So it ends and so it begins

We're jumping right from Autumn to Christmas around here.

We spent yesterday raking leave AGAIN. I really, really don't like oak trees. And as a bonus, this is one of the crazy acorn years (except for the front yard, the oak tree in front of the house barely dropped any acorns this year). So, add to the leaves several MILLION acorn caps and the few hundred acorns that I pulled up from taking root in the yard and we're probably to 60+ bags this season. And that's with the yard vacuum mulching up most of the leaves. I mocked The Mailman when he told me he wanted to buy a yard vacuum several years ago. I apologized again yesterday.

After we tortured The Girl for a few hours by making her do yard work with us, she declared that she was exhausted and needed a break and wanted to know if she could watch a movie. Her pick was "A Muppet Christmas Carol." So begins the Christmas season around here. She declared that she'll be watching "White Christmas" this weekend and moving through the rest of the Christmas movie collection over the next few weeks. I tried to explain to her that when I was a kid (yup, way back then), we had to wait for the one showing each year of "Rudolph," "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," "The Grinch" and all the rest. We had no VCR. If you missed it, you were out of luck until next year. She thought that was very sad.  (This rant about the old days brought to you by Dolly Madison snack cakes.)

I bought "White Christmas" for myself a few years ago, and The Girl and I watched it together one day and she loved it, which I love about her.  Don't get me wrong, she's all about the Rankin Bass classics, and The Grinch and Charlie Brown, too, but she says "White Christmas" is her favorite.  I think maybe I'll keep an eye out for a copy of "Holiday Inn" and maybe get her a non-Muppet version of "A Christmas Carol."  I don't think she's quite ready for Bill Murray's "Scrooged," though.