http://www.hallmark.com/keepsake-ornaments/dream-book/
I mean to post this last month when they released this year’s ornaments.
Here are the ones we want :
and will most likely buy.
Holiday
All posts tagged Holiday
My all time favorite Christmas song is Grant Goodeve’s The Night Time Stood Still from the Christmas in the Northwest 8 album. I wish YouTube would get someone to put the video up.
http://grooveshark.com/s/The+Night+Time+Stood+Still/3suzrG?src=5
Such a good song!
I heard Dan Fogelberg’s Same Old Lang Syne for the first time the other week and now I’m obsess with it.
Thanks to YouTuber KOUJI328G for hosting the video!
Since the song references (and ends with an instrumental version of) Auld Lang Syne, I included that video.
Thanks to YouTuber saminnyc for hosting the video!
My favorite religious Christmas song is Mark Lowry’s Mary, Did You Know
Thanks to YouTuber GaitherVEVO for hosting the video!
I really liked Lowry’s parody songs when I was a kid, not that I really knew that they were parody at the time.
My favorite Pop Christmas song would have to be, without a doubt, Last Chrstimas – Originally by Wham
Thanks to WhamVEVO for hosting the video.
But I’m a sucker for any good cover of it.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=last+christmas
I have a few favorite complete albums.
Of course, the legend that is Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I was lucky enough to buy the boxset of their three albmus – Christmas Eve and Other Stories / The Christmas Attic / Lost Christmas Eve, which came with a DVD. I love this collection so much.
TSO also has this amazing Rock Opera CD, Beethoven’s Last Night, that I wish they were release a DVD for.
Christmas Eve and Other Stories
Thanks to YouTuber TovarishchS for hosting the full album! Not sure how long that will last.
The Christmas Attic
Thanks to YouTuber ConCon TheButterfly
Lost Christmas Eve
Thanks to YouTuber Katie Duvall
Jewel has a terrific Christmas album, Joy : A Holiday Collection
YouTuber Jewel – Topic has a Playlist with all of her songs.
I adore Jewel, she went Country and I sort of lost track of her but there were years when I was a hardcore fan of hers.
Kelly Clarkson’s Wrapped in Red is another great Christmas album.
Thanks to YouTuber TheChrstimasLyrics3 for hosting the full album
I’m also a huge Kelly Clarkson fan. I suppose it makes sense to like an artist and naturally like their holiday CD too.
Michael Buble’s Chrstimas album, and specials, are quite excellent as well!
YouTuber Shadee Henareh has created a playlist for all of Buble’s Christmas songs. I’m also a huge Buble fan too. But who isn’t and still has a soul? I ask you.
. . .
My wife has hipped me to Alabama’s Thistlehair The Christmas Bear song which is pretty fun.
Thanks to YouTuber ItalianCottager for hosting the video.
My in-laws are all big fans of Robert Earl Keen’s Merry Christmas from the Family
Thanks to YouTuber The Outdoor Chautauqua for hosting the video.
Another song my wife becomes obsessed with this time of year is Jason Castro’s I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Thanks to YouTuber memillieisme for hosting the video.
We were big American Idol fans for a few years. That’s how I discovered Michael Buble, when he filled in for Tony Bennett. Which is pretty cool that I know when I became a fan of Buble, April 4, 2007.
Her favorite classic Christmas song is, Winter Wonderland. Which seemed like new information when I asked her.
She didn’t have a favorite version, so I included the Buble one.
Thanks to YouTuber zwoooooooooosh for hosting the video.
This made me think of what my favorite classic Christmas song is, it might have to be, O Little Town of Bethlehem
Thanks to YouTuber Gilda Tabarez for hosting the video.
I do try to recite “We Three Kings” from time to time but I never know the lyrics.
Thanks to YouTuber king mojo for the lyric video!
. . .
My mother’s favorite Christmas song is, Little Drummer Boy
Thanks to YouTuber PTXofficial for hosting the Pentatonix video.
. . .
Christmas songs I am not a fan of? Pretty much any parody of 12 Days of Christmas.
. . .
EDIT ON DECEMBER 22, 2014 –
Another song I keep hearing on the radio is Stephanie Davis’ The Gift
Which apparently she wrote but didn’t release herself. That I’m aware of as YouTube only has cover versions.
Thanks to Britt Gillis for both hosting her cover and doing such a beautiful version of it.
http://www.stephaniedavis.net/the_gift.htm
There is the link to Stephanie Davis’ website and the lyrics to the song. It is a nice story. She’s also lives in Montana.
Writer Chris Claremont
Artist Ron Wagner
Letters Tim Harkins
Colors Glynis Oliver
Girls’ School From Heck Part One of Three
Cover Dated December 1990
Issue opens with an alternate timeline. This one, what if the members of Excalibur were all men, except for Captain Britain. Kitty Pryde is now Dark Tiger. Phoenix is now Arizona – Completely missing the point. Meggan is now Morgan. Also they with Nightcrawler, who is still male, now all seem like very young teenagers. Captain Britain is their tutor and leader.
