Yes, I’ve been playing too much Worms
Happy Boxing Day! Usually at this time of year I’m overwhelmed by (a) the coma of Christmas, and (b) the self-imposed chore of writing a year in review, but I couldn’t help notice that I was due my one thousandth post on this blog. And boy, it only took ten years to get here. So look, there’s a little Worm incarnation of me celebrating. (It’s only fair to concede that I spent several hours of Christmas Day losing to Katie at Worms very, very badly.)
Despite this humiliation, it was actually a lovely day, if quieter than the traditional family Christmas to which I was briefly thrust into over Skype. On Christmas Eve I stole one of Cat’s family traditions by settling down to The Muppet Christmas Carol, and then the next morning I unwrapped beautiful care packages from Tash and Katie which had been waiting patiently under the tree:
So much proper chocolate!
I even got to be part of the Hurley family Christmas by playing Pointless together:
Highlights: philosophers and MPs. Lowlights: sport
And, of course, Doctor Who! So yes, I wouldn’t do this every year, but I still captured plenty of the Christmas magic.
Other things of note: enjoying the very last episodes of The Colbert Report, including Obama’s performance on the show, Julie’s birthday party, Grisel’s “I’m moving to San Francisco” farewell gathering (boo) and tagging on to see the final instalment of The Hobbit afterwards at the Navy Pier IMAX.
I seem to be more forgiving of this trilogy than most people. It’s clearly absurd, and no rational world would ever have permitted anyone to stretch out a short children’s adventure tale to the same length as Lord of the Rings. But I find the world spectacular and enjoyable enough to forgive all that. (Maybe it’s the accents?) Less acceptable is all of the LOTR foreshadowing, which rather wrecks the surprise element of that story’s opening, since all of the characters now know what’s coming anyway. So maybe it’s just that going to see The Hobbit reminds me of all those happy Christmases seeing the original films with my family, and for that, I’d probably pay to watch The Shire Parish Council Meetings (Extended Edition)*.
*Best not put that to the test, though, Peter Jackson.
