Can anyone be truly good?

Possibly my favorite movie made in the past 20 years, Millions, is Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) at his surreal, super-saturated best. Completely family friendly and engrossing.

With Christmas just a few days away, Francesca reminds you:

You can control only yourself, no one else.  Do your part and let the rest go.

Keep your eyes on the prize. In this case, the prize is love, peace and joy among you and anyone you encounter on the holiday. Nothing is as important as these things, not even the turkey burning or your inability to find a Zhu Zhu hamster or whether you finish polishing the silver before your mother comes. (Do not be this person’s brother.)

Do what you need to be fully “present.” A nap or a hot bath might do more to make Christmas meaningful than last-minute tinsel. And if you are the guest in someone’s home, offer to vacuum or chop vegetables or load the dishwasher.

Reach out. If you are spending Christmas alone and don’t want to be, make some calls or emails now, and make arrangements with others (such as your internet friends?) to get together at your house or at a restaurant. Just popping some popcorn, and a movie into the DVD player, will be nice if you have company.

Eat as much of whatever you want this Christmas. You are a grownup person, and a beautiful one at that.

Give yourself and others lots of hugs!

xoxo!

Full disclosure: someday I will marry Robert Earl Keen.

I’m not saying I’ll marry him long, but you know, just enough for us both to get some good material out of it before I leave him for his best friend, Lyle Lovett.

When I first moved to Austin ten years ago last November, everything was new and wonderful and it was SEVENTY-TWO DEGREES ON CHRISTMAS DAY.

Back then, I used to get lost on purpose, just to learn the town. Of course, Austin was a lot smaller and cooler back in those days so you could drive for miles without seeing anything other than low rambling mesquite and the occasional palm or prickly pear, wrapped up in white lights.

I was toodling around town in my trusty old chartreuse Volvo station wagon marvelling how I’d never seen so much NOTHING in my life and feeling a little maudlin for Virginia which was snowy and beautiful and didn’t have ANY cactuseseses, light-wrapped or not.

Then this song came on:

and I just burst into tears, which is ridiculous because it’s a funny, funny song. I guess it reminded me of why I moved to Austin. It was the antithesis of the perfectly repressed East Coast Christmases of my youth.

Now the mesquite has been replaced by condos with silly names and my volvo station wagon is one of those sporty numbers. I’ve been to parties with Robert Earl Keen and have enough friends in common that it’s not entirely inconceivable that he might know my name, but I’ll never forget Christmas of 1999 when the world was new –or at least not covered in condos and dog bakeries. Hallelujah, everybody say cheese.

Click to buy the song. You know you want to.

This week we’ll be doing a series of mini-featurettes dedicated to making your season merry and bright and what’s more merry and bright than a bright red cocktail? Nothin’!
These have been my bev of choice ever since Billy at The Good Knight (winner of the best cocktails in Austin) mixed one up when I said “I don’t know, just make me something I’ll like.”

This is a close approximation, and every bit as good.

Ruby Manhattan:

2 oz. Maker’s Mark bourbon
1 1/2 oz. decent ruby port
dash bitters (I use Fee’s Orange, but plain old Angostura should be fine)
twist of lemon or orange peel

Stir together the booze and the bitters in a cocktail shaker, strain into a rocks glass –either up or on the rocks, twist the peel over the glass and drop in. Maraschino cherries kill this drink, so save ‘em for the sundaes.

Incidentally, you don’t have to use the very best port for this recipe. I use Charbay Ruby Port because that’s what I have, but unless you’re a real enthusiast, there’s no need to drop $50 on a bottle. Don’t go for plonk, but Dow’s or anything in the $10 range should be just fine.

Last week, my best pal Kirk mentioned casually on his Facebook how he was not especially fond of It’s a Wonderful Life.  I mentioned –equally casually– that my favorite Capra movie was and forever shall be It Happened One Night. Well you would’ve thought we said we hated America, apple pie and happiness!

And it’s not like there’s anything WRONG with It’s a Wonderful Life other than it’s boring, long and not-at-all-interesting, but it’s just not a very good movie.  No, for my money the best Christmas movie from that era has got to be The Bishop’s Wife, starring Cary Grant as Dudley, David Niven as the Bishop and Loretta Young as his titular wife.

(Bishops are ALWAYS making that face. ALWAYS.)

If you haven’t seen it, do so immediately. If it’s been a while, watch it again. I find that in these times of tightened belts the film resonates even more than before.  Click here to buy or rent.

. . . the team at Manolo for the Big Girl would like to wish you a happy (rest of the) holiday!

Let’s talk about muffs.

(everyone recovered from their spit takes? Good. Let’s move on.)

For some, the holidays begin at the lighting of the first advent candle, for others it’s when when Creepy Uncle Kyle hits the eggnog juuust a bit too hard and starts loitering under the mistletoe even though he’s directly related to everyone in the room. For me, it’s the annual unveiling of my vintage beaver muff.

People just don’t wear muffs anymore, and I think it’s a shame. They’re so damn handy, especially when you live somewhere where it’s not really quite cold enough to need a full proper coat, but you do need something more than gloves. I bought mine a few years ago at a now-defunct antique furrier stall at Austin Antique Mall (you can get yours on eBay or at Ruby Lane, but fair warning: be ye careful with your search terms) and people just LOVE it, in fact, it’s getting worn out from so much petting that I’ll probably have to get a new one soon, so I can rotate.

From a fashion standpoint, muffs tend to require a certain presence, which makes it one of those great pieces that are actually more successful on a big girl. Think Shelley Winters, not Shelley Duvall.

I’d suggest if you’re procuring a muff for the first time to go with a color other than white, as white tends to be both a bit infantilizing –think of the millions of little girls with their precious little white rabbit muffs– and costumey (we don’t mind referencing Dickens and Victorian Christmas carolers, but we don’t want to actually look like one) so stick with brown or black instead.

Today Miss Plumcake wants to know:

What piece of clothing/accessory signals the beginning of the holidays in your heart? It can be a current favorite –embarrassing turkey sweater anyone?– or something from your youth. I just want to know what gets your bells a-jinglin’.