Barbara V Evers

This year I still have Christmas shopping to do.  A lot of it!  It's frustrating because I like to finish at least a week before Christmas, but events conspired against me this month.  Oh well. It is what it is. Yesterday, I rushed to the post office to mail my daughter's Christmas presents to California.  She's not coming home this year, which makes me sad, but I wanted to be sure that her presents got to her in time.  Normally, I send them UPS and let them do the packing for me, but this year Heidi explained that the UPS package pick-up spot is a long way from where she lives.  She asked me to use the US postal service.  Ugh! The line ran through the door when I got there, gifts in tow.  At home, I could not find a suitable shipping box, so I needed to find a box there.  Of course, none of the often-advertised flat-rate boxes fit, so I had to go with something a little more pricey. As I struggled to find the right box, I discovered the true nature of this season. 

OK. So I'm going to let you in on my guilty little pleasure ... at least the one I enjoy at Christmas time.  Once we hit December on the calendar, the TV stations start running Christmas movies.  Yep.  That's right, Christmas movies.  Believe it or not, I love to watch these movies, no matter how sappy or corny they may be, I love them. Of course, there are some great classics out there - A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, It's a Wonderful Life - but the movie doesn't have to be a classic for me to watch it.  What can I say?  I just love to watch these movies. A few years ago, I spent a large portion of December fighting off a nasty virus that laid me low for several weeks.  During that time, I discovered not only how many Christmas movies there are, but, also, the limited number of themes present in the made-for-TV Christmas movie.  There are two main types.  One category focuses on a Santa Claus replacement or relative.  The