Sunday Chat: Octagenarian birthdays, starting my 2025 reads, and podcasts I recommend

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon12 Comments

Today is my dad’s 81st birthday. We had a family dinner for him yesterday when my brother could visit and will probably have another lunch together with the kids and I today.

We had ham and bean soup yesterday and today we will eat some sausage balls I plan to  make in memory of my aunt Dianne, as well a beef roast.

Last night we played a game of Uno that got a little crazy and felt like it might ever end. We ended up laughing and shaking our heads at how long it seemed to be going on.

This upcoming week we have nowhere to go which is fine with me because homeschool has to get back under way first thing tomorrow. Ha. First thing. Yeah right. It will probably be afternoon before we do anything, but it sounds better if I write “first thing.”

Having an easy-going week is something I am looking forward to after a pretty nuts Christmas break. The Husband was in the ER and diagnosed with Diabetes a few days before Christmas, so it’s been a period of adjustment and him not feeling well. He slept or rested most the break, which he needed and I’m glad he wasn’t working when this all hit.

I also injured my knee by – I don’t know how actually. By rolling over in bed or something. Who even knows.

So far we have not caught any of the various illnesses going around but I know our time is coming and I’m pretty worried about that happening.

I’m reading Christy by Catherine Marshall and really enjoying it. I loved the show that was based on it and aired on CBS in the 1990s and the book is fairly close to it from what I can see so far.

The book is a fictional book very loosely based on the life story of Marshall’s mother, if you’ve never heard of it. The main character travels to a very remote area in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina in the early 1900s to become a teacher at a missionary school.

As a young, inexperienced woman she is for a rude awakening but also an amazing experience of learning about the determination of the people who live in the mountains.

Upcoming books for me:

  • I have three Nancy Drew books coming in the mail from Thriftbooks and hope to read at least one of those after Christy.
  • World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever
  • Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
  • The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Little Miss finished Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets yesterday while reading at her grandparents. She even made us wait for our game of Uno so she could finish the book. I’m very proud of her for reading the first two books. She was bothered by some of the violence in the end of the Chamber of Secrets so says she will be taking a break before she decides if she want to read book three.

The Boy and I will be starting Frankenstein soon, which he’s looking forward to a lot more than me. If you know anything about what I read, Frankenstein isn’t my normal read. We are reading through British literature this year and he likes the story of Frankenstein so we will go for it.

After that I’ll be having him read some Agatha Christie so that will be more up my alley.

The Husband is reading Bourdain The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever.

This past week I watched The Power of the Press, a 1928 silent movie starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Morning Glory, a 1933 movie starring Fairbanks Jr. and Katherine Hepburn, a few episodes of No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, and videos by Booktubers preparing their 2025 reading journals.

I enjoyed  this video by Plant Based Bride. It scratched some sort of crafty itchy for me, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as detailed or organized in my reading journal.

I also watched A Victorian Farm: A Victorian Christmas this past week and am now starting A Tudor Farm.

I am finishing up corrections to Gladwynn Grant Shakes The Family Tree and started a Patreon, which you can subscribe to here if you’d like a sneak peek of the book.

Last week on the blog I shared:

Recent Posts

I’ve been listening to the podcasts Pop Culture Preservation Society, which is aimed at us middle-agers to talk about some of the odd pop culture from when we were teens, etc. and True Drew, a podcast about Nancy Drew. I would recommend them both.

Now it’s your turn! What have you been doing recently? Watch anything good? Read a good book? Go anywhere interesting? Let me know in the comments.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date.

Winter of Fairbanks Jr.: The Power of the Press

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions, Winter of Fairbanks Jr.7 Comments

For the last couple of years, I’ve been taking a season or time period and watching movies with one actor or actress. I kicked it off in 2022 with a Summer of Paul by watching the movies of one of my favorite actors, Paul Newman.

Last spring it was Spring With Cary (Grant that is) and in 2023 it was the Summer of Marilyn.

This winter I’ve chosen Winter with Fairbanks Jr. (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) because I just watched my first movie with him  — The Rage of Paris — a couple of months ago and thought it would be fun to explore his other movies, which I know I’ve never seen before because before The Rage of Paris I had never even heard of the guy.

