24 Days Left

And what is on your list this year?  If it's anything like poor Ralphie's request, you may be in for disappointment.

Movie #2:  A Christmas Story

So, funny story about this film.  The year it came out, my family packed into the old truck with topper on the back and drove from New Hampshire (where we lived) to Orlando, Florida to spend Christmas at Disney World.  The weather was terrible, cold and miserable, and after a day of hauling four kids around DW, my parents wanted nothing more than for us to be quiet, be in bed, and then fall asleep early themselves.  My older brother Bill and I, being "mature" tweens, would wait until we heard our parents start snoring and our younger brothers fell asleep, and then we'd sneak out onto the balcony off our hotel room.  It looked out across the dank back parking lot, a seedy fence, and into a deserted drive-in movie theater.  Because it was so cold, there were hardly any cars there--so all the retro speakers were playing tinnily into the night.  We'd catch both showings of A Christmas Story, every night for a week.  By the end of it, we could quote entire sections of dialogue to each other and laugh like maniacs (my parents had no idea what we were talking about).  Of course, now my mom likely knows how naughty we were, but it was the best part of that whole vacation for me, those moments out on the freezing balcony wrapped in a polyester hotel blanket with my big brother.