Christmas Movies

Another great way to get into Christmas is by watching lots of Christmas movies.  I feel like I've gotten a decent start on this so far, both on my own accord and with the help of those around me.  So, I figured I'd talk a little bit about some of my favorite Christmas movies.  Some of these I have watched already this year and some I haven't gotten to yet.  Also, these are listed in no particular order of preference.  I'm not even sure I could list them in order if I wanted to.  I've also included clips for some of them.

Mr. Krueger's Christmas

Okay, I know, this is an extraordinarily cheesy and, at times, weird movie, but I love it.  For anyone who may not be familiar with this movie, it's a short film produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints back in 1980 and stars Jimmy Stewart and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Basically it's the story of Willy Krueger, a lonely widower who has various Christmas related dreams and fantasies throughout the film.  So, why do I love it?  The manger scene.  This is a scene where Mr. Krueger imagines what it would be like to be in the stable when Christ was born and expresses his faith and feelings for Christ.  This is one of the most touching scenes I've seen in any Christmas movie and does about the best job of any of reminding me what Christmas is really about.  The rest of the movie really is quite cheesy, but this one scene makes up for all of the cheesy awkwardness.  The scene has more punch to it if you've seen the rest of the movie and gotten to know Mr. Krueger's character better, but it's great on its own as well, so I highly recommend you watch it below.

Elf

This is just a fun movie, and that's all there is to it.  I watched this with some friends in the ward the other night.  It had been a couple of years since the last time that I actually sat down and watched it all the way through.  I think that before I had maybe watched it a little too much and had gotten a little burned out on it.  But after coming back to it this year I was reminded of just how hilarious this movie is and how it makes you want to be a kid and have that same innocent excitement all over again.

Christmas Vacation

I've watched this one a couple of times already this year.  I'm pretty sure this one has played in my parent's house pretty much every Christmas since it came out on VHS.  I can't really say anything about it being a touching and uplifting movie filled with the Christmas spirit, but it is pretty darn funny.  Here's a classic scene from it.

A Christmas Story

Who doesn't love the story of Ralphie and his quest to get a "Red Ryder B.B. gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time"?

Joyeux Noel

This is an amazing movie.  It's not exactly a cheery movie, but it is amazing and it will forever be a part of my must-watch Christmas movie list.  It tells the story of the Christmas Truce that occurred in the trenches along the Western Front in 1914 during World War I.  It takes elements from stories of various occurrences of the truce and combines them into one convenient location.  I can't really put into words the effect that it has on me.  I'm getting emotional just trying to figure out what to write, so I'm just going to tell you to go and find a copy of this movie and watch it.  If you're not sure about it, watch the trailer below and then go and find a copy of the movie and watch it.



The Muppet Christmas Carol
This is by far my favorite version of Charles Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol.  Okay, so, maybe it's one of the only versions I have watched, and maybe I have never read the book, but that doesn't mean it can't be my favorite.  This is another movie that I hadn't seen in a long time, but I was able to watch it Sunday night and I still enjoyed every minute of it.  I mean, it's a classic Christmas story with a great message combined with the lovable lightheartedness of the Muppets!  How could this movie not hold a special place in your heart?  Below I've included one of my favorite songs from the movie.

More on Christmas

I bought and put out our apartment's first indoor Christmas decoration yesterday (I have to specify indoor because one of my roommates put a wreath on our front door the other day, thus claiming overall first decoration status).  I went and bought a nice poinsettia to display in our living room.

Isn't it lovely?

I'm pretty sure that I've always liked poinsettias.  There's usually been at least one in my house around Christmas while I was growing up.  When I was younger, I liked to pinch the ends of the leaves and see the white liquid inside squish out and form a little bead on the leaf.  I'm sure this wasn't good for the plant.  I'm not sure if my mom knew I was doing this to her poinsettias, but I doubt she was too happy about it if she did.  Sorry, Mom.

Like I said, there was usually at least one poinsettia around the house at Christmas, but in the last few years my mom has started covering the house in poinsettias.  I don't know the official count, but there must be a good 20 to 30 poinsettias decorating the house each year now and I think it looks wonderful.  In fact, it's when she started decorating with so many poinsettias that I realized just how much I liked them.  So, when my roommates and I started discussing decorations this year, I was set on making sure there was a poinsettia in our apartment.  Fortunately, I didn't have to twist any arms to get this approved.

