Christmas Time is Here Again!

I put my Christmas tree up this week and it makes me so happy!  I love seeing all of the ornaments that I have collected over the years and I love sitting in my living room with just the light of the tree.

Christmas was really difficult for my family last year but I am hoping that this year will be a little easier.  I have quite a few activities planned and I am already looking forward them!

Thanksgiving 2022

My family was able to have a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.  This was our first Thanksgiving without our parents so it was really bittersweet but I know that they would both be so happy to see us all together and enjoying ourselves.  We had the traditional dinner with turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pomegranate salad (a family tradition), vegetables and dip, and rolls.  We had pie for dessert and lots of treats when we played Shanghai rummy later that night.  We ended up laughing all night and that felt really nice after the year we have all had!

I hope you were all able to spend Thanksgiving with the people you love!

The Fabelmans

The second movie in my double feature yesterday was The Fabelmans and I enjoyed Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming of age story about the power of movies but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seems to.  Young Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord) is taken by his parents Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt (Paul Dano) to see The Greatest Show on Earth and he becomes obsessed with recreating the train derailment at the end of the movie.  Burt is angry when Sammy crashes his expensive model trains but Mitzi suggests that he film the crash so he can watch it again and again without destroying his trains.  Thus begins his passion for filmmaking!  The teenage Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle) regularly uses his sisters Reggie (Julia Butters), Natalie (Keeley Karsten), and Lisa (Sophia Kopera) as well as his boy scout troop to make elaborate movies.  Burt sees his movies as a hobby and Mitzi sees them as the artistic expression she was denied but, for Sammy, they provide a way to understand the tensions within his family and to deal with the prejudice he encounters at school.  Most people are raving about Williams (I think her performance is a little bit overdone) but I loved Judd Hirsch as Sammy's Uncle Boris because, even though it is short, the scene where he tells Sammy that he might need to choose between his family and his art is very powerful.  There is also a hilarious cameo by David Lynch at the end of the movie that leads to a perfect final shot (which made me laugh out loud).  I found the story to be very episodic and, while most of the episodes worked for me, some of them did not, particularly one with Sammy's girlfriend Monica (Chloe East) which is bizarre and seems irrelevant, and the narrative sometimes lacks focus.  My favorite scenes were those where Sammy shoots his elaborate movies because I kept seeing the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's future filmography but then I realized that Spielberg has made movies that explore the trauma of his formative years much better than this one does.  I didn't hate it but I am definitely in the minority on this one!

Glass Onion

As a huge fan of Knives Out, I have been looking forward to the sequel Glass Onion for what seems like forever!  I was able to see it yesterday as the first in yet another double feature (there are so many movies on my list) and I loved it!  An eccentric tech billionaire named Miles Bron (Edward Norton) sends an elaborate puzzle to his long time friends Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), a politician running for the Senate, Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom, Jr.), an idealistic scientist, Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), a supermodel turned fashion designer, and Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), a YouTuber known for his misogynistic viewpoint, as well as Cassandra "Andi" Brand (Janelle Monae), his disgruntled former business partner, inviting them along with Peg (Jessica Henwick), Birdie's assistant, and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline), Duke's girlfriend, to his private Greek island for a murder mystery party with himself as the victim.  Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is also mysteriously sent one of the puzzles and travels to the island where he is immediately invited to participate.  Blanc easily solves the murder mystery before the game even begins but he has more difficulty when an actual murder occurs because everyone on the island seems to have a motive.  Where Knives Out is an indictment against inherited wealth, this installment takes aim at celebrity culture and it is a lot of fun.  Just when we get to know all of the characters and their relationship to one another, there is a huge twist that changes everything we think we know and it is so clever.  Then there are even more twists and turns that lead to a shocking, but satisfying, ending.  The ensemble cast is outstanding, with Monae as the standout, and I loved all of the cameos, including Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury in their final roles and a hilarious Ethan Hawke among others.  The production design is fantastic, featuring an exotic island location and a gaudy mansion decorated with glass, and the costumes are completely over the top!  This movie is so entertaining and, even though it will stream on Netflix beginning on December 23, I recommend seeing it in a theater with a large audience!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Vivint Arena

I had a ticket to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas show last year but because of everything going on with my family I decided not to go.  It was definitely the right decision because I wouldn't have enjoyed it but a little part of me was sad to have missed it.  Luckily, I had another chance to see the show yesterday (apparently they come to SLC every year?) and it was epic!  Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a rock band and their show is very visual and theatrical, featuring images on giant screens, dramatic lights, lasers, fog, and pyrotechnics in sync with the music, platforms that rise from the stage and lower from the rafters, dramatic choreography, and over-the-top performances (with lots of head banging and hair flipping).  It was an absolute spectacle and I loved it!  Their setlist features rock versions of classic Christmas carols as well as original songs.  Of the former, my favorites were "Oh Come All Ye Faithful/ O Holy Night," "Good King Joy" which is a mashup of "Good King Wenceslas" and "Joy to the World," "Christmas Canon Rock" which is a cool arrangement of Pachelbel's Cannon in D, "What Child Is This," and "Requiem (The Fifth)" which is a fantastic mashup of Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (I really loved this because I love Mozart's Requiem so much).  Of the latter, my favorites were "Christmas Dreams," "First Snow," "The Last Ornament," "Christmas in the Air," "Wizards in Winter," and "The Snow Came Down."  The song I loved most was "A Mad Russian's Christmas" because it is a fantastical arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky (one of my favorite composers) and it sounded amazing.  I also loved all of the Nutcracker-themed visuals that went along with this number.  I think the narration before the songs in the first half of the show was a bit convoluted and confusing and the banter with the audience was forced and awkward (the comment about face masks was not necessary in my opinion) but I definitely enjoyed the show!