That section ends with no tie the proper story. This section’s art is a bit all over the place. Where Wagner excels is the quieter and female dominated rest of the issue.
Before we get to that, we get a page of Mesmero trying to go straight by being a psychologist. He finally realized that if you don’t try to cheat people, you don’t quite get punched in the face as much. His current client? The Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher.
At this point, Cross Time Caper is thankfully over. Unfortunately, Kitty and the rest of the team are still separated. Both are on the same version of Earth, the Proper Marvel Universe, they just don’t know the other is a well.
Kitty got back sooner, so Courtney Ross has enrolled Kitty into her former school, St. Searle’s. The headmistress is Miss Rutherford. She seems nice enough.
Kitty has nowhere else to go. Her parents are divorced, she can’t decide who to live with. Her former team, the X-Men, are believed dead. Her current team, Excalibur, is presumed missing, and she doesn’t want to live in their lighthouse base by herself. She might as well get a proper education.
Kitty gets to her room and meets Phoebe Huntsman and her friends. They have gone through all of Kitty’s things, keeping what they want. One of the friends, Veronique starts reading from Kitty’s diary. After she reads a passage regarding Colossus, Kitty starts throwing punches. Turns out, for some mysterious reason, Kitty can’t phase, so Phoebe gets a lucky shot in.
I like Miss Rutherford’s reaction. Even if the young ladies were stealing her stuff, Kitty shouldn’t have resorted to violence. Up to this point, Kitty’s inner monologue has been giving us how much experience Kitty has. She has traveled through time, to different dimensions and timelines, has saved numerous planets, including her own. By the time children her age were thinking of junior high school, she was already taking college courses. When she joined the X-Men, age was nothing but a chicken wing. The X-Men only cared about what she brought to the team and treated her as the peer she was. But she has been honed to be a soldier in Xavier’s army since she was 13 and a half so violence comes easily to her.
Miss Rutherford’s punishment is to have Kitty write out a sentence one thousand times, “St. Searle’s teaches young girls to become young ladies.” This is hard on Kitty has she is used to typing, which I can completely relate too. My handwriting is horrible but now that I type so much, my hand hurts after writing a bunch in a brief moment. There is this fun moment when Miss Rutherford keeps calling her Katherine, and Kitty finally corrects her and says she prefers Kitty. Miss Rutherford believes Kitty’s childish behavior is due in some part due to her willingness to keep a childhood nickname. Never really thought about that before.
Kitty somehow finishes the task, and I can only imagine a lady like Miss Rutherford, when she says a thousand, she doesn’t mean, do it for an hour and move on to something else. She meant a thousand times.
We cut to the other members of Excalibur, minus Lockheed – of course, they are chasing Vixen and her criminal gang. Vixen turns back into Nigel Frobisher, a guy who has been a bit of a running joke in Excalibur up to this point. He was a womanizing sort of jerk slash goof ball and then he flirted with the wrong lady and now he spends some of his time as a woman. That will teach him! Except, for the most part, it hasn’t.
We cut back to Kitty as she is leaving the school, she is running away as no one talks to her or wants her around. On her way out, she overhears a phone conversation of Miss Rutherford’s, the school is losing money and may have to close down. As soon as she steps off campus, she notices she can phase again. There is definitely something going on at that campus. She gets to a bar and calls Courtney, waking her up and then promptly hangs up. Kitty is no quiter and will see this through to the end.
We cut to the next morning, and the students are about to play field hockey. Kitty hasn’t been seen yet and their teacher, Mr. Reeve, notices that Kitty is missing. That darn Phoebe is still wearing Kitty’s leather jacket, as if it is hers. Phoebe and her friends start trash talking and then Kitty shows up, still wearing last night’s clothes, but she is ready to be goalie and leave everything on the field.
Kitty makes me proud when Phoebe calls her a Yank, and Kitty is quick to say she is a Cubs fan and being called a Yankee is a high insult. Of course, these are British young ladies and they don’t know baseball that well. But still, represent Kitty! Go Cubs in 2014!
The game is 0 to 0 for the most part until Kitty finally scores in overtime. Her outfit is battle worn at this point as she scores off of Phoebe. We see from the bushes that Courtney Ross has been watching this entire time.
Issue ends with Mesmero happy with his new face turn. Then two AIM Battletanks, that’s what it looks like at least, tell him that he is going to start working for them as they want his access to world leaders to start bringing in real money and power. Poor Mesmero, he wanted to be legit so much. Of course, if he had just stuck to non-famous people, he wouldn’t have this problem but there isn’t any money in that.
. . .
