Christmas spirit?

As soon as Sinterklaas leaves our country, everything bursts into Christmas here. We have not celebrated Sinterklaas at all this year. It’s usually a children’s festival and our children are now grown and have little interest in it. There are also grown up parties sometimes, but this year there was none to attend and I didn’t have interest in making Sinterklaas special either. I did buy the traditional chocolate letters for the family…

… and when I handed out the letters to Mr Esther and the kids, I sang a very short Sinterklaas song for them (same one as sung 48 seconds into this video)…

… and that was pretty much it.

Now it’s time for Christmas. Mr E. didn’t initially want to put up any decorations. “Didn’t we only just pack them away?” he asked and yes, it does feel that way. More than a year and a half working from home and everything seems to be blending together. Suddenly we seem to virtually be in winter again and I hate that it now gets dark early and those short winter days. The only things that can cheer me up when there’s so little daylight are twinkly lights and candles, so I did want to put something festive up. We now have a smallish Christmas tree, which I decorated on Sunday (blasphemy to be doing that on the day of Sinterklaas itself!), and I put out some little Christmas village houses we have that we can burn candles in. The twinkly lights at the window of our dining area have already been up for a little bit.

You’d think that would be enough to get me into the Christmas spirit but I am just not feeling it. I did put together and order the family photos calendar I make every year for my mother, aunt and siblings but I have absolutely no other Christmas shopping done yet. I don’t even have a clue what to get everyone. Mr E left the house earlier this afternoon, saying a package would arrive and I am not allowed to open it. Meanwhile, I have nothing, niets, nichts, nada, niente, le rien, zilch planned or bought. I so need to start getting on top of this. I also need to figure out what to get our daughter for her 18th birthday in 12 days time. She has no clue what she wants either! I just can’t seem to figure it all out. How did December creep up on me like this and find me wholly unprepared? I thought I was doing OK but now it really feels like the winter blues I feel every year may have arrived.

Something just needs to boost my mood. I watched (half watched, really) a few Hallmark movies but most of those seem to be getting me more annoyed than cheering me up. I did enjoy skipping through Parenthood episodes with Peter Krause and Lauren Graham but many episodes are such tearjerkers, I can’t go into depth with those either. I do love the marriage Peter Krause and Monica Potter portray as Adam and Kristina…

… and I also love the season 4 – 6 storyline with Lauren Graham and Ray Romano as Sarah and Hank …

Parenthood really is a great series and when I feel a little lighter, I’ll definitely go in again and also pay closer attention to other storylines, but now is not a good time.

I’ve also enjoyed the look of Richard in the Stay Close images I have seen…

… and I like the trailer…

… but even that has me apprehensive. I fear too many red herrings going nowhere, like in The Stranger, that other Harlan Coben series Richard did last year (or was it early this year that that came out?).

Maybe, to boost my mood and get more into the festive month spirit, it’s time to start taking those Vitamin D pills I bought a month or so ago or maybe I should finally invest in that light therapy lamp I’ve been meaning to get myself? I hope twinkly lights and candles can help.

One more…

I seem to be on a posting spree this past week (this is the 10th post in 8 days!) and even I am getting a little tired of hearing myself talk. Just this one more thing before I head to bed that I need to get off my chest: I made a second video for Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena (Angela Bassett) from 9-1-1. This one’s a joyful one, it certainly cheered me up while I was making it…

Two videos for one show means that this warrants 9-1-1 having its own fan video page in my fan video corner on this blog. 🙂

Speaking of 9-1-1: seeing Peter Krause in action so much recently has also brought me back to his real life partner Lauren Graham again, whom I loved as Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls.

It reminded me that I have been meaning to read her book of biographical essays that she published a few years ago called Talking As Fast As I Can (which is what she did on Gilmore Girls – that show had really fast paced dialogue). I figured I’d put it on my Christmas wish list but then when I saw the e-book for only €2,-, I couldn’t resist and went ahead and bought it…

I haven’t touched my e-reader in eons, so needed to charge it first but I’m all set now. It’s just after midnight as I hit publish, I never really sleep before one am, so just enough time to jump into bed and get started! It feels good to find the motivation to read something again, I hope I like it enough to stick with it.

