Saturday, November 27, 2004

Christmas with the Kranks

While 3/4ths of Abilene was in Dallas watching the Abilene High game (they lost by 5 points unfortunately--kept up with the #1 team in the nation and scared the pants off of them), I went to see the new movie Christmas with the Kranks. It is taken from John Grisham's book Skipping Christmas which I read and enjoyed.

The movie underscored to me just how manic many people are about Christmas. The Kranks are ostracized by their neighbors when they decide to skip Christmas and take a cruise instead because their daughter is in Peru in the Peace Corps and is not coming home for Christmas. So they do not put up outside decorations, have their usual Christmas Eve party, nor buy a tree from the Boy Scouts.

When daughter changes her mind at the last minute and calls from Miami, the neighbors help the Kranks decorate and get ready for the party, and Luther Krank (the Grinch of the movie) does something very nice for his neighbors across the street whom he doesn't like very much. The movie is a little slow in areas, but the last half of the movie is fun and has the appropriate poignant Christmas message necessary in movies of the season.

Father, we so need to drop our self-indulgent bent for the next 5 weeks and remember just why you sent your son and what his entering our world brought to us in terms of your gift of love.

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