Countdown to Christmas 1

Hi there! Welcome to I’m So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, a single white follicle of a blog in the bushy snow white Santa beard of the internet.

Today is the final installment of COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS!

Today is 1 day until Christmas which makes this Christmas Eve. 

Our holiday movie selection for today’s post is tied to Christmas Eve.

The Polar Express is a mysterious train that transports children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to meet Santa Claus before he takes off to make his deliveries around the world.

The children on this trip are kids who are starting to not believe in Santa.  

It is a strange, wild ride as the enigmatic trains chugs along miles and miles of impossible track before crossing into the cold desolate region known as the North Pole. And there in the middle of that frozen desolation, glowing with a warm light against the cold winter’s night, is Santa’s workshop. 

The Polar Express is packed with Tom Hanks. He's the conductor, the ghost hobo who rides on top of the train, he's the main kid's dad at the start of the film and that kid grown up as the narrator. 

And he's also Santa Claus. 

The Polar Express is a tradition in our home on Christmas Eve. Every year on the night before Christmas, we gather in the living room of the Fortress of Ineptitude to watch this movie.  The sequence where the dancing waiters bring in hot chocolate for the kids is my cue to bring cups of hot chocolate to Randie, Andrea and myself. 

I do NOT dance! 

Next up is our holiday song for today's post.

"Merry Christmas From the Family" by Robert Earl King is a holiday favorite of mine because it really captures my life in a small southern town at Christmas.

Having family members that you are not exactly sure how you are related to them? I can testify from my own experience that it's true. 

That person who's there with their 3rd or 4th wife? Yeah, that's a thing that happened a lot in my family.  

The line where "Cousin David knew what went wrong" is my favorite part even though I have to admit in real life, this David would have no frickin' idea what went wrong.  

Next up, it's DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL TIME! 

"A Christmas Carol" is Steven Moffat's first holiday special for Doctor Who and it's the first one for Matt Smith as the Doctor.

It's appropriate to cover this special on Christmas Eve as this episode spends a lot of time in Christmas Eve. Repeatedly.

A cloud covered alien planet is ruled with an iron fist by Karzan Zardik whose weather control machine is the only thing that came save a space ship that is about to crash into the planet. But Zardik's a mean old bird and won't cooperate.

The Doctor decides to go back in time and teach Zardik the true meaning of Christmas and make him a better person. There are many adventures on many Christmas Eves with the Doctor, a young Zardik and a beautiful woman named Abigail. Zardik learns that Abigail is doomed and despite the Doctor's efforts, he still grows up to be a hard-hearted miser who won't help save the people on the crashing spaceship. 

A Christmas Carol is packed full of humor and drama and weird fantasy sequences. This Christmas special has an almost cinematic quality to it. And the music for this special is among Murray Gold's best work for Doctor Who.

OK, I gotta post this sequence featuring Katherine Jenkins singing Silence Is All You Know. 

It is an amazingly beautiful sequence is what is perhaps the best Doctor Who Christmas Special ever!   

Since today is Christmas Eve, today's comic book Christmas story features a super speeding last minute shopper on the day before Christmas.

If all you know about the Flash is from the CW television show, then some explanation may be in order.  

For two decades, Wally West, the original Kid Flash, wore the mantle of the Fastest Man Alive. At the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths#12, Wally takes over as the Flash after the death of Barry Allen in issue #8. 

At one point in my time as a DC comics reader, Wally West was the Flash longer than Barry Allen. 

By 2009 when this story was published, Wally was married to Linda and they had two children, Jai (named for the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick) and Iris (named after Wally's aunt and Barry's wife) who had super speed powers.  

By the way, if you think Batman seems a little more chill than usual, that's because at this point in time, Dick Grayson was Batman. 

Speaking of this and the other comic book stories posted in this series, I have to give credit where credit is due to Chris Is On Infinite Earths, one of my favorite blogs to visit. He has been doing a review of stories from DC's 2009 Christmas special. And thanks to Chris, I was able to go to DC Digital and grab this entire issue... for FREE! Click that link and you can too! 

Anyway, that's it for Countdown to Christmas. These have been some jam packed posts. Whew! I might need a break from blogging.

But not yet. 

Tomorrow is Christmas Day! I will chat with you then.

And after that I've got some stuff to catch up on.  

Until next time, happy holidays to one and all. 

And remember to be good to one another.