Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
This week I am watching Christmas movies — old and new. I need that escape and I think a lot of people in my blog circle and in the world need that too.
I’d love to know — what are some of your favorite Christmas movies? Old and new! Let me know in the comments.
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
When I first became a mom, I loved my little girl, but I also felt quite lost, thinking:
‘Now what?!’
Then my husband explained: ‘Now you have to raise her, so she becomes a well-rounded, and well-adjusted grown-up.’
So I set to work, and 28 years later, the first results look promising. As do her three younger brothers and sister. But it’s not always easy, and I’ve found blogging to be a great way to retain my sanity in the day to day business of running a family. In fact, I feel it’s my other job! A look into the day-to-day life of a mom with five children!
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up, Momfever!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
Today’s prompt was: Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List. I have a lot more than this on my list but I picked out ten to list today.
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
3. Miss Read VillageDiary by Miss Read
I
4. My Beloved by Jan Karon
5. A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
6. Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart
7. ‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara
8. The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner
9. Murder She Wrote:Brandy and Bullets by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
10. Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble by Laurien Berenson
Have you read any of these books?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
A vlogger I watch recently suggested watching Meet Me In St. Louis as a Christmas movie, mainly because of the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, which is sung toward the end of the movie.
I had never watched the movie because I’ve never felt like I was a big fan of Judy Garland, even though I haven’t seen her in much other than The Wizard of Oz.
I decided to give the movie a try a couple of weeks ago, though, and it turns out I don’t mind Judy as much as I thought and the movie does have a few Christmas-themed scenes (including a Christas Eve dance at the end), but it is much more than a Christmas movie.
The movie is funny, fun, warmhearted, and full of really sweet or fun songs. The dresses worn by the young women are gorgeous and it was shot in technicolor which makes all the beautiful dresses even more captivating.
The movie is a musical, which I didn’t know when I started it. I didn’t even know that this is where the song Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas came from. I also didn’t know this is where The Trolly Song (which I thought was just called Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolly) came from. (That’s the song my husband always sings when he pretends he’s looped out from a knock on the head or when he is super tired. I’d say when he is drinking, but he doesn’t drink enough to get that drunk. I told him this movie is where the song he sings is from and he said he thought it was from The Simpsons. Ha! I think Homer does sing part of it in an episode.)
Yes, I have been living under a rock for my entire life.
If you’ve seen this movie you can skip over the next paragraph where I share what the movie is about.
The movie follows the Smith family, primarily Esther Smith (Judy) and her siblings as they grow up in St. Louis. The movie shows a year in the life of the family and there isn’t really a deep plot to the movie other than Judy trying to catch the eye of the college boy next door — John Pruitt — and her sister trying to get married. I don’t find the lack of a plot a detriment of the movie, by the way. The majority of the movie follows the different situations the youngest girls get themselves in, as well as the love life of Esther and her sister, and it is a fun journey.
The movie takes place in 1903.
The parents, grandfather, and housemaid are really all secondary characters but still very fun additions.
The youngest sisters, played by Margaret O’Brien (Tootie) and Joan Carroll (Agnes), are absolutely hilarious. The scenes with them are the funniest scenes in the movie. There is one that takes place on Halloween that is so insanely crazy I found myself gasping at the verbal “brutality” of these kids. (Written with a laugh, just to explain.)
If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen the movie, you’ll need to watch and find out.
In addition to Judy, the movie also stars Lucille Bremmer, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, and Harry Davenport.
The musical was released in 1944 and based on a series of short stories by Sally Benson.
Her stories story first appeared in the New Yorker magazine between June 21, 1941 and May 23, 1942. The twelve installments were published under at The Kensington Stories with Kensington referring to the fictional street address of the “Smiths’s” house.
Benson sold the rights to MGM in 1942 and was hired to work on the screenplay, which was ultimately written by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe with her help.
Benson published the stories as a novel of the same name with each chapter covering one month of the year the same year the movie came out.
