, if he can't even spell the stars' names right?? VERY tacky. It just doesn't make sense, except the guy cannot tolerate musicals and razzle-dazzle. I hardly know anyone that doesn't pine for razzle-dazzle in their lives; I know I'm going to get my $8.50's (plus the $7 for concession) worth!

Posted by KT @ 12/25/2002 07:08 PM PST

Love to all!

Posted by Michael Shayne @ 12/25/2002 07:26 PM PST

PS William: I forgot to tell you that Dick Van Dyke collection is going to have all the episodes ever made, in the set.

Posted by KT @ 12/25/2002 07:27 PM PST

No time to read yesterday's notes or today's notes, but I will get to them eventually, but right now, we just got home from a BIG family Christmas, and Joe's family is something, let me tell you--but not tonight, because I had to get out and push the car out of snowdrifts twice, and we did a couple of 180 degree turns on the ice, and we just want to relax with warm milk and Manheim Steamroller's Christmas Album, so I just popped in here for a moment to thank everyone for their wonderful Birthday wishes, which, together with my twelve-year-old niece writing a poem for me, is about the greatest thing on a birthday, and also to wish everbody here a

MERRY CHRISTMAS (and/or Chanukah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, Feast of Mithra, or what have you) AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!

Posted by William F. Orr @ 12/25/2002 08:26 PM PST

Happy Holidays everyone. So, my Christmas wish didn't come true, I didn't get Benjamin Kritzer due to a foul up with mom view my amazon.com wish list, anyhow, I just ordered it here.

My wish to everyone is that you all have a wonderful Holiday and a prosporous new year full of happiness and wonderful posts!

Matthew

Posted by Matthew @ 12/25/2002 08:50 PM PST

Yesterday, here in Olympia, we had about 10 minutes of snow, then it turned to rain. Oh, well. It was better than nothing. It's raining right now and has been most of the day.

I went to my parents' house yesterday and opened presents. Money and gift certificates are always good presents. Today we all went to my sister's house and both sets of my niece's grandparents were there and a good time was had by all. Food was consumed all day (we all were grazing) and no calories were not counted. We didn't have ham chunks, but we did have cheese slices in amongst the foodstuffs. Later in the afternoon, my dad, my niece and I played a game of "Monopoly," then "Phase 10," then "Sorry". I just got home and am going to go to sleep very soon.

MERRY EVERYTHING AND HAPPY ALWAYS!

Posted by George @ 12/25/2002 09:29 PM PST

You think you proofread, then after you post, you discover your glaring mistake. The sentence should read: "...and no calories were counted." instead of "...and no calories were not counted." Other than that, I had a good day and hope everyone else did as well.

Posted by George @ 12/25/2002 09:33 PM PST

Or, it could be read as "...and no, calories were not counted." That works also.

Posted by George @ 12/25/2002 09:35 PM PST

Dear Reader Sandra and I are back from our lovely holiday.

The first day we lounged in our luxurious hotel room (Motel 6) until we left for the theater in Pasadena. Before the show, we dined on sumptuous fare at an intimate cafe (sandwiches at a sandwich shop). Plaid Tidings was wonderful -- great cast, new songs, new bits. They did a wonderful story about Perry Como, and they sang backup for him (he was on a video). They added new and different things to the Sullivan routine. This show was a real winner, IMHO.

The next day, we had brunch at a popular restaurant in Pasadena (Denny's) and then went Christmas shopping, simply because it seemed like a Christmas-y thing to do on Christmas Eve. We bought some lovely books for the baby next door, Mae-Ling Goldstein. Mae-Ling's Korean mother is a dear. However, the father is quite rude; he shut the door in my face when I took him a new-neighbor gift when he moved in.

