My mother is brining and baking things while I complain that “Love, Actually” isn’t on Netflix.
Hope everyone is having a pleasant day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when all of this holiday nonsense will be over.
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 54 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
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MattF
And not just on Christmas, either. My mother was a mediocre cook, so we ate out a lot– consequently, my childhood food-memories are mostly of Chinese food.
Litlebritdifrnt
Flossie in a Santa Suit!
http://crittersbybritty.com/
Ruckus
That’s a great sign.
I imagine a great meal could be had along with much merriment and mirth in a place like that.
RSA
It’s nice to finally be able to make sense of God’s plan for his chosen people.
22over7
I’m just about to put the standing rib roast in the oven, but now I’m craving kung pao…
Villago Delenda Est
Deck the Harrs with boughs of Horry. Fa rah rah rah rah, rah rah rah rah!
Pinkamena Panic
Eating Chinese right now.
I think that sign might be fake.
c u n d gulag
Speak for yourself.
As an Agnostic, and though I’m not a practicing Christian, my family celebrates our Russian Orthodox Christms on January 7th.
When I was a kid, it was great getting a day off from school right after the holiday break. And getting a small gift (the main gift-giving had been Americanized to December 25th).
But now, all I get is the usual annual BS about why I don’t want to go to church?
Uhm… Hello! I don’t believe, maybe THAT might be a factor – ya think?
I went for years to keep the family peace, but for a few years now, I just don’t feel like going. What’s the point of going if you don’t believe?
To keep the remaining living members of my family happy?
Why does my NOT wanting to go to church make everyone else unhappy?
I’ll take my Mom, and pick her later, like I do when she wants to go on Sundays. Or wait in the car. But oh no, that’s not good enough! No, I have to go in!
I don’t push non-belief. i don’t even talk about it, until they start God-bothering me. Please be kind enough not to push your beliefs on me.
I’m 55, and an Agnostic/Atheist my whole adult life. And I swear, I still get treated like I’m a wayward teenager, just going through a phase!
I’ll be glad to come to your house on Christmas. Or, you can come to mine. But please don’t ask me to go to church!
OY! ! ! And this from a family that’s NOT overly religious, believe it or not.
nipsip
happy holidays!
Alison
@Villago Delenda Est: Um. No.
hamletta
I’m watching Love Actually on DVD right now. Neener.
Had my traditional lox & bagels this morning. Will probably have more later. Yum! Got the bagels from a new place, Bagelface Bakery. It can no longer be said you can’t find a decent bagel in Nashville. Had a friend who got tired of hearing about it, and threatened to move to NYC so she could bitch about the dearth of decent cornbread.
Got through two services last night and spent half the late service begging the Lord to keep me from puking on the chancel. Slept the sleep of the dead.
Still have more Christmas movies to watch — Elf; A Christmas Story; Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang — so no need to get vertical till tomorrow.
ET
Well after my aborted trip to NOLA I got stuck in DC. Had cheese grits for breakfast and took a walk to see the Capitol Christmas tree and walk around the Botanic Gardens. Other than the CVS and buses, the only things opened were the 2 Chinese restaurants.
Haydnseek
@Villago Delenda Est: I saw what you did there…..watched it last night, as I do every year. I don’t do Christmas, but that movie does Christmas for me………..
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
My husband and brother are trying to figure out the technology to get the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music to play since my dad has it in iTunes but can’t remember where he put the original disk. In other words, a typical family Christmas.
God bless us, every one!
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I’m sitting up at home fighting off the last of some kind of respiratory infection. No energy to go out to the family dinner so I’ll sack out early instead.
Trying to sort out 2 weeks worth of work expenses in 2 countries, 2 currencies and 5 different states.
But I’m home, I’m warm and I’m safe.
I wonder if Jade Garden delivers…
Mike E
Damn…forgot my copy of Gremlins back at the crib. Guess Miss E and I will have to watch Life of Brian instead, she needs to graduate from Holy Grail anyways!
Heywood J.
Love that sign. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas, and not having to work for some slave-driving corporate mutt.