According to AFI.com, Benson’s story was based on her own experiences growing up in St. Louis. “Tootie” was based on Benson, while “Esther” was inspired by her older sister.
The movie, incidentally, was directed by Vincent Morelli, who married Judy a year later. That marriage is a whole crazy story for another day.
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane who originally wrote it to be about celebrating Christmas during wartime. At the request of Judy, though, the lyrics were tweaked and the mood of the song was uplifted a bit. Judy, who was supposed to be 17 in the movie, is singing the song to her younger (5-year-old sister) in the movie and didn’t feel it was appropriate to sing a sad song at Christmastime to a little girl.
Meet Me In St. Louis was the second-highest grossing film that year behind the Bing Crosby movie Going My Way (the prequel to The Bells of St. Mary).
According to TCM.com, Meet Me in St. Louis received a very large amount of awards in 1944 and beyond. Here are some of those:
It was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Original Song (for “The Trolley Song”), Best Musical Score and Best Writing, Screenplay.
In 1989 it won an ASCAP Award for the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” which they named the Most Performed Feature Film Standard.
The National Board of Review named it one of the top ten films of 1944.
In 1945 the Library of Congress selected it as one of 7 films to be the first inclusions in the library’s film collection.
In 2005 the American Film Institute ranked it the 10th Greatest Movie Musical of All Time.
In 2004 the American Film Institute ranked “The Trolley Song” from it as the 26th Greatest Movie Song of All Time.
In 2005 Time Magazine named it as one of the Top 100 All-Time Movies.
An interesting story I read while researching this movie was that Margaret O’Brien’s juvenile Oscar was stolen by a former maid of her family’s. The Academy gave her a replacement Oscar, but she still hoped to one day have her original Oscar returned to her. She used to search flea markets and collector auctions for it.
The story is a bit long, but the Oscar was eventually found and returned to her during a special ceremony held by the Academy.
At the time she said, “For all those people who have lost or misplaced something that was dear to them, as I have, never give up the dream of searching—never let go of the hope that you’ll find it because after all these many years, at last, my Oscar has been returned to me.”
This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature hosted by me and Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you have a blog post that you would like to share as part of this annual link-up, please find out more here.
Have you been writing any Christmas or holiday related posts lately? Or have you in the past? Don’t forget to link them up to our Comfy, Cozy Christmas/Holiday Link Up. By “our” I mean me and Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
The link party is open until the beginning of January and can include current or past posts about anything related to Christmas or other holidays celebrated this time of year.
Some ideas for blog posts:
Movies you’ve watched, are going to watch, think others should watch
Books you’re reading related to the holiday or winter season
Activities you’re doing/did
Trips you took
Traditions you hold this time of year
Favorite holiday songs
Recipes you’ve made.
You can save our graphic with a right click and share it in your posts and link to us if you want to let others know about the link party, but it is not required.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to. Feel free to link your posts about
I usually mention what I have been watching down below but today I thought I’d mention part of what I’ve been watching here because I have been watching a lot of clips of or interviews with or about Dick VanDyke since yesterday was his 100th birthday and he’s still alive.
When I was a kid, I watched The Dick VanDyke Show on PBS in the evenings after dinner and it became a comfort watch to me. As my mom said last night, The Dick VanDyke Show was something you could watch and know it was just going to be good, clean comedy and fun.
The show still holds up today too. I still watch The Dick VanDyke Show, especially when I am down about something.
In fact, when I am down or sad about something my husband will ask, “What can I do? How about I make a cup of tea and find you a Dick VanDyke episode to watch?” Sometimes he doesn’t even suggest it, he simply turns an episode on and backs away — much like a man might toss a bar of chocolate to a woman on her period and run away.
Of course I have also watched Dick VanDyke in movies like Mary Poppins, but, for me, my memories of him will always circulate around The Dick VanDyke Show.
I loved this interview with him from People Magazine. My brother sent it to me last night and I cried because it was just nice to see him doing so well at his age and hearing all his memories of the various projects he was involved with over the years.
