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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Super Mario Brothers 3 - The Ice World

I'm going to offer up a little bit of a confession here. I will admit that I am kind of cheating today in regards to today's topic.



As you know, we're smack dab in the middle of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”. And, if you've been keeping track, we're currently on Day #14 of the event.

Of course you know that for the first twenty-five days of the month of December, we will be featuring a series of holiday themed entries, in which every reference has something to do with the Christmas season. But I knew that right off the bat that once I hit the second Saturday of December, I would be struggling.

You see, ever since I began doing the Saturday Smorgasbord theme day, I had decided that the second Saturday of the month would be dedicated towards video games. Problem is, how many Christmas themed video games are there in the world? Not very many. The only one that I can think of right off the bat is “Parasite Eve”, and unfortunately, it's one of those survival horror games.  Somehow, a possessed opera singer who sets people on fire in the middle of Carnegie Hall isn't exactly the best way to wish somebody a merry Christmas.

No, for today I wanted to make the theme fun.  But with such few selections for holiday video games available, whatever would I do?

I know!  What if I "cheat" a little by doing a blog topic on a video game that I received as a Christmas present years ago?  And, what if the blog topic had to do with a level within said game that could really make anyone feel as if they're in a living, breathing Christmas card?  


Well, a Christmas card that has huge pits to jump across and flying turtles who have an insatiable appetite for plumbers from Brooklyn, New York.




I'm sure that most everyone has heard of the video game "Super Mario Brothers 3" for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Originally released in Japan in 1988, the game hit store shelves in the United States and Canada in early 1990, and quickly became a best-selling video game.  For years, it held the record of being the best-selling video game of all-time.

And it was a game that I had gotten for Christmas when I was ten years old, making the year 1991.  Of course, it wasn't as if I hadn't played the video game before prior to owning it.  I did rent it at least once a month from the local corner store!

But what a spectacular game it was!  It was the first game to introduce the seven Koopalings (Iggy, Larry, Lemmy, Ludwig, Morton, Roy, and Wendy), it was the first game to introduce warp whistles, it was the first game to introduce a small inventory screen in which you could carry up to twenty-eight different items at once, and it was the first Mario game in which Mario gained the power of flight, as a raccoon leaf could make Mario soar to the clouds!

It was also a very challenging game at that.  I remember many instances in which I was playing Super Mario Brothers 3 and wanting to throw my controller through the screen of the television set because I could not manage to find a way to get through a level without depleting my 1-UP supply.  And, that was actually a good thing.  Nobody ever wants to play a video game that was too easy!  Easy games were boring games!


I still remember the day that I first played Super Mario 3.  I had rented it from the corner video store for a weekend, and I wanted to play it so badly.  Here's the kicker though.  Because the game was the most rented video game at that store, I had to be put on a waiting list in order to play it!  And, when I finally got the opportunity to play the video game for the first time, I couldn't even figure out how to even make the first level begin!  Unlike the first two games, in which the level automatically began when you pressed the "START" button, the third game began with a map screen.  And, believe it or not, it took half an hour for me to come to the conclusion that you needed to move Mario to the location on the map and that the game would not do it for you!

(Sigh...I shudder at how naive I was as a child.)


Anyway, once I figured it out, I ended up doing not too badly.  Sure, I got quite a few game overs on my quest to rescue Princess Toadstool from the clutches of Bowser, but that was all part of the fun.  After all, practice made perfect, right?

And certainly, Super Mario 3 was one of those games that amped up the difficulty.  After all, it did have eight distinct worlds, each one with its own distinct theme.  Some worlds were quite easy to navigate through, like Desert World or Grass World.  Some were quite mystical, but fun to get through like Giant World or Sky World.  And some really tested your patience, such as the case with Water World or Pipe World.

But of all the worlds found in Super Mario 3, I have to say that one of them really made me want to just shut off the game and not play ever again.  One world in which I used up all of my lives just to get through!

And, while most people find World 7 or World 8 to be the hardest world in the whole game, my world of frustration happened to be World 6.

And since we're keeping in theme with the Christmas spirit...which in my home country of Canada means near frigid temperatures, snow covered trees and pavement covered with black ice...why not talk about the world which gave me the most trouble in Super Mario Brothers 3?

World 6...the Ice World.  In my opinion, the hardest world in the game.  I find it even harder than World 7 and World 8!

Did you want to see a screenshot of the world that I found most frustrating?  Have a look.




And, while we're at it, let's listen to the theme music of this world.  It's a calming, but haunting melody at the same time.  The perfect soundtrack to a world that I found nearly impossible to get through!




Now, you might be wondering...what's the big deal?  Upon first glance of the screenshot, it doesn't look that intimidating.  A world with only three levels, a small castle, and a couple of Hammer Brothers guarding treasures.  Why would I absolutely despise this world more than any other one in the third Super Mario game?

Well, you see...I only showed you a small part of the ice world.  Here's the rest of it.




That's right.  With ten regular levels, three fortresses, and an airship level...not to mention at least three Hammer Brothers wandering around the world, the Ice World is the largest world in the whole game!  I swear, trying to get through the sixth world of the game was absolutely insane.  

But you know, if it were just a simple thing like having more levels than any other world, then it wouldn't be that big of a deal.  It would just take a little bit longer to get through the whole thing.  There had to be something else about the ice world that made it very challenging.




Well, how about the fact that in nearly every single level, there were ice blocks?  Slippery ice blocks?  Ice blocks that were so slippery that one false move and you'd slide completely off of a cliff?  And what was worse?  Nearly every single level was like this!  The first level of World 6 was extremely difficult unless you have a Fire Flower, because you not only had to slide around on frozen platforms, but you also had to dodge the projectile shooting plants known under the name of the "Patooie"!  Imagine trying to dodge those projectiles while trying to maintain your footing!  That's evil.  Really evil.

Even more evil was the fact that so many levels within the game were levels which had either automatic scrolling, or had so many quick jumps in rapid succession that you literally were biting your tongue trying to get through the level in one piece.  Nevermind the fact that some of these levels had wide gaps that were covered in ice which made an already difficult level even more impossible.  See worlds 6-2, 6-4, and 6-7 for examples of what I mean.  Or, basically any level that has the following soundtrack below.




(I grew to LOATHE that music after a while.)

I mean, really, the whole ice motif was probably the hardest part of the whole entire world.  For starters, one of the three fortresses was crafted entirely of ice...and all of the enemies in the ice castle were those horribly large, incredibly deadly Thwomps.  




You know, those giant rocks with faces on them that grimace as they try to make Mario flatter than a blueberry pancake served at IHOP?  Yep.  For me, the most evil enemy of the whole Super Mario 3 game cartridge.  When I first encountered them in World 2, I hated them then, and there weren't even that many in that world!  By World 6, I was completely done with them.

