This movie had all the right elements (Christmas Eve, Jason Bateman as a villain, action), but it was a real snoozer. It was a bit long (2 hours), and it took over half that time to get to the action. That was too long to wait.
My rating: 3/5
christmas 2025
It was a pretty laid-back holiday. I hosted Christmas Eve dinner and my parents, Jake, and Amelia were in attendance. My mom hosted Christmas Day and it was just me, my parents, and my brother and his family.
While we all received some nice gifts, Jake made out like a bandit (I guess that’s one advantage of having divorced parents). I’m not sure how he will fit everything in his car when he returns to Virginia!
Our office is always closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Last year, we gave everyone a few extra days off and we did the same this year–Thursday and Friday.
elf
I guess watching a Christmas classic is another new tradition that I’m taking on. This year, I rewatched Elf. What a great movie! I’m not a huge Will Ferrell fan, but he was perfect in his role of Buddy the Elf.
My rating: 4/5
the mistletoe mystery
This was a short story from the Molly the Maid series. It was pretty good but predictable. At 116 pages, it did not take long to read. Since it had a Christmas theme, I was compelled to read it now.
The final book in the series is coming out this spring. I wonder why it will be the final book. This series feels like it could go on forever.
My rating: 3.5/5
the city of mirrors
This was the final installment in The Passage trilogy. I don’t know what it was about this series–I couldn’t put it down when I was reading about the present day, but the stuff that happened in the future was kind of blah. It got a little interesting towards the end of the story, but it also kind of dragged on forever.
My rating: 3.5/5