And remember to steal this book. You’re welcome, America.
rikyrah
Merry Christmas, Everyone :)
ant
What people eat in “Chinese restaurants” isn’t really Chinese food, in my view.
My favorite item is the crab meat rangoon. lol, Chinese people can not digest dairy products…… that shit is american food.
Chinese food is fish. fish, and peasant/poor people food.
All the funky hog parts that southern ‘soul food’ likes to incorporate is closer to what Chinese food is than egg rolls.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@ant:
I spent 6 days in Mexico last week, then ran aground in central Iowa. Tried an ‘authentic’ Mexican restaurant by the hotel. I really love the food in Mexico. I so did not love this place’s overcooked, over-seasoned version of it.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@ant:
Welcome to the immigrant experience. Pizza was invented here as a bar food and exported back to Italy. They never eat corned beef and cabbage in Ireland — Irish immigrants used corned beef because they couldn’t get the Irish bacon they used back home. Etc.
Juju
We are having rosemary and thyme crusted standing rib roast, oven roasted greenbeans, garlic and onions with balsamic vinegar sauce and wild mushroom bread pudding. The baked goods are things I have been working on the last few weeks and they include: linzer torte, toffee bars, chocolate raspberry bars, lemon custard shortbread bars, almond sticks, pralines and chocolate truffles. Sad thing is, it’s only for four people.
danah gaz
“Love, Actually” – oooh I love that movie =)
(flame away)
Happy Pagan Holiday. =)
Shadows mom
Watching Santa Clause series when not in kitchen. Why isn’t santa clause series available to stream on netflix grumble
Ham nearly done going to glaze with lingonberries. Trying these cinnamon/chile roasted potatoes . Brussels sprouts for him, asparagus for me, plus a nice salad.
Happy Holidays to all!
eemom
Merry Christmas y’all.
The sign recalls the pitch perfect answer Justice Kagan gave in her confirmation hearing when Lindsey Asshole Graham asked her if she remembered where she was last Christmas Day (i.e., the Christmas of the underwear bomber).
“Well, Senator, like all Jews, I was at a Chinese restaurant.”
Awe.some.
karen marie
Motherf&cker! Every time I try to post a link to 1channel which has Love Actually streaming for free, my comment disappears into the ozone, or something. Google 1channel, sign up (it’s free and no credit card # required) then search for the movie.
Also watched The Hobbit on there last night but I slept through most of it.
Charlie Dodgson
And then there are the Kosher Chinese restaurants (like Taam China in Brookline, MA) that allow those Jews so inclined to observe all their traditions simultaneously…
ABL
@hamletta: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is excellent.
@karen marie: you are my favorite person today.
Villago Delenda Est
@Haydnseek:
That’s one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie, just because it shows all these people having a good time in the spirit of the holiday, less the item that could put your eye out.
piratedan
am I a bad person if I say that my favorite Holiday film is Die Hard?
I may do some Notting Hill later tonight tho…..
ruemara
hrm. Watching BBC sci-fi, K-9 and Doctor Who marathons on competing channels. Have the x over. Showed him the Christmas card I did, he barely grunted. Not even an, “oh, you finished”. Went back to watching his tai chi videos. As I have said before, you’re an X for a reason. Wish I was not quite so good a person to leave him alone, friendless and with leftovers for Yule. Gonna go hang out on Azeroth.
Shadows mom
@ruemara: are you feeling better? No more bloody coughing?
ruemara
Thank the goddess, no. I think I had another nasal passage blood vessel fracture, but I’ve been ever so good about hypertension meds that it got to clot and seal. My Christmas gift was not another trip to the ER and no more nose tampons. Yes, they are called nose tampons.
nellcote
Y’all should be watching the best christmas movie ever: A LION IN WINTER.
King Peter O’Toole and Queen Katherine Hepburn with their sullen children. Just Awesome!
Rafer Janders
How is Love, Actually not on Netflix???
This is why I still own individual DVDs….