Like I’m going to lose you

Almost lunch break and time for a quick post. Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) and Athena Grant (Angela Bassett) from the TV show 9-1-1…

…have inspired a fan video that I finished making last night.

This song feels tailor-made for them, I couldn’t rest till I had sourced clips and made this video. Not that many good Bobby and Athena (#Bathena) videos out there, so I may just have to make a few more in the future to satisfy my hunger for #Bathena content.

Pressure

Just a quick little post between meetings to share with the world that I have that Billy Joel song Pressure stuck in my head on loop. I woke up with it in my head this morning and it won’t go away. It’s all because of this little scene with Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena (Angela Bassett) from the beginning of season 2 of 9-1-1, so it’s not terrible if the song doesn’t go away. The song is good and the scene even better.

Athena saying, “On a day like this, they get overheated and start to smoulder”, Bobby’s response, “Yeah, they do” and the way they walk to each other gets me in the pit of my stomach every time, followed by a lovely bout of kissing that is cut off too soon. Here’s that kiss in gif…

I have caught up with all 9-1-1 episodes over the weekend (yes, Herba, I have now also seen the alpacas episode 😊) and before heading for bed last night, re-watched bits and pieces of that first season 2 episode. Watching that scene again (a few times) must account for why this song got stuck in my head over night in the first place.

Anyway, must get back to the pressure of work now, although my pressure is nothing like the kind of pressure first responders need to deal with.

Peter Krause anyone?

A few years ago I watched a short lived tv series called The Catch which starred an actor called Peter Krause. I didn’t know him before that but instantly loved him on that show. The first season was good, the second less so, but through it all I really liked Peter Krause.

It turns out he already had a few hit series under his belt, like Six Feet Under and Parenthood but both are shows I have never seen before. About two years ago I watched seasons 1 and 2 of his latest show, called 9-1-1, about first responders in Los Angeles. I tuned in specifically for him.

He plays the fire department captain Bobby Nash, with some tough past baggage that he carries with him, and he eventually falls in love with policewoman Athena Grant (played by Angela Basset – man, that woman can give looks that kill!).

When I first researched Peter Krause, after I saw him in The Catch, it turned out that he’s the real life partner of Lauren Graham, who plays Lorelai Gilmore in my beloved Gilmore Girls. I just love that they’re a couple.

Anyway, this past week I’ve been binge-watching 9-1-1 again. I had been all caught up until almost the end of season 2 but had not gotten around to seasons 3 and 4 yet. Not sure anymore what brought me to it again but I refreshed my memory by re-watching bits and pieces before watching season 3 and am now progressing on to season 4. Although the world does seem to be ending every few episodes (fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, train crashes) I do really enjoy this show. There are also more mundane and some very weird cases in it, based off real life 911 calls, which are sometimes tragic but sometimes also quite funny.

The cast is diverse, which I love. Yes, there’s Peter Krause and Angela Bassett, who are awesome, but the rest of the cast is also good. I especially like Athena’s ex-husband played by Rockmond Dunbar (in the picture below on the left, I had also loved him on The Mentalist), Aisha Hinds (to the right of Krause) who plays an EMT married to a woman, Kenneth Choi (on the right) and the storyline of a firefigher played by Ryan Guzman who is the single dad to a boy with cerebral palsy.

Back to Peter Krause. There’s just something about him, in the way he looks into the world with a half smile and such a friendly face but so much hidden behind those open wide eyes as well.

He’s got me hooked again on this show and I love seeing him as the captain commandeering crisis situations, as the father figure for his team, as the man dealing with a difficult past, and in his marriage to Angela Bassett as Athena. I love that there is no endless will they/won’t they between them. They fall in love and get married all within one season and just get on with it, dealing with all that life throws at them (and that is a lot!).

I’m thinking that after I’m all caught up, I might go on to watching him in Six Feet Under and Parenthood. It’s always fun exploring an actor like that and I just like this guy. He’s been nominated for Emmys and Golden Globes for Six Feet Under and he did Parenthood with Lauren Graham (she plays his sister on that show). Have any of you seen those two shows? And if so, any thoughts to share?

Right, on to the premiere episode of season 4 now before we get around to dinner at the Esther household. Luckily, Mr Esther cooks, very much like Peter Krause does, who as Bobby is always cooking on the show.