Every time the phone rings . . .

I can already tell I'm not going to get much work done this week, so I suppose I should just give in to the Spirit of Christmas and not worry about it until next Monday. On the bright side, I've got plenty of fresh material to work with this week, so this should be one of the better weeks of blogging during the Best Year Ever.

I love Christmas movies. My all time favorites are It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story and any film based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. There have been a bunch of movies based on A Christmas Carol--there's a new one out this year with Jim Carrey--but my three favorites are the musical with Albert Finney, the 1984 version with George C. Scott as Scrooge and the 1951 version with Alastair Sim.

It's a Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie of them all, and it's probably my favorite film of all time. I remember the first time I ever saw it, I was home from college and happened to catch it airing on the local public television station. I was a cynical punk in those days and I surprised myself when I got all weepy at the ending. I still do.

At one point in the movie, little Zuzu Bailey says to her dad George Bailey "Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings."

Here's our modified version of Zuzu's quote in our house this Christmas. "Look, Teri. Every time our phone rings, five more people are coming to dinner."

If you're connected to us in some way by blood, marriage or friendship, you're probably going to end up at our house for dinner on Christmas Day. And we couldn't be happier.

It all started innocently enough. My mother, brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, who will be staying with us over the Christmas holiday, decided that our place was the ideal meeting spot for Christmas this year.

Then Teri's father, stepmother and brother were quickly added to the Christmas dinner guest list. After that Teri's stepsister, husband and three younguns joined in. After we heard our friend Kathy might be alone for Christmas because her husband Beau was thinking of hunting that day, we invited her over too. When Beau found out what was on the menu he cancelled the hunting trip and then another of Kathy's friends (who I think I might have met before) somehow got on the list. The latest addition is Teri's other stepsister, husband and some or all of their three children.

I have no idea how many people we'll ultimately have at our tiny cottage on Christmas Day, but we're happy to cram in everyone somehow and make sure no one goes away hungry. I've lost track of how many trips we've made to the grocery to lay in supplies. Teri's out now making what may or may not be our final grocery run depending on how many more times the phone rings between now and Friday.

It's going to be a huge hassle and there's going to be a whale of a mess to clean up afterwards, but it's also going to be the best day of the year. Teri and I are both very excited. Dinner's at three.