On the third day of Christmas... Love Actually

What is it about this film that keeps me coming back to it every year? 

The amazing cast? The story lines? The charm? 

Whatever it is, it has become a must watch in my holiday line up. 

It begins with an opening sequence narrated by Hugh Grant. This is one of my favorite parts of the film. 

These people that are reuniting are not actors. The reunions are not staged. 

The film's crew camped out at Heathrow for a week to capture all of the scenes to use for the film. 

And I love what Hugh Grant says: 

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there- fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge- they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I have a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

Onto the film itself; there are multiple story lines continuing through the film that all end up being connected in some way. There are some that I love, some that I dislike, some that are heartbreaking, some that are heartwarming. But the one thing that is in all of them is love. Love broken, love found, love between parents and children, love between siblings, love between friends, young love, probably every kind you can think of.

And of course, it is well acted. How could it not be with this cast? 

I have to warn that it isn't for all audiences. There is a fair amount of swearing in it as well as some nudity. In fact, I told my mom that most films that included the same elements wouldn't be ones I would enjoy, but for some reason this one still spoke to me and I have managed to look past all of that. 

The other day I finally made my mom watch it after talking to her about if for years but I fast forwarded through the naughty bits. Afterward I felt like that was a dumb thing to do because I felt like it left it feeling disjointed and took away a bit of its charm. I hope she was able to pick up on that a bit but I have come to the conclusion that this is a movie meant to be seen in whole. So, if you don't watch rated R movies or movies with those things in it you are better off to probably just leave this one alone.

If you have seen the film, what are your thoughts? 

And in case you have never heard of it, this is the trailer: 

On the Second day of Christmas.... Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

When I was reading The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings, I read about the letters that J.R.R. Tolkien would write to his children from Father Christmas each year. I found out that they had been published into a book called Letters from Father Christmas. I really wanted to read them!

I went onto Amazon and a few other websites but I just didn't know which version to buy. There were some cool ones that had pull out letters but then the reviews said that the letters weren't complete. I wanted to make sure I had the version that would have the complete letters. 

I have also wanted to try out the Book Depository so I went on there to see what they had. 

They had the one I wanted!

I bought it right then!

This book does not take long to read. It is just under two hundred pages and it is possible to read the whole thing in a couple of hours or over a couple of days. 

The letters start in 1920 and end in 1943. 

Each letter is in response to letters from his children and it is interesting to see how they change as they get older. 

The letters are accompanied by drawings that he did as well. And they are amazing. 

Tokien wrote each letter in a really shaky handwriting and all I could think as I looked at each one was how much time it must have taken him to write out the longer letters. This was one devoted father. 

The letters are so funny. 

He tells stories of antics of his Polar Bear, having to move house when the first house is ruined, floods, fireworks going off, goblin wars, and so much more. 

They are magical.

Really magical. 

I actually laughed out loud on multiple occasions at parts of the letters and at the pictures. 

My photos can't do it justice because this book is a treasure. 

There are copies of each letter he wrote so that you can read them and see the handwriting, additions made by the Polar bear and by elves, and see how he decorated the pages. 

But then it also has each letter typed out so that it is easier to read. 

I love that it gave us the letters in type but also allowed us to see the original work. 

In short, this is now one of my very favorite Christmas books and I will treasure it!

On the first day of Christmas... Festive Friends

On my last trip to London Market they had out their Christmas things. 

I picked up this box of biscuits by Cadbury called Festive Friends. 

I pulled them out this week for the family to try them. 

They are really cute. 

They are packaged in a sealed bag inside of the box. 

And they were in these shapes. 

 

They are partly covered in a very thin layer of chocolate. 

These were quite tasty.

To me, they tasted like shortbread cookies with a hint of coconut (although there is nothing about coconut in the ingredients so I don't know where I got that flavor from). 

Abigail and Madeline loved these so much. They are both now hoping that Santa will leave them each their own box in their stocking on Christmas morning. 

So, obviously these were a hit!

Christmas on Scones and Crackers

Happy December!

I'm switching things up a bit on the blog this month. 

I will not be posting every weekday nor will the subject schedule be the same as it has been up until now.

I will be doing the 12 days of Scones and Crackers Christmas. 

Between now and Christmas you can expect at least 12 posts about Christmas books, movies, treats, and activities. 

This is my favorite time of year and I can't wait to share some of my favorite things with all of you. 

St. Andrews Day

Today is St. Andrew's Day. 

It is a national day of Scotland. 

