Holiday Recipes: Jewel Cookies from Deborah Raney
Today I’m thrilled to welcome bestselling author—and one of my all-around, most respected people—Deborah Raney to the blog. I met Deb seven or eight years ago through ACFW (back when it was ACRW) and have always admired her for her talent as a writer as well as her sweet spirit and fabulous sense of humor. Take it away, Deb . . .
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Here’s a recipe that’s a Christmas tradition in my family. Some might think the recipe gets its name from the colorful egg yolk paint, but in fact, these cookies are named after Jewel Fuson, a sweet neighbor from my childhood (to whom I dedicated A Nest of Sparrows). Though Jewel and her husband, Don, had no children of their own, Jewel used to invite all the children of our little farming community to “paint” and decorate cookies at her farmhouse every Christmas. After Don and Jewel moved into town, my sister and her family moved into their farmhouse, and my sister continued the tradition for her children and mine. Jewel often stopped by as an honored guest to eat cookies and sip hot chocolate poured from her musical teapot that played “Tea for Two.” Jewel was spunky into her 90s. She died a few years ago, but I think of her often––especially at Christmastime. My sisters and I inherited some of Jewel’s vast collection of cookie cutters, and that teapot has an honored place in my sister’s house.
Jewel Cookies
1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup sour milk
5 cups flour
Edible Cookie Paint (recipe follows)
Colored decorating sugar
In a large bowl, cream together shortening, granulated and brown sugars, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. When well combined, add eggs and mix well. With wooden spoon, add milk and flour alternately, mixing until dough is stiff. Chill several hours or up to one week before rolling out.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare Edible Cookie Paint (recipe below). Divide cookie dough into fourths. Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time (returning the remainder to the refrigerator), roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Paint cookies with Edible Cookie Paint and sprinkle with colored sugar before baking. Bake just until cookies begin to brown lightly around the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Baking time depends on thickness of cookie dough. For crisper cookies, roll thinner and bake longer, for softer cookie, roll thicker and reduce baking time.
Edible Cookie Paint:
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon water
Food coloring
In a small bowl, beat egg yolks and water until smooth and frothy. Divide into several small cups and add a different shade of food coloring to each until colors are dark “jewel tones.”
As an alternate to painting, cookies may be baked, cooled, and decorated with frosting and candy sprinkles.
About the Author:
DEBORAH RANEY is at work on her 19th novel. Her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, National Readers’ Choice Award, Silver Angel, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. Her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Her newest books, the Clayburn Novels, are from Howard/Simon & Schuster. She and her husband, Ken Raney, have four children and enjoy small-town life in Kansas.
#KissingDayBlogFest Entry: A Scene from A CASE FOR LOVE
Okay, y’all badgered me into it. Here’s my second entry into the Official Kissing Day Blog Fest, an almost-kiss scene from A Case For Love—due out in a few weeks! (And don’t mind the ellipses in a couple of places—I edited out some spoilers.)
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Forbes didn’t like this no-name, no-picture deal. Petite brunette wearing black-and-white wasn’t that much to go on. But right now, no one fitting that description sat by herself at a table or in the armchairs over by the greenery-filled fireplace or out on the deck overlooking the river.
Instead of committing himself to a table before his date arrived, Forbes stood at the coffee bar, feeling very much like a cowboy in one of those old Westerns Meredith and Major liked watching so much.
The front door swung open. Forbes straightened. Though backlit, the silhouette entering was definitely female—a petite female. She paused, probably letting her eyes adjust to the dim interior. He checked his watch—9:21. Not just punctual, but early. Nice.
She moved toward the cashier. Forbes’s knees went weak. Alaine Delacroix pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head and placed her order.
Alaine? Could Shon have possibly—but if he had, why hadn’t he said anything? Forbes pulled out the copy of the e-mail with the description Shon had sent. Petite. Check. Brunette. Well, Forbes would have called her hair black, but it could work as a description. Wearing a black-and-white top. He glanced back up at Alaine, making sure to keep himself partially hidden behind the coffee-making station. She was wearing a black-and-white polka-dot jacket. Three strikes—er, three hits—okay, so the baseball metaphor didn’t work.