Yesterday also marked another little bit of Christmas celebration for me.  I opened my first carton of eggnog of the year.  I love eggnog.  I can't even think how to put to words how much I love eggnog.  And I prefer to drink it straight up.  Growing up we would always dilute it with milk.  I'm not sure if this was because my parents preferred it thinned out a little (apparently a lot of people think it is too thick straight out of the carton), or if they were trying to stretch out each carton, but this is how we drank it.  Well, at some point in my life I discovered the ultimately superior experience that is undiluted eggnog and that is now where my alliances lie.  So, as Christmas approaches, this is one of those special treats that I anxiously await each year.

Marge: Homer, didn't you get any milk? All I see is eggnog.

Homer: 'Tis the season, Marge! We only get 30 sweet, noggy days.  Then the government takes it away again.

I discovered a few years ago that certain eggnog producers had started selling Halloween eggnog.  I was not okay with this.  Eggnog is a Christmas drink and should remain a Christmas drink.  Anyway, upon this discovery I decided that I would not support pre-December eggnog sales.  Well, this rule later turned into pre-December eggnog consumption because I will now buy eggnog before December, but I won't open it until December 1st.  So, as yesterday was December 1st, I opened my carton of eggnog and had a nice thick glass of it with lunch, and it was delicious.

I should mention that I did participation in some eggnog consumption in November that I am not proud of.  We had eggnog and sugar cookies for refreshments after institute last week.  I was so excited when they announced what the refreshments were (I believe I even let out a pleasantly surprised "oooo!"), but then I realized that it wasn't December yet and I was torn.  I mean, there's my resolve against pre-December eggnog, but this was FREE eggnog.  Well, I gave in had a cup of eggnog...and it was some of the worst eggnog I've ever had.  I don't know if it was a bad batch, if the brand just isn't to my liking, or if subconsciously my brain was making me not like it because it was too early in the year.  Either way, I did not enjoy it.  I guess that's what I get for deviating from my standards.

Christmas Season is Here!

I love Christmas.  I love the charity, joy, love and all those good feelings that come with the Christmas season.  However, the last few years, I feel like I haven't embraced the season soon enough.  It seems like the last few years I have been so determined to not start celebrating Christmas too early that I end up realizing on Christmas Eve that I wish I had done more in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  So, this year, I'm determined to not let that happen.  My first step has been to make sure that I'm listening to Christmas music.  So, the day after American Thanksgiving I started making a Spotify playlist full of some of my favorite Christmas songs.

When I think of Christmas music, one of the first albums that comes rushing to my mind is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together.  Every Christmas at home, for as long as I can remember, this was one of the albums that was in constant rotation.  It's a classic and will always be a part of Christmas for me. It also includes one of the few bearable versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that exist.  As many times as I've heard these songs, however, it wasn't until last Christmas that I really paid attention to the song "The Christmas Wish," sung by Kermit, and it has since become one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs.

When asked what my favorite Christmas carol is, I have pretty much always said "O Holy Night." Okay, maybe I haven't always said that, but it's what I've said ever since I've been an adult and somewhat mature.  I learned a couple of years ago that I love Celtic Woman's performance of this carol and it is now my go to version.

Another song that will always have a place on my Christmas playlist is "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" by Amy Grant.  I've always enjoyed this song, but it took on much greater significance for me after an experience I had last year.  It happened the morning that I left Provo to drive home for the Christmas break.  I was leaving quite early that morning and I had agreed to give a friend a ride to the Provo airport.  His flight didn't leave until a few hours later, but he was okay leaving that early.  Well, we drove to the airport only to find a car full of people parked outside the main entrance because the airport didn't open for another couple of hours.  This other carload of people had been planning on dropping off one of their passengers and then starting their trip down to Texas.  Well, when we drove up they started asking us if we could possibly wait there at the airport with their friend until the airport opened because it was too cold to wait outside but they really needed to get on the road.  All I could think was, "well, I need to get on the road as well.  What makes you think that I want to delay my plans a couple of hours" and I started getting annoyed that they acted like it wouldn't be any kind of problem for me. Anyway, we finally decided that I would take both my friend and this random girl back to our apartment complex where they could wait in the lounge until the airport opened and somebody else could take them, allowing myself to get on the road as well.  As the girl was loading her luggage into my car, her and her group kept thanking me and saying that I was an answer to prayer.  While this was all very kind stuff that they were saying, I had gotten into a really bad mood for being delayed (which is silly, because I would have been delayed anyway whether this other group was a part of it or not) and was just grumpy about everything.  I talked to my friend about this later on and he said that it didn't really show that I was as put out as I was, but I definitely felt it.

