Five Seasonal Things Make a Post
Dec. 31st, 2013 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther1. All the immediate family were in town for Christmas, which was nice. We made an unhurried afternoon of it, and all enjoyed ourselves. I gave some good presents, judging by their recipients' reactions, and I received some really nice presents, too.
2. My sister brought along a Doctor Who special edition Monopoly set which someone had given her and she hadn't had a chance to play with anyone. It wasn't really a success, because once the novelty of the theme wore off it was basically still the same old grindingly slow game Monopoly has always been, and somewhere around the point where all the chance cards had been played at least once, and all the properties had been bought without anybody getting a complete set of anything, we just gave up. The most fun we had in the whole game was when my sister and I found ourselves getting into a bitter rivalry over possession of one particular $50 note, which kept going back and forward between us as rent money, accompanied by increasingly theatrical cries of "You see! It always finds its way home!"
3. Also, while my brother was in town, the two of us played a few more levels of Lego Star Wars, which seems to have become our traditional "We don't often see each other, and when we do, we don't know what to do next" activity. We're up to Return of the Jedi now, and still occasionally accidentally shoot each other or drag each other off ledges. (All part of the fun.)
4. Another thing we all did together as a family was go to the cinema and see The Desolation of Smaug, my opinion of which in one respect may be judged by the fact that I've taken to referring to it as just "The Desolation of Smaug" without according it the surtitle. I did like the way they made an effort to ground and round out the character of Bard the bowman, but most of the other additions struck me as unnecessary and poorly-suited to the material they were allegedly adapting. I think it says something about their priorities that the film begins with a completely invented scene designed to recap the premise of the plot, and then leaves out the plot recap scene that actually occurs near that point in the novel.
5. My new year's resolution for this year is, in contrast to the usual, to get off the diet. I'll still be watching what I eat, but in a more general and flexible sort of way instead of trying to tie myself down to specific numbers (which I was never all that good at, anyway).
2. My sister brought along a Doctor Who special edition Monopoly set which someone had given her and she hadn't had a chance to play with anyone. It wasn't really a success, because once the novelty of the theme wore off it was basically still the same old grindingly slow game Monopoly has always been, and somewhere around the point where all the chance cards had been played at least once, and all the properties had been bought without anybody getting a complete set of anything, we just gave up. The most fun we had in the whole game was when my sister and I found ourselves getting into a bitter rivalry over possession of one particular $50 note, which kept going back and forward between us as rent money, accompanied by increasingly theatrical cries of "You see! It always finds its way home!"
3. Also, while my brother was in town, the two of us played a few more levels of Lego Star Wars, which seems to have become our traditional "We don't often see each other, and when we do, we don't know what to do next" activity. We're up to Return of the Jedi now, and still occasionally accidentally shoot each other or drag each other off ledges. (All part of the fun.)
4. Another thing we all did together as a family was go to the cinema and see The Desolation of Smaug, my opinion of which in one respect may be judged by the fact that I've taken to referring to it as just "The Desolation of Smaug" without according it the surtitle. I did like the way they made an effort to ground and round out the character of Bard the bowman, but most of the other additions struck me as unnecessary and poorly-suited to the material they were allegedly adapting. I think it says something about their priorities that the film begins with a completely invented scene designed to recap the premise of the plot, and then leaves out the plot recap scene that actually occurs near that point in the novel.
5. My new year's resolution for this year is, in contrast to the usual, to get off the diet. I'll still be watching what I eat, but in a more general and flexible sort of way instead of trying to tie myself down to specific numbers (which I was never all that good at, anyway).