And, then there were those worlds in which there were coins that were trapped in blocks of ice.  And unless you had fire power that was granted to either Mario or Luigi by way of Fire Flowers, you could not grab them.  And in a world in which you were almost guaranteed to lose a life or two or twenty-five, you needed those coins.

(Because as true Mario savants know, one hundred coins equals one green 1-UP mushroom!)

Oh, one more thing.  There were enemies that were frozen in ice too...and if you warmed them up, the monsters warmed up and were able to hurt Mario and Luigi...which of course made the level even harder!

Now, I will say that some levels of World 6 were quite hard.  I wouldn't ever list one level in the ice world as being extremely easy.  I thought they were all challenging from 6-4's spinning platforms, to 6-6's underwater swimming, to 6-7's falling donut blocks.

But would you believe that there was one level in world 6 that for three years I never completed because I absolutely had no idea how to even complete it?  And, as someone who likes to try and complete every level in a Mario game, it bothered me that I couldn't complete it.




That level was World 6-5.

Apparently, it took me years to figure it out, but there was only one way out of World 6-5.  What you had to do was become Raccoon Mario, find the one and only Koopa Troopa (the turtle) in the level, stomp on it once, and fly up towards the ceiling with the shell and use it to smash the blocks that were obstructing the one and only exit in the area.  Going through any other exit would cause you to replay the level over and over again until you ran out of time.

It took me three years to figure out that trick.  Prior to that, I would have to use two Jugem's Clouds from my inventory, and use them to bypass 6-5, grab the Hammer Brothers suit from the Toad House that 6-5 was blocking, and use another cloud to bypass world 6-5 again!  It was very awkward for sure!


But I suppose that was where World 6 could be easy.  You didn't have to complete every one of the ten levels.  There were three instances in which you could choose whatever level you wanted to complete, and you could still make your way through the level.  You could probably get through a path that only used as few as six levels.  The only compulsory levels that you needed to get through were 6-1, 6-4, and 6-8...as well as the three fortresses.  All the others were ones that you could pick from.  You could complete 6-6 without having to do 6-5, or you could do 6-10 without having to do 6-9, and so on, and so forth.

But one final insult to injury in regards to World 6 is the airship level.  For the first seven worlds, Mario and Luigi have to collect a magic wand that one of Bowser's Koopalings had stolen from the ruler of each land, and you have to grab the wand and use it to change the king back to his human form (all the Koopalings changed the ruler of each land into an animal).  And, the boss of World 6 was my least favourite Koopaling, Lemmy Koopa.




Lemmy's weapon of choice was giant bouncy balls, and he basically threw them in all different directions, making it nearly impossible to get a direct hit on him.  I cursed the day I ever fought Lemmy Koopa because he was freakin' hard to defeat.  Not as hard as Bowser, mind you, but extremely hard enough!

But you know, practice made perfect...and after losing a grand total of seventy-six lives on my first playthrough of World 6, I survived the cold chill of the world...and while most people I know list World 7 as their least favourite world, I found it much easier than World 6!

And, that wraps up today's Saturday Smorgasbord as well as Day #14 of the blog!

Now, coming up tomorrow on Day #15...we take a listen to a Christmas favourite by a singer whose Christmas album got people "all shook up".

Friday, December 13, 2013

Finding Miracles in Bad Luck Sitcom Christmases

Hello, everybody! And, welcome to the thirteenth day of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”.



And, as it turns out, Day #13 happens to fall on what some would consider to be one of the most unluckiest days of the whole year! Friday the 13th!

But don't worry though. I won't be doing a blog entry on Jason Voorhees murdering a bunch of teeny-boppers one by one. Somehow, slicing open somebody with a carving knife isn't exactly the best way to wish someone a very merry Christmas.

But that's not to say that bad luck can't happen on Christmas Day (or any other day of the week that doesn't have the number thirteen attached to it). In fact, that's what this entry of the blog is all about this Friday. We're going to be talking about some of the Christmas disasters that our favourite sitcom characters have experienced, and how they got through it.

I guess the reason why I chose to do a topic on that subject is because of a few reasons. One reason why I wanted to choose this topic is because the opportunity to have Friday the 13th fall on a Friday in December only happens at least three times over a period of twenty years. Why wait?

Secondly, I think a lot of people over-hype the day known as “Friday the 13th”. I mean, really, when you stop and think about it, does anybody really have that much bad luck on one given day? I don't think so. In fact, I think Friday the 13th is just another bad superstition that people believe, just as people believe it to be back luck to walk under a ladder, or cross the path of a black cat. It's absolutely ridiculous to believe that just because the thirteenth of a month falls on a specific day of the week that all hell will break loose. Besides, last year, the world was supposed to end on a Friday, and it didn't.

(Of course, that end date was the twenty-first of December...and surprise, surprise, we're still here.)

But the most important reason why I wanted to do a blog entry on some of the worst Christmas vacations on sitcom land ever is because in almost every single instance, the good outweighs the bad. Whether it be in the form of a Christmas miracle, or the characters coming to terms with what happened, or simply making the best of a bad situation, they seldom let bad luck spoil their holiday.

So, I'm going to talk about half a dozen holiday mishaps in the world of sitcom television, and we're also going to talk about how the main characters of the television show managed to have a happy holiday even if disaster struck.

So, let's begin, shall we?



FULL HOUSE - “Our Very First Christmas Show”
Original Airdate: December 16, 1988

It's the first year that the sugary-sweet sitcom “Full House” did a Christmas episode, and it is on this episode that the family decides to leave their home in San Francisco to attend a holiday family reunion. What could go wrong?

Well, how about everything!

First of all, the Tanner family have to deal with a crabby old man who keeps complaining and yelling about everything. And, it certainly didn't help matters much when little Michelle actually pulls off the man's toupee, thinking that it was a cat.

Because, you know, everyone wears pets on their heads.

That's not the worst of it though. Due to a freak winter storm in Colorado, the plane is forced to land at an airport in the area, and the angry passengers are upset to learn that they are going to be forced to spend Christmas at the airport. Worse still, the Christmas presents that Danny, Joey, and Jesse had bought for the girls ended up getting lost in the baggage claim area, meaning that the girls didn't even have any presents to open up on Christmas!

Of course, while D.J. was very upset because of the fact that there were no gifts. Becky was upset because she couldn't get home to see her family in Nebraska. And all of the stranded passengers were upset because the snow kept them away from their holiday plans.