Roger Moore
@ant:
Restaurant food is rarely the same as home food in any culture. Do you think French people eat French restaurant food at home? A major point of restaurants is to make special food that people aren’t going to cook for themselves. There’s a lot of Americanized Chinese food, but there’s still plenty of reasonably authentic stuff, too, especially in places with large Chinese immigrant populations.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
OK. I will no longer complain about the expense report for the 3-day conference. Good luck with that!
gbear
I take it that you don’t do ANY shopping the day after Christmas?
Baud
This morning I said all I wanted for Christmas was a working BJ website.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.
Thanks, John, or whoever is really responsible.
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@piratedan: no. you’re one of the best people.
Anne Laurie
@Rafer Janders:
Oh, you can get it on disc from Netflix — that’s how me & the Spousal Unit were able to watch it last night!
Netflix streaming depends on which studios they’ve been able to cut deals with, so I’m always finding new stuff Instantly-available… and others Gone with the Whim. Keeps me checking the site, anyways…
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@gbear: noooooo.
lamh35
I’m currently at work right now and I’d just like to say that someone should tell certin “MeDical professional” that “bedside manor” should also extend to their fellow medical professionals and co-workers even if we are lowly lab workers…bastard. Ugh, I’ve still got 3 1/2 hours left in my day and I’m pissed enough to just go my ass home. Ugh…woo-sah, woo-sah, woo-sah!
Anyway, Happy Christmas, Kwanzaa, Festivus, whatever.
Helen Bedd
New from the Tablet
“Why Jews eat Chinese on December 25, and how a hip Brooklyn deli is modernizing that tradition…..”
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/53569/jewish-christmas
Helen Bedd
To various commentors….
Mary Elizabeth Williams hates “Love, Actually” and call it: “The worst Christmas movie ever”
[Never seen it, so I have no dog in this fight.]
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/love_actually_the_worst_christmas_movie_ever/
karen marie
@Helen Bedd: She’s a bitch. No other possible answer.
Schlemizel
Just got back from our first ever Chinese Christmas dinner. It was very good, in the spirit of the season we way over ordered and over ate. Got enough left overs that we won’t have to cook for a couple more days. Also over-tipped, the place was a mad house & the staff looked like they had everything they could do to try and keep up.
Hungry Joe
@nellcote: “The Lion in Winter,” yes: Best Xmas movie ever.
“What family doesn’t have its ups and downs?”
karen
That sign reminds me of the “Christmas time for the Jews” film short on Saturday Night Live.
http://vimeo.com/30345151
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Roger Moore: shush you, quit harshing ant’s superiority buzz.
burnspbesq
@danah gaz:
This may be the only thing you and I agree on. Although I continue to be unable to comprehend the concept of cheating on Emma Thompson.
Enjoy it, and enjoy the rest of your Christmas.
workworkwork
@burnspbesq: My wife and I watch that film every year. (I, too, can’t imagine cheating on Emma Thompson.)
My eyes start misting up in the first five minutes. I’m just an old softie….
On Christmas Eve we went to a stage production of ‘White Christmas’. We’re both fans of the movie and this show was just as, if not more, wonderful. Many happy, sentimental tears….
Jay C
We did the usual family-get-together “Jewish Christmas” thing again this year: a fine time was had by all: but oddly, this year, half the family decamped before we got around to the Chinese food part of the festivities. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that The Glenlivet 18-Year-Old was the prime star of drinks-time before dinner – I swear, there’s only about (at most) two fingers left in the bottle: whoever came up with the “Jews don’t drink” canard obviously never met my in-laws – but (as usual) everyone left happy. And hopefully Aunt Yetta, 96 (yes, people, such figures of folklore DO still exist!) will make it to next Jewish Christmas with appetite undiminished. And since Hurricane Irene (2011) and Superstorm Sandy (2012) haven’t done for her (though having to be evacuated both times), the odds are pretty good.
Hope everyone’s day was reasonably as happy…
mclaren
“Love, Actually” is most certainly available on Netflix.
Maybe you mean it isn’t available on the pointless bandwidth-wasting Netflix instant. But you can get the DVD shipped right to your door, assuming you have the brains to prefer the actual physical disc to the useless worthless evanescent low-quality streaming video.