Here is the story of St. Andrew: 

Let's talk about: The Young Victoria

This week I watched the film The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend as Victoria and Albert.  I enjoyed the movie. 

I thought that Emily and Rupert were really good in their parts and I think the rest of the cast was top notch as well. 

The costumes and look of the film were gorgeous and captivating. 

I enjoyed Emily's portrayal of Victoria's strength in standing up to those around her that were trying to bully her. I really enjoyed the relationship between Victoria and Albert. Especially knowing how much she really loved him in real life and how much she mourned him after his passing. They do a good job of showcasing how that strong of a relationship was begun.

I know there are historical inaccuracies that I am not aware of and that every historical movie adds things or changes things for the sake of drama but I do think they went a little over the top in this film with Albert getting shot. As far as I understand it, there was an assassination attempt but Albert was not injured. 

Overall, I think if you have any interest in the love story of Victoria and Albert you will find this movie to be enjoyable. 

Here is the trailer: 

Let's talk about: The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski

 The Fellowship, The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip and Carol Zaleski tells the stories of four of the main "Inklings": J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. 

We get a LOT of information not only about these four men but also those they surrounded themselves with and how they met.
I put a lot of tabs in this book while reading it. There were so many things I wanted to remember and go back to. There are so many good quotes. 

We began with Mr. Tolkien.

 They talked a lot about his mom. Mabel gave him a great world to grow up in. She taught him Latin, French, German, about linguistics. Her influence created a thirst for knowledge of languages, alphabets, and etymologies that would last throughout his entire life. 

She taught him to draw and paint and introduced him to the children's stories of the time such as Alice in Wonderland and other fairy tales.
We also learned a lot about his wife and children. He was so devoted to them. It seemed that like most of us, he always felt like he should be doing more and yet he was doing so much. 

I was so impressed with Tolkien. Obviously I already really enjoy his work but this book just opened my eyes to him as a man and not just the creator of the marvelous world of Middle Earth. 

He was such a good man. It has given me some information on some of his other books that I will be talking about soon as well. 

C.S. Lewis grew up with his brother as his main companion. One of my favorite parts of his story was when they were quoting a letter he wrote about his brother Warnie coming home. 

"Horra!! Warnie comes home this morning. I am lying in bed waiting for him and thinking of him, before I know where I am I hear his boots pounding the stairs, he comes into the room, we shake hands, and begin to talk... well I was glad to have him but of course we had our rows afterwards..."

It is just such a telling quote about siblings. 

I was surprised by Lewis. I knew that he grew up religious and at some point became atheist and then later accepted Christianity again. 

What I didn't know was that while he wasn't my least favorite of the Inklings, he was certainly not my favorite person during his teenage and atheist years. He seemed to be quite the sadist and sexist man.
We followed his life through his affair with Mrs. Moore and then his romance with Joy. 
Later he improved greatly in my estimation and I found his transformation very interesting.
His quotes gave me a lot to think about. 

 I had never heard of Owen Barfield before reading this book. I enjoyed learning about him. I am curious to read his book, The Silver Trumpet, but haven't had any luck finding a reasonably priced one. Owen seemed like a nice gentleman. He was depressed a lot, or at least seemed to be. 

He had a stutter and found that reciting poetry and singing helped it.
Owen seemed to always think he wasn't good enough and I felt so sad for him and the fact that he seemed to always be unhappy with who he was and what he was doing. 

Charles Williams was the Inkling that I never liked throughout the book. 

"Charles Williams was a man that everyone had trouble describing. He seemed ugly but beautiful, a swirling mass of contradictions. He wrote shockers that failed to shock. He worshipped women but 'liked to beat them with a ruler'. He was a faithful husband with a harem of besotted acolytes. He was orthodox but heretical, a devout Anglican who practiced magic. He had a face at once hideous and beautiful."
He also kind of looks like the mean teacher in Anne of Green Gables... or is that just me thinking that? 

The Inklings were actually begun by Edward Tangye Lean. He founded the group when he was an undergraduate. He created it so that a small society of literary students could " pay homage to those who express themselves through ink as well as those who discover through their inky labors, inklings of a higher world." Tolkien and Lewis joined his group and took over when he graduated.

I found it interesting that Tolkien's son Christopher became an active inkling as well when he came to read English at Oxford.

Overall, this book was really well written. There was a lot of information. So much that it could be a bit tedious at times. However, I really enjoyed reading it and finding out so much more about these men and the times they lived in. It is a very interesting book and well worth the time it takes to read it.