Tag: movies

Happy, Tasty Thanksgiving!

Dear Liza,

Our Thanksgiving was busy and full of food and family.

It started quietly, with Auntie Bridgett and I watching the Macy’s Parade. We enjoy the floats, musical numbers, and the marching bands. But the special thing about the Macy’s parade is the giant balloons. This one, being a minion, is particularly adorable.

We got the appetizers set out for when Auntie Katie, the cousins, and Douglas came over. It’s it a pretty spread?

Once the company arrived, we chatted, and then the ukuleles came out. Katie and Douglas practice a lot, and they sing well together. Cousin Jasper brought his drumsticks and played a nice accompaniment on Kestrel’s heavy leather purse.

Once the dinner was ready (thanks to Bridgett’s good help!) we all settled down and ate ourselves silly. Of course, we kept an eye on the desserts waiting for us!

But first, a walk. Grandpa Nelson was worn out, but the rest of us layered up and made a pleasant round of Laurelhurst Park.The sun was going down as we visited with the ducks and wished them a happy turkey day. They were not amused….

Back to the house for dessert! Auntie Katie had brought a pumpkin and apple pie and tiny breads shaped like turkeys. These, along with the pinwheels and mince tarts I made, filled us right up to the top.

In fact, we all realized that if we sat down, we’d all fall asleep! And since Katie had work to do at her bookshop to get ready for Black Friday’s big sale, we all said goodnight, packed up the leftovers to share, and sent them on their way.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Are We There Yet?

Dear Liza,

I’ve been working on the French Map Quilt for a couple of months now, and I think I’m almost done with the top.

My problem is, I can’t look at the WHOLE thing at once, except when I take a picture of it. At about a meter across, it’s a lot to focus on. Below, I have broken it up into four photos.



Looking here, I can see that I need more ‘grazing’ icons on the Massif Central and heading up into the Alps.

Here, the Pyrenees Mountains look a bit bare. And should there be something at the shore? Wavy lines to show the foam and dunes, maybe?

It’s hard for me to be objective… what do you think?

For now, I’m going to fold it up and let it sit. I’ll get back to it when I can see it fresh.

Love,

Grandma Judy

This year’s Halloween Movies

Dear Liza,

It is monster movie season, as usual. But with it also being a rather tense Election season here in the States, none of our household was feeling the need of adding more terror to the mix. So we have focused on animation, both drawn and stop-motion, for our Halloween entertainment.

I avoided “Hotel Transylvania” for years because it just looked too silly. But it is really fun. Dracula, a widower with a just-come-of-age daughter, has created a “safe space” for monsters, where they can vacation away from villagers with torches and pitchforks. There is also a nice culture clash storyline with a human fellow who wanders in. No gore, no stress, lots of fun animation and puns galore.

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” has been Auntie Bridgett’s favorite her whole life. It is sweet, with Linus faithfully waiting in the pumpkin patch for his unorthodox hero to arrive. Every year, I get irritated at Lucy’s casual cruelty to Linus and Charlie Brown, only to see her redeem herself when she fetches her broken hearted little brother from the Pumpkin Patch and tucks him into bed.

Our choices are not all so lighthearted, though. Frankenweenie features a boy who uses his newly-acquired scientific knowledge to bring his dog back from the dead. This year, because we lost our dear Mousie, it felt sad and a little too close to home.

Paranorman, a stop motion animation created by Laika Studios here in Portland, is also a favorite. A little boy who sees (and is very polite to) ghosts is tasked with keeping the local witch spirit in her place. The crisis brings out the best in some and the worst in others, and the characters are delightfully quirky.

For me, the darkest of all the movies we watch is Coraline, also created by Laika Studios. The girl who wishes for a perfect world with attentive parents and fun activities gets what she asks for, and it takes help from a bossy cat and odd neighbor boy to get her out of it. Neil Gaiman wrote the original story, and it is wonderful, deep, and scary.

This is what we have been entertaining ourselves with these getting-darker evenings, as it gets too chilly for after dinner walks.

Have a wonderful weekend, stay warm, and we’ll chat later.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris

Dear Liza,

My Momma, your great grandma Billie, was a librarian. This was not only her profession, but her personality. She loved to read books and tell people about them so they could read them, too. One that she told me about when I was little was a Paul Gallico story called “Mrs. ’Arris Goes to Paris.”

I liked Paul Gallico’s writing. He wrote the delightful “Silent Meow”, a guide ‘translated from the feline’; a sort of how-to book for cats on getting adopted. Later, he wrote the book and screenplay for “Thomasina”, about a cat who lives three very different lives. Good, imaginative stuff.

But somehow, I never got around to reading about Mrs. ’Arris. The other day it popped into my head, and not wanting to wait for the library, I searched IMDB and found that it had been made into a movie. Mr. Gallico had written the book in 1958 and had passed away before the movie was made in 1992, but his widow had been an advisor on the screenplay.

Grandpa Nelson found it on Youtube and we watched it. What a delightful movie! London housekeeper, Mrs. Harris, (played in 1992 by Angela Lansbury) gets it into her head to go to Paris and buy a Dior gown. She saves for three years, forgoing taking the bus and working extra jobs, and finally saves up enough to fulfill her dream.

While in Paris, she makes friends with people of all sorts, her good heart and sunny disposition overcoming social barriers. Omar Sharif and Diana Rigg play some of the people who help her, and more surprisingly, who she helps.

This is a feel-good movie of the first order, and not for the cynical. Though I know there are differences between the book and the movie, I can see why Momma loved it.


It has now been remade, with the delightful Lesley Manville as Mrs. ’arris, and I can’t wait to see it!

Looking forward to a cherry, optimistic evening soon!

Love,

Grandma Judy