I’ve already written about The Rage of Paris, so I kicked off my marathon with the first movie Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had a lead in The Power of The Press (1928). It is a silent movie directed by Frank Capra. This movie is one of the shortest I’ve watched in my life at about 59 minutes long.

I can’t say I’ve ever watched a silent movie all the way through before this one, so this was a new experience for me. I ended up getting very caught up in the story, especially the crazy car chase scene, which had me captivated.

Right before the scene there was an odd clip where one minute Clem is being held at gunpoint and the film glitches and then the man with the gun is tied up, but I was willing to overlook that because of the age of the movie and how challenging editing could be.

I was surprised how much of the story I could follow even without having constant dialogue. The acting by the actors really was well done and I can imagine they would have been very good in a talkie too. Their expressions told me all I needed to know in each scene.

The movie is about a rookie reporter named Clem Rogers (Fairbanks Jr.) who is frustrated with being relegated to the weather desk. He wants a chance to cover a big story but the editor deflects his requests.

This rejection amuses some of the more seasoned reporters who like to mock Clem, trip him, and, quite frankly, bully him. Having been in newspapers for about 15 years, I can confirm that cub or rookie reporters do go through a bit of initiation session from the more experienced reporters. Usually, it is very affectionate and non-violent, luckily.

Clem finally gets his chance to cover a big story when everyone else is out of the office and he’s the only one available to run to the sight of a murder. The murder victim turns out to be the city’s district attorney.

Once on the scene, Clem shows what a rookie he is by losing his press pass and being denied entrance to the scene. Instead, one of the other reporters from the paper shows up and tells Clem to get back to the office because he’ll take it from there.

Clem is depressed and leaves the scene around the back of the building where he sees a woman climbing out of a window from the crime scene.

He tries to chase her down but she’s able to get away. Luckily a man sees Clem chasing her and asks what’s going on. Clem tells him she’s running from the scene of a murder and the man says he’d be shocked if the woman was involved because she’s the daughter of the city mayor.

This leads Clem to run back to the newspaper and tell his editor he has a breaking story — the daughter of the mayor killed the district attorney.

Clearly Clem was never taught to check his sources or even find sources for a story and neither did the editor because the editor runs with it and splashes it all over the front page that the woman is a murderer.

She’s crushed by this and confronts Clem after the paper comes out. For his part, Clem is strutting around the office like a proud peacock because of his big scoop.

The mayor’s daughter — Jane Atwill (Jobyna Ralston) — comes to Clem, though, and is like (summary ahead), “Excuse me?! Why would you tell the world I killed a man! You don’t know anything about me.”

I’ll give Clem some credit because he’s like (more summation), “Oh. Wow. I screwed up. I’m so sorry. I’ll ask my editor to print a retraction.”

Ha. Good luck, buddy. If there is anything an editor hates more than missing a big scoop it is printing retractions. You have to have a very, very good reason to retract a story that big and Clem is going to need to prove somehow that Jane is not guilty.

This launches the pair of them on an investigation to find out who the true killer is.

A total aside here, but I loved how Fairbanks Jr.’s hair looked like Leonardo DiCaprio’s, or many other young men, from the 1990s. In some ways the movie looked modern for that reason – or it looked like they’d cut a modern actor into an old silent film.

I watched this one on Amazon but while researching for this post, I found it for free on YouTube. As far as I know it is the full movie, but you might want to double check.

The information online is a bit conflicting, but a couple different sources say that The Power of the Press was Fairbanks Jr.’s first outright leading role. While he played bigger roles in other movies (including his first movie at the age of 13 in 1923) he had not yet had a lead.

His career really picked up in 1929 after he married actress Joan Crawford. That marriage ended in 1933 and he later married Mary Lee Epling, who he remained married to until she passed away in 1988.

I’ve been enjoying reading about Fairbanks Jr. on Prince of Hollywood (link here), a blog dedicated to him, in case you are interested in learning more about him as well: https://douglasfairbanksjr.wordpress.com/filmography/

Up next in my Winter of Fairbanks Jr. Movie Marathon is:

Morning Glory – staring Fairbanks Jr. and Katherine Hepburn (1933)

Here is my complete list of planned watches if you want to join in:

The Power The Press (January 2)

Morning Glory (January 9)

The Prisoner of Zenda (January 16)

Gunga Din (January 23)

The Young At Heart (January 30)

Having Wonderful Time (February 6)

Chase a Crooked Shadow (February 13)

Sinbad The Sailor (February 20)

The Rise of Catherine the Great (February 27)

The Sun Never Sets (March 6)

Join us for our Cozy Crafternoons on zoom!