This past week we were plunged into deep cold and also had snow a couple of days which left it hard for me to back out of our steep driveway. Yesterday was my first day out all week and the kids and I took some bean soup to my parents…yes, that bean soup from my post yesterday.
We are facing below freezing temps today, but later in the week temps will rise into the mid-40s. Why do I give weather reports in my blog posts?! I have no idea, but I always do it.
Our cats aren’t sure what to think of the weather. Somedays they want to go out but within ten minutes they are back at the kitchen window begging to come in.
We had a bit of cabin fever this week so Little Miss took Zooma The Wonder Dog for a walk down the street. Scout decided she wanted to see what was going on but she didn’t last outside long, dashing back inside through our side door when I wasn’t looking.
Since I wasn’t looking, I panicked a bit later when I couldn’t find her in the house and it was getting dark
I feel like I spend most of my days counting fury heads and asking, “Has anyone seen…” whichever cat I haven’t seen for a while.
Cass is our “new cat” who we’ve had since the end of October. He is a he and not a she like we normally thought and we are getting much better at calling him “he” as we get used to that change. We called him “she” for the first month of his life.
Our cat Scout has always been the crazy one, climbing up trees and having to be rescued by the fire company or falling out of them and almost dying, but now Cass is the craziest because we’ve found him on our snowy roof twice this month and twice he stole chicken from the stove or counter when I wasn’t looking.
I discovered him on the roof after a small snowstorm this week when Zooma was barking at him and snow trickled down from the roof as I opened the door. Our son looked out his upstairs window to see if he could bring Cass in but he had already found a way down to the porch so he could come in the door the normal way.
Yesterday, the same thing happened, but this time Cass thought he could climb onto the open door frame and jump down. The only problem was once he got on the narrow door frame he tried to step on our wreathe which kept moving and then panicked. He had no idea how to get off the door frame so eventually our son reached up for him and Cass fell, upside down, into his arms.
I’ve learned to duct tape the knobs on the stove so he won’t hit them with his foot when he thinks he can jump up. I’m also learning not to leave food on the counter that I plan to eat unattended. I hope to break him of these stealing habits soon — probably with a spray bottle, which is how I had to stop Scout from climbing our window screens when we first adopted her.
I’m curious if he will calm down once he is neutered a few days before Christmas.
This is off the subject — I don’t know about any of you have bots on your site or not lately, but I have tons from China and have for about three months. I’ve contacted WordPress but have been told to ignore them unless I start receiving a ton of comments. That’s great, I guess, because right now I get 30,000 fake views a week from China and I’ve heard and read on forums that this happening to a ton of other blogs and sites in the United States.
REMINDERS*: Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
We are also hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.” You can find the link for that at the top of my page in the menu or here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.
At the beginning of the week I stayed up past 1 a.m. one night finishing Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. While I felt it was a bit wordy at times and maybe even a little repetitive with all that comparison by the second Mrs. DeWinter of herself to Rebecca, I really enjoyed it and do think it is as good as so many reviews I have read said it was (that sentence doesn’t make much sense but hopefully you can decipher it.)
Last night I finished Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie. It was very good, (though a bit rushed) but I think I’ll look for sweeter reads for the next couple of weeks as we make our way toward Christmas.
Little Miss and I also finished Caddie Woodlawn’s Family (also known from it’s original title Magical Melons).
I will probably read a couple of Christmas short stories by Dickens and L.M. Montgomery, as well as finishing reading A Christmas Carol to Little Miss. I will also read at least part of Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon.
Coming up soon will be a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour, Damsel in Distress by P.G. Woodhouse, and Murder, She Wrote Brandy and Bullets. I’m also hoping to start Glorious Intruder by Joni Eareckson Tada as a slow read. After all that or somewhere in between I want to start The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.
This past week I rewatched part of Meet Me In St. Louis, Wartime Christmas, and on YouTube a couple episodes of Real Vintage Dolls House. I started a couple of movies too but have not finished them yet.