He waited for her to make her way down the long counter to the corner where she’d pick up her coffee, and from whence she’d be able to see him.
Their eyes met. Hers widened, and her full lips formed a small O. “What. . .what are you doing here?”
“Good morning to you, too.” He saluted her with his coffee. “Are you meeting someone here?”
“I—uh—yes, I’m supposed to be meeting someone here.”
“Devastatingly handsome and wearing blue?”
Her face went from ghostly pale to flushed in a split second. “Tall, dark hair, and wearing. . .red.” She frowned and pulled a folded piece of paper from her purse. “It definitely says red, not blue. Wait—are you here for. . .are you meeting someone here from Let’s Do Coffee?”
His face went hot now, too. “I am. Petite, brunette, wearing a black-and-white top. If that isn’t you. . .” He scanned the room again, just to make sure he hadn’t missed someone else fitting the description.
“Extra large café au lait,” the barrista called.
Alaine stepped over to grab the tall ceramic mug. She poured what looked like half the sugar shaker into it, tasted, and added a bit more sugar. He shuddered. It had to be sludge-like by now.
“So if I’m not meeting you,” she said, returning to stand at the bar beside him, “and you’re not meeting me, maybe we shouldn’t be standing here talking to each other when they do come in, or else they might not realize we’re the ones.”
“Are you trying to avoid me?” He sipped his latte, enjoying how the strong flavor of the espresso picked up the subtle hint of the skim milk and the light sweetness and chocolate of the sugar-free mocha flavoring, trying not to let himself be disappointed that Alaine wasn’t here for him.
“Avoid you?”
“You haven’t returned my phone calls.”
She traced her finger around the handle of her mug. “I wasn’t sure what to say to you.”
Setting his cup down, he leaned forward. “I only wanted to thank you. To try to tell you how much what you did meant to me. And to say that I hope your folks didn’t give you a hard time for it.”
Her gaze dropped to his mouth, but then just as quickly, she closed her eyes and turned her head away. Heat coursed through his body. He’d been wanting to kiss her since the first moment they met—actually a long time before that. Unless his eyes deceived him, she’d just told him she’d thought about it, too.
He took a step back for safety. “I saw your name made the newspaper blurb. That didn’t make things worse, did it?”
“My parents understood why I did what I did. . . .” She turned her profile to him and leaned back against the edge of the bar’s top, cradling her mug in both hands. . . . She took a sip of coffee, and finally looked at him again, her dark eyes sparkling like onyx. “Besides, that kind of journalism demands objectivity, and there’s no way I could stay objective about this story.”
This time, her eyes stayed locked on his, but he found himself once again leaning toward her, toward those enticing, full lips.
They both startled when the bell on the front door jangled. A tall man—a very tall man—with hair almost as dark as Alaine’s and wearing a bright red University of Louisiana–Bonneterre T-shirt entered the café and stood inside the door scanning the interior.
Alaine looked like she might tuck-tail and run. Forbes might aid her, if it came to that.
#KissingDayBlogFest Entry: A Kissing Scene from RANSOME’S CROSSING
As mentioned Saturday, today I’m participating in the first annual (?) Kissing Day Blog Fest. Great thanks to Sherrinda, Katie, and Krista for coming up with the idea.
Want to participate? Click here for the guidelines. Want to read everyone else’s posts (46 and counting!), click here for the list of participants.
Without further ado, here’s one of my favorite kissing scenes from Ransome’s Crossing (one of many!)—one that I wrote two years ago.
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Julia tucked her book by as four bells signaled ten o’clock. William was usually back in the cabin by now. Though she risked his ire by leaving the cabin unaccompanied, she exited through the wheelhouse. The sailor at the wheel and midshipman of the watch both knuckled their foreheads.
“Good evening, missus.” The third lieutenant touched the fore point of his hat.
“Good evening, Lieutenant Eastwick. Is Commodore Ransome about on deck?”
“He’s aft, on the poop deck, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
Eastwick looked like he wished to say more, but stepped aside. “Ma’am.”
She climbed the steep ladder-steps to Alexandra’s highest deck—the roof of their cabin. One solitary figure stood at the stern, silhouetted by the moon and stars, his back to her. Halfway across the deck, she stopped. Was she making the situation worse? Not knowing his current temperament, she could not be certain if her presence would be welcomed or if she would make him angry by her willful disobedience.