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings9 Comments

A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

Erin and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February to try to beat those winter blahs that happen after Christmas. The plans for now are two a month.

We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting.

Erin says she will be embroidering during the session. I might be writing, drawing, or editing photos.

If you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or to Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com. That way we will have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Top Reads of 2024

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, everyday musings, top-ten-tuesday20 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

Today’s prompt is “Best Books I Read in 2024”

I have a list of 16 books I enjoyed from my 2024 list, but I whittled them down to ten for today. I’m going to leave my favorite read from the year at number 10.

  1. The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

I have read most of the books in The Cat Who series and this one was definitely my favorite. Honestly, it almost felt like it was written by a different author in some ways. I enjoyed most of the books in the series even though this one felt different.

2. Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

I really enjoyed this middle grade book that takes place in my home state of Pennsylvania. There were some tough topics here — such as PTSD after war —— but they were handled gingerly.

3. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

This one was different than many of my other reads and not “clean” by some standards because of language, but I fell in love with the main character and the side characters. I can’t wait for the sequel!

4. Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor

This one also featured some language but otherwise was clean and a lot of fun. I loved this cozy mystery that took place in a small Irish village and I can’t wait to read more in the series. I hope they are as good as the first book.

5. Move Your Blooming Corpse by D.E. Ireland

This was the second book in a series based on the characters of My Fair Lady – Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins. The book was a ton of fun from start to finish.

6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I had seen the movie based on this book but had never read the book. I read it and then read it again to my daughter shortly after so I guess I read it twice in 2024. The ending was a bit too abrupt to me, but I still enjoyed it.

7. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

Yep, this was another classic I had never read and I ended up really enjoying it.

8. The Clue of The Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene

This was a Nancy Drew Mystery and while they can be a bit cheesy at times, I really enjoyed this one because it was full of Scottish history and culture.

9. Return to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

This was another middle-grade book that I read with Little Miss and really enjoyed. We had read Gone Away Lake, the first book in the series in 2023.

10. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

This was by far my favorite read of the year and my favorite read from the past several years. This book was so much different than the Anne of Green Gables books and I sometimes wonder how they are so different in their language and style. I don’t usually write in or mark up my paperback books but I underlined and marked so many passages in this book. If you haven’t read it, I would definitely encourage you to move it up your TBR list.

Honorable mentions:

Other books I enjoyed this year include:

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (A Hawthorne/Horowtiz Mystery)

Clueless at the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? And what books were among your favorite reads in 2024?

Sunday Chat: A nice, calm Christmas, getting ready for the first book of 2025, and join us for a cozy crafternoon

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends24 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

“Let’s just use paper plates for Christmas dinner,” I told my mom.

We’ve had a lot going on and some members of the family haven’t been feeling well from  couple different health issues.

Plus it was only the six of us so there was no need for anything fancy.

I heard a small “uh-huh..” on the other end of the phone and figured she was agreeing with me. The next day, though, The Husband, kids and I walked into a kitchen that had been set with a Christmas tablecloth and very fancy plates and goblets.

“These were my Mama’s,” Mom said of the plates. “And we thought we better get them out now because we might never have a chance to use them again.”

I figured that might be their dark humor since they are in their 80s and often say odd things like this to us.

Mom said she actually meant because we might not want to take the time to drag them out again. I added that we might not want to take the chance of them getting broken since I am quite a klutz.

The plates, by the way, were made in Baveria and were a gift of some kind to my grandfather when he used to work for Pepsi Co. That was probably 50 years ago.

The crystal glasses were gifts to my parents on their wedding day. They’ve been married 60 years.

There were also a set of glass water glasses that belonged to my paternal grandmother.

Somehow, we made it through dinner without breaking anything. My husband also made it through washing the plates without breaking anything.

After dinner we had a quick gift opening session that was quite quick this year since we were all broke. *snort* It was a nice time, though, and it was preceded by the reading from the Bible of the Christmas story, which we do every year.

Our family had a lot to celebrate this year.

