Merry Christmas Eve

Nowadays it seems like Christmas Eve is almost a bigger deal than Christmas. For little ones especially, since Christmas Eve is when Santa comes to visit.

To me, Christmas Eve is the fun leading up to Christmas, with Christmas still being fun, just more laid back than the hoopla of the night before.

With that said, I had planned on posting this Christmas day; but decided it fits in more with the frivolity of Christmas Eve. Once again, my brain has mashed together various things in my head, and come up with something somewhat odd.

It started with the caricatures I did awhile back of the KUPL air staff; I was wondering how I could do something for the holidays with them.

Then, at the Colt Ford concert, I saw the KUPL blinkie stars. I have at least three of them, though for the first time I looked at them and thought, "that would make a great tree topper".

That idea lead to a Christmas tree I created from scratch with Paint Shop Pro about four years ago; with ornaments using photos.

That dot connected to the dot, of "I have a blog and want to write about Christmas"; so to work I went!

In between all this, I had come up with a way to do a holiday theme for the caricatures; though I did say Rudolph was unavailable because he had a stuffy nose, and Vixen didn't want to participate, because she thought Lola would "out bling" her. This was in explanation of why there are only seven reindeer in the picture.

Originally there were also two elves, KUPL Producer Sputnik, and KUPL webmaster, Kelsie. Since I was only using on air staff for my latest idea, Kelsie wasn't added to that creation, though I did make an ornament for her. This is her Christmas elf costume, and photo ornament.

When everything was the way I wanted it to be, I placed the tree in the middle of the picture; put some presents in front of it; added the photo ornaments to it, then placed the KUPL air staff on either side of the tree. (On a side note, the bells aren't really on the reindeer's scarves; they're supposed to be under them a bit. They're what I call their "jingle belly buttons". Just another odd twist my brain presented me with!) This is the result:

Before I had this done, KUPL played a version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", that they made. When I heard it, I thought it was great and would go great with the picture I was creating, (even though not everyone in the song or pic is represented in both), so here's the KUPL Christmas Carol also:

http://www.kupl.com/2011/12/20/have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas/

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone, and don't forget to leave Santa some cookies!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

(Today's word will be in ALL CAPS, BOLD, ITALIC, and STRIKETHROUGH.)

Tis the season once again for Christmas specials on TV. Of all of them, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" has always been my favorite. It's the first program I remember watching in color as a little girl; I've always loved the songs from the show, and the animation as well. It's just one of those Christmas shows I've rarely missed over the years; though the past few years I think I've started to grow up a bit.

My first clue was when I'd see the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys. Some of the misfits were obvious, like a cowboy riding an ostrich.

Or, a train with square wheels on it's caboose.

Those were things that were obviously not right for the type of toy it is. Yet, I keep thinking, "it's still an easy fix to make them right again".

However, as I got older, I realized some of the toys may have issues, and don't want to deal with reality. For instance, the "Charlie in a Box".

He laments that no one wants to play with a "Charlie in the Box", the name is all wrong. To me the simple solution would be to change his name to Jack. People change their names all the time, why can't he?

Then there's the spotted elephant;

I love that character and actually think it's pretty cool that he has colorful spots, instead of being a normal color. Besides, there are plenty of stuffed animals that have even more bizarre color schemes than just a few polka dots.

The squirt gun that shoots jelly is another easy fix, in my opinion. Just fill it with water instead of jelly, problem solved.

The one that really mystifies me though is the misfit doll. I have yet to figure out how she's a misfit. Truth be told, I've always wished I could have her as one of my dolls; she's my favorite of all the misfit toys.

All this had me thinking I may be growing up; but the clincher was when I started paying attention to how Santa treated RUDOLPH; and how he behaves in general; it's kind of tramatizing.

For instance, Santa is supposed to be happy and jolly and like everyone. Yet, he's the first to criticize Rudolph's nose, when he's still a baby. No low self-esteem issues there, I bet...Not!

I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point. Despite my age impaired views though, I still love this show, and probably always will. I just wish I could still watch it with the innocence of a child.