“…the winner would be him!”

I love me some Muppet Christmas Carol, and honestly I haven’t had a chance to watch it the last couple of years just because of Busy Life Syndrome, however back before TNT started the tradition of airing the Lord of the Rings trilogy for Thanksgiving, one of my fond memories of childhood around this time of year would be settling in on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner with a slice of pumpkin pie to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol with my relatives…

Of course, that was long before this whole crazy, let’s go shopping on Thanksgiving evening thing came into fruition as well!

So tonight while my wife was off at work, I tried to play this lovable classic for the kids … and by tried I mean that there were certainly plenty of “hiccups” along the way, which I suppose is something I’m just going to have to get used to with this newfound family featuring three kids of mine! 😛 Though the twins pretty much slept good until Christopher was ready for bed, getting up from his nap was a cranky experience that although I had hoped the likes of Kermit and Fozziewig would help to quell, but in the end it took a combination of yogurt and goldfish and crayons and candy canes to soothe this savage toddler.

And even then I ended up just listening to half of the movie from the playroom because he decided that we needed to play inside of his frog tent instead of learn the classic Charles Dickens tale of changing one’s miserly ways and scaring the crap out of your best employee on Christmas Day with the threat of a well-deserved promotion! 😉

Thankfully at least the movie has a great soundtrack that we could enjoy from afar…

We snuck back in just as the Ghost of Christmas Future was doing his thing, so at least we got to watch the finale which never fails to put a smile on my face and a tear in my eye … decades before he would ever take on the  iconic role of Batman’s butler, Michael Caine absolutely aced this role as Ebenezer Scrooge and the way he seems to interact seamlessly with all of the Muppets is just perfect. Their joy-filled performance together in Thankful Heart is absolutely delightful – I just love watching the transformation that Scrooge has gone through as he literally sings his way to Bob Cratchit’s door with a parade of turkey and trimmings and renewed spirit for his whole family.

We’ve still got plenty of time left until Christmas, so maybe Christopher will pay better attention to A Muppet Family Christmas or even my own personal favorite – Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas … I just need to be sure to catch him on the better side of his naptime!

Also, we’re probably going to need more candy canes… 😛