My sister-in-law, who had been in the hospital  for an entire month for heart issues, came home on Christmas Eve. She was/is still dealing with a Norovirus she caught while there and will have  lot of new routines she’ll need to do for her condition, but she is home.

The Husband has been dealing with a health issue which could have been so much worse but has been caught and is being treated now and we are very, very thankful for that.

Money is tight right now, but we were all together and found a lot of time to watch movies and simply have fun.

It was a cold week and that was nice in some ways because it meant we had the white Christmas Little Miss had wanted.

We have electric heat upstairs and downstairs we have heating oil and a wood stove.

Thursday we didn’t light the fire because we simply didn’t get to it, and it was a reminder how well it helps to heat the rest of the house when we have it lit because I had to put four blankets on me to get warm that night. I had also taken a shower right before bed and my hair was wet so that, and the fact I’d forgotten to turn on the electric heat upstairs didn’t help at all.  The fire was definitely lit Friday, but we didn’t have to light it last night because we are having a small warm up this weekend with temps in the 40s and 50s.

This weekend we have been relaxing and enjoying our time together since The Husband is off work until the week after next and The Boy doesn’t have to return to tech school until Thursday.

We hope to see the Christmas lights at a local golf course Monday if it doesn’t get rained out.

I will finish Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon’s today or tomorrow and that will be my final book of the year. My first book of 2025 will be Christy by Catherine Marshall, which I have already started and am really enjoying.

It is a book based very loosely on the life of Marshall’s mother and takes place in the early 1900s.  

This past week I finished Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson – a novella part of the Walt Longmire series.

I kept trying to read Shepherd’s Abiding to keep with the Christmas spirt, but I kept going back to Tooth and Claw to see if Walt and Henry got away from the psycho polar bear.

Little Miss is very close to the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The Husband is reading World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain which is also on my TBR.

I watched a lot of Christmas movies or Christmas-related shows last week including

The Christmas episode of The Dick VanDyke Show

Christmas in the Smokies

A ton of Mary Berry episodes

The Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small

Jingle All the Way

The Last Holiday

Then I also watched the North and South mini-series. Good grief..that was depressing in many ways. Then I watched another depressing film called Me Before You.

The Husband and I also watched Hombre – again depressing, but Paul Newman was in it so that was good.

I watched a lot of Murder She Wrote one day as well.

I will hopefully watch some more uplifting movies and shows this week.

I’m editing Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree and brainstorming ideas for the fourth Gladwynn Grant book. You can pre-order Gladwynn Shakes the Family Tree (a cozy mystery) here:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DR6BG3ZR?

Last week on the blog I shared:

I also wanted to offer a quick thank you to everyone who took part in our Comfy, Cozy Christmas link up. That was so much fun. You can still add posts or just read the ones that are already there at this link: https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas-2024/

A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.


Erin and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February to try to beat those winter blahs that happen after Christmas. The plans for now are two a month.

We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting.

Erin says she will be embroidering during the session. I might be writing, drawing, or editing photos.

If you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or to Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com. That way we will have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

Now it’s your turn. 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.

Remembering Grandma and my one childhood Christmas that was white

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

I was listening to Michael Bublé singing White Christmas the other day and thinking about how when I was growing up we almost never had a white Christmas because every year we drove from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to visit with my mom‘s family. The part of North Carolina they lived in — closer to the East coast and the beach — isn’t known for having a ton of snow.

We traveled to North Carolina as a family from the time I was a baby until I was married.

We would leave Pennsylvania with snow on the ground, and see some snow on the way down, but once we hit North Carolina the temperatures were usually in the 60s to 70s and occasionally the 80s. When we would step out of the car at the North Carolina welcome center, everything smelled like warmth and pine.

 One year though, snow met us as we traveled through North Carolina and continued with us as we traveled to Jacksonville.  I remember it being a lot of snow, but I was young, so maybe it wasn’t.

I do remember that no one in the South knew how to drive in it so the city was pretty much shut down. They didn’t even snowplows or cinders to put on the road. They simply don’t need them most of the time.

Since my dad is a lifelong Northerner, he tried to help my grandmother’s neighbors and teach them how to drive on the icy roads.