She turned to leave, trying to be as silent as possible. The water and the wind gave her some measure of cover—until she gasped when her toes smashed into the raised dining-cabin skylight. She hopped on her left foot, pain shooting through the two small toes of her right one.
“I used to do that all the time.” William’s deep voice was soft as his hands settled on her waist to steady her. “Except I was more likely to break glass than toes in these shoes.”
“I . . .” Embarrassment clogged her throat.
“Here, try to put some weight on it.”
She did. Though it hurt, she wasn’t about to let on that it did. “I think the pain is beginning to subside.” She finally noticed the sextant and journal he’d set down on the deck. “I had no wish to disturb you.”
“Come, let us get you to the cabin where you can sit.”
“No. I believe I am well.” She gritted her teeth and put weight on the throbbing foot.
“Then I shall be glad of your company, if you would join me in a stroll.”
Though each step felt worse than the step before, Julia took William’s arm, grateful for the support he offered—and his acceptance of her presence here when they both knew she had broken her promise to not come on deck unless accompanied by him.
“I have just finished calculating the distance between Alexandra and Audacious. The convoy is still far too spread out for my liking. And after this weather, we are likely to have thick fog by morning.”
Julia looked out into the silvery blackness. “How have you taken measurements when the next ship is but a shadow in the dark?”
William stopped at the aft railing. “See the yellow light there?” He pointed slightly to the left.
“Yes, I can just . . . oh, is that a signal light?”
“Aye. Each ship in the line has one. It is how we communicate after sundown.”
“Is it very dangerous to have the convoy spread too far?” The wind blew loose curls into her face.
William reached up and gently brushed the hair back. “I am not overly concerned. We shall see where we stand in the morning, and I will make adjustments then as needed.” His palm cupped her jaw, and he caressed her cheek with his thumb.
Julia’s knees nearly buckled. She held onto the balustrade with every ounce of strength.
His eyes, deep blue as the night sky above, roved her face, then rested on her mouth—followed by the soft touch of his lips.
She released her grip on the railing and rested her hand on his shoulder, raising up on her toes—
Her gasp of pain ended the kiss. William looped his arm around her waist for support, then pressed his forehead to hers. “Foot feeling better, is it?”
Coming Monday: Official Kissing Day Blogfest
I’m totally jumping on Sherrinda, Katie, and Krista‘s bandwagon here and planning to participate in their recently dubbed “Official Kissing Day Blogfest” on Monday.
Here are the guidelines from Sherrinda’s blog:
Official Kissing Day Blogfest
Monday, December 21st
A Writer’s Tribute to Mistletoe
Here is what to do if you want to participate in the Official Kissing Day Blogfest:
1. Write a post telling about the Official Kissing Day Blogfest. This way more writer/bloggers will get the word and be able to participate on Monday, Dec. 21st.
2. Tweet about it, using the hash tag: #kissingdayblogfest (I don’t know if this will help get the word out, but I thought it might be fun to try).
3. On Monday, December 21st, post on your blog an excerpt from your current WIP, or write a new scene that spotlights a kiss or an “almost kiss.”
4. If you are not a writer, or are uncomfortable sharing your work online, post your favorite kissing scene or almost-kissing scene from any book or movie.
**Please note that you do NOT have to do #1 or #2 to participate. I was trying to think of a way to get more writers to join in on the fun, but it is NOT mandatory! Just post your kissing scene on Monday for our reading pleasure!
Now to decide what scene I want to post . . . something from an older work? A teaser from A Case for Love or Ransome’s Crossing? Even though I plan to “write” in the car during my nine-hour drive to Baton Rouge tomorrow (yay for my new laptop and speech-recognition software!), I don’t think I’ll be far enough into Love Remains to have gotten to their fist kiss yet.
Hmmm . . . A Case for Love or Ransome’s Crossing?
Fun Friday–What Christmas Is All About
Last week, I told you what my favorite full-length Christmas movie is. But today is reserved for the absolutely most wonderful Christmas TV special ever made: A Charlie Brown Christmas.