It took Stephanie – who never gave up her dream that Santa Claus would find them no matter where they were – and Jesse – who was getting incredibly frustrated over everybody's foul attitudes – to get the Christmas spirit back up and running again. And after decorating a Christmas tree (made out of coffee cups and swizzle sticks), somehow being stuck in an airport for Christmas wasn't so bad. And there's a really funny scene where Michelle pushes a button and sends a sleeping Danny out into the cold on a conveyor belt!

Oh...and there's one twist at the end of the episode that wraps everything up nicely...but I won't spoil it for you.



PERFECT STRANGERS - “The Gift of the Mypiot”
Original Airdate: December 16, 1988

You know, there was a time in which both “Full House” and “Perfect Strangers” aired as part of the TGIF block of Friday night comedies on ABC. This is why the Perfect Strangers Christmas episode aired the same day at the Full House special.

And in this episode of Perfect Strangers, we all get to meet the character known as “Balki Claus”!

Now, how many times have you been to a Christmas party or any party in general where everybody is having a wonderful time except one person. And, what if that one person at the party was so bitter and angry at the party that they made it unbearable for the others to have a good time, meaning that everyone at the party ends up miserable because of one person?

Well, for Mr. Gorpley, the boss of Larry and Balki at the Chicago Chronicle, he was that wet blanket. Larry and Balki had all the best intentions when it came to hosting a Christmas party at their own home. They invited Jennifer, Mary Ann, Lydia, Harriette, and all of the staff members from the Chicago Chronicle for a Christmas gathering filled with great food, lovely gifts, and happy memories. Balki wanted Mr. Gorpley to come too, because he never wanted anyone to feel left out.

(You see, Balki has one of the biggest hearts out of almost every sitcom character to come out of the last three decades.)

But naturally, Mr. Gorpley is a real Scrooge once he arrives. He belittles all the guests, he makes fun of their presents, and he is so insulting to Larry that Larry organizes a mob to throw him out of the party! It's up to Balki Claus to make the mob stop and make them realize that Mr. Gorpley does belong. It is here that we understand why Mr. Gorpley is such a grouch at Christmas, and how one generous gesture by Balki helps Mr. Gorpley see the true Christmas spirit.

Or, you know...you could always click HERE to watch it for yourselves.



SEINFELD - “The Pick”
Original Airdate: December 16, 1992

Okay, so I'll be the first to admit. I never really did get into the whole “Seinfeld” thing. When I was in high school, it seemed as though I was the only one who never watched it. I mean, don't get me wrong, Jerry Seinfeld is a funny guy, and I admit that I do enjoy Julia Louis-Dreyfus' work. Maybe it was the fact that I could not stand Jason Alexander's character of George Costanza that turned me off. Or, perhaps I was just scared of Kramer's hair. Who can say really?

Of course, there are some episodes of “Seinfeld” that I can watch. The one with the Soup Nazi, the one with Elaine's stupid dancing, the one where they all go to prison...those are good ones.

As is this Christmas themed episode which aired during Seinfeld's fourth season. Because this episode features at least two different situations that can spoil anyone's Christmas.

Can you imagine going to all the trouble to making a homemade Christmas card, going to the Walmart Photo Lab and printing off a hundred copies at the Kodak kiosk, and putting in that little extra effort to make sure that the card is absolutely perfect only to discover that the photo you submitted is not exactly the classiest photo ever taken?

Well, that's exactly what happened with Elaine. She was so excited to send out her Christmas cards for the year that she failed to notice that in the photo of herself she took, she was exposing a nipple!

Yes, twelve years before Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfuction at the Super Bowl halftime show, Elaine gave a show of her own...on the front cover of a Christmas card! How's that for embarrassing!

But as it turns out, karmic retribution works in funny ways. You see, the person who took the photograph was Kramer, who either completely ignored the fact that Elaine was popping out of her top, or was completely unaware of the whole brouhaha, and while I'm sure that Kramer had the best intentions behind snapping the card photo, it still made Elaine a laughing stock.



So when the opportunity comes later in the episode for Kramer to be given the job as a Calvin Klein underwear model and the final ad actually exposes Kramer's genitals, somewhere out there, Elaine was laughing hysterically, muttering to herself how delicious it was that the person who caused her own embarrassment got a taste of his own.

UNRELATED RANT: How can anybody justify paying nearly $30 for three pairs of Calvin Klein underpants when they can get twice that amount for half the price of any other brand? Is there something special about Calvin Klein underwear that justifies the high price? Inquiring minds want to know!

Anyway...back to the sitcom list.



SAVED BY THE BELL: THE NEW CLASS - “Fire at the Max”
Original Airdate: December 14, 1996

Okay, so what you're seeing above is a shot of the original Saved By The Bell cast sitting at one of the tables at “The Max”, a teen hangout where the décor is a geometry teacher's worst nightmare, and where the food is greasy and fattening...just the way today's teenagers like it. It managed to survive the entire run of “Saved By The Bell”, as well as the first four seasons of “Saved By The Bell: The New Class” before they had one of the New Class cast members turn it into a pile of smoldering ashes...on Christmas vacation, no less!

I know that the New Class series gets a bad rap when compared to the original, but this particular episode does illustrate a valuable lesson. If you have a real tree, don't forget to water it, and don't leave the lights on overnight.

It was a lesson that Ryan Parker learned the hard way. He and his friends were so excited about the holiday party that they were going to throw at “The Max” that when Ryan was closing up the restaurant, he left the tree lights on, which overheated and started a fire which turned into a great big fire when the dried out tree became engulfed in flames.

The end result was that a seven-year-old set was burned to the ground, and Ryan was blaming himself for the disaster, even though his friends insisted that it was an accident.

(Mind you, an accident that completely destroyed an entire restaurant.)

But after the owner of “The Max” overheard Ryan's friends, Screech, Mr. Belding, and Slater in a guest appearance reminiscing about the fond memories that they had at “The Max”, the owner decided that he would rebuild the iconic restaurant bigger and better than ever before. And for the show's last few seasons, “The Max” had a new look and more space. Still, there was something sad about the old building burning down.



The Old Max
1989-1996

SABRINA: THE TEENAGE WITCH - “Sabrina Claus”
Original Airdate: December 19, 1997



Okay, so Sabrina's been a character that has appeared in Archie Comics since 1962, and she has been involved in a lot of adventures that have had to do with Christmas and the holidays. She even had her own Christmas themed comic book back in the 1970s. Have a look below!



And, the Sabrina series of comics became so successful that Melissa Joan Hart was cast as Sabrina in the live-action series which ran from 1996-2003. And, in this Christmas episode, we learn that Sabrina seems to have a case of the gimmies. Seriously, she makes the self-absorbed Libby seem grounded! All Sabrina seems to care about is getting gifts and presents. It's a horribly selfish attitude to have around this time of year...an attitude which sadly many of us have exhibited on Christmas. When I was a little kid, I think that I myself was guilty of putting presents above anything else.