I’ll be making a formal announcement later, but I’ll be watching James Cagney movies this winter and I’m looking forward to it because I’ve only ever watched one Cagney movie, so I will probably add one of his movies into my Christmas movie watching this week.
This morning, we watched the first episode of the new season of Shakespeare & Hathaway. It wasn’t as good as the earlier seasons (we skipped Season 4 filmed during “You Know What” because the one episode was just bad beyond bad) but it was nice to see their banter again after a two-year break. We will see how the rest of the season is.
I also watched “my farmer”, Pete, on Just A Few Acres Farm, which I do almost every Sunday after watching online church.
I made a lot of progress on Gladwynn book four this past week. I thought I’d share a little description I put together:
Small town newspaper reporter Gladwynn Grant is not going to get involved in any more mysteries. She’s learned her lesson. The hard way.
Her resolve starts to crumble, though, when someone tries to drop an industrial size light fixture on the Brookstone School District Superintendent during an interview. Was Superintendent Ellerton the intended target, though? Or was it actually Gladwynn herself?
While all this is unfolding her ever-busy grandmother, Lucinda, has been told by her doctor she needs to rest more and run around less while Gladwynn’s sister, Iona, is feeling overwhelmed with her role as a mother of three.
A new friendship between State Police Detective Tanner Kinney and Pastor Luke Callahan, the two men family and friends like to joke are battling for Gladwynn’s affections, has Gladwynn a bit perplexed, but also relieved.
Will Gladwynn be able to help find out if someone wants Superintendent Ellerton out of the picture, all while trying to keep Lucinda resting, Iona from cracking, and everyone in town from spreading rumors about her and one of the men in her life?
Find out in the latest Gladwnn Grant Mystery, Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School.
If you want to read the previous three books, you can find links at the bottom of the page. They are available as ebooks and paperbacks.
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this. You can copy my blog graphic to your computer if you want to participate in my link party or you can join the other awesome link ups below.
Last weekend, I made vegetable beef soup with some leftover beef roast, carrots, and potatoes. I intended to link up with Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) Soup and A Story post on Saturday, but I didn’t seem to find time all day to sit down and write after visiting my parents for the day.
Then I forgot to finish the post this week, because Erin said I could add it whenever, but I am here for this Saturday at least.
When I have leftover beef, I always think of making veggie beef soup with it, maybe because I think that is what my mom always did.
I loved my mom’s veggie beef soup — much more than hamburger stew. Her hamburger stew was delicious, don’t get me wrong, but there was a texture to it because of the hamburger that always threw me off. I didn’t like the little bits of hamburger that broke off in the stew.
I can’t remember my mom making soups other than the hamburger stew and veggie soup when I was younger, but when I became an adult, she and my dad started to make ham and bean soup together and oh it was so good. They are older now with a lot of health issues, so they don’t make it very often anymore, but when they did, they had a tradition of sending containers over to the kids and me so we could have some too. In the same way they would send soup our way after they made it, I would send soup their way as well, if I made it.
(The Husband doesn’t really like soup unless it is in a can. Don’t ask. He’s weird like that.)
I remember Little Miss being very young and getting very excited when Grandpa and Grandma sent over soup.
Not my parents’ soup but somewhat close to the color.
Some children are excited by chicken nuggets or French Fries but my children scarfed down their grandparents’ soup like it was the best thing they ever tasted.
Our son would often say he’d have some soup later, but I always warned him to get it while he could because his sister was bound to eat it all and leave him with nothing. I always found it funny when three days after the soup was delivere,d he’d ask where it went.
As if that soup was going to stay around very long in this house! It was just too good!
My children love my parents’ ham and bean soup so much that one year they suggested we have it for Christmas dinner. I don’t remember if we did or not, but we might have had it for New Year’s instead.
I’ve always felt like I couldn’t compete with their soup, but over the years, mine has become pretty good so I’m not as intimidated anymore. Now that they can’t make it much, I have started trying to make it but I haven’t done much lately. I need to get around to make some as it is the perfect weather for it.
My parents also occasionally made chili and would send that over.