And with this, we are off in 2014! Got some major plans for this here blog and I am really excited about all of them. Thanks for reading this past year!
One thing I loved doing, back when I was addicted to the American Film Institute’s Top 100 lists was at the end of the year or the beginning of the next, was look back at the movies of yesterday, in five year intervals. Remember the days when studios would release anniversary DVDs? Those days seem to be gone now, or they wait for the 25 or 50 year milestones. We also are not buying as many DVDs or BluRays as we use too, which I suppose Netflix hurt that. In my opinion, what really hurt those sales were all of those bare bone DVDs. I, myself, love a commentary track, and won’t even buy a new disc unless that is on it or at least two or three other features. I also like to look at the year ahead to see what movies I am going to be interested on, just based off of who is making it or if it is a sequel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_in_film
I should say here, that I list a bunch of these films, and will probably only be able to watch a quarter of them, or lose (or gain) interest as actual promotion comes out.
January
I am very interested in Aaron Eckhart’s I, Frankenstein. Been reading some good buzz about it and it has been quite some time since the last adaption.
February
The LEGO Movie, there was a time when they were announcing which characters were showing up in it and it sounds awesome. I know we are going to be getting LEGO Batman and Superman in it.
RoboCop with Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman, and a slew of others.
Pompeii, I want to see, ever since our Italy honeymoon, I’ve been trying to relive it through other means.
March
Mr. Peabody & Sherman, may have been my favorite segment of Bullwinkle and Rocky. Haven’t seen any footage, hopefully it isn’t like the Smurfs or the Chipmunks live action films.
Need for Speed, looks like Keaton is coming back, yo!
Veronica Mars, we still haven’t made great headway with the series but this might just do it to motivate us.
Bad Words, Jason Bateman directing and starring, after the rough year he had in 2013, this might just turn things around.
Muppets Most Wanted, hopefully Jaosn Segel can show up for just a bit in this one. Glad Nicholas Stoller is still around as writer.
April
Captain America : Winter Soldier, so excited! April will be Captain America month like how November was Thor Month here at S&FwM. I am hoping we start seeing footage of Emily VanCamp soon! Looking at this, I bet Alan Dale is an evil business man!
Walk of Shame, I do enjoy James Marsden. Also has Elizabeth Banks and Gillian Jacobs! Ethan Suplee for good measure as well.
May
Amazing Spider-Man 2, movie gets better and better the more I hear about it. Chris Cooper is going to own this film!
Legends of Oz : Dorothy’s Return, oooof! This must be trying to make up for Oz the Great and Wonderful. Though I already have seen the sequel of Wizard of Oz, and if this one doesn’t have the Pumpkin Prince, then I am passing. Plus, it has modern day Martin Short, and I can’t handle that guy.
Chef, just the talent alone perks my interest. Jon Favreau directing and playing. Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, Jonny Legs (John Leguizamo), RDJ (Robert Downey Jr.), Dustin Hoffman and Oliver Platt.
Neighbors, Nicholas Stoller stepping into directing now! Good for him. Jake Johnson, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Lisa Kudrow, Craig Roberts, this looks to be pretty funny.
Godzilla, I have heard good things but I haven’t seen the trailer yet.
Blended, ha Joel McHale, so I will be on the look out. Most likely it is a Adam Sandler & Drew Barrymore reunion, so I am weary of that.
X-Men Days of Future Past, oh yeah! I have some good plans for May here.
Maleficent, this is the first I’ve heard that Paul Dini co-wrote the screenplay.
A Million Ways to Die in the West, Seth MacFarlane’s follow up to Ted. Has NPH (Neil Patrick Harris) and Sarah Silverman.
June
The Fault of Our Stars, my wife will be interested due to Shailene Woodley being in it.
Jersey Boys, with Clint Eastwood directing and Christopher Walken as one of the cast? To whom do I give my money to?
Purge 2, didn’t know it made enough money for that but that’s interesting.
July
Deliver Us from Evil has Eric Bana and Olivia Munn with Joel McHale.
Tammy, directed and starring Melissa McCarthy. Could go one way or another. Harrison Ford and Dan Aykroyd, I like them.
Two Hercules films in one year? Oh boy
They are going by Wachowskis now? That makes sense.
August
Basic Math, Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz, I can do with one and can lose the other.
Looks like Dan Aykroyd is coming back too!
Guardians of the Galaxy, so excited, now that I know Karen Gillan is in it, I am all set for this.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, really hoping that this will be good and we don’t have to go several more years before another Turtle film.
The Giver, I love the novel so much! Hopefully they don’t screw this up! Good cast though, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holms. Not sure who will play Jonas, but the movie rests on that young man’s shoulders. Taylor Swift is in it too.
Sin City : A Dame to Kill For, been waiting for this one!
Jane Got a Gun, I feel like I just read something about this the other day that sounded good. Natalie Portman, will see this eventually.