Then we went to BK's Christmas Eve Do, and, oh, what fun we had! There were carbs galore! And BK's secret recipe spaghetti sauce is truly divine. We met many lovely people. We sat in BK's den with a warm fire in the fireplace and laughed and chatted. I was hoping that Guy Haines would be there, but he never did show up. Luckie was very well behaved. She remembered us from our last visit. Okay, she remembered we brought treats from Dear Reader Kerry's store last time. And we brought her some this time, too. Thank you, BK, for a lovely evening.

This morning we got up drove home. We saw snow on the mountains outside of LA, so we are counting that as a White Christmas. We got home just in time for dinner with my mother. We had a lovely trip.

Posted by Laura @ 12/25/2002 10:56 PM PST

Matthew: At least by ordering Benjamin Kritzer from HHW, you get the lovely BK to autograph and personalize the copy for you. I had thought of ordering both TFNM and BK from Amazon, but wanted that personal touch which Amazon was not able to supply.

So... only five more hours until the early bird sale starts here on the East Coast...

AAGGGHHH!

-Not me!

Posted by Jose C. Simbulan @ 12/25/2002 11:04 PM PST

Dear Reader Kerry has a store? What kind of store? Why didn't I know this? Can you order things online??

Posted by Jason @ 12/25/2002 11:29 PM PST

Dear Reader Kerry has a store? What kind of store? Why didn't I know this? Can you order things online??

Posted by Jason @ 12/25/2002 11:30 PM PST

Merry belated Christmas to anyone reading this late. And a special hello to you if you're snowbound. You can tell that nothing happened yesterday as the second main item on our news in the UK was the fact that certain states in the US had had the most snow for 20 years. (The first story was about the Queen's Christmas message to her people - which was basically the same message as for the last 50 years - repeated ad nauseam throughout the day). We don't have snow, we have ... now what's that? Oh yes, rain. Still, it's a good excuse to stay indoors and pig out.

Posted by Allan @ 12/26/2002 02:04 AM PST

Though it is a bit early to complain - I watched The Merry Widow on Great Performances last night. I have never seen the opera and their was a new book by Wendy Wasserstein - whose work I admire.

The costumes were beautiful, and the sets were great!

But there was some absolutely HORRIBLE musical comedy style (high school) choreography that was repeated and repeated within a number. And I could NOT understand a word the ensemble was singing. And some of the soloists were nearly as bad.

Are there supposed to be these extended dance numbers in the show? And the finale at Maxim's looked a bit - okay a LOT - like the Harmonia Gardens in HELLO DOLLY - except the title character came in dressed in black and white like Audrey Hepburn at Ascotte.

And then NO ONE DANCED during the Merry Widow Waltz. This dame had a vibrato that was cringe inducing - and was playing opposite some guy who was young enough to be her son. For a minute I thought I was watching HAROLD AND MAUDE.

ANYWAY....from the San Francisco Light Opera and it is sure to be repeated...PBS you know....if anyone else can watch it and explain to me exactly what it is or is suppose to be...I would appreciate it. 8-)

Posted by Jrand55 @ 12/26/2002 02:13 AM PST

first their = there

Posted by Jrand55 @ 12/26/2002 02:15 AM PST

My wish for 2003: a chicken in every pot. Also, after last night's ordeal here in Northern NJ -- perhaps a snow blower for me.

Bruce, let's face reality -- the oft wished for Peace on Earth is a pipe dream. At this point, I just hope for common sense to lead to a world revolution in which all nuclear power plants are eliminated, all plutonium and enriched uranium is rounded up to one central location, and that someone smarter than Einstein comes up with an invention that will render plutonium and enriched uranium harmless.

Here's a related thought -- I received some peculiar-looking SPAM recently that was supposedly sent from your former record label (re: I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road). There was a phone number in said SPAM. When I checked out the address that corresponded with the phone number, the location was a property located just a couple of blocks from Indian Point Power Plant. That's one way to find affordable real estate in Westchester!

Anywho.com, enough with the kvetching ...

I wish you, Mr. BK, a happy holiday season.

Posted by Plutonium 239 (Fahrenheit 451's big brother) @ 12/26/2002 06:11 AM PST