After dropping them off at Alta and arranging a new ride for them, I hit the road again very grumpy and stewing over the events of the morning.  I had a CD of Christmas music playing in my car and the very next song that started playing was "Breath of Heaven."  As I listened to the song, I started thinking about how the Christmas season is all about Christ - His birth, life, example, sacrifice, love...everything.  Well, this made me realize how very un-Christlike I had behaved during this experience.  It was the Christmas season and instead of caring about how I could help out and be charitable, I was only thinking about myself and my precious hour of time.  I felt very ashamed about how I had reacted and was very humbled by this message of Christ.  Now I think of that morning every time that I hear "Breath of Heaven."  It is a lesson that I will always cherish.

So, this Christmas season, let's be sure to fit in some great Christmas music as we celebrate and keep our thoughts turned toward Christ.

Books in 2011

Just like I did last year for books in 2010, here's a list of books that I read in 2011.

1. The Electrical Field - Kerri Sakamoto

2. Hugh Laycock: Legacy - Compiled by various cousins

3. How to do Everything - Red Green

4. Gideon's Sword - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

5. Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz

6. Forever Odd - Dean Koontz

7. Brother Odd - Dean Koontz

8. Odd Hours - Dean Koontz

9. Behold the Fire - Steven D. Salinger

10. Jennie - Douglas Preston

11. Along Came a Spider - James Patterson

12. Kiss the Girls - James Patterson

13. Don Quixote: Part 1 - Miguel de Cervantes

14. Velocity - Dean Koontz

15. Cold Vengeance - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

16. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

For anyone who may be wondering, I would say that my favorite books on this list are Hugh Laycock: Legacy, Odd Thomas, Cold Vengeance, and A Game of Thrones. It's hard to limit it to just those 4, though, because I really liked a lot of these books. I can definitely say, however, that my least favorite were The Electrical Field and Behold the Fire. The former was boring, the latter was pointless, and both were full of characters I just didn't care about.

Vancouver

Wow, so, this post was supposed to go up a long time ago. I decided that I needed to do a better job keeping up with my blog and realized I had started this post and never finished it. Pretty much it's just pictures of my trip to Vancouver, B.C. last June. I went up there to present a paper at the 2011 ASME Turbo Expo. An updated version of the paper I presented at this conference is now being published in the ASME Journal of Turbomachinery.

This is the hotel that Dr. Fletcher and I stayed at while in Vancouver

These are a couple of churches that I could see from my hotel window. I thought that they looked kind of neat.

These are some boats in Coal Harbor. The building across the water, with the sloped roof, is the Vancouver Convention Center. This is where the Turbo Expo took place.

These are the walls inside the Vancouver Convention Center. I thought it was pretty neat how they made the walls look like piles of lumber.

The Olympic Torch. It doesn't look like it's lit, but it is. You could see the ripples in the air caused by the heat of the flames.

I thought this was pretty funny. The Stanley Cup Finals (Vancouver vs. Boston) were also going on while I was in Vancouver, but the Canucks were playing in Boston that week. This is a statue of Lord Stanley in Stanley Park that somebody has had some fun with. There is also a sign at the bottom of the statue that says something to the effect of "Canucks, bring my cup home." Well, they didn't.

Stanley Park was beautiful, by the way.

These sea planes were constantly taking of and landing in Coal Harbor. The outer walls of the convention center was made up of huge windows, so people were constantly stopping and watching the planes land and take off.

The session that I gave my presentation in ended just on time to catch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Dr. Fletcher and I joined the group of people watching the game on the outdoor screen at Canada Place. We stayed there for the first period then walked up to our hotel and finished the game there.

This is my badge from the conference. I only wore the "Speaker" ribbon while I was there because I thought I would have looked pretty silly with all 4 ribbons hanging underneath.