First airing in 1965, this half-hour (less time for commercials) program has been a staple of the Christmas season ever since, impacting even our vernacular: who hasn’t at one point in time or another called a scrawny example of a Christmas tree a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree”?
Almost forty-five years ago, Charles Schultz gave us A Charlie Brown Christmas as a way of pointing out how commercialized and materialistic Christmas had become. He often used the comic strip as well as the television cartoon specials to gently poke fun at society and to remind us of the important things in life. This program is the penultimate example of his ability to do this.
And since I know I’m preaching to the choir here, why don’t I just go ahead and post my favorite clip from this, the best Christmas TV program ever:
RANSOME’S CROSSING Is Available for Pre-Order!
Ransome’s Crossing is now available for pre-order on Amazon and ChristianBook.com!
Singleness Sound-off: Singleness and the Holidays
Over the past few days, I’ve received several notes from readers and acquaintances who are really struggling this time of year with the idea of facing yet another Christmas and New Year’s alone—especially people who’ve read Menu for Romance in which I laid out the raw emotion of it on the very first page of the book.
We’ve all heard it—either directed at us or at our unmarried relatives—this time of year:
- “So, are you dating anyone?”
“What ever happened to that nice boy (girl) you dated in college?”
“What are you waiting for?” (those who are waiting to or can’t have children have heard this too often too)
“You must be too picky.”
“You aren’t getting any younger.”
“How’s your love life?”
“Aren’t you getting tired of spending your holidays alone?”
“You aren’t . . . you know . . . ?” accompanied by either a nudge, nudge, wink, wink or a horrified expression.
And that’s just the tip of the ice burg. There are the Christmas cards with the picture of your siblings or cousins or college friends and their spouses/children. There’s also watching all the couples give each other gifts. There’s the inevitable Christmas proposal one year. There’s the fawning over whoever has the new baby that year. There’re the Christmas parties at which you’re the only person without a date/spouse. There’re the constant and continual reminders that everyone in your family/circle of friends has already received what you want most for Christmas: to fall in love and get married.
Christmas is the hardest holiday for those of us who aren’t married—even harder than Valentine’s Day (which can be pretty easily ignored or maligned). Everything about Christmas is designed (by both the commercial world as well as the church) to make us focus on the nuclear family, on a spouse and children, on getting that special gift for that special someone. (For whom are you buying a Lexus or Mercedes or diamonds this year?)
It’s also a demarcation of time—another Christmas, and still no dating/marriage prospects on the horizon. Another Christmas spent as the fifth wheel at everyone else’s Christmas parties. Another Christmas watching nieces and nephews growing older—reminding us we’re growing older. Another Christmas waiting for God to answer our plea.
Then there are those who live away from their families and cannot afford to take time off work and/or travel during Christmas to be with them, who are faced with spending Christmas alone.
What are some things that we can do to help make Christmas more merry?
Don’t put off doing special stuff just because you’re not married/partnered up. Put up a Christmas tree (even if you won’t be spending Christmas day at your place). Put up lights outside. Don’t want the hassle of taking it all down again? Spend extra time choosing a theme for wrapping your Christmas presents—more expensive paper, cloth ribbons, a color scheme (mine’s blue and silver this year). Buy Christmas dishes—and use them, even if it’s just for macaroni & cheese in front of the TV on a Tuesday night while watching Miracle on 34th Street for the fiftieth time.- Send a photo Christmas greeting—of you hiking the Grand Canyon, of you on the cruise you took this year, of you having fun somewhere, sometime during the year. Make all your married, tied-down friends jealous.
- Make Christmas cookies, candies, and goodies. Keep a few for yourself—and then give the rest as gifts or take them to work or church to share with everyone else.
- Practice smiling and deflecting the stupid questions people ask singles with either a funny quip (Q: “So are you seeing anyone?” A: “Yep, everyone. Nothing wrong with my vision, thanks for asking.” or Q: “You aren’t getting any younger, you know.” A: “Isn’t it amazing how every Christmas all of us are exactly one year older than we were last year?”) or a subject change (Q: “Don’t you want to get married?” A: “Have you seen the movie The Blind Side yet? I hear it’s really good.”)