Soups that I have made in the past, besides vegetable beef soup, include sweet potato, ham and potato, chicken and rice, and chicken noodle.
I thought I’d share the recipe for my parents’ ham and bean soup today, as best as I can recall it.
First, you need to either get a whole ham (we like the Sugardale brand) or a ham hock and cook it down until the ham is crumbling or falling off the bone.
I use an Instant Pot to cook my ham. Cooking it in a pot on the stove or in a slow cooker works too. Keep some of the juice from the ham as well. Put that all in a pot with the butter beans.
My parents use Hanover brand butter beans, but you can use whatever brand you want. They use the ones already cooked because none of us seems to be able to cook them right.
It depends on how much soup you want to make, but they often use three 32-oz cans.
The cans usually come with salt already included so you don’t need to add more. They do add a little bit of garlic but otherwise they don’t put much seasoning. That can be added by the person eating it later.
From there, they also add onions and carrots. You cook the mixture until it becomes the consistency that works best for you and until the onions and carrots are tender, if you use fresh ones. If you want it to be more watered down, you can add some more water, but our family likes it a little bit thicke,r which comes when you cook the beans down so that the broth becomes thicker.
One trick my dad added over the years was adding turmeric, not for taste, but for color.
One time they added red peppers for color, and now we love it with the red peppers.
This one looks a little less thick or hearty than it usually is but once it cooks down it will become thicker.This is a batch my dad made a couple of years ago.
So your list of ingredients:
Ham or ham hock with ham on the bone still on it
64 to 96 oz of butter beans
Turmeric (just enough until it turns yellow)
1 to 2 two carrots sliced into medallions
1 sweet (Vidalia) onion (I don’t usually add onion)
1 to 2 sweet red peppers
You cook the soup until it looks and tastes like you want it so I can’t really give you a time frame. It does take at least one to two hours to cook the ham until it breaks apart enough to be added to the soup.
I cook the soup in the instapot so I add all of the ingredients at once, but I cook the ham or ham hock (you can also use a ham steak as long as it is tender).
I called Mom to double-check on this recipe before I shared it, and she said, “Do you have to make the soup for this post or just write about it?”
I took that as a hint that it is time for some ham and bean soup so that’s what I’ll be making this weekend and yes, I’ll be sending some to them.
What soups do you enjoy eating throughout the year, but especially in the winter?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Tuesday we were hit with some snow. Like last time, the temps dropped, leaving the snow in place. Then yesterday we got some more and today we had snow squalls and it’s only about 19 degrees outside so, yet again, the snow is staying in place.
Now if it will only stay in place for 14 more days and we will have a white Christmas, not that I care either way. It’s pretty to have snow on the ground at Christmas, but it not necessary, of course, for a good Christmas.
We live in an area where we have a chance for snow on Christmas.
How about you? Do you get snow around or on Christmas where you live?
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
I’m thrilled to introduce you to my new space, Between The Bookends! Whether you’re a familiar face from Grace Filled Moments (Hi There!) or a brand new friend, I’m Paula, and I’m excited to have you here. This little corner of the internet will be a cozy little oasis for our shared love for all things books and writing.
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
I’ve been watching less popular Christmas-themed movies around Christmas for the last couple of years. One of those movies was It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947).
I truly thought I’d written about this movie in previous years, but I can’t find it when I search so I am writing about it now.
The movie is about a group of people who are sort of thrown together but it starts with a man named Alyosius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) who sneaks in the mansion of businessman Michael O’Connor (Charlie Ruggles) in New York City early in November when O’Connor goes to his home in Virginia for the winter.
McKeever is a “vagabond” or homeless man.
He lives in the home, wearing O’Connor’s clothes, and eating any food left at the house in the pantry.
The movie opens with him sneaking inside through the back fence and will later learn that he’s been doing this for some twenty years.
I, of course, am surprised that no one has ever seen him or seen the lights on in the house but, it’s a movie. Let’s suspend belief.