Seeing the snow outside Grandma and Aunt Dianne’s house felt both amazing and strange. I’d never had a white Christmas so this was my chance, but seeing those Carolina pines all weighted down under snow was surreal.

I was used to short sleeve shirts when walking outside, warm sun on my face, and sometimes  trip to the beach to stick my feet in the ocean.

This time, though, we were stuck inside so some Southerner didn’t careen into us on their way to the Piggy Wiggly.

My mom says it was’t the only time they went down that it snowed because before I was born it happened too, but again, it was very rare.

Remembering the Christmases we spent in North Carolina is bitter sweet these days.

It’s so nice to have those memories of that time – the joyous times.

Like I said in previous posts about our trips down south, if I close my eyes, I can remember the feeling of pulling in the driveway of my grandparents’ house (Grandpa was gone after I was 9 so it was Grandma and Aunt Dianne’s after that), knowing our long journey was done.

I’m climbing out from under the pile of blankets and stuffed animals I’d carried with me and Dad is taking away the winter coat away to put in the trunk because we usually didn’t need them after we arrive.

Aunt Dianne comes on to the front porch, clapping her hands and saying, “Hello, ya’ll! You made good time didn’t ya’? Come here so I can give you a hug.”

Hugging someone you haven’t hugged in a year is an amazing feeling.

The porch door squeaks as she leans out and reaches her arms out to us.

She’s wearing a pair of sweatpants, a plaid shirt over a Tshirt with the Pepsi logo emblazoned on it, and a pair of worn slippers. She smells faintly of cigarettes, collard greens, and diet Pepsi — which would be a horrible combination in other circumstances but is the most wonderful smell to me in that moment as I am wrapped in her arms, being held against her chest. I can barely breathe she’s hugging me so tight, but I take short breaths to get in air until she releases me with a wet kiss on my cheek.

She’s kissing the top of my head and I’m telling her I desperately have to use the bathroom. She laughs and tells me to “hurry on up then.” Inside the living room my grandma is waiting to the left of the door in the living room, sitting in her rocking chair. I rush by her because, as I just told Dianne, I have to use the bathroom.

“I know you’re not going to rush right by me without loving my neck now,” Grandma says in her thick Southern accent.

“I have to use the bathroom!” I call over my shoulder.

I can smell the collard greens Dianne has been cooking as I run through the house, past the kitchen, into the little dining room, down the short hall with all the family photos lining it, and to the bathroom.

Once things have been relieved in that department, I’m back in the living room, leaning into Grandma who feels like a pile of pillows and marshmallows all mushed together, the skin on her arms soft and full of comfort and love.

Behind us, in front of the large window, is the Christmas tree Dianne decorated and there are a few gifts already wrapped under it.

It’s hard for me to remember past this point because my mind is stuck in that moment with my head on Grandma’s stomach, her arms holding me tight. I remember that year her feelings were a little hurt because she thought I was blowing her off. Once she realized how bad I’d had to use the bathroom she understood why I had to come back for the hug. After that she just held me and said, “It’s so good to see you, shug.” (pronounced shoog for all  you non-Southerners.”)

I have a hard time letting myself walk away from that moment because it’s where I want to be every Christmas now.

I’d trade all the gifts, even the wonderful Southern food, just to be in her arms again.

When things get really tough in life, I close my eyes and that’s where I’m at. Kneeling in front of her rocking chair, my head on her fluffy stomach, feeling the rush of unconditional love.

I imagine that’s what heaven will be — being held in unconditional love so pure and all encompassing that nothing else matters.

Being held in the arms of my grandmother who is being held in the arms of Jesus.

Some highlights from our Comfy, Cozy Christmas Link Up!

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Comfy, Cozy Christmas6 Comments

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I have been thrilled to see all the amazing posts being linked in our Comfy, Cozy Christmas link up for 2024!!



I wanted to highlight a few of those posts today and hope to highlight some more after Christmas. I hope you will take the time to check out these posts and all the  others, which can be found here: https://lisahoweler.com/comfy-cozy-christmas-2024/

Also, don’t forget that we are offering a Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February. For now plans are to have two a month. We will announce the dates and time well in advance and ruing the Zoom we will individually work on whatever we want, which could include embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, sketching, photo editing, etc, while chatting or not chatting if you prefer quiet and just listening to everyone else chatter.