The Loft, apparently a Thriller. James Marsden. Wentworth Miller, haven’t seen him since that episode of SVU he was in. Eric Stonestreet, I do enjoy the films he chooses, definitely doesn’t want to be type casted.
September
No Good Deed, probably won’t see this but I do enjoy Taraji P. Henson from Person of Interest.
Search Party, has Alison Brie!
This is Where I Leave You, Tina Fey and Jason Bateman! Sold!
October
Gone Girl, NPH in a Thriller! With Ben Affleck and Tyler Perry in a non Tyler Perry film, so brave David Fincher!
The Interview, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg writing and directing again. This one has Lizzy Caplan!
November
Big Hero 6, still can’t believe Disney went with this as their first animated feature from Marvel. Hopefully the lack of sales don’t turn them off from making a Pet Avengers film.
Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s next film! Excited from that alone. Huge cast!
Dumb and Dumber To, they finally decided to make this.
The Hunger Games : Mockingjay – Part 1, oof,, that is quite the title.
Horrible Bosses 2, still not sure how they can pull this off.
December
Exodus, Christan Bale as Moses!
The Hobbit : There and Back Again. Final part of the Hobbit Trilogy.
Annie, hopefully this doesn’t ruin Annie for an entire generation.
No Luke Wilson films unfortunately. This Luke Evans guy is blowing up though. No Ryan Reynolds either.
2009
They never did make another Die Hard in a Mall comedy did they? Shoot!
Already own Dark Knight, Fanboys, Watchmen, I Love You Man, Wolverien Origins, 500 Days of Summer, and Paper Heart
Race to Witch Mountain, wish it was a better film.
Would not mind owning Adventureland, Angels & Demons – had Warrior Pope! Still need to see Terminator Salvation. With the way the Hangover movies went, probably never own the first one. Hurt Locker will be nice to have on the shelf. Still need Public Enemies for my Bale collection, along with Terminator Salvation.
I still want to see I Love You, Beth Cooper.
One of these days, I will treat my wife to owning all of the Harry Potter films. That one gorgeous set is like 400 dollars!?!
Cove, such a good documentary, I still think about it. Should buy it.
Still need to watch Time Traveler’s Wife. Still need to own Donald Glover’s Mystery Team, such a fun movie. Still need to watch Extract. Still need to watch Whiteout too, I’m further behind on my comic book movies than I thought. I did enjoy the trade. I remember wanting to watch Love Happens with Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston. Still need to own Whip It.
Couples Retreat, should have been so much better with that cast.
Still need to watch The Box with James Marsden. I have almost bought it on several occasions. Still need to watch The Men Who Stare at Goats. Brothers was so good with Jake Gyllenhall and Tobey Maguire. I liked Natalie Portman in it as well. If the DVD has good features, I could be tempted to own it. I really liked Up in the Air, I need to start an Anna Kendrick collection.
2004
I wouldn’t mind owning Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, such a fun movie. Probably lose some street cred but I liked it. If asked who I would want to star as me in a movie, I go to choice has been Topher Grace. If he an Erica Christensen can do a movie together, that would be awesome. That’s who I would get to play my wife. They both have cute noses. I’m that guy, I guess.
I need to reown Perfect Score, such a fun movie as well. Sold it as my wife thought it was a dumb movie on premise alone.
I already own : EuroTrip, Passion of the Christ, Club Dredd (I was a big Broken Lizard fan at one time), Scooby Doo 2 (should not be the last live action film with that cast but I can see why it has been), Jersey Girl, Hellboy (still need to own the sequel with that 3 disc set), The Punisher (the Tom Jane one), Napoleon Dynamite, The Notebook, Spider-Man 2 (still the best one), Anchorman, Garden State (sequel should be out one of these days), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (still need to own the other two films), Without a Paddle, Cellular, Team America : World Police, Sideways, and Blade : Trinity.
I didn’t even know they made a sequel to Agent Cody Banks. Can’t believe (or can really believe) that Hilary Duff didn’t come back for it. Has Frankie Muniz worked since then?
Secret Window, hated.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I want to still see.
Remember Anne Hathaway’s Ella Enchanted era of films? Boy did she break and not break from that mold. She has had quite the career. Princess Diaries 2 came out that year too.
Been tempted to watch The Girl Next Door. Still need to own Shaun of the Dead. 13 Going on 30 is a cute film.
My favorite Harry Potter film, Prisoner of Azkaban came out. I’ve been told I would like Dodgeball, still haven’t seen it. The Terminal was a cute movie.
I, Robot, is like my thesis statement on why I hate robots so much. Should own this but then I will own a robot film.
Halle Bery’s Catwoman, ooof, that movie is turning ten! That’s the thing about movies, no matter how bad they are, they do get older. One day Warner Brothers will release an anniversary edition of it one day.
