A Peek at Christmas 2021:Part I

This year Christmas is returning to a little bit of normalcy after last year's restrictions. Either way, nothing has stood in the way of my family taking part in some of our favorite Christmas traditions like watching Christmas Specials, decorating the tree and just enjoying the season together. Below may seem like a random dump of photos, but it is a peek into what the season is like in my household. I hope you and yours have an amazing holiday season. No matter how you celebrate or what you celebrate, appreciate those around you and just remember the good times. Feel free to let me know about your family's favorite traditions in the comment section below and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

You can always find cool wrapping paper at the Dollar Tree! This year they had these Super Mario Bros. Snowman papers. Love it!

My son added his own personal touch to the Nativity scene this year. I know how the shepherds passed the time while waiting for our savior to be born!

The annual busting out of the VCR to watch Home Alone on VHS is always a welcomed treat in our house. This is the same VHS tape that my Dad bought for us kids back in the early 90's!

Whoever was in charge of the Christmas Crunch box art this year really knocked it out of the park and should be allowed to design the next 100 boxes. Who knew the Cap'N and Ugly Sweaters were such a natural pairing?

Mountain Dew Gingerbread Snap'd was a fantastic discovery this year. It really tasted like someone drained the essence of a ginger snap cookie and bottled it up for us to enjoy. I hope this comes back next year...and the year after that...and so on.

Disney's "Prep & Landing" Christmas Specials are some of those rare recent specials that really are great! It has become tradition for us to watch these at the beginning of the holiday season each year. With Kids In The Hall alum Dave Foley as the main elf, Wayne, you know this is a winner! 

Bought this ornament for our Christmas tree this year. We have a few other of these penguin ornaments in our collection since each one of these cheerful critters represents one of our 3 kids.

I love reading my kids Christmas books and one of their favorites is Olive The Other Reindeer. Of course we had to follow up that read with a watch of the Matt Groening produced "Olive The Other Reindeer" Christmas cartoon special!

Watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles any day is a must in my household. The fact that this DVD has an episode titled "The Christmas Aliens" which is an animated version of the Mirage Michelangelo special comic makes it a staple in our rotation. The episode even features a cameo appearance by Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo! You can watch the episode at the Youtube link below, but be quick, who knows how long it will be available!

Whatever Happened to the Little Nero's Pizza Guy?

We all know the story of a certain home defense specialist, Mr. Kevin McCallister and the documentary they filmed about his life and times titled "Home Alone", but what about the unsung hero of this film? The outstanding deliverer of za who believed he was taking a bullet in order to deliver a box of delicious perfection to a small child who just wanted a freakin' cheese pizza. What happened to the heroic actor who played the Little Nero's Pizza guy?

This iconic food service character was played by D. Danny Warhol aka Dan Charles Zukoski to perfection. When watching Home Alone, you really believe he was a true pizza delivery person. He was that good! So, since I have been so taken by this performance for decades, I decided to do some digging and found out that D. Danny had roles in some other iconic films! 

He was the "Teen in Red Sweater at Party" in Poltergeist III (1988), a "Stadium Fan" in Red Heat (1988), "Train Passenger" in Backdraft (1991), a "High School Student" in Beverly Hillbillies (1993), "Engineering Crewman Running in Hallway" on Star Trek: Generations (1994) & Star Trek: First Contact (1996), a "Power Corp Member" in Double Dragon (1994), a "Vampire" in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), "White Guy #3" in The Pest (1997) and a "Toy Factory Worker" in Monkeybone (2001)! With 64 acting credits in his career spanning 3 decades, this is just a sample of what this guy has done! That is a crazy amount of range for one actor, but who can forget his nerdy recurring performance as Irwin Consodine in the original Saved by the Bell series! 

Although these are all fantastic roles in solid movies, nothing will ever touch the greatness that Warhol achieved with his acting chops as the Pizza Delivery Guy in Home Alone. He is a large part of one of the highest grossing comedies of all-time and no one can take that from him. According to his IMDB web page, Warhol has not acted in a film since the 2004 short film "Forever is a Long, Long time" where he played a bowling alley patron. Will we ever see the legendary D. Danny Warhol act again? I have heard rumors that he has been working at a pizza place in the Chicago area a a manager. 

I have also heard he works at a home improvement store, but I'm just going to keep checking the background characters in the next few big budget blockbusters I watch hoping to see him pop up! Okay enough of this gooey sh... Show of emotion! Who's hungry for a lovely cheese pizza delivered fresh from Little Nero's Pizza? Don't forget to tip!

Photos Courtesy: IMDB

Home Alone: 1991 VHS Release

In 1990 the United States was held captive by a young boy named Kevin who was left Home Alone by his negligent parents. When I say this movie was huge, I mean it was huge! I remember Home Alone playing in theaters well after the 1990 holiday season on it's way to grossing over $280,000,000 in the US. I saw the movie in theaters and it really felt like I was part of a cultural event. You weren't cool on the playground unless you could recite at least one line from the movie. My go to was the following quote by big brother Buzz:

"I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!"

Naturally when the VHS was released in 1991, I had to have it! Me, my brother and all our neighborhood friends watched the hell out of that video until we could recite the whole movie line by line! Yes it was annoying, but man we loved that movie!

I still have my original copy of Home Alone on VHS from '91 and drag it out every year after Thanksgiving to watch with my kids. I still catch myself blurting out lines during our watch parties, much to the annoyance of my kids.

There is just something about the old artwork of the VHS tape. From the side panels to the cover art, it just makes me happy. Yes you can find better quality on Blu-Ray, but it does not match the nostalgia of rewinding a tape and fixing the tracking on your VCR so you can watch a grainy picture on your television set. Yes, I can also watch this on demand, but does that come with AN AMZING HOME ALONE BATTLE PLAN POSTER?!!!!!

I was one of the lucky kids who got this free poster when my parents bought the VHS tape. Mine is long gone, but I still remember it hanging on our bedroom wall for years. 

We would look over the plan and use our imaginations to see what we could do to protect our house in case the Wet Bandits made a stop on our street. This thing was AWESOME!

Of course it wasn't an exact replica of Kevin's Battle Plan, but hey it was still a cool thing to have this on our wall for all our pals to see when they came over to play Ninja Turtles or some NES. It gave us bragging right for a short time and what a time it was...unless you were Harry or Marv, THEN IT SUCKED!