There are police who patrol the grounds, but McKeever has a system where he hides in the icebox (or a room they call the icebox) until the police have passed by. He also has the lights hooked up so they will shut off as soon as someone opens the front door.
One day McKeever meets Jim Bullock played by Don DeFore, sleeping on a park bench. Jim, a veteran, has been evicted from his apartment building because it is being torn down. Michael O’Connor is putting up an 80-story building in its place.
When Jim gets to the mansion and is settling in, he sees an award shaped like a boat with the name Michael O’Connor on it and accuses McKeever of taking over homes of people who can’t afford to live in family homes like his.
McKeever tells Jim he’s not really O’Connor, but a friend of his. Jim accepts this explanation easily
Jim isn’t sure what to think of this arrangement, but he needs a place to stay so he accepts it.
Soon we see Michael O’Connor, who is in Virgina having a board meeting. During the board meeting he gets a call from his daughter Trudy’s school and been told that it’s possible she’s run away.
Michael looks at a photo of two women and asks his assistant if he thinks that she has run off to her mother in Florida.
The man doesn’t know so Michael orders him to hire a private investigator and find his daughter (played by … get this name…Gale Storm).
His daughter, though, is already found for us viewers. She is at her father’s mansion looking for her clothes when Jim finds her. He demands to know what she’s doing there and suggests she is stealing from the mansion. He threatens to call the police.
Trudy, apparently smitten with Jim merely based on his appearance, decides not to tell him who she really is and tells him to go ahead and call the police.
McKeever pulls Jim aside and confesses all. He is not a friend of O’Connor, but is, instead, simply someone who takes advantage of the home being empty for a few months out of the year. When O’Connor leaves, he moves in and when O’Connor leaves Virginia, McKeever hitches his way to Virginia and moves in that house until it’s time to come back to New York.
(Again…suspend belief).
Jim isn’t sure what to make of the arrangement, but is amused and impressed that McKeever hasn’t been caught yet.
Trudy listens in and overhears what McKeever has been doing and smiles in an amused way. She decides she will find a way to stay on with the men since it will be a way to hide from her father for a while. She tells the men the truth, which is that she’s going to get a job at a music store so she can get back on her feet again. She then says she only broke into the house because she was hungry and desperate and then does a lovely fake faint to add to her story.
The men agree that she can stay. From here the movie will start to get a bit more complicated as more people are invited to stay at the mansion, including a family with small children. What could make all of this even more chaotic? Add in Michael O’Connor returning to New York to try to find his daughter and planning to return to the mansion.
One little thing that bothered me about this movie was how young Gale Storm looked and was supposed to be. She was supposed to be 18 but a romance develops between her and Jim and he seems considerably older than her. That was…awkward at times. However, I’m not sure how old Jim is actually supposed to be so maybe it isn’t so awkward. Gale was 22 at the time the film was made.
The screenplay for this movie was written by Everett Freeman. The original story was created by Herbert Clyde Lewis and Frederick Stephani.
Harry Revel wrote the songs “It’s A Wonderful, Wonderful Feeling.” “That’s What Christmas Means to Me” and “Speak My Heart” for the movie, according to the opening credits, but I wouldn’t call this movie a musical. One of the main characters simply sings a bit.
Gale Storm thought she’d be singing the parts in the film, but, unfortunately, she was told her voice would be dubbed over.
She later wrote in her memoir: “I couldn’t believe it. I thought that maybe the director didn’t know I’d been singing and dancing in films, and that if I spoke to him he’d let me do my own numbers. Well, I asked him, and he said no. I asked him to look at some of my musicals, and he said no. I asked him if I could sing for him, and he said no. His theory was that if you were a dancer, you didn’t sing; if you were a singer, you didn’t dance; and if you were an actor, you didn’t sing or dance. It was humiliating.”
Another song in the movie is “You’re Everywhere” sung by The King’s Men at 1930s/1940s barbershop quartet.