I’ve read something regarding Tom Cruise’s Collateral that made me want to watch this. Apparently, he is quite bad ass in it.
Little Black Book, I have forgotten that Brittany Murphy passed away.
Alien vs. Predator, would have been better without the humans in it. I would love to see that movie. Whatever happen to Sanaa Lathan? Loved her in Love & Basketball.
Still need to watch Layer Cake. Heard good things.
Suspect Zero, now that was a truly horrible film.
First Daughter with Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton, was this his last live action film until 2014? He was awesome as Ken in Toy Story 3.
Saw, I need to own this one and whichever ones has Donnie Walhberg. The ending to Saw is still one of my favorite endings.
Still not sure why I don’t own The Incredibles, so odd.
Flight of the Phoenix, I still think about this film, should get it one of these days. Spanglish, my wife really likes.
I remember really liking Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, not sure why others didn’t. In Good Company, I need to watch one of these days, fully. I feel like I’ve seen it on television from time to time but never committed to the whole film. Remember this phase of Scarlet Johansson’s career? Now she is a megastar.
It never fails, I will almost always own more films from the ten years ago category than the five years ago. Once we got married, my movie buying ways had to be cleared and most don’t hold make the cut. Now with Netflix, it is hard to even try to keep the ones we do own, but I like special features and will get rid of bare bone DVDs in a heartbeat. Still cant’ believe they make bare bone BluRays. Seems to have completely missed the point of a bigger storage space capacity. We do live in an era where you can get five dollar BluRays so they are not the Criterion medium like they started off as.
Everyone, thanks for reading! Not just this post but for the past months! 2014 should be pretty exciting and be safe out there tonight if you are traveling! Also, be safe if you are indoors! There are crazies out there!
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/12/24/2013-comics-should-be-good-advent-calendar-24/
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2013/12/25/the-24-greatest-christmas-stories-ever-told/
The top 24 stories have been revealed, and only two X-Men stories made the list. Which I find disappointing, but it us nice that there are so many Christmas stories to choose from.
24. Superman’s Christmas Adventure 1
23. Christmas Parade 7
22. Tangled Web 21
21. Teen Titans 1
# 20 Uncanny X-Men 230
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/12/05/the-greatest-christmas-stories-ever-told-20/
19. Hitman 22
18. Batman 239
17. Infinite Holiday Special 1
16. Fables 56
15. Hellboy Christmas Special 1
14. JSA 55
13. Spectacular Spider-Man 112
12. Four Color Comics 203
11. Incredible Hulk 378
10. Marvel Holiday Special 2005
9. Superman 64
8. Flash 73
7. Starman 27
6. JLA 60
5. Marvel Team-Up Volume One Issue 1
4. Four Color Comics 203
# 3 Uncanny X-Men 143
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/12/22/the-greatest-christmas-stories-ever-told-3/
2. Christmas With The Superheroes 2
1. Batman 219
A slew of DC comics, a couple of Duck comics and various others.
The Santron comic is pretty fun, look for that one.
Thanks again to Brian Cronin for taking the time to create the list.
Sweet Christmas, Everybody!!!
There are two reasons to hunt this issue down and own it.
The first is this :
Dave Cockrum drawn Excalibur! Look how cute Lockheed is! He does not want to be dressed as Rudolph.
The other is two page, three with an extra credits page and additional covers, Ghosts of Christmas Comics Past by Barry Dutter.
“X-MEN # 143 contained a Christmas classic by the ultimate X-MEN team – Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin! The story was called “Demon,” and any similarity to the movie ALIEN was purely intentional. The issue found then-X-Man Kitty Pryde alone in the X-Mansion on Christmas Eve, forced to fight a savage N’Garai demon all by her lonesome! This was Kitty’s first real test in solo action, and she passed with flying colors. (Since Kitty will eventually grow up to look like Sigourney Weaver, this came as no big suprised!)”
The issue also has stories starring Wolverine, New Warriors, Spider-Man, Punisher, Doc Samson, Thanos, Iron Man and Daredevil.
Writer Rob Williams
Penciler Laurence Campbell
Inker Kris Justice
Colorist Paul Mounts
Letterer VC’s Randy Gentile
Cover Dated February 2007
Wolverine is in New York City due to Kitty Pryde sending him to Lacy’s (the Macy’s of Marvel, I suppose) so that he can do some holiday shopping for her.
One of those cologne gals sprays Sex Panther on him, so Rob Williams must have watched Anchorman sometime before this.
Logan bumps into Miss Toulouse Lexington, like an adult Paris Hilton, her lead body guard, Pinter, and a slew of lesser bodyguards. Pinter calls Logan, Warthog Boy. Not the worst insult for the canucklehead.
