#ChristmasMovieMonday3

Part three in our weekly series, "The Bells of St Mary's" falls into the category of not necessarily being and all out Christmas movie, but does have a few scenes and themes of Christmas. It was the third movie that Bing Crosby made as the "Father O'Mally" character. (After "The Bishops Wife", and "Going My Way".) Ingrid Bergman plays a stern Nun with a heart of gold and is the perfect costar for Crosby.


With fair warning, watch out for the ending... it is a gut wrencher!

On the whole, it is a classicly fun black and white film, with a few catchy songs and lots of laughs and tears for sure!

-Mick

#ChristmasMovieMonday2

For our second installment of offbeat Christmas movies. Meet Me In St. Louis remains one of my favorite "Holiday" movies, because unlike the beloved "White Christmas" it doesn't SHOVE Christmas down your throat from the beginning credits on.
Although this movie technically starts in "Spring of 1903" the climax of the movie comes at Christmas. This is truly one of those good old MGM Technicolor spectaculars.



The short synopsis is-
In the year before the 1904 St Louis World's Fair, the four Smith daughters learn lessons of life and love, even as they prepare for a reluctant move to New York.

I love most everything about the time captured in this film. The beautiful Second Empire home that the Smiths live in, and most of all the stirring song that Judy Garland sings (Have yourself a merry little Christmas) at the most poignant moment of the movie.






It's a happy Technicolor romp, that has a little somethign for everyone!

-Mick-

'Twas The Night Before Thanksmass...

And all through the house, the kilowatts were buzzing, the electric bill... OUCH.

Merry Thanksmass everyone!

-Mick-

#ChristmasMovieMonday

Gonna try a new thing out here on the blog dear Readers!
For the next four Mondays leading up to Christmas, I will share with you a few of my favorite Holiday films! Who know, I might even present you with a double feature "A" and "B" Picture.
So to kick things off, here is the 1945 classic starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan in "Christmas In Connecticut"!



The basic synopsis is-
"In her Smart Housekeeping column, Elizabeth Lane (Stanwyck) provides festive recipes and homemaking hints. But the real Elizabeth's got a secret: she needs a recipe to boil water. Elizabeth has no cooking skills, no Connecticut farm, no adoring husband, and no baby-makes-three as depicted in her column. She better get them! Because Elizabeths boss has invited himself and a recently returned war hero to her home for Christmas!"

-My Grandmother Jordan once said "Every Barbara Stanwyck movie is about, Barbara Stanwyck falling in love with a younger man, and causing a lot of trouble along the way!" Hahah once again she is right!

The DVD I purchased also came with a bonus short film "A star in the night"-

"A star in the night" is a sweet yuletide film in its own right, but "Christmas in Connecticut" is a wonderful black and white classic to snuggle up and watch on a wintery day.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

-Mick-

Blue & Silver.

My Great Grandmother Avery's "Blue Willow" Currier and Ives dishes, and  my Great Great Grandmother Coker's silverware. First time to be used in almost 50 years!

Look's like we're ready for Thanksgiving!

Have a Happy Holiday!

-Mick-

BLACKOUT...

I hope the picture above comes out as pretty as it was on Saturday night. It was QUITE the weekend for weather out at the Casablanca. Much needed pouring rain, two inches worth!

I had the BEJESUS scared out of me just after I arrived. The rain had been pouring down for about an hour and it took twice as long to drive out to the lake, there was water over the roads in several places.  I had just unlocked the front door and put groceries on the table, when I turned to step back out on to the porch and KABOOM!
I honestly thought the house had been struck by lightning. All of the pictures shook off of the kitchen wall, (I had rehung most of them before thinking to get a picture) and the dishes were rattling in the cabinets. It scared the HELL out of me! For about 30 minuets after that each time a hard bolt of lighting struck it made the dishes rattle just a little bit, but the storm was moving North and I felt safe.

Around 3:00P.M. Friend Jeremiah drove out to visit for a while, and about five minuets after, the power went out. The lake is fed electricity from a Co-op up in Altus OK, about once a year storms in Oklahoma knock the power out for about six hours. The ONLY draw back to having an "all electric" cabin is when this happens. Can't cook, can't heat the house, and that pretty much shuts everything down.  So as the storm enveloped the setting sun, we lit candles and hoped it would be back on soon. We waited until 7:30P.M. and the power still hadn't come on.  I called the Co-op and they said the workmen were having to dry out 10 miles worth of line to find the problem... So finally after five hours with no electricity, we gave up and came to town.

The candle light gave an enchanting glow to the Aluminum Christmas tree, had it not been an inconvenience it would have been pretty neat.

Haha Oh well, these thing happen and the power was back on by Sunday!

Hope you all had a good weekend!

-Mick-

"It's a MAJOR AWARD!"

An "Eye-talian" award, why it might be an entire bowling alley...

Thank goodness Tech Week for "A Christmas Story" at the Wichita Theatre is almost over!

-Mick-