According to TCM.com, Frank Capra originally acquired the rights to the movie but passed it on to Allied Artists, a new subsidiary of Monogram Pictures, which used to develop B movies. It Happened on Fifth Avenue was the companies first major motion picture and was developed by Roy Del Ruth.
Not only was Gale upset about not being able to sing in the film, but she also was disappointed Capra didn’t direct it, according to the TCM.com article. She felt the movie was decidedly “Capra-esque” — “a warmhearted human story about the little guy with underlying social and political commetary. She said that she felt Del Ruth didn’t make the most of the story’s potential, but she may have been holding a grudge since he didn’t let her do her own singing.
Gale said Del Ruth wasn’t easy on anyone.
“I wasn’t the only one Del Ruth humiliated,” continued Storm in her biography. “Victor Moore was a dear, sweet old man who was kind to everyone; we all loved him. Except Del Ruth. Whatever Victor did, the director made him redo it — again and again. And Del Ruth never told the old man what he might have been doing wrong.”
Despite these complaints from Gale, the movie did well when it was released, with the actors receiving praise by reviewers and critics. It has now become a beloved classic as well.
Is this one you’ve ever seen? What did you think about it?
This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature hosted by me and Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you have a blog post that you would like to share as part of this annual link-up, please find out more here.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
Do you ever find that the time around Christmas is super rushed and busy?
Maybe you or your children have a lot of activities around this time of year. Maybe you have a lot of family gatherings to attend.
Maybe you find it hard to find time to just slow down and enjoy all that this season is about.
I’m lucky, in some ways, that we don’t have as many obligations in my family. We have a very small family, so we only have one Christmas gathering to attend. My children are homeschooled, so there aren’t Christmas programs for them to perform in.
It might be easier for me to find the time to slow down and focus on the season than others, but even without obligations, life seems to get busy. The dishwasher smells funny, the cat is throwing up, the dog wants to go out (again), the youngest has a cold, the husband injured his foot, the cleaner that was supposed to start at the parents never showed up. All of this kept popping up even when I was trying to write this blog post!
There are always interruptions in life, especially at the holidays, and sometimes we feel like we have to keep jumping up and plugging our fingers in the holes popping up in the dam of life.
Really, though, we need the slowed down moments in our life to regain our strength for the busier times. During the Christmas season, we need to slow down to remember what Christmas is truly about — the birth of our Savior.
The moments where we slow down isn’t wasted time. It’s the most important time because it’s when we are really living. The slower moments are when we are really taking it all in; making memories our children and we will always remember.
So, without further ado, here are seven ways to slow down this Christmas/holiday season.
It goes without saying, by the way, that shutting off social media is the first way to regain your peace and find some slower, more relaxed moments. Social media will be there after your break. Don’t be afraid to shut it off. You won’t miss very much, if anything at all.
Baking cookies or other Christmas goodies with your kids or spouse or a friend or even by yourself.
Maybe you’re like me and you don’t bake often or baking stresses you out because you’re a perfectionist. This idea might not appeal to you but remember, you don’t have to get fancy when you bake. You also don’t have to bake from scratch. Most importantly, whatever you bake doesn’t have to be perfect.
Pick up a boxed mix and have some fun.
Don’t know how to decorate cookies in a fancy way? Who cares! Just have fun figuring it all out and if your cookies are a mess that’s fine because they’ll take the same as they would if they were perfect.
I have baked a couple times with my daughter lately and it’s been fun as long as I can let go of needing things to be perfect. There’s something about the methodical movements of adding the ingredients, stirring the batter, and placing it on the tray that relaxes me. I don’t have to think of anything other than adding, mixing, and placing. It’s on those days when I can simply take my time that I understand why bakers love to bake.
If you’re going to choose cookies to bake, YouTube is a great source for ideas and tips on how to make the cookies and decorate them.
Here are three that I found:
Then, when the cookies are done and decorated, eat a few, slowly, really tasting them and washing them down with your favorite (non-alcoholic. Ha!) beverage.
