Anyway.
Carrie & I spent a goodly chunk of the day just cleaning up. We went out shopping most of the afternoon (together, so we weren't buying gifts for each other obviously). Then when we got home but before Fools Play practice, we put up our Christmas decorations. Yee-haw! Hey, I remember a few years ago I wrote an Article about my Christmas Decorations. Maybe I'll do that again? Sounds good, but I'm still hella lazy about plugging my camera into my 'puter.
Taisha showed up for practice about 40 minutes early, so we put her to work making red/green paper chains. She has this freaky OCD type thing where her paper chains can't end with a different color than that with which they begin. Drove her crazy when only even-numbered chains fit correctly.
Ed & Geoff came over for practice. Mine brother didn't make it on account of he was stuck south in Centralia region. We did a Rankin-Bass Christmas Special based on "Jingle Bells." Here's basically how it went:
Our narrator, Jingle Bill, is putting a jingle bell on his reindeer. He explains that people didn't always use jingle bells. It all started a long time ago in a town called Hilldale. There, a single father and his mute son (who hadn't spoken since his mother died) lived in a small shack at the bottom of the hill. The father worked in the flour mill, which was run by Mr. Greenjeans. The father had to work all day long in the mill, so the child would get bored. One winter day the child wandered into a magical clearing, which was delightfully warm, and none of the animals were either threatened by him or threatened him. He was so delighted he spent the entire day there.As you can see, it was pretty good. It was also full of songs, such as Jingle Bill singing about how people need glasses, a duet between Tubular and a goblin about why each of them wanted to build the machine, and a few others that I can't remember.
When the father came home that night and found his son missing, he set right out in search of him. Unfortunately, he went in the wrong direction! He stumbled upon the castle of Dr. Tubular, who with his goblin workers was making a machine to suck all the warmth out of the world to heat his castle. He was an old man, see, and the cold wreaked havoc with his joints. The goblins were helping because they knew that if all the warmth was sucked out of the world, the humans would freeze, and there would be no more Christmas Spirit in the world—the one thing that goblins hate more than anything else! Fortunately, the machine is missing a vital piece. Unfortunately, when the father set off in search of his son, he packed a bag full of all sorts of tools!
The father climbs in a window and is immediately captured and put in the dungeon. Dr. Tubular uses the father's tools to create the missing piece: a small metal ball with a small pellet of iron in it, that would conduct electricity. It also made a certain "jingle" noise when you shook it...
The next day, the son wakes up in the magical clearing and realizes he spent the whole night there. He heads for home.
Mr. Greenjeans, because his only worker (the father) is not there, has to shut down the mill. Even though he's disappointed because that basically destroys his livelihood, he's even more disappointed because he had a Christmas present he wanted to give to the father. He heads down the hill towards the little cottage.
Dr. Tubular completes his machine and activates it. The entire world begins to slip into a freezing winter, colder than any ever before. Tubular's castle, on the other hand, was warmed to a balmy 90 degrees.
The boy gets to his cottage and finds his father not there. He figures he must be at the mill, and so heads into town as the temperature drops. Right when he leaves, Mr. Greenjeans comes to the cottage and finds the father not there. Mr. Greenjeans notices a trail of tools leading off into the forest, though, and decides to follow it...
The mayor of Hilldale has gathered the entire populace in town hall to try to figure out what to do about the ever-dropping temperature. The boy comes upon town hall, and as he opens to door to go inside, the door freezes open, letting the chilling temperatures inside! Now there is no place in town that is warm! Suddenly, the boy remembers the magic clearing that kept him warm all night long, and for the first time in four years, he speaks! He leads the entire town towards the clearing...
Mr. Greenjeans sneaks into Dr. Tubular's castle and defeats a goblin guard by hitting him with the present he was going to bring to the father—filled with the power of Christmas!
The townsfolk arrive at the clearing and are amazed at the warmth, and the unfrightened animals that they can kill and eat at their leisure! They wonder where the father and Mr. Greenjeans are. The mayor figures that they must be bringing their stores of flour to the clearing so they won't starve once the animals run out. Everyone stops worrying, and begins to wait for the flour to show up.
The Goblin King pays Dr. Tubular a visit, and expresses his displeasure that Dr. Tubular's warmth-draining machine can't penetrate the magic shield around the magic clearing. The humans there will survive, and that means so will Christmas! Dr. Tubular realizes with horror what he's done. He never wanted to kill off Christmas, only to keep himself warm! The Goblin King orders Tubular thrown out into the freezing night, as they steal his machine to take it inside the magic clearing to freeze those humans directly!
Mr. Greenjeans breaks the father out of the dungeon using the tools that he picked up along the way, and they come upon a freezing old Tubular, who explains the goblins' nefarious plot! They go after the goblins and their freezing machine.
In the clearing, the townsfolk are starting to get worried because Mr. Greenjeans hasn't shown up with the flour yet, and they've killed and eaten practically all the animals! Just then the goblins burst into the clearing and turn on the machine, sucking all the warmth out of the clearing! Greenjeans and the father show up right behind them. The father gives a moving speech about how goblins and humans shouldn't hate each other, but should love and share because that's the true meaning of Christmas Spirit! The speech is filled with so much Christmas spirit that the Goblin King falls dead on the spot, and the other goblins flee into the night. The good guys pull the power lever on the machine to "off" but it doesn't do anything! Then they hear a distinctive "jingle" coming from within the machine, and they remove the little jingle bell, shutting the machine down. The whole world heats back up to a normal cold winter. They attach the jingle bell to the neck of a horse as a symbol of something or other, and as they all ride back to Hilldale in the sleigh, they sing a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells." They also stop along the way to pick up Jingle Bill!
Carrie went and hung out with Cat at Panamonica's during practice.
