ou know I’m a list person. I could drive you crazy with my lists of ideas of things to do this month…but I’m trying not to, as I realize the outside world is probably doing a good enough job at it already. But this is a Happy List of wonderful old movies that will take you into Escapesville, a place we all need to go sometimes, especially when we’re busy; so take a deep breath, put on your slippers, get your nap blanket and a cup of tea, and settle in on a stormy day for one of these soul-feeding vintage movies… enjoy that wonderful old-fashioned concept “…and they lived happily ever after!” These aren’t necessarily Christmas movies, but they’re definitely the kind of movies that put “Christmas in the heart.”
THE LIST
The Major and the Minor, Ginger Rogers
(Sue-Sue Applegate )
The Bishop’s Wife, David Niven, Cary Grant, and Loretta Young
It Happened One Night, Myrna Loy and Clark Gable
It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed
Miracle on 34th Street, Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood as the child
Bachelor Mother, with Ginger Rogers and David Niven
Christmas in Connecticut, Barbara Stanwyck
The Apartment, Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine
Top Hat, Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Carefree, Fred & Ginger
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Shirley Temple
(check out the roses on “Tony’s Porch.”)
could go on all day. Even if you’re too busy to sit down and watch, these movies are perfect background noise for cookie baking; wonderful to wrap gifts by…If a girlfriend shows up, pop one in, and you will have trapped her for the afternoon.
ne other thing, I belong to Netflix and I love it so much I have no words for it. Go there and explore and see how great it is, you will then have an uninterrupted flow of movies to watch anytime you want. It’s a gift that keeps on giving!
(I’d love to know what movies have made your Best Ever list!)
e pulled another postcard from our stash of entries, and the winner of our newest Christmas Package is Lucky Girl Melissa Ward from Georgia. Look in your mail Melissa, you’re getting a signed copy of 
old and dark this morning, but cozy in Christmas jammies. Like my outfit? Old holey cashmere sweater, scarf for warmth, new flannel jams. I guess I could have picked the fuzz balls off the sweater before taking the picture, but then the truth would be missing from the morning outfit. You also can’t see the soft little parker house roll next to me, toasted, buttered, w/cinnamon sugar. I lead an entire life before Joe even wakes up.
ho brought the green beans…mmm, who made the mashed potatoes? 
ur Thanksgiving dinner turned out great! It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t gourmet, no one’s really allowed to change anything so it was traditional with all the old-fashioned favorites from our childhoods…everyone brought something. Here’s the dish my girlfriend brought — actually it’s the dish her mom, Caroline, brought to share with all of us, filled with her delicious mashed potatoes. I’m always looking for a better way to make mashed potatoes that will make them healthier. For the last few years, I boil the Idaho potatoes with one clove of peeled garlic per potato … mash them together with salt and pepper, and stir in hot buttermilk to make them creamy. They have so much flavor I don’t miss the butter. At least that’s what I thought. Caroline does it differently. She mashed her potatoes with heavy cream. I forgot how good mashed potatoes can be when one buries two sticks of butter in them just before serving. The words “rivers of butter” come up in conversation. Then all conversation stops as delirium sets in. 
think the bowl itself made her do it. Look at it. What self-respecting one-hundred-and-twenty-two-year-old sterling silver wedding bowl would have it any other way, than elegant and old fashioned, with cream and butter? Could you put diet mashed potatoes in a bowl like this? No. I think not. It might even hop away on its little feet. 
sn’t it wonderful? Doesn’t it look like it could talk? Like it might have belonged to the Queen of Hearts at one time? There’s a dated inscription on the bottom — 1888. Think of all the dining room tables it has graced and all the stories it could tell. The Thanksgivings and weddings and all kinds of family celebrations through the generations? Wouldn’t that make a wonderful book? It could give us a fashion show too, describe what people are wearing, what their shoes look like, and tell us about the food on the table; what the people were talking about. This little dish served faithfully during the Victorian age, the Roaring Twenties, the War Years, the Swingin’ Sixties….it knows all the secrets. 
love everything that’s old, because of the hands and hands and hands that have touched it; now we’ve added our own Thanksgiving to Caroline’s magic bowl; I was sorry to see this dish go (and actually, Caroline too), but we kept the potatoes!
