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It's a Wonderful LifeLast night we went to the Stanford Theatre's annual Christmas Eve presentation of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). This is the first time I've spent Christmas in the Bay Area, so it's the first time I've had a chance to go. Moreover, somehow this is the first time I've ever seen this film! I'm not sure how, but somehow I managed to miss both this one and Miracle on 34th Street when I was growing up, so far as I can remember. (Don't worry, I have seen The Wizard of Oz multiple times.) So even though probably everyone reading this has seen the film, I'll summarize the plot: George Bailey (James Stewart) is the elder son of the director of the city's Building and Loan, just about the only institution in the town of Bedford Falls not owned or controlled by the miserly and corrupt Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore). Although Bailey dreams of seeing the world, his sense of responsibility to his family, friends and community causes him to stay in town to run the B&L, and he eventually marries his sweetheart, Mary (Donna Reed), even though an old friend of his strikes it rich in the plastics business and his kid brother Harry becomes a war hero. George is driven to the brink, though, when an absent-minded mistake puts the B&L at the mercy of Potter, and the prayers of his friends prompts heaven to send an angel, Clarence (Henry Travers) to come save him, resulting in a sequence for George stumbles around a Bedford Falls in which he was never born, and sees what an impact he had on the people around him. Debbi noted afterwards that many other shows and films have been inspired by Wonderful Life, but I'd thought during the "never been born" sequence that it was pretty clearly inspired by Dickens' A Christmas Carol! The essential plot device sees basically the same, and intended for the same purpose, only in this case to inspire a good man rather than to change a bad man. I think I've admitted before that I'm not a big Stewart fan, although this is one of his better roles. The story is uplifting without being saccharine. Not likely to become a favorite of mine, I think, but I enjoyed it. (Listening to the whole theatre hiss whenever Potter appeared was entertaining, too.) The show, by the way, had a lengthy line outside waiting to get in an hour before it started, and people in line sang Christmas carols the whole time. Popcorn and sodas were free to the packed house, and we were treated to carols on the theatre's Wurlitzer organ before the show. David Packard, chairman of the Packard Foundation which funds the theatre, spoke for a while beforehand, taking some potshots at the lowdown publicity that HP has been lobbing his way since he stated his opposition to the HP/Compaq merger. He also said the theatre is going to open a film history and poster shop in the vacant store next door, and that next up is a Cary Grant film festival, which I'll surely go to many of, as I love Cary Grant!
 And today was Christmas day. Debbi and I exchanged presents: I got her a big, stuffed Eeyore, and she got me a nice screen to put in front of my fireplace. (I dislike the hanging chains that came with the fireplace, and took them down once I set up the screen.) I got quite a few gifts from my family, and even one from Subrata. I think my parents were a little overboard in buying me stuff, but I'm not complaining! It's all stuff I can use or will be happy to read or listen to! (Some of it, after all, was from my wish list.) In the afternoon I cooked dinner for us: I made an Indian lamb dish, with potatoes in a yogurt cream sauce, as well as the rice pilaf with currants and pine nuts I make semi-regularly. (When I talked to my Dad that afternoon he said he'd be right over, except for those 3000 miles between us!) It all turned out quite well, and the lamb dish was as good as I'd remembered. We also had Godiva chocolates and egg nog to complete the calorie feast. We went out for a walk after dinner, and saw many pretty lights on the houses along where we walked. One house decked out a tree in red, white and blue to a height of about 20 feet! It was very impressive, and I took a photo of it. It's warm here tonight, though I guess it's going to start raining again on Thursday. Bummer; I wanted to spend some time bicycling this week to explore the area! All in all it was a very nice Christmas. The kitties got some new toys from Mom and some new treats from Debbi. I ate more chocolate than I probably should have. And I have food left over to eat for several days. Can't complain!
Other news: I've paid my first installment on each of my mortgages, though I still need to get my withholdings adjusted on my paycheck for next year. I also received my first energy bill in my new place, which was about three times what I was paying in my old apartment, which isn't terribly surprising. Still somewhat higher than I'd expected, but not stunningly so. I do have all-electric heat and, well, everything but my hot water heater, now. I'm still getting some mail for the sellers, which I'm going to forward to them from now on. I'm also occasionally getting mail for one of the other owners in the complex, I think because some of her mail doesn't have a unit number and the post awful guesses wrong. Now I have to figure out what I'll be doing for New Year's, and of course what I want to do for my birthday. People have already started asking me what I want for it...
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