Stan and Ollie

Here's our new Nutcracker this year - or wait?  No, that's actually Jingle Bell!  He's clearly nuts.

Anyway, today was Tuesday, which means one thing:  Taco Tuesday.  And although that's important to Madison - really important - the actual thing I meant to say here was that Tuesday is the day for piano class.  It was the last one of the year, and one where Mrs. Pam handed out Christmas songs and bags with flavored popcorn and balloons.  It was a nice class, one where everyone was a little wound up because of the impending holidays.

Tonight, Madison met Stan and Ollie for the first time, both stars of the movie "March of the Wooden Soldiers."  We haven't watched this one in a while, and in fact Madison never has.  But she really liked it, talking about certain parts afterwards.  We watched the colorized version, because why not?

Daddy remembers seeing this one all the time at Christmas.  And he remembers seeing Laurel and Hardy movies a lot growing up.  One particular instance, it was a movie that was shown in a campground somewhere in Colorado.  Sometime soon, Daddy will be picking up some of these on DVD for Madison to check out.  From a historical perspective, they're pretty neat.  But they're also genuinely funny too.  Finally, they're local:  a few hours from here is where Oliver Hardy was born, and each year there's an Oliver Hardy Festival in Harlem, Georgia.  This next year, it'll be on October 1st.  Maybe that's something we can head to!

Today was the staff party for the church, which Daddy actually mainly worked, with trivia questions and a photo booth as well, complete with all kinds of props.  It was nice to see everyone together, once again for another Christmas gathering.

We've been reading "Swiss Family Robinson" this week, and to our great surprise, it isn't that interesting.  The movie is something much different, the biggest difference being that things actually happen in the movie.  Still, we're laboring through it and Daddy is doing his best with voices to make it more interesting.  Basically, through 75% of the book so far, the family is stranded on an island.  They make a few places to live.  They capture some animals to keep, and shoot others.  That's pretty much it. Like I said, we'll have to check out the movie next, as it adds an element that always brings a little bit more to the table:  pirates.  Although we haven't finished with this book yet, so there very well could be pirates in the mix.  But thus far, things have been kind of quiet.  And weird too, come to think of it.  This is an island with flamingoes, bears, a 30-foot anaconda, buffalo, penguins and more.  It's a bit strange for sure.

Speaking of which, we'll have to peek in on our elf, Jingle Bell, now.  I'm sure he's up to something strange himself!