2. Make or buy Christmas cards you can write notes in and send them to a few special friends or family members.
While the cookies are baking, or on a day where you aren’t baking, it can be both fun and relaxing to pull out some Christmas cards and write notes inside addressed to friends or family you haven’t talked to in a while, or even ones you just spoke to.
Write a small, personal note inside and let them know they’ve been on your mind.
Here is where I hit a snag when I try to do this — if I make the cards, I want them to be perfect. This was especially true this year when I prepared one for a cousin who is a talented advertising designer.
I had to let that go, though, and simply enjoy the process of making the cards and writing the notes. Hey, maybe they’ll think my 11-year-old made the card and won’t judge. Ha! Hopefully they wouldn’t judge anyhow.
Be sure to play some Christmas music, light a scented candle, and maybe sip some eggnog or cocoa, while you create to get yourself in the Christmas spirit.
I’m not going to link any YouTube videos here, lest you compare yourself to some of the artists who create amazing cards. I’ll let you search them up yourselves.
3. Read a Christmas-themed novel or short story.
Find a classic Christmas novel or short story with a sweet, uplifting plot, then find a chair to sit in, lay a blanket across your lap, and settle down for a good read. Make it a real book, if you can.
There is something so special and grounding about holding an actual book in your hands, feeling the weight of it, the tangible texture of the pages against your fingers as you turn them, the smell of the ink.
If you can, light a candle or a fire in the fireplace/woodstove when you read, but be careful not to fall asleep.
4. Hold a family movie night.
Find a movie all of your family (or friends) will enjoy and make it an occasion. Set up the living room with cozy blankets, maybe even a blanket tent, some favorite snacks, cozy pajamas, stuffed animals and whatever else will make the movie night both fun and cozy.
Make it a movie that will make everyone laugh and feel excited about watching together.
Turn off the lights to make it feel like you are out at the theater, but without the crowds and high prices.
5. Decorate your house for the holidays.
You don’t have to go all out, but at least do a little decorating, even if it is a display in your living room. Set up some battery run candles or some garland or anything that will bring extra cheer to you while you relax, read, bake, or write in your journal.
As you decorate listen to an entire album of either Christmas music or your favorite musician/singer/band. Instead of playing the album on your phone, pull out a CD or record. You can find record and CD players online for very reasonable prices and listening to music the “old fashioned” way will be another way to immerse yourself in a less digitally connected time.
6. Journal each day of December. Write down at least three things that you are grateful for (and maybe keep that going for the rest of the year).
The “journal” can simply be a notebook from a dollar store. Something where you can write down your thoughts about what you are grateful for and don’t care if it is neat or not. Draw pictures in it or paste them in too. Actually get photographs printed out and add them to the journal even! Won’t that be a blast to the past for us older folk who used to paste photos or mementos in our journals instead of leaving the photographs in our phones?
Here is a YouTuber I found who designs and keeps journals:
7. Use an Advent Calendar.
An advent calendar is some way to countdown to Christmas. It is either a picture or object featuring windows where one window or door is opened each day leading up to Christmas. The phrase advent calendar comes from the German word Adventskalender.
Many Christians use the Advent calendar to countdown to Christmas as Jesus’ birthday.
An Advent calendar can slow you down because it leads you to take time out of your day to reflect on the meaning for the season. For our family the reason for the season is Jesus, while for others it might be family time or a time to reflect on all the good they’ve experience in the past year, or maybe work through all the bad. Using an advent calendar can be a way to bring the family together as well. It carves a small amount of time out for the family to sit down together and read the reading for the day together and talk about what it means to them.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of slowness and purposefulness.
This season is when we pause to remember the good of our lives and experience family togetherness, good will to men, and cheer brought to us by spending time with those we love.
But it is also the time we honor the birth of our savior, the greatest gift of all. Jesus doesn’t ask us or want us to rush through this season so there’s no reason we should. I hope you can find your own pockets of stillness, peace, and calm this Christmas season.
This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas feature hosted by me and Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. If you have a blog post that you would like to share as part of this annual link-up, please find out more here.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