Miss Lexington seems to be in her 30s, like mid thirties and her daddy paid for this little trip to Lacy’s. She is there to get her picture taken with Santa at Santa’s Grotto. Why she is going through with this is beyond me. She isn’t in her teens or a child, I imagine she could have not had gone to this. There is no press, so it isn’t like she is there to promote her father’s company.
Cave, the main elf, has a plan to take the department store hostage and escape with a bunch of money and jewels. Cave puts an explosive vest on Toulouse. Pinter runs off for safety. Halfway down the stairs, he realizes that he can’t be running away and he can’t get out on the main floor as the elves will be waiting for him.
He opens a door and sees Wolverine (in costume) making a comment to himself that he likes to fight people smaller as him, it doesn’t happen for him at all.
Cave gets on the intercom and tells the entire store his motivations, he wants to punch consumerism and his group’s name is Black Christmess. Which really only works on the page, if you say it aloud, it just sounds like Black Christmas. But whatever, it is on the page so you use the medium you have.
Wolverine and Pinter come across two elves creating a bomb. Wolverine can tell that it doesn’t have enough power to do any real damage so he figures that they are just diversions.
Cave sets off all the bombs around the store, and turns out, they were made to be powerful enough to destroy. Cave’s escape plan is pretty grand. To let everyone out of the store at once, and of course, all of the scared costumers do what he plan and run out in a huge panic and Cave and the elves are dressed in the traditional Santa red and white coat and pants. Wolverine, unlike the cover, never does don one of these.
The police are asking people to stop but of course, they don’t as they want to get away from the store.Cave and his crew all meet up at, what appears to be the Rockefeller Plaza. Wolverine and Pinter are able to track them there due to the Sex Panther cologne. He starts laying into the elves. Cave triggers Miss Lexington’s coat bomb.
We get a pretty awesome ten second sequence broken up over two pages and over ten panels, great use of the page and the layout. Each panel is a second and each second counts.
Wolverine takes the coat bomb and jumps on it, blocking the explosion and taking the blunt of the blast.. Issue ends with him muttering, Merry Christmas.
Pretty nice story, some humor in there and Wolverine uses his healing power to great effect.
Writer Chris Claremont
Pencils Salvador Larroca
Inker Danny Miki
Colorist Alalon’s Rob Ro
Letterer VC’s Chris Eliopoulos
Cover dated February 2005, look how fun that cover is! And the issue delivers!
There is a giant vehicle crash in Salem Center, right at the X-Men’s door.
X-23 is wearing this horrible costume that Fang use to wear, and Wolverine wore once. She tries to save this one guy, and he straight up punches her in the face. She isn’t savage but she doesn’t want, or deserve, to be punched. Before she can strike back, Wolverine pulls her back.
January 14, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra is coming! Not very good.
Storm shows up to douse any flames from the oil tanker. Nightcrawler is on site to save civilians. Rachel Grey is there to telekinesis the heavier vehicles, as does Polaris.
Elixir does some on site healing. Iceman creates some ice slides to evacuate others.
Later, Wolverine tells Kitty, Lockheed and Rachel that they are getting a fourth roommate, X-23! Once Logan leaves, Kitty goes to introduce herself. X-23 flips the heck out. Kitty allows her to phase through her and both of them get some sort of bio-feedback. The reason for the backlash is that Kitty gets sick whenever someone with adamantium passes through her, or her them. The three of them realize that she is only a kid and has been through the Weapon Plus program.
We cut to a diner in Salem Center. We see Elixir, Hellion and Surge at the diner. Hellion is being a jerk as usual. Nightcrawler teleports in, grabs Hellion, and teleports the two of them into a fan with Bishop, Dusk and a few others. They are heading to Lambda Hospice. Apparently, Beast, some time ago, created a charity called, Mutants Without Borders. Which I really like that idea, as that is what Xavier’s dream is all about.
Hellion calls Kurt, elf, and Kurt is quick to tell him that only his friends can call him by nicknames. The X-Men are volunteering at the hospice. Dani Moonstar is there, Warren and Husk show up. This is during that time when Warren is dating her, a gal who is half his age, and maybe even a fourth of his age.
We cut to The Grind Stone, which is a cafe in Salem Center. Kitty and Rachel take Laura there to try to get her to open up. I guess Surge works there, which is odd to see any of these New X-Men having to work, I wonder what the story is / was there?
The ladies get a table, commenting on how much shopping they have done. I imagine Laura just stood around and was super confused by everything. Gambit and Iceman show up and sit with them. This might be the first time Kitty and Bobby are seen together, I doubt it, but the times are few.
Also, at this time, Gambit is blind. I am not sure how that happen but he wears this sunglasses that Sage is always wearing. Bobby has a pair and he gives Rachel and Kitty a pair. Also, he makes this grand statement about how the X-Men are great at saving the world, but off duty, they are a bunch of stiffs. And it is so true! It is probably the secret reason why we don’t get more issues like this, as off duty, what do the X-Men do?