If you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at lisahoweler@gmail.com or Erin at crackercrumblife@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

Now on to the highlights from our Comfy, Cozy Christmas Linkup!!


|| Uff da! Norwegian Fattigmands! By Readerbuzz ||

|| Little Lord Fauntleroy Marathon by Cat’s Wire ||

|| This England Christmas At Selfridges by The Marmeladegypsy ||

|| Getting Ready for Christmas by Cat’s Wire ||

|| Christmas Picture Books to Keep Your Kids Laughing by My Slices of Life ||

|| Christmas 2024 TBR: Will I Squeeze Them All In? by Read, Bake, Create ||

|| A Christmas Carol: Which Movie Version is Best? by Readerbuzz ||

|| Jugaad-mas: My Indian Christmas Celebration in a Snow-Free City | 2024 by Caffeinated Frame ||

Our link up is open until January 7 and is for Christmas and other holidays so please feel free to add any of your posts that are related to Christmas or the holidays to the linkup.

Sunday Chat: Merry Christmas, Christmas movies, and looks like we will have a white Christmas afterall

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends12 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Chat where I ramble about what’s been going on in my world, what the rest of the family and I have been reading, watching, listening to, and what I’ve been writing.

As always, I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



I live in an area where we get a lot of snow during the winter – or at least enough to make the roads slippery. I have lived in this area my whole life but I am still not a fan of driving in snow. It makes me very nervous and when I am done doing it my entire body hurts from tensing all my muscles.

I avoid it whenever I can but twice this week, I ended up driving in potentially slippery conditions. On Wednesday I drove home in snow after taking my daughter to Kid’s Club, which is a weekly kid’s program at a church about 20 minutes from our house. Listening to an audiobook of Johnny Tremain helped keep me distracted from being worried we might careen off the road into an embankment, especially when the snow started to stick to the road about five miles from our house.

I recorded a quick video while I was driving slowly, and it was so funny because the audiobook didn’t stop playing as I recorded and when I played it back the woman’s sort of creepy voice was talking about the many deaths that happened during the Revolutionary War while the snow swirled in front of us. (If you push play be aware it is very loud!)

We made it home and I vowed not to do it again but on Friday my dad needed to go to an MRI and I needed to pick up groceries. We knew we were supposed to get snow but we weren’t sure how much, so we headed out anyhow. This was after I got my dad’s car stuck twice earlier in the day. I’m borrowing his car while our truck is broke down.

 I kept my hands tight around the steering wheel on the way to where we get groceries while we got stuck behind a long line of cars due to a very slow truck and a shiny sheen showed up on the road.

That’s when Dad decides to remind me not to get too close to the car in front of me because I don’t want to have to slam on the brakes and possibly skid across the road since the temp had dropped to 29 degrees. That’s always fun in winter by the way – watching the thermometer on your car drop below freezing and wonder if that’s going to be cold enough to freeze the road as well or if it was warm enough that the road  hasn’t had a chance to freeze yet. This is something those who don’t live in colder climates have to worry about.

So, on Friday, for 15 miles, I had to make sure I stayed back and stayed calm while Dad reminded me gently that I was too close to cars. He made me a bit nervous so I made him drive home and guess what – he pulled up too close to cars and didn’t slow down at all. Why that hypocrite. *wink* Honestly, he’s a pretty good driver but it was nice to harass him a bit by telling him he was too close to the cars in front of us.

Once we were home, though, I decided we won’t be leaving the house again until Christmas Eve when we will head to my parents for the evening and then head back again on Christmas Day.

The Husband does have to go to work today and Monday but then he is off for a week and we are looking forward to him having that time.

We did receive a few inches of snow on Friday and with today’s artic temps and still cold temps the next few days, it looks like we will have our white Christmas after all.

Our family has a lot to be grateful for this Christmas. The month of December has been a beast – beating my family down physically, emotionally, and sometimes even spiritually. Through it all it has been tough to be upbeat but as I write this I am grateful for miracles – for surgeries that won’t have to happen, for medical conditions caught quickly and didn’t cause more damage than they could have, and for healing that is slowly coming.

It isn’t always easy to be happy at Christmas and I just want anyone who isn’t celebrating this Christmas, for whatever reason, that it’s okay. You feel the way you feel and if you don’t feel cheerful, then you don’t. Christmas is something we can celebrate at any time of the year because of why we celebrate. I’m hoping many of us have better days to come.

