Assistance Please

Are there any new TV Christmas movies I need to see? Not having TV makes it difficult to know what Hallmark is up to. I like some of their movies. Family channel has a nice one every now and then as well but again, kinda tough to know what they’ve come up with this year without TV. Let me know if there’s anything new that’s worth watching and I’ll go invade my neighbor’s living room and kick them off their couch for an evening.

Weird that I like to watch Christmas movies since Christmas is another of those holidays that I prefer to skip. Maybe there’s a part of me that still believes if I watch them often enough I’ll get to have warm fuzzies like in all the movies myself one day.

When I was either three or four, I sat on the floor in the doorway to my room and watched my mom and dad assemble my brother’s train set that was supposed to be from Santa. They didn’t notice I was there until after they had it finished and after that, nothing they said could convince me there was a Santa. It ruined the magic for me but I was sworn to secrecy so I never told. I think that made me miss out on a lot, growing up. How I wish I could go back and have a real childhood now.

Is It Possible?

I watched The Christmas Card on the Hallmark channel the other night. The basic plot is a woman sends handmade cards to soldiers, one is so touched he comes to find her when he gets home, her family invites him to stay giving him a job in exchange for room and board, she gets engaged to her longtime boyfriend who only proposes because he now has competition, the soldier starts to leave because it breaks his heart since he’s fallen in love with her, she ditches the boyfriend because she realizes she’s really in love with the soldier. On Christmas of course. The perfect sappy story.

But it got me thinking. Is it really possible to impact someone that much, just with a few short sentences? Can you be so drawn to someone you’ve never actually met that you’re half in love by the time you do meet them?

As a romance writer I feel compelled to answer yes. After all, isn’t that the whole idea of these books? A happily ever after in unlikely circumstances. It’s a great fantasy, isn’t it?

However as someone who hasn’t had the best personal experiences with love, I’m not so sure. I admit it. I’m a bit cynical. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just improbable. I have tremendous doubts that real life can ever work out like that.

Since it’s the beginning of the holiday season I’d like any of you with a fairy tale of your own to prove me wrong. Share it please, either here or in a private email if you prefer. What do you receive for being so generous? Nothing other than helping to restore some hope for me, something I could really use right about now. In the movie, a handmade Christmas card made a difference. In reality, your own story could.

Saturday This & That

I did some research today and made my decision. Yep, Direct TV it is...for less than half the price. There's still not going to be anything much to watch other than the few shows I like but I'll have them plus the Hallmark channel which has an occasional good movie. It's being installed next Saturday during a time slot that is actually convenient for me.

Funny, Spring began Thursday. All winter I've been complaining about the lack of snow in Reading. You guessed it. I woke up today to big, fat, fluffy flakes. The really pretty ones. Oh, it didn't lay. It could have though. One of the worst snowstorms I remember as a kid was on an early Easter. Our car wouldn't make it up the last hill before home. No big deal. It rarely did and our wonderful neighbors never minded my dad leaving it in their driveway. That day I remember hiking the equivalent of a few blocks to our house and the snow blowing like heck, stinging my face. It was deep enough to cover the tops of my boots. As the storm was unexpected, in the days before the Weather Channel, I had on my Easter dress, no tights. Talk about cold! What made it worse was that since it was so nasty I had to leave my Easter basket from my grandmother, where we had been, in the car and all my candy froze. It's just not the same after that, or it wasn't to seven year old me.

Yesterday, in the car, I got a nice chunk of writing accomplished. I'm working on something I'm calling Beyond Meddling. I've been struggling because the grumpy ghost in it has been too busy muttering to do much narrating as he's supposed to. He's finally taken pity on me and has decided to be helpful instead of conterproductive so back to work for me.

What are you up to today?