Rachel and Kitty give Laura a pair of the Sage-glasses.
We get to the super fun part of the issue.
Back at the mansion, an alarm goes off. The entire courtyard has been frozen. Emma comes out, and gets a giant snowball to the face.
For the video game fans out there, the very first Kill Zone is being promoted.
Emma is shown, on the next page, on her butt and we see that Gambit, Iceman and Laura have made a snow fort.
Cyclops optic blasts a snowball out of Bobby’s hands. Bobby shouts, “no powers” and the battle is on! I do enjoy seeing Scott and Bobby in the same panel, the Original Five, as adults, seem to rarely ever be together.
Someone points to the sky, something is coming down. Something in the red and white suit and a blue face.
It is Santa-Beast! With his two elves, Kitty and Rachel with Lockheed along!
Santa-Beast has presents, the first two are for Scott and Emma. They both get clown noses. This makes Scott laugh so hard. Emma lets out a polite laugh. I really like how everyone is still in character. Also, that Claremont was given the entire cast of mutants to tell this story.
Lila Cheney’s band starts playing as Santa-Beast hands out presents.
We discover that Storm is making sure that there is snow on the ground but it is barely jacket weather.
Who is the bartender at this party? None other than Lockheed. He knows who is legal and he breathes fire. I wonder if Kieron Gillen read this issue for his SWORD mini? I must have missed this the first time around. So fun.
Magma is on cooking duty. We overhear Elixir speaking to somebody on his phone, the plan is all set. Hellion makes a stupid joke / comment about old wings and new wings and Warren challenges him. Hellion makes a reference to Icarus having better moves. Icarus is Husk’s younger brother. Speaking of which, her older brother, Cannonball, flies out to save a recently dropped Hellion.
We find Bobby with some mistletoe and he is trying to coax Laura out of a tree. Polaris shows up, sees the mistletoe, and kisses him on the cheek and flies off.
We transition to Gambit looking for Rogue, stumbling around in the woods. He finds a lady and kisses her. Turns out, he kissed Sage! He jolts away from her and turns out, he can see again! So, worth it?
Scott and Emma are discussing the Gambit turn of events and Scott is about to kiss her when Rachel shows up to give Emma a costume. Emma’s gift? A wear of silk white pants, with the word, X-Men, on the rear. Emma counters with introducing her to her grandparents, John and Elaine Grey. Which, one would think she met them once, but the one time I am thinking of, I believe she sneaked into the house and grabbed the Jean essence that the Phoenix left behind before the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga. Also, it does not end well, much later for the Greys but we will get to that one of these days.
The folks the X-Men saved earlier have shown up to thank the X-Men in person. Laura comes out to apologize to one of the guys she scared earlier. She even offers to have them join the celebration. The humans join the celebration and everyoen has a good time.
We see Xavier and Magneto, on loan from Claremont’s Excalibur title.
We get an awesome splash page with as many mutants as Larroca can squeeze in.
Next issue, new year, new writer, new stories! As we begin, the Peter Milligan era!
Writer Chris Claremont
Pencils Thomas Derenick
Inks Rick Ketcham & Norm Rapmund
Colors Liquid!
Letters RS & Comicraft’s Saida T!
Cover dated February 2001, also this is a 100 Page Monster, so there are three reprints in the back of this issue.
We join several X-Men as they are having a snowball fight with some local children in Salem Center.
Neal Shaara, the latest mutant to take the codename, Thunderbird. With Neal, is Nightcrawler and Iceman. Opposing them is Colossus, Archangel and Psylocke.
Neal jumps at Warren and Betsy blocks him. They roll in the snow and have quite the moment that makes Warren jealous. Betsy states she is a grown woman, and if she wants to flirt, she going to get her flirt on.
Rogue and Gambit show up and this at the time when Rogue has access to every power she has ever absorbed, she just can’t control which power will kick in, or the power itself. Except, if she wants to pop some claws, then that works whenever she wants.
This is also pre-X-Treme X-Men, in fact, this entire issue feels like it should end with a giant advertisement and a “follow the story here” tag. Storm wants to find Destiny’s Diaries and keep those books and the knowledge of them away from Xavier. As far as I know, that team only ever found three of the fabled 13.
Then we get this awkward cut to the circus where we see Kurt and Cercise hanging out as Kurt does his circus act. I had forgotten that Cercise shows up here and it is always nice to see her again. I must have flipped between the last page with Storm and this current page with Kurt a couple times as there is no transition.
We see Colossus avoiding a giant anvil and he sees a young blonde girl and she reminds him of Illyana. Nice that he is constantly remembering her.
We see that Warren is a big baby and breaks up with Betsy. Just let her flirt, he should know that she is loyal and it is all in good fun. But Warren is blue so there’s that.
