Boxing Day, whatever that is

So, in some places today is Boxing Day, unless it it isn't, because you think it's supposed to be the first weekday after Christmas, not the very next day; or if you're in a place that always celebrates it on Monday; or if it is officially Boxing Day, but you're Canadian, so you'll get a compensatory day off next week since it falls on weekend; and we're supposed to give money or gifts or leftover food to people in need, or workers, or vendors, but it's getting hard to give to service providers, since Boxing Day is holiday and they're not working.

Or maybe we just box.

Whatever, we don't have that day here in the Republic anyway, so happy Saturday.

Yesterday's celebratory day was fun and fine. And we had a good breakfast, did a little low-key gifting, took a nice long walk through the empty neighborhood, and spent the day relaxing and listening to music and or running the Godzilla film festival.

Coco has set up a jigsaw puzzle station in the living room, right behind the couch, near where I do my daily crossword puzzle. "Puzzle corner" has a lot of sweet warm energy in it now, and I expect it will see a lot of use and we begin the long climb up from the darkest day back into spring.

The dip into the early era of the Godzilla series has been fascinating so far. I skipped Gojira, since it is entirely too serious and dark for the holiday. The second installment, Godzilla Raids Again, is surprisingly robust and affecting, a sequel that changes the tone a bit but still holds together as a serious adventure, even as it initiates the classic monster v. monster trope. King King v Godzilla was apparently only available in Americanized version, which is pretty terrible - although after reading the accompanying text, I'm not sure even the Japanese version would rise about its inherent gimmickry. Mothra vs Godzilla recovers its balance and keeps its footing as the first official crossover movie; and Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster marks Godzilla's turn from a pure threat to sometime defender of earth, a chose that had both positive and negative consequences. Next up is Invasion of the Astro-Monster, and I am looking forward to seeing how American actor Nick Adams does in the original Japanese version.

I had planned to prepare a fine dinner centered on vegetarian roast, but I failed to read the fine print that said to thaw the roast in the refrigerator for 24 hours. We pivoted to Plan B: takeaway Chinese food. Turned out to be pretty dang good, and it was a nice reminder of some past holiday dinners.

We capped the day with Wonder Woman 1984 and I gotta tell ya, it was a bit of disappointment. A lot of nice bits, some good visuals, and Kristen Wiig is great, but while the story starts out pretty strong, it really frays in the last act, losing coherence. A case of the movie's reach exceeding its grasp, I think. There were some nice little easter Eggs for the fans, and I do appreciate that Wonder Woman used her lasso for most of the actin, rather than a shield and sword.

Anyway, I hope your holiday was filled with as much good tidings as ours. Maybe next year we'll actually be able to do our apple pancake thing with friends.