But very few of us get the rare opportunity to actually help others during the holidays. And when Sabrina accidentally injures the real Santa Claus while trying to change her selfish attitude, she and Salem are forced to take over Santa's duties and deliver presents to every single person on his list before Christmas morning.

In fact, I have an added bonus to this particular entry. Click HERE, and you can watch the whole thing!



THE BIG BANG THEORY - “The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis”
Original Airdate: December 15, 2008

Our most recent example on the list, we have what some would consider to be the ultimate bad luck experience on the holidays. What if you get someone a present that they don't like? Or what happens when you get someone a gift only to realize that their gift to you is worth five times the price of yours? I mean, sure, most of us don't see it as that big of a deal because as long as the gift comes from the heart, no big deal, right?

Well, for Sheldon, he plans to bypass that whole thing by performing what he called the “Bath Item Gift Hypothesis”. You see, Sheldon is really having a hard time buying a Christmas present for Penny. He knows that she would probably like a girly gift like a basket filled with soaps, perfumes, candy, fruit, and gingerbread cookies, but he's not sure what gift to give her because he wanted his gift to exactly match the monetary amount that Penny spent on him. His solution is to buy a gift basket from every store in the mall in every price point so that when Penny drops off his present, he can select the right gift basket from the assortment that he has purchased and return the rest on the day after Christmas.

(Seriously, how much disposable income does Sheldon Cooper have?)

So what happens when Penny gives Sheldon one of the best gifts ever? Well...have a look!




And, this concludes Day #13 of the Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar. And on the upcoming Day #14, I cheat a smidgen. We look at one of the coldest levels in a video game that I received as a Christmas gift some twenty-two years ago! This frosty edition of the Saturday Smorgasbord video game blog begins tomorrow!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

If These Branches Could Talk...

Happy Thursday, everybody!  I hope that you're excited for this week's video blog because I think that it's on a subject that every single person can relate to.



It also happens to be the twelfth day of "THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR"!  I can't believe that we're almost halfway through already!  I think that I'm going to be a little bit sad seeing it end, because it's always a lot of fun writing holiday themed entries!

So, what could I be possibly chatting about this week?  Well, I'll give you a hint.  Have a look at this picture.



This is actually a picture of the family Christmas tree.  Well, an older picture of it anyway.  This picture was taken on December 3, and over the next few days, more ornaments and lights were added on.  The end result is a tree that has a lot of yuletide history to it.

And, I thought that it might be a wonderful idea to do a blog entry based on the wonderful history associated with a few of the ornaments on our tree.

After all, every ornament tells a story.  Hence the reason why I've titled this blog "If These Branches Could Talk".

Now, I have done this blog entry in video format.  But before I do, I want to post a little bit of behind the scenes trivia about the making of this blog.

NO. 1:  The music you hear in the background is actually the soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.  I found it online and felt it would be perfect.  I just wanted to credit the album for providing the festive soundtrack.

NO. 2:  This video that you're going to see is actually Take #17!!!  It took me seventeen times to get this video right, because the first fifteen takes I kept flubbing up, and take sixteen cut out because I didn't have enough memory on my iPad mini (apparently fifteen takes on a 16GB iPad mini takes up a LOT of space).  Fortunately, Take 17 was a success!

NO. 3:  Despite all the technical difficulties, this remains my very favourite video blog that I have ever done.

So, without further adieu, let's watch the video to see which ornament on the family Christmas tree is the oldest, how many pop culture characters I have on our tree, which ornament came from Florida, and which ornament is my all time favourite.


Coming up on Day #13...I still haven't decided yet.  Consider it a surprise!


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Slip-Slidin' Away On A Sled!

Can you believe that we're already almost halfway through “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR” this year? My goodness, you know what they say about the holidays! They really do creep up on you!



But yet, here we are on Day #11!

And, today's one of those Whatever Wednesday entries where I randomly select a card from a group of six Clue characters and come up with a topic based from those Clue cards. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, well, here's what each of the character cards mean.

For Miss Scarlet, we make it a Sunday Jukebox kind of day.
For Colonel Mustard, it becomes a Monday Matinee.
For Professor Plum, we change this day to a Thursday Diary.
For Mrs. Peacock, we make it a Friday Night TV Guide entry.
For Mr. Green, we feature the first two weeks of the Saturday Smorgasbord.
For Mrs. White, we feature the last three weeks of the Saturday Smorgasbord.

(The first two weeks of Saturday represent toys and video games. The last three weeks deal with cartoons, comics, books, magazines, and educational shows.)

So, who will be the subject of this week's Whatever Wednesday?



Ah, looks like a Mr. Green kind of day. So this means that I'm going to be talking about a toy, game, or video game.

And, on top of that, I have to try and make it Christmas related. Not an easy task.

I mean, sure, it is easy in the sense that Christmas is all about toys and games.  After all, in most homes around the world, you can find toys and games underneath the Christmas tree every December 25th.  But I don't really feel like doing a blog entry on any of the hottest toys of the year, because to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what any of them are.  I have no children of my own, and my nieces and nephews are at the age where they don't really play with toys these days.  So, as far as current toys go, I'm totally out of the loop.

And, I really don't want to do a blog entry on a video game.  For one, there's not a lot of Christmas themed video games out there in the world.  Heck, I'll tell you right now that my upcoming Saturday blog entry is kind of stretching it in regards to keeping the Christmas theme going for the blog.  Secondly, although video games and video game consoles can usually be found underneath Christmas trees (I know that I certainly received video games as Christmas presents myself), I don't know if I really want to make today's topic on a toy in which you stay inside for hours on end.

No, I think that for today's topic, I'm going to write about an outdoor activity.  One that you can do outdoors...well, provided that you live in an area that receives regular snowfall between the months of December and March.  Actually, this activity could be one that you could do on Christmas Day morning after you've opened your gifts.  It's lots of fun for all ages, and if you can find exactly the right spot to perform this activity, you could have a ride that is almost as thrilling as a roller coaster at Six Flags!

This is a blog all about sledding!  I'll talk about some of the sleds that I used to ride in, some of the materials that I used to slide down hills, and the one place in town which I considered to be one of the best sledding hills ever.

So, how many of you remember your very first sled?  Do you even still have it?  I am sad to say that my first sled did not survive past my childhood.  But, man did I have a lot of good times with that sled.

The sled itself was made entirely of plastic.  If anything, I think my parents picked up the sled on clearance at Woolco right around the time that I was toddler aged.  I wish I could find a picture of it from way back when, but for whatever reason, I do remember it looking somewhat similar to the image below.



