Christmas By the Bay
I have spent the last several days visiting my sister and three nieces in northern California for Christmas, a family tradition since 1999. While spending the holidays out here means there is pretty much a 100% chance that it will not be a white Christmas, there is something to be said for shopping in short sleeves and sipping a latte (or in my case a raspberry sorbet smoothie) afterwards on Christmas eve.
Before I arrived my sister said that my two oldest nieces, Caroline (age 7) and Meredith (age 5) wanted to go to the movies to see either "Happy Feet" or "Charlotte's Web." It was put to a vote and on Friday afternoon Uncle Grant, Nana (my mom) and the two girls headed out to a 2:05p showing of "Happy Feet" in Mountain View. A slight panic set in when we arrived at the theater and the show was sold out, but a quick call to my sister with information on a 3:05p showing in Redwood City got us back on track.
The movie was cute, kind of an animated "March of the Penguins" with more singing and dancing and less of the death stuff. The music is great, from an opening performance of the Prince classic "Kiss" to songs from the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. Robin Williams plays every other character in the movie (or so it seemed) from the latino penguin Ramon who befriends the lead character, Mumble, after he is banished from Adelie Land because of his, um, happy feet to Lovelace, the guru who dispenses wisdom to the citizens of Adelie Land for a small fee.
The movie goes a little Al Gore on us with the "we're overfishing and polluting our oceans without considering the effect it has on the marine life" environmental message towards the end, and there was a bit too much over-the-top Robin Williams for my taste. However, I still enjoyed the flick and give it a thumbs up. My nieces also liked it and even went so far as to say it was better than the last movie we saw together,"Over the Hedge."
My activities on Saturday were I believe a testament to just how evolved I am as a man. First, I joined my sister, mom, brother-in-law's mom and two nieces (that's right, all females) for a performance of "The Nutcracker" by the San Francisco Ballet. I went on the condition that I'd be back in time for the Chiefs/Raiders game at 5pm. I am still a guy, after all. My sister said that my brother-in-law wanted nothing to do with the outing and let's just say that his dad didn't put up much of a fight for the extra ticket when it was offered to him and me.
So yes, I went to the ballet and actually enjoyed it. Also, I got the added bonus of being told afterwards by my nieces that I looked like the Prince. Damn right I do. Happy holidays to all!
I have spent the last several days visiting my sister and three nieces in northern California for Christmas, a family tradition since 1999. While spending the holidays out here means there is pretty much a 100% chance that it will not be a white Christmas, there is something to be said for shopping in short sleeves and sipping a latte (or in my case a raspberry sorbet smoothie) afterwards on Christmas eve.
Before I arrived my sister said that my two oldest nieces, Caroline (age 7) and Meredith (age 5) wanted to go to the movies to see either "Happy Feet" or "Charlotte's Web." It was put to a vote and on Friday afternoon Uncle Grant, Nana (my mom) and the two girls headed out to a 2:05p showing of "Happy Feet" in Mountain View. A slight panic set in when we arrived at the theater and the show was sold out, but a quick call to my sister with information on a 3:05p showing in Redwood City got us back on track.
The movie was cute, kind of an animated "March of the Penguins" with more singing and dancing and less of the death stuff. The music is great, from an opening performance of the Prince classic "Kiss" to songs from the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder. Robin Williams plays every other character in the movie (or so it seemed) from the latino penguin Ramon who befriends the lead character, Mumble, after he is banished from Adelie Land because of his, um, happy feet to Lovelace, the guru who dispenses wisdom to the citizens of Adelie Land for a small fee.
The movie goes a little Al Gore on us with the "we're overfishing and polluting our oceans without considering the effect it has on the marine life" environmental message towards the end, and there was a bit too much over-the-top Robin Williams for my taste. However, I still enjoyed the flick and give it a thumbs up. My nieces also liked it and even went so far as to say it was better than the last movie we saw together,"Over the Hedge."
My activities on Saturday were I believe a testament to just how evolved I am as a man. First, I joined my sister, mom, brother-in-law's mom and two nieces (that's right, all females) for a performance of "The Nutcracker" by the San Francisco Ballet. I went on the condition that I'd be back in time for the Chiefs/Raiders game at 5pm. I am still a guy, after all. My sister said that my brother-in-law wanted nothing to do with the outing and let's just say that his dad didn't put up much of a fight for the extra ticket when it was offered to him and me.
So yes, I went to the ballet and actually enjoyed it. Also, I got the added bonus of being told afterwards by my nieces that I looked like the Prince. Damn right I do. Happy holidays to all!
posted by Grant @ 11:18 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home