I had planned to read all Christmas books leading up to Christmas and I did read a couple but didn’t fill all of my reads up with Christmas.

I finished The Hound of The Baskerville’s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I finished The Christmas Swap by Melody Carlson this past week. I did not enjoy it as much as A Quilt for Christmas and it honestly felt like a completely different writer.

 I then finished Johnny Tremain which Little Miss and I have been reading all school year for history (in between other lessons).

That brought my book total read for the year to 66 and as I told friends and family – that is too close to 666 in my head (not the number counting up…but you know what I mean) so I am reading Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson to bring it to 67.

After Tooth and Claw I am diving back into Christy by Catherine Marshall and starting either Castles in the Air by Donald Westlake (which my husband recommended) or Little Men.

The Husband is reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and that will be his 115th book of the year.

The Boy is supposed to be finishing The Hound of the Baskerville’s this week.

Little Miss is reading Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

We have been cramming as many Christmas movies or Christmas-themed shows we can fit in before Christmas.

This past week we watched Miracle on 34th Street (my husband’s favorite), Elf, Home Alone, and White Christmas.

On my own I watched The Bishop’s Wife and The Chosen special The Messenger.

We still want to watch Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, A Christmas Story, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I also hope to watch past Christmas episodes of All Creatures Great and Small since I don’t have streaming that allows me to watch the latest season yet.

I am still finishing corrections on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, which you can now pre-order on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DR6BG3ZR?

This week on the blog I shared:

A quick reminder for January plans for this blog and Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. I’m going to copy what she has been posting on her blog because I am behind this week!


“Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February, to beat those winter blahs that happen late winter after Christmas. We are thinking we will have maybe two per month, so four in total. We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting or you could even have the sound off and just feel part of the group without the chatter, if you like it quiet. It is sort of open and flexible but also social. I will probably be stitching away – my friend has requested a small pillow with an embroidered possum on it, so I will be working on that in January for a while. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or to Lisa at lisahoweler@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.”

Now it’s your turn. 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.

Classic Movie Impression: The Bishop’s Wife

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Comfy, Cozy Christmas, Movie Impresssions5 Comments

This weekend I watched The Bishop’s Wife (1947), which I have watched before but couldn’t remember the end of, so I watched it again.

The movie stars Cary Grant as an angel named Dudley who comes to earth to help Bishop Henry Brougham, (David Niven). Henry is so wrapped up in securing funding for a cathedral he begins to neglect his wife and daughter.

Dudley arrives at the Bishop’s house after the Bishop prays for God to help him with funding for the cathedral. Dudley tells him right up front that he’s an angel and he’s there to help him but introduces himself to others as Henry’s new assistant. He pretty much forces himself into Henry’s life and ends up charming the pants off all the women he meets and creating miracles for men, women, and children alike. At least one man, Henry’s retired professor friend (Monty Woolley), is very suspicious of him.

Henry isn’t really sure if he believes that Dudley is an angel, especially when the guy starts taking Henry’s wife, Julia, (Loretta Young) out on the town, having dinner with her, taking her skating, and buying her hats.

Still, Henry isn’t about to get distracted from his goal of building the cathedral and he ignores Dudley’s efforts to open his eyes to how much Julia needs him, plowing forward with fundraising instead.

L-R: Actors Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young sit in the back of a car in a still from the film, ‘The Bishop’s Wife,’ directed by Henry Koster, 1947. (Photo by RKO Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)

I think Cary is supposed to be charming in this movie but instead I find him a bit devious. Maybe the goal of the movie is to leave the viewer trying to figure out if he is sweet or evil.

The site, The Viewer’s Commentary, had a similar feeling about Cary’s role and explains it better than I can.

“But, while I’m not certain “perfect” is necessarily the right word for Dudley as a character, I’m still not entirely convinced that the movie wasn’t actually trying to play him up as being in his right to step in on Henry’s marriage, either. This is based on the film’s affectionate depiction of his chemistry with Julia, the amount of sympathy the film has for her, and the apparent distaste it has for the stiff Henry beyond his admirable loyalty and good intentions.”