All that I remember about it was that it was bright red with yellow handles, and it sailed down hills at a very fast speed! 

(Well, at least it seemed really fast to me when I was a little kid, anyway.)

I tell you, I took that little red sled everywhere I went as a kid.  My sisters and parents would often use the little yellow rope attached to the front of the sled and pull me around our snow-covered backyard of our house...making sure that they didn't make me crash into a tree or a bush in the process.  And on the rare occasion in which we went out to a park to slide down the snow covered hills in the area, I could count on that little red sled to take me on the ride of my life!

The only thing about using a sled over and over again for five consecutive winter seasons was that over time, the sled would become more and more damaged, and I would say that over time, the sled started to wear away.  The first sign of decay was the fact that the sled began to change colour.  Initially, the sled was a bright red colour.  Five years later, it had faded into a sickly shade of Pepto-Bismol pink.  And then the cracks started to form all along the bottom of the sled, and the handles fell off, and the rope frayed away to nothing.  By the time I was six or seven years old, the sled had broken in half, and it was rendered absolutely useless.

I was devastated and heartbroken.  That sled was a huge part of my childhood, and it was suddenly broken and useless.  I wanted my parents to replace it with one exactly like it, but given that it was an item on clearance at Woolco and this was at a time before eBay and Kijiji even existed, those dreams were dashed rather quickly.



I mean, sure, I had loads of sleds that followed the little red one, but they just weren't the same.  I had one of those toboggan style sleds that were built kind of similar to the one featured in the movie "Citizen Kane", but to be perfectly honest I never really liked those kinds of sleds.  There was something about the way they were built that made them absolutely useless on hills (but were fantastic on flat plains of snow), and as far as I was concerned, if you couldn't go down a hill very fast, it wasn't worth playing on.

Ironically enough, even though I didn't use that toboggan that much, I was so angry with my parents when they gave it away to my cousins who promptly broke it weeks after getting it.  Looking back on it, I wish that they had asked me for my permission before giving it away because there's a part of me that still wishes I had it, even though I am way too big for it now.  Oh, well.  

As I grew older, I decided that sleds were a little bit too childish for me (keep in mind that I was only eleven or twelve at the time), and I decided that I would use other methods of transportation to get down a big snow-covered hill. 

Enter the "Snow Saucer/Crazy Carpet" era.


Now, I never really did have much use for Snow Saucers.  To be honest with you, I was a husky kid and I couldn't really fit properly on them.

I mean, look at the way they were designed.  Unless you were four feet tall and weighed less than eighty pounds, they were absolutely useless.  But for those kids who met the height and weight requirements (or lied to themselves and told themselves that they were), they were a really ingenious way to slide down any hill.  Of course, you also had to make sure that you held on for dear life because if you hit a sharp curve or a sudden bump, you would literally go flying off the sled.




I was more of a Crazy Carpet kind of person.  I don't know if they are still made or not, but mine sort of looked like the pictures up above.  The only difference was that I entered the double digits in age in the early 1990s, which was right around the time that neon colours first started to become popular.

(Mine was neon orange, by the way.)

Anyway, Crazy Carpets were a whole lot of fun.  You could lie on them face down as you slid down the hill, you could peel them up and ride them like a sled, or if you were really feeling adventurous, you could attach several of them together with string and make a Crazy Carpet train!  And, unlike Snow Saucers, I found them easier to control.  Mind you, once you got to the bottom of the hill, you fell off anyway, but at least you didn't have to worry about falling off while you were midway down the descent.

And, in town, there was only one place which was deemed worthy enough to toboggan down.  It's a place called Laurier Hill (named after the street that the hill happens to be located on), a hill with very few trees and a lot of open plains.  Every winter, we would go to that hill and slide down it to our heart's content.  I even remember going on a field trip to the hill when I was in seventh grade and being amazed that I never got injured once on the hill!  Of course, my sock ended up getting completely soaked because on one descent, I ended up losing my boot!  Luckily, it was on one of the last runs of the day, so I didn't get frostbite that day!  And the hot chocolate that we were given afterwards certainly helped.

So, those are some of the memories I have sledding.  For those of you living in Canada and the Upper U.S., you likely have experienced some of these memories and more.  For those of you who live in the Lower U.S...well, I suppose you could try tobogganing down a sand dune.  Just make sure you wear goggles.  Nobody likes sand in their eyes.

(That was a joke, by the way.)

And, do stay tuned into the advent calendar.  Tomorrow on Day #12, everybody's Christmas tree has a story to tell.  In tomorrow's video blog, I share the stories revolving around our family Christmas Tree.  

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

December 10, 1987



I would like to wish all of you a very happy Tuesday, and to welcome all of you to the tenth day of “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”.

Also known as one of the toughest Tuesday Timeline entries that I have ever done in the entire blog thus far.

And, I don't mean to say that the blog was tough as in emotionally draining. In actuality, this blog entry is quite the opposite. What was tough about it was the fact that December 10 happens to be one of the toughest dates that I have ever tried to do for a Tuesday Timeline. Particularly, a Tuesday Timeline that is set during the advent calendar.

Would you believe that of all the research that I did, and all of the pop culture trivia sites that I consulted, I could not find one decent Christmas reference that took place on December 10? No Christmas album releases, no actors and actresses that were born who starred in a Christmas film. Nothing.

The only Christmas themed pop culture tidbits that I could find for December 10 was the fact that on this date in 1974, “The Year Without A Santa Claus” debuted...but unfortunately, I did a blog on that subject during the last advent calendar. And, when you consider that the only other option that I could find for December 10 was the 1982 Solid Gold Christmas Special...well...let's just say that I struggled to come up with a concept for today's Tuesday Timeline.

And, let's just say that this Tuesday Timeline will focus on a...more personal memory. One that I stumbled upon in one of the most unusual sources. But we'll get to that in a moment.

But for now, I will say that there is an unusual amount of non-Christmas related history to discuss, as all of these events took place on the tenth of December...

