Well, kids, it looks like we're moving. Not far, just to the next town over (the one with the Blockbuster!!), where my husband's new office is. He got promoted, which is yay, but moving is a giant p. in the a.

I want to think of it as an adventure, and it will be, but mostly at the moment I have visions of packing tape and broken china dancing in my head. However, the new town is about three times the size of the town we live in now, and there may even be restaurants and bars we'd want to occasionally spend time in, which would be a giant change. I love to cook, but sometimes it's nice to let someone else cook for you, and bring it to the table, and do the dishes after. And for it not to be pizza or Chinese, which are the only ethnic cuisines on the menu in Norwalk. Sigh. I'm having a craving for Thai food, and there's just not a damn thing I can do about it, short of driving an hour to Cleveland.

Luckily, there's plenty to distract myself with. Furniture shopping online, the ongoing hunt for an electrician who will actually call me back (this is how far my expectations have fallen--I'm not even hoping for an actual in-person visit at this point, with the tools and the fixing and the whole thing. No, if I could just get someone to CALL ME BACK, I'd be a happy girl.), and also some grocery shopping.

Later, I plan to watch a Christmas movie while I fold laundry and otherwise putter. Maybe one of the ones Nick can't bear to see every year (or possibly ever again) like the Natalie Wood Miracle on 34th St., or Meet Me in St. Louis, which is technically appropriate for EVERY season, but I like to watch it at Christmas because I once saw, with my own eyes, the red velvet dress Judy Garland wears to the Christmas dance, while visiting a museum with my mother, and we both teared up. For no good reason other than the sheer fun of emoting all over the place. The other candidate for movie watching today is Christmas in Connecticut. Anybody else ever seen that? It's silly, but I love it. Barbara Stanwyck is a city girl who writes a weekly magazine column describing her fictitious life as a married mother of one who cooks like a dream and lives on a beautiful farm in Connecticut. No one knows it's not true, and when the magazine publisher is put on a diet for his health, he rebels by inviting himself to her farm for Christmas, along with a wounded soldier as a publicity stunt, and hijinks ensue. Thinking about it makes me want to watch it, but I believe, in spite of his protestations to the contrary, that Nick actually somewhat enjoys CiC, especially the luminous Ms. Stanwyck, so maybe I'll wait. (It was remade at some point, I've just discovered, with Kris Kristofferson of all people. Why would someone do such a thing?)

Do you have any little-known Christmas favorites you want to recommend? I'm always looking to expand my holiday DVD collection...

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 11:33 AM