“That ice skating thing I mentioned before wasn’t some kind of non sequitur,” the post continues. “There’s a painfully long scene in which Dudley and Julia and their cab driver have a whimsical impromptu ice skating session where he romances her in front of everyone by secretly granting her expert skill while Henry toils away elsewhere, callously inattentive to Julia’s wifely needs. It would be one thing if it was intended to teach Henry a lesson about what could potentially happen, but it actually kinda left me with a gross feeling, given how wonderful it’s all supposed to be while knowing about Dudley’s infatuation – not to mention his manipulation of the situation and nonchalant demeanor when confronted about it.”

This is the scene in question:

At one point even Henry begins to wonder if Dudley is from heaven or hell and if he truly is trying to steal his wife from him.

It’s what I was wondering too and by the end of the movie  . . . well if you’ve never seen it you will have to watch it and let me know what you think.

The movie is based on a book by Robert Nathan whose other fantasy romance, Portrait of Jennie, would later overtake The Bishop’s Wife on a literary level and later became a 1948 David Selznick movie.

According to an article on TCM.com, producer Samuel Goldwyn decided to take on this movie right after winning an Oscar for The Best Year of Our Lives in 1946.

Cary was originally set to play the Bishop, but as he read the script he began to suggest edits and finally decided he didn’t have the right part. He should be playing Dudley.

Later on, though, after the final casting decisions were made, Grant wanted to switch back.

Then there was the fact that Goldwyn didn’t like the set.

Niven wrote in his future autobiography, “The day before shooting was to start, Goldwyn decided that the interiors of the Bishop’s house were not ecclesiastical enough and ordered several sets to be torn down, redesigned and rebuilt. For three weeks, while this was going on, production was halted, then, two days after the cameras finally had a chance to turn, Goldwyn decided that Seiter’s hand was a little too heavy on the tiller: he was removed, paid his full salary and after a week, Goldwyn hired Henry Koster to start again from scratch – with another two weeks of rehearsal. All this must have cost Goldwyn several hundred thousand dollars….”

Niven was already struggling through the production because his wife tragically died during filming.  Her fatal head injury occurred during a party game of “sardines” at Tyrone Power’s house. Her name was Primmie and she fell down a flight of cellar stairs after thinking she was running into a closet.

Problems further continued to plague the film when Cary and Loretta Young couldn’t get along part of the time.

Despite all of the hardships, the movie was well-received and remains a favorite Christmas film of many classic movie buffs today.

It was nominated for five Oscars but did not win any.

I’m not sure I found this movie as heartwarming as some of the Christmas movies I’ve watched, probably because I found it so difficult to read Cary in this one and was quite suspicious of him. I did, however, still enjoy the movie overall.

A few pieces of trivia about the movie for you:

I recognized the young actor who played the young George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life — Bobby Anderson —— in a snowball throwing scene in this film. I looked up his name and found out that Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in It’s a Wonderful Life also played The Bishop and his wife’s daughter, Debby.

According to IMBd (I did not double check these to clarify they are true):

“At about 1:20, Henry and Julia are ready to make some Parish calls. Henry says to Julia, “We go first to the Trubshawes.” This is an example of David Niven’s attempt to mention the name of his friend (Michael Trubshawe) in every movie he made.”

“Over Cary Grant’s protests, a skating double wearing a mask with Grant’s features was used in the long shots of the complex skating routine. A skating double was also used for Loretta Young on all long shots.”

Market research showed that moviegoers avoided the film because they thought it was religious. So, Samuel Goldwyn decided to re-title it Cary and the Bishop’s Wife for some US markets, while adding a black text box with the question “Have you heard about CARY AND THE BISHOP’S WIFE?” on posters in markets where the film kept the original title. By adding Cary Grant’s first name to the title the film’s business increased by as much as 25 per cent.

“In Britain the film was selected for that year’s Royal Command Film Performance screening. Princess Margaret and her sister, the future Queen Elizabeth, both attended the screening of “The Bishop’s Wife” on November 25, 1947, at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square. According to David Niven, “The audience loved every second of it, and the Queen and Princess Margaret told me afterwards and at great length how much they had enjoyed it.”

Have you ever seen The Bishop’s Wife? What did you think of it?

*This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas Link Up for 2024. If you have a Christmas/holiday post you would like to share you can find the link HERE or at the top of the page here on my blog.