1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull “Exsurge Domine” outside of Wittenburg's Elster Gate

1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed after having separate affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England, and then-wife of Henry VIII

1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Hailey

1817 – Mississippi becomes the twentieth state to join the United States

1830 – American poet Emily Dickinson (d. 1886) is born in Amherst, Massachusetts

1868 – The world's first traffic signals are installed outside of London's Westminster Palace

1884 – “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, penned by Mark Twain, is first published

1898 – The Spanish-American War comes to an end following the signing of The Treaty of Paris

1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded, exactly five years after Alfred Nobel – the man whom the prize was named after – died

1902 – In Tasmania, women are finally given the right to vote

1914 – Actress Dorothy Lamour (d. 1996) is born in New Orleans, Louisiana

1927 – The phrase “Grand Ole Opry” is used for the first time on-air

1941 – The HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk from torpedoes launched by Imperial Japanese torpedo bombers

1955 – The Mighty Mouse Playhouse debuts on television

1957 – Actor Michael Clarke Duncan (d. 2012) is born in Chicago, Illinois

1965 – The Grateful Dead perform their very first concert under their brand new name

1967 – Singer Otis Redding (b. 1941) is killed in a plane crash at just twenty-six years old

1968 – The “300 Million Yen Robbery” takes place in Tokyo, Japan – it remains Japan's biggest unsolved bank heist to date

1996 – Singer/songwriter Faron Young (b. 1932) dies at the age of 64

2005 – Comedian/actor Richard Pryor (b. 1940) loses his life at the age of 65 from a heart attack

2007 – Actress Ashleigh Aston Moore (b. 1981), of the movie “Now and Then”, dies at the age of 26

2012 – Television producer Paul Rauch, who worked on daytime dramas “Guiding Light” and “The Young and the Restless” passes away

Wow...now you see why I had such a hard time with today's blog entry. No Christmas themed topics at all...just a whole lot of celebrity deaths!

So, let's counter that with a lot of celebrity birthdays! Mind you, none of them have a major Christmas link to them, but they are still one year older all the same. Happy birthday to Agnes Nixon, Tommy Kirk, Susan Dey, Paul Hardcastle, Pepsi Dumacque, John J. York, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Schoeffling, Nia Peeples, Bobby Flay, George Newbern, Stephanie Morgenstern, Mel Rojas, Meg White, Summer Phoenix, and Raven-Symone!

So, now we get to the Tuesday Timeline date. And, again, I had to really wrack my brain to try and find a suitable holiday topic to discuss for today. So, would you like to know where my inspiration came from?

It came from a box of Christmas decorations, as well as an old journal that we used to do in elementary school!

I don't know if any of you in public school used to do journals in class, but from first to third grades, we used to have to do a daily journal of what we did during the day. It was an exercise in improving our writing skills as well as using crayons, markers, and pencil crayons to illustrate our journal entries.

Now, I'll admit that my life in first grade wasn't all that memorable...and I'm pretty sure that the entries that I wanted to write about would probably have gotten me thrown out of school (remember, I absolutely hated first grade because I had the worst teacher ever), and therefore, the vast majority of my entries were mostly made up.

However, I do recall one entry that I wrote that was actually the truth. I wrote about doing some sort of craft in my first grade class for Christmas. And, the entry was dated December 11, 1987. Now, because the entry talked about how I made the craft the day before, this would then make our Tuesday Timeline spotlight...



...December 10, 1987.

Now, December 1987 was an interesting month in pop culture.  In December 1987, two holiday specials premiered on television..."A Garfield Christmas" and "Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration", two holiday specials that I have loved ever since.  In December 1987, quite a few movies debuted at the box office, including "Moonstruck", "Throw Momma From The Train", and "Empire of the Sun".  And the number one song on the top of the charts was this single below.



Those are all interesting little pop culture nuggets, but none of them work in this Tuesday Timeline.  The Belinda Carlisle song isn't exactly Christmasy, and none of those movies and television specials debuted on December 10.

So, you know what this means? Since I couldn't find a pop culture topic to discuss for today, I thought I'd share a personal story instead...by talking about the craft that I worked on that fateful December day. Would you like to see it?  Here...I posed for a photo with my "friend" down below.




Okay, so maybe I haven't quite mastered the art form known as the "selfie" yet.  At least I'm not making the duck face that so many thirteen year old girls have made since Twitter was first created.  But I do want all of you to say hello to my little friend.  And, I'm not talking about the big goofball in the burgundy shirt (that would actually be me).

I'm talking about this little guy.




Would you believe that twenty-six years ago today, I made this little guy with my own bare hands?  I didn't actually give him a name, but this was one of the holiday crafts that we made all the way back in 1987...during a year that I probably would rather like to forget.

Don't get me wrong.  In the world of pop culture, 1987 was a fantastic year.  The music was all music I liked listening to, my favourite cartoon (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) debuted in 1987, and I think the cartoon schedule for 1987/1988 was stellar.  But when it came down to personal matters, the 1987/1988 school year was actually one of my worst, largely because I couldn't stand the teacher...and to be perfectly honest with you, I didn't care much for half of my classmates in that class either.

Granted, we were all six years old by the time Christmas 1987 rolled around, but it's funny how clear my memory is from that time period even though I'm in my early thirties now.

But I will admit to one thing though.  While I still maintain that first grade was the worst school year ever, it still had its good moments to it.  And, I suppose the reason why I have chosen to spotlight the day in which I made this elf craft is because it happens to be one of the few positive moments that I have of first grade.  I guess I'm at an age where I'd rather remember good things instead of bad.  That's not to say that I won't forget the bad, I'd just rather hold on to the good moments.

Make sense?  I certainly hope so.

Now, here's what's very interesting about the events of December 10, 1987.  I actually have two major memories associated with this day...and both of them were good.  The first memory is that we played some sort of game in class where we all took turns trying to count to ten without actually reaching the number ten.  If we hit the number ten, we had to sit out.  For some reason, I remember winning that game on that day, and winning a special prize...a prize which I no longer remember, but I do have the memory of being the winner!  Funny the little details that are tucked away into our brains over time, aren't they?

And, of course, the second memory is that I made the little elf.  And, in hindsight, the elf project was a lot easier than I had made it out to be.  Back when I was a kid, I had absolutely zero patience in art class, and I wanted to be the first kid in the class to finish art assignments - even if it meant colouring outside the lines, gluing together random scraps of paper, or drawing naked stick figures.  So, you can imagine that building an elf from scratch made me a bit frustrated.  

But really, all that was needed was red felt, a styrofoam ball, and an empty jar.  In the case of the elf that I made in 1987, the jar was once filled with Gerber baby food.  




Now, when it came down to actually gluing the felt around the jar, that was actually the part that frustrated me the most.  Nowadays, we have glue sticks and glue guns to assist us with crafts (though I'm pretty sure that glue guns are still not allowed in grade school classrooms).  Back in 1987, we had that useless brown sludge known as mucilage.  You know, that messy brown stuff that rarely came out of the nozzle of the bottle, and when it did, it very rarely stuck.  Yeah, can you imagine a six-year-old trying to use mucilage on red felt?  It was impossible.

(That's why when I got home from school after I brought home my elf, my father grabbed his glue gun and made the felt stick on a little bit better!)