We cut to Bishop helping out the police, but he calls one of them a fireman, but he is in his blue shirt and black tie.
Next is Wolverine and Viper, who is his wife at the moment. They are paying their respects to Mariko. Viper is there to deliver a box from Kitty, it is one of Logan’s bone claws that she apparently had. It is her way of telling Logan that she is save. We haven’t seen her in a few issues, last we saw, she was with one of the NEO, which that story also never got picked up either.
We see Rogue and Gambit at a Nativity scene. Rogue gets a headache and starts shooting Cyclops’ optic blast. She claims she can’t turn it off, but really, she should be able too. Scott can’t control it due to a head injury he suffered as a boy. She doesn’t have that problem, so she should be able to control the power. I suppose one could say that in her panic, she overreacts, but I also suspect that it was an oversight.
At The Xavier Institute, presents are exchange. In Storm’s attic, we essentially see the formation of X-Treme X-Men. Gambit is not joining as Rogue doesn’t want him near her as she is worried of hurting him. Logan isn’t joining as he needs to be the point of contact for Storm at the mansion. To replace these two, Sage shows up. Gambit and Wolverine will both eventually join X-Treme X-Men.
Issue ends with Storm being given a modified version of one of her old outfits by Xavier.
On the letters page, we get told to check out Uncanny X-Men 390 first, and come back for X-Men 110 for the aftermath. Two awesome issues.
Issues that are reprinted are :
Uncanny X-Men 98
Uncanny X-Men 143
Uncanny X-Men 341
143 is the best of the three, heck, the four!
Written by Steve Seagle
Pencils Chris Bachalo
Inkers Thibert, Townsend and Sowd
Colors Liquid! & Monica Kubina
Letterers RS, JG and Comicraft/AD
Covered dated March 1999, also has one of those gatefold out covers with the
Whatever happened to Liquid!? Before Laura Martin, they were the only Colorist I knew.
When I think of X-Men and Christmas, this is the comic I think about. It is all from Colossus’ perspective, and it is nice to see how he interacts with various members of the team.
Thanks to this great website, you can follow along!
http://amocat.net/kiotr/KIOTR-Gallery/Uncanny-X-Men-365-Ghost-of-X-mas-Past!
Colossus wakes, to hearing a voice of a lady, that has him running around the attic. Storm believes he just has too much coffee but Colossus is haunted by the voice, and how it keeps asking him to remember. He hears a smash from outside, Colossus runs outside and runs into Wolverine.
Wolverine invites him to his cabin that Logan moved into so that Colossus can have his old room. At the cabin, Logan has been having a get together, Gambit and Puck are the other guests. Once Colossus mentions the ghost, Gambit is quick to ask questions. Gambit is asking questions regarding the ghost that his haunting him, the same spirit we will follow, if we choose, in Gambit’s original ongoing, which I only own a few issues of, issues one, five and the 2000 annual.
Gambit leaves the cabin, and Colossus is quick to follow. Colossus goes back to his room and sees that his painting of the spirit now has some words on it. The mystery grows!
He starts walking around and thinking about the ghost and how walks through walls just like . . . he bumps into Kitty Pryde. She is downstairs waiting for Kurt. She also accuses him of drinking too much coffee and going to bed early – so of course, he is awake in the middle of the night.
Kurt teleports back with a tree that was thrown away. Kitty and Kurt want some ribbon and Rogue has some in her room, but she is sleeping at the moment. Kurt thinks he can teleport in and out quickly, but Kitty is quick to mention the stench. Why Kitty doesn’t just phase through the wall is beyond me but they can wait I suppose.
Colossus hears a voice that states he remembers and Colossus opens the door shouting about why he must be tormented. Turns out, he has entered Professor Xavier’s room. Xavier mentions, every year on Christmas Eve, that he remembers his fallen students. We get a great glimpse at the sorrow Xavier carries with him, he has sent so many to their death.
Colossus reenters his room and sees a second drawing of his which now has words on it.
Colossus finally recognizes the voice, it is his dead sister, Illyana. He steps through a teleportation ring, and he is face to face with Illyana’s spirit.
She needs him to remember something, she explains how the powers at be have rules and she can only tell him one word, remember. He finally remembers what is in the attic. His boxes from his Excalibur days, that he put in the attic and never opened, as he wanted a fresh start. He finds his picture of Illyana and goes to sleep holding it. Illyana gets this fun line, “You know what. It’s magic, Peter … … or should I say, Magik.” Which she was never that fun or funny but I like how now she is on the other side, she can lighten up.
While he is sleeping, we see someone wearing a hat swipe his current picture.
Issue ends with the X-Men around the tree, Colossus presents to everyone are his paintings.
Turns out Marrow has been doing the writing on his art, as a thanks for him painting her back in Uncanny 361.
Next issue begins the Magneto War! Which I own all five issues, one of these days we will cover that here.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 