- Find another single friend who’s dateless and agree to be each other’s no-strings-attached “dates” to your company/church Christmas parties. (And practice saying, “We’re just friends”—because you’ll need that for a few weeks afterward.) Lots of people will recommend taking anyone, even a same-sex friend, to family gatherings—but for those of us from conservative Christian backgrounds, be ready for the backlash of the family’s speculation that you’re gay. This happened to me about twelve or thirteen years ago when a friend of mine from college, who was still living in Baton Rouge, had just started a new job and couldn’t go home to Dallas for Christmas. So, with my grandmother’s permission, I invited her to spend Christmas with our family. I think I may still have relatives who wonder if I’m gay because of it.
- If you can’t get home for Christmas, put the word out around your church, office, neighborhood, wherever you go, that you’re having a Christmas-day gathering at your house/apartment/hovel for anyone who doesn’t have plans. Do it in the afternoon, so that those who might want to do something in the morning can come. Have them bring a used coat to donate to a coat-drive or non-perishable food to donate to your local food bank (most are in crisis mode these days, with donations way down and demand way up). Have them bring a white-elephant gift and play Dirty Santa.
- Volunteer to serve lunch/dinner at your local homeless shelter. Or volunteer to play Santa to families in need by putting together and delivering Christmas baskets.
- Don’t focus on what you don’t have (a spouse/children) but focus on what you do have. Before you go to that Christmas gathering, make a list of all the things you have in your life, all of the blessings you’ve received this year, for which you are thankful—and put it in your pocket/purse. Then, when you’re tempted to start feeling down because you’ve seen a couple snogging under the mistletoe, pull that list out and be thankful.
- Find healthy distractions. Offer to help a friend decorate or wrap gifts. Offer to help out with preparing Christmas dinner for your family/friends. But also be sure to spend time during the holidays doing things you enjoy—not just what everyone else wants to do.
- Plan an exit strategy. If you’re staying with your family, make sure you have a car or can borrow a car so that you can get away and recharge or go see friends. Set aside some quiet time and spend time reading, meditating, praying, centering yourself. Choose before arriving at a party how long you plan to stay. Then, if that time comes and goes and you didn’t notice because you’re having a good time, be thankful. If it comes and you can’t wait to get out of there, let your host know you have somewhere else you need to be (back in sanity-land) and make a graceful exit.
- If you know spending Christmas with your family is going to stress you out no matter how much you try to plan ahead, have a designated ventee—a friend you can call, text, or e-mail who can talk you off the ledge. And don’t forget to breathe. When you feel the stress coming on, take three very deep, very slow breaths. And then find the chocolate. 😉
- If there’s a special gift you’ve always wanted but don’t have, because you assume it’s something your significant other will buy for you eventually for Christmas, why keep denying yourself? If you can afford it, buy it! If you can’t afford it this year, start a savings account and buy it for yourself next year.
Families and friends, what can you do to help?
- Don’t put the single person in your family at the kids’ table. Be aware of which relatives are most likely to ask the “are you dating anyone” questions and put the single person as far away from them as possible.
- Don’t relegate your single to sleeping on the sofa in the living room or sharing a bed with their twelve-year-old cousin. Singles need to be treated with the same respect as every other adult who comes into your house. (Of course, if they volunteer to do this, without your asking, it’s fine to take them up on the offer. Hopefully they wouldn’t offer if they aren’t sincere.)
- Don’t try to play matchmaker or be the main spokesperson for the Stamp-Out-Singleness-Now advocacy group. Focus on the joy of having the unmarried person with you as a part of a group.
- If the single person is someone you don’t know well or haven’t talked to in a while, find out what they’re interested in and discuss topics of mutual interest—movies, literature, sports, hobbies, etc.
- Mostly, just welcome them in, with no expectations, no criticisms, no hints, no jabs.
Ultimately, Christmas isn’t about us and whether we’re single or not. Christmas is about remembering that in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t us who matter. It’s Christ and what He did for us. Come, let us adore HIM.
Holiday Recipes: No-Bake Fruitcake & Pumpkin Dump-Cake
Spicy, fruity, and decadent. That’s what today’s two recipes have in common. Oh, and they also come from two of my family members.