We also had to find a way to drill a hole into the lid of the jar that we were using for the base of our elf project.  Luckily, there was an aide in the classroom (one of those high school students who was doing a co-op placement at our school) who helped me with mine.  I was happy that she helped me, because I know that my actual teacher would have either ignored me, or shamed me while poking the hole through the lid.

Once the lid was drilled through, a bobby pin was inserted into the lid, and that was where we stuck the styrofoam ball.  We were required to decorate the ball to make it look like a face.  We were supposed to use the leftover red felt to design a hat and glue on eyes, a nose, and a mouth on the ball.  Now, as you can see from my elf design, making felt hats is not my specialty.  Truth be told, I kind of made my elf look like Mother Teresa.  But I didn't care.  I loved it.

And, I admit that while I didn't set out to make my elf a grouch, it just ended up that way.  After all, I had used the majority of the red felt to make the elf clothing, and I only had limited scraps to glue on the ball to make the face.  I'm sure that if I could have aimed my scissors a little better, I could have made my elf smile.  But, given how I didn't really like grade one that much, I suppose that maybe I was fashioning my elf after myself.

Needless to say, I think the elf turned out very well.  I kind of even like the fact that my elf is grouchy.  It certainly stood out from all the other happy elves anyway.  And who wanted to have an elf that was exactly the same as some other kid's?

I should also add one final thing.  You see, we didn't just stop at making the elves in class.  We were also required to fill up the elves with candy that our teacher had provided for us.  And, what I did was try to fill up the elf with all the good tasting candy.  Unfortunately, I ended up with one piece of candy that I didn't really care for.  It was one of those imitation Werther's Original candies that tasted like feet.  

(Well, okay...maybe it didn't taste like feet...but it certainly didn't taste like a Werther's!)

But what do you think I did with that nasty candy?  Did I throw it out?  Eat it anyway?  




Actually, for some insane reason, I decided to keep it inside the elf.

Just think about it for a second.  When I first made this elf and filled it up with goodies, the president of the United States was Ronald Reagan.  Since then, we've had a Clinton, an Obama, and two Bushes...of course, not in that order.

Somehow, I've managed to keep a piece of candy trapped inside a childhood art project for over a quarter of a century.  The butterscotch candy you see pictured above is twenty-six years old.

And, no...I won't eat it.  I'm actually a little afraid to eat it, considering how long it's been inside that elf.  Though I will say that for a piece of 26-year-old candy, it looks surprisingly well-preserved!  Of course, I guess part of it could be because it's still wrapped.

It would be interesting to open up the elf again in 2037 (the 50th anniversary of the day I made the elf), just to see if the candy still looks the same.  Maybe the preservatives WERE really good in the 1980s and we didn't know it!

Whatever the case though, that's the story of my little Christmas elf...made with love on the tenth of December, 1987.

What's in store for Day #11?  I can't tell you.  I have to leave it up to fate.  Until then, I bid you adieu!

Monday, December 09, 2013

The Christmas Shoes

Good morning, everybody! I hope you're ready for another day in “THE POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR”. Day #9 in a series of twenty-five!



And since today is a Monday Matinee kind of day, I'm going to be featuring a movie in this post...with a couple of little tweaks along the way.

For one tweak, I'm going to announce that this particular film was not released in movie theatres. It was actually released on December 1, 2002 as a made-for-television film airing on CBS.  I typically don't do a whole lot of made-for-television movies in this space, but for this month, I'll make an exception.  After all, we do sell this movie in the Christmas movie section on DVD for five dollars in the electronics department at the store I work at.

Another tweak lies in the fact that this particular film was inspired by a song that was released approximately two years prior, so I suppose that if you really wanted to look at this as a Sunday Jukebox entry being posted on a Monday Matinee, you probably could.

And, yet another tweak comes from the fact that in between the song release and the film release, an author by the name of Donna VanLiere wrote a novel based on the main plot of the song, and that novel served as the screenplay upon which the film was based on.  So, you could also say that this blog posting could have served well under the Saturday Smorgasbord!

So, let's see...the movie aired on television, was based on a song, which inspired the novel that the film was based upon.  I'd call that one epic blog entry, combining four different theme days into one!

It's just a shame that the song that the book was based on, which inspired the film, holds such divide in the community.  There is an extremely vocal camp that defends everything there is to defend regarding the movie and song.  Simultaneously, there is another vocal camp that slaughters the song and the film every chance they get.

Myself?  I admit that I find the song a little bit schmaltzy, but the film itself was somewhat saved by the fact that they managed to attract some convincing actors.  Well, at least I'd like to think so, anyway.

So, I guess you're probably wondering what this topic is all about.  I suppose the title is a dead giveaway...but before I talk about the movie, I'm going to post the song.  If you love the song, great.  If not...well, I suppose you could always mute it.



ARTIST:  NewSong
SONG:  The Christmas Shoes
ALBUM:  Sheltering Tree
DATE RELEASED:  October 10, 2000
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #42

Okay, so as I said before, the video is kind of schmaltzy.  And, normally, I try not to reveal the ending of films, but of course, the video kind of spoils my plans, so consider this to be one of the few film discussions that I ever do that will speak of how the movie ends.  But, I may hold a couple of details back.  I can't lay it ALL out on the table.



Today's discussion is going to be on the 2002 film "The Christmas Shoes", which stars Rob Lowe, Kimberley Williams-Paisley, Max Moore, Maria del Mar, Hugh Thompson, and Amber Marshall.

Okay, so before I go into detail about the film, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the song itself.  The song was written by two of NewSong's members (Leonard Ahlstrom and Eddie Carswell).  NewSong itself being a contemporary Christian band that first formed in 1981 in the Valdosta, Georgia area.  And right around the time that the band was recording and writing the music for the album that "The Christmas Shoes" eventually appeared on, the band faced a tough year.  In May of 1999, one of the band's founding members, Bobby Apon, passed away, and a few months later, two more members would quit the band.  By the year 2000, NewSong would also have Ahlstrom depart the band after agreeing to move to Florida to assist a friend in running a record label, leaving Carswell to replace practically the entire band's line-up within the short space of a year.  How is that for stress?



Fortunately, before Ahlstrom's departure from the band, he had managed to complete the songwriting tasks for the band's 2000 album, "Sheltering Tree".  Funnily enough, "The Christmas Shoes" single was actually added onto the album as a bonus holiday track, with the band not expecting the single to perform all that well.

To their surprise, not only did the single almost reach the Top 40 on the Billboard Charts, but it topped the adult contemporary charts in early 2001!

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking that because the song was released around Christmastime that the single would be filled with warmth, joy, and peace and love.  And to an extent, the song does offer up all of those things.  Yet, there's one festive elephant in the room...one that sort of makes the single bear a lot of tragic irony, if you will.

