Today's cuppa: Mystic Monk decaf chocolate mint coffee
(Original photos are from my recent visit to the Nixon Library. Click here to see more.)
It's Sunday, Dec. 21, the occasion of the Winter Solstice -- the shortest day and longest night of the year -- and, in 2008, the beginning of Hanukkah after sundown. Christmas is still a few days off, and the shopping frenzy continues in high gear.
In this week's Open Letter column, I offer a few suggestions for frazzled grownups in need of a holiday from the holiday (no endorsement of particular versions of DVDs is intended or should be inferred -- buy or rent whatever you want. Also, apologies in advance to "Twas the Night Before Christmas" author Clement Moore):
'Tis Christmas and Hanukkah week, and all through the land, mommies and daddies (and aunties and unkies) really need a hand. The children are tucked all snug in their beds, as visions of XBox and gelt dance in their heads. Down on the couch, weariness reigns, born 
of building and wrapping and a variety of pains.
Come the dawn, peace and contentment will flee, as voices low and high proclaim, "Which one's for me?"
But tonight, just tonight, the TV's all ours. We have the remote; we have the power. The moon shines on the breast of the new-fallen snow, the popcorn's all popped, and the lights are down low.
So, let's see what's on to help the grownups go ho, ho, ho...
"Eight Crazy Nights" (2002): Don't be fooled by the animation, this holiday musical tosses in enough scatological humor and comments about adult subjects to warrant sending the tender tots off to slumberland before popping it into the DVD player.
Producer, co-writer (with Brooks Arthur, Allen Covert and Brad Isaacs) and lead voice Adam Sandler stars as small-town drunken misanthrope Davey Stone, who avoids jail time when a volunteer ref from Davey's old youth-basketball league offers him a chance to fulfill community service by being a referee in training.
Davey starts off on the wrong foot, but a chance meeting with an old flame (voice of Sandler's wife, Jackie Titone) and the holiday magic in a long-lost Hanukkah card just may get him back on track.
"Die Hard" (1988): Not usually thought of as a Christmas movie, this action classic takes place on Christmas Eve, as NYPD Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) plans to meet his estranged wife (Bonnie
Bedelia) at her L.A. office holiday party, only to wind up in the middle of a theft designed to look like terrorism.
In between the gunplay, fistfights and explosions, the movie also takes on love, friendship, marriage, loyalty, family and gratitude -- all things perfectly appropriate to any holiday far. And it created a whole new fan base for "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
"Scrooge" (1951): Do not, under any circumstances, watch the colorized version. Stick with the black-and-white original, even if the kids won't be interested. One of the best-ever "A Christmas Carol" adaptations, it touches on all the story's classic themes.
In particular, it emphasizes that Scrooge's (Alistair Sim) happiness is not connected with abandoning his material wealth but instead voluntarily sharing it with Tiny Tim, the Cratchit family and the City of London at large -- a good message for the fortunate among us, especially at this time of the year and in this stormy economic climate.
A happy holiday to all, and to all a good night.
Obviously these three films represent just a fraction of fabulous Christmas films (unfortunately, they represent a vastly larger percentage of Hanukkah films -- get with it, Hollywood!). What's your favorite holiday viewing after the kids have gone to bed? Comments open!