What’s Christmas without fruitcake? And who better to share a recipe for it that someone named Noelle? Yep, today’s first recipe comes to us courtesy of my cousin Noelle Williams.
Sadly, this is the most recent picture I have of me with Noelle, from &% years ago:
Michelle (Dacus) Lesley, Kaye Dacus, Noelle (McLellan) Williams
(with our beloved, late grandfather, C.R. McLellan, in the background)
No-Bake Fruitcake Recipe
1 bag marshmallows
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 cups graham crackers (crushed)
2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts or any nut you choose
1 bag dried fruit bits (your favorite medley would be fine)
2 snack-size boxes raisins
Melt marshmallows and butter in microwave. Stir in graham crackers, nuts, and fruit. Press in ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Let cool until firm. You can speed this process by putting in refrigerator. Cut into small squares and enjoy!
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Our second recipe today comes courtesy of my grandmother, Julia McLellan, again. Here she is from a banquet she attended yesterday at church:
Isn’t she beautiful?
Pumpkin Dump-Cake
1 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup sugar (brown or granulated)
4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 box yellow cake mix
1½ cups chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup butter/margarine melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well. Line a greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment or waxed paper. Pour mixture into pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top, sprinkle nuts over that, drizzle butter as evenly as possible on top. DO NOT MIX. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until center is just done (knife inserted comes out clean). Let cool completely in pan.
Set serving tray on top of pan and turn over to remove dessert from pan. Remove paper.
This topping was with a couple of the recipes I combined for this cake:
Mix 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened to room temperature with
1 cup sugar
Fold in: 1 (8-oz) container whipped topping (thawed)
½ tsp vanilla, optional
Cake can be frosted with the topping (if you turn it upside-down) or serve individual portions with a dollop of topping.
Kaye Talks about Ransome’s Crossing
The sales rep from Harvest House asked me if I would record a short video talking about Ransome’s Crossing which he can take out when he goes on sales calls to booksellers. So here’s one (of the two—one was generic, one was specific to a certain bookseller) of the videos I spent a couple of hours working on yesterday.
Fun Friday–The Greatest Christmas Movie EVER
I know that there are a lot of people who are going to disagree with me about this one, but, frankly, I really don’t care. This is MY blog and thus my opinion is the one that gets posted here. (Neener-neener-neener)
[How’s that for Christmas spirit? ;-)]
[Oh, and speaking of Christmas spirit . . . with one click of a button on Amazon—well, okay several clicks of the “add to cart” button and then one click of the “complete order” button—I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday. Yay! And I didn’t have to get out in the below-freezing temps to do it!]
(And no, Ruth, as of 12:45 a.m. when I’m writing this, I haven’t had any caffeine for at least 12 hours. If you think I’m scary during the daytime, you don’t want to see what kind of mad energy I have at this time of night!)
Anyway, back to my absolute most favorite, best, all-time greatest Christmas movie ever:
For me, the Christmas season doesn’t begin until I pull this DVD out and watch it—a couple of times. About a week ago, I finally figured out why, even with the colder-than-usual weather, and even though I put my Christmas lights up outside before I left to go to Arkansas for Thanksgiving, it just didn’t feel like Christmas. And then it struck me—I hadn’t watched A Christmas Story yet. So I remedied that right away.
There is no way for me to pick out a favorite scene from this movie. As I watched it, I kept thinking: That’s the scene I’ll use. No, that scene. No, this one. By the time I finished watching it, I wanted to post the whole movie. So I went over to YouTube and found a montage to share.
Now, if you aren’t already aware, let me explain a few things about this movie before you go out and rent the movie or find it on cable (which it will be—if not today then sometime in the next two weeks).
1.) The language is a little crass.
2.) Ralphie and his friends are all (now) my age. That’s how old this movie is (1983).
3.) Did I mention this is my favorite Christmas movie?
4.) What Ralphie wants most for Christmas is an “Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle.” And he has a vivid imagination.
5.) It’s deliciously sarcastic with its humor—that’s why I like it so much.
What is your absolute, most-favorite, best, greatest Christmas movie ever?
KayeDacus.com 