You see, the song's plot takes place on the eve before Christmas, and the stores are just about ready to close.  From the narrator's point of view, we get the picture that he is around the back of the line, as he has a couple of presents that he still has to buy and wrap as the precious minutes tick away.

(In the film, this narrator...a.k.a., the man who had 364 days a year to shop for Christmas and yet still waited until December 24th...is played by Rob Lowe.  And as the movie explains, Lowe plays the role of Robert Layton...and his moodiness and impatience is explained by the fact that he is having marital problems of some sort, which has caused a lot of tension between them as well as their daughter, Lilly, while dealing with the fact that his own mother is sick during the holidays.)

Of course, before the man can check out his purchases, he has to hold on until the little boy in front of him, pulling out all the loose change he has in his pockets (something that the then 11-year-old me would have also done in order to rent a video game from the local video store) to be able to afford a present for someone very special.

(In the film, the boy's name is Nathan Andrews, and he is played by Max Morrow.)

It turns out that the little boy is wanting to purchase a pair of shoes for his mother.  And, they are not any ordinary shoes either.  They just happen to be one of the most expensive pairs of shoes in the entire store.

(As well as some of the ugliest looking shoes ever seen.  This is how they looked in the movie.)



Now, I suppose that if one were to wear them on Christmas Day, they would be perfectly fine.  The snowflake type designs and crimson hue are certainly appropriate for the day.  However, they wouldn't be very practical the rest of the year.

Nonetheless, Nathan wants nothing more than to purchase the shoes for his mother.

(In the film, the mother is named Maggie Elizabeth Andrews, who is played in the film version by Kimberly Williams-Paisley...though in this film, she is credited as Kimberly Williams, as this movie was shot before her marriage to Brad Paisley.)

You see, the whole premise of the song/movie "The Christmas Shoes" is time...and just how precious it really is.



In the movie, Maggie is living a life that most people could only dream of.  She has a loving husband, Jack (Hugh Armstrong), and her loving son, Nathan, and she has a good job teaching music at the local elementary school.  Everything seems perfect...except for the fact that she seems to not be as active as she once was.  

Case in point, the opening scene in which Maggie and Nathan are playing football and they accidentally throw a football through the window of the car that Robert Layton happens to be in.  Of course, Layton snaps at Maggie and Nathan, as he has enough problems of his own.  His commitment to work has caused him to miss out on pivotal moments of his daughter's life, which has in turn caused his wife Kate (Maria del Mar) to resent him for it.

But, of course, Nathan and Maggie have absolutely no idea that any of this is going on in Robert's life, so they shrug it off and head inside.  But it is here that we start to see that something is seriously wrong with Maggie, as she has a rough time keeping up with the little boy.



Flash forward a few days to the set-up for the school Christmas concert, where Maggie is trying to set up the auditorium for the production, but is getting winded just from setting up the chairs.  Luckily for Maggie, she gets help from Kate, who arrives at the school to drop off Lilly (Amber Marshall), who is set to perform in the concert.  After Maggie gives Lilly a pep talk because Lilly is nervous about performing on stage, Maggie and Kate quickly become the best of friends, and the two share almost everything with each other.

But Kate begins to notice that Maggie is not feeling well at all, and Maggie too realizes that something is terribly wrong.  She proceeds to ask a reluctant Kate to take over the leadership of the Christmas concert, and she decides to find out what is wrong.

It turns out that the news is not good.  Maggie has been diagnosed with a terminal illness (though we never really do find out what Maggie has, the movie seems to suggest that Maggie has cancer), and that she only has just weeks to live.  A horribly devastating blow to the Andrews family, especially during the holidays.  It's bad enough that Maggie's husband is struggling to find a way to cope with the news...how in the world will Nathan understand?

Now, the good news is that Maggie has Kate by her side, and Maggie's acceptance of her own impending death (as much as she really doesn't want to die) causes Kate to finally open up to Robert about how things really are between them, and how she is willing to make the effort to fight for them if he will do the same.  Appropriately enough, the epiphany begins to happen at the Christmas concert that Kate agreed to take control of from Maggie.

Of course, as if life in the Layton household isn't stressful enough, Robert's mpther suddenly passes away just before Christmas, and the funeral also seems to be a changing point for Robert, as it causes him to re-evaluate everything that is really important.  As a result of his mother's death, plus all of the stuff that was going on with Kate and Lilly, Robert almost forgets to go Christmas shopping, so he makes a last minute dash to the main street of town to pick up a few things...

...which is where he crosses paths with Nathan, who happens to be in front of him in line, armed with a fancy pair of shoes and a fist full of change.  Unfortunately, he has not got enough money to buy the shoes, which breaks Nathan's heart.  Nathan explains that he hasn't got much time left, to which the cashier misunderstands him as thinking that he doesn't have time to buy the shoes before the store closes.  But Robert is listening closely as the little boy pleads to sell him the shoes anyway, as they will likely be the very last present that he ever gives his mother again.  

In fact, there's a reason why the shoes are so important.  Maggie has taken a turn for the worse on Christmas Eve, and it is expected that she won't live long enough to see Christmas morning, so Nathan makes sure that she has to have a pair of shoes that she can wear when she goes up to Heaven to see Jesus for the first time.

(His words...not mine.)



And, wouldn't you know it, Robert decides that he will step up, purchase the shoes himself, and gives the shoes to the boy, who hurries home to give Maggie the shoes before she passes away.  Needless to say, it takes a while for the boy to run home because of the fact that A) it's snowing outside, and B) a group of people from the school have gathered outside of the Andrews' residence to sing Christmas carols outside as a final farewell gift for a wonderful woman.

So, yeah...I'm sure you have figured out that Maggie ends up losing her battle with illness at the end of the story.  But I'm sure that she left the world happy, knowing just how many people loved her and cared enough about her and her family to make it her greatest Christmas ever...even if it did end up being her last.

Granted, "The Christmas Shoes" has all the makings of it being a really bleak, depressing special.  Basically, the plot is "Here, Mom...have some shoes before you die."  But there's a lot more to it than that.  And if you can overlook the schmaltz of the actual song itself, the story of the movie is quite consistent and good.  And while there is a lot of sadness within this movie, there's also a lot of joy to be found as well.  And, if you click HERE, I have a special surprise for you.  If you're up to it, that link takes you to the full movie.

And, this wraps up the 9th day of the advent calendar.  Tomorrow's Tuesday Timeline marks the tenth day of the advent calendar...which in turn was one of the most frustrating days to write a Timeline entry about.  But a little personal touch can potentially save it!

You'll see what I mean tomorrow.