Mare’s Soul

Oh Christmas time! Tis the season to be jolly and also to eat as much as possible and then make the New Year’s resolution to lose all the pounds you gained. The home should smell of freshly baked cookies, the tree should be all a glitter, and of course you should be panicking because you’re looking for that special present on Christmas Eve.

I can say that the holidays weren’t that chaotic for me. In fact, I was lucky enough to have all my shopping done before Christmas Eve. I was the one who trimmed the tree perfectly, and I was the one who baked cookies. I think my mom was on some sort of holiday strike or something…

I didn’t bake gobs of various sugar cookies, chocolate chip, gingerbread men, or even oatmeal. Actually, I’m a bit domestically challenged, so I’m just happy that I didn’t burn the house down. It was the first time I ever baked cookies by myself, but I somehow managed with the help of my best friend: the mixer! Or whatever it’s called. We have a ton of organic goodies to play with, so the cookies I made were like 80-90% organic. I made a small batch of peanut butter honey cookies and a large batch of chocolate chip cookies!

Ironically enough, my cookies were a smash hit! I only managed to eat about 2 of the peanut butter honey cookies. I think my brother ate most of them. We didn’t have enough to send off to my grandmother, but we did send off some of my chocolate chip cookies. To my great surprise, she asked for my recipe! I honestly didn’t (and still don’t) understand what was so great about my cookies. The chocolate chip recipe came off the back of the chocolate chip bag. Perhaps it’s because I had so few?? Or it’s the organic ingredients??? My dad’s theory is that it’s the organic ingredients, which I’m going to lean toward.I had a wonderful non-white Christmas. The weather these past couple of weeks has been unusually warm. We’ve hardly had any snow, but I just saw the weather report and we’re going to have a small snow storm for the new year. I managed to get the limited edition Pirates 3 DVD as well as Paprika. I even got a brand new aquarium set and 3 new fish! So, I didn’t do too bad this Christmas.

Yesterday my dad took me to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I knew it was based off of a musical which was based off of a book which was based off of a true story. My former highschool did a production of it a couple of years ago, so I was familiar with the story and I knew how it was going to end. Even with that in mind, Tim Burton transformed it into something dark, exciting, and surprisingly…fresh. I absolutely loved how dark and dreary London was versus how bright and cheery the flashbacks and fantasies were. It was like London was looking and feeling how Sweeney Todd was feeling inside (except for Mrs. Lovette’s fantasy).

Not only that, but I also caught that Mrs. Lovette’s hair got brighter as soon as her business and personal life was doing better versus when you first met her. But let’s turn the rest of this toward Johnny Depp. He created the character as someone who you almost want to get caught and yet at the same time, you also want him to almost get away with it. So, sure you’re a bit torn at what you want done to Sweeney, but by the time the film ends, you’re satisfied with what happens to him. I could go through and nit-pick through the entire film, but I’m too lazy to do it today. When I have the time and energy to, I’ll write a better review of the film. But for now, I urge you all to go watch it! I did, even though I had go out of town and suddenly realize that the theater in my city just doesn’t cut it anymore. That shows dedication, and you should be dedicated too.

The Golden Globes are coming! They may not be as prestigious as the Academy Awards, but they usually suggest who will be getting one. I think about half the nominees get nominated for the Academy anyway, or at least it seems that way. My wonderful local newspaper published the nominees in the Friday, December 14, 2007 edition. I’m willing to list the nominees for you and give you my pick. Mind you, I’m only out the motion picture nominations because I’m not that interested in the television nominations. So, wrap up in your blanket, grab your cup of coffee and prepare for some heavy (or maybe not so heavy) rantings!

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The movie rankings are in! Enchanted dominated the box office. Weekend sales for the movie were $35.3 million, and since its release on Wednesday, it has brought in a total of $50.05 million! That’s almost double the amount the number 2 movie of the week, This Christmas, brought in since its Wednesday release ($27.1 million).

Disney proves that animated musicals (even partly animated musicals) are dearly loved and can still win audiences over. Could this be the beginning of the animation department’s revival? Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best. We won’t really know until The Frog Princess makes its debut around 2009.