Santa Claus is coming to town

Last night, my daughter and I watched a Christmas classic: Santa Claus is coming to town. It's a Rankin/Bass stop-motion special that's one of the staples of my childhood.

While watching, I narrated to Christine how, as kids, we didn't have VCRs or streaming services (or the Internet for that matter!), but we knew that RPN-9 (one of the local TV channels would start broadcasting these goodies come September. So on weekends we would check out the channel mid-afternoons and we would inevitably be able to catch either this, or the more popular Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, or the cartoon Frosty the snowman.

When I got this DVD set, this was when I  learned that there was actually a Little Drummer Boy special as well. So that's a bonus!

I told my daughter how we didn't even know these had colour because we only had a black and white TV! And in those segments where the movie fades out and fades in are where TV commercials are inserted which is essentially toilet break for us or time to grab something to eat.

For us back then, watching these favourites signalled the coming of the Christmas season and of good things to come. I still turn to these simple joys when the 'ber months come rolling in.

Watching this last night gave me warm fuzzies. My daughter also appreciated it, being a sort of origin story for Santa Claus. Now she knows how Santa met Mrs Claus, why he goes through chimneys, why he gives toys, how the reindeer received the power of flight, and how stockings figure in all this!

Interestingly enough, I found this special on YouTube. Enjoy!

The mind is willing, but the eyes are not.

Last Father's Day (1st Sept), my daughter gifted me an SD Gundam kit. It's probably obvious what sort of stuff I like, especially since we have a cabinet full of mecha, 80s robots, and Star Wars on display in the living room.

It's been a while since I last built a Gundam kit though; she wasn't even born yet, come to think of it. It's the Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz OVA that got me into it. I nearly completed all the Gundams from that movie; I remember not getting Tallgeese because I didn't like the design.

Getting this gift got me all excited for Gundams again. But building this kit also knocked a bit of reality check in me. Man, I've gotten old. I struggled to read the small print in the instruction booklet! This SD kit took me three nights with a couple of hours each to build. There were quite a number of stickers too. I'm amazed though at how the kit has evolved over time. For one thing, you no longer need a cutter to pop off the parts from the tree! So handy.and this one has an articulated elbow! Imagine that.

It was satisfying completing this build. Reminded me of happy memories building Gundams and watching anime. And I'm so glad my daughter gets me.

It's a bright June afternoon; it never gets dark

When the month of June rolls in, the fleeting of time never fails to dawn on me. Just recently, my two kids became a year older and we celebrated another year of marriage.

Time just keeps on marching on.

This is actually the first time my son celebrated his birthday away from us. Good thing there's Uber Eats. My daughter, on the other hand, still likes hanging out with her friends so they ice-skated while the parents hovered and chatted nearby.

At times it's a confusing mix of feelings.

I think I'm a naturally melancholy guy. I celebrate these milestones in our lives but at the back of my head a certain loneliness lingers. I guess, when you find yourself uncontrollably sleepy some afternoons and struggle to bend to tie your shoes, or even rise from a particularly low sofa, then you know time is racing against you too.

I've always tried to brush this feeling off and try to focus on the happy bits. But this month I realised that I may be doing it wrong. I think I need to accept both the 'bad' and the 'good' in me if I am ever to find inner peace.

Hang on.... this actually sounds like a mashup of Kung Fu Panda and Inside Out.