Tis the Season & Some Movie/TV Show Reviews

My calendar is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  This weekend was a blast - Haynes family Christmas, a wedding, a graduation, a graduation party, Christmas Cantata and more!  We have a Christmas Party this week, and then we leave for Georgia for Christmas with Austin's family.  Right when I get back into blogging, the tidal wave hits - but it's okay - Tis the Season!

Some friends invited us to watch a movie last night, so we went over and watched Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides.  No, I still hadn't seen it - I'm horrible!  But again, I never had time!  But, I've seen it now!

I was a little skeptical since this movie drifted from the plot, and the characters, of the other three movies.  But it did not disappoint!  I will admit, that at one point in the movie, Jack Sparrow (the lovely and oh-so-talented Johnny Depp) was in a bind, about to be impaled on somebody's sword, and I was ready for William Turner (the equally lovely and equally talented Orlando Bloom) to sweep in and save the day, but that wasn't the case.  But I digress....

Penelope Cruz was great - and really fit in well with the existing cast.  There was one character, Philip, that was a central character I thought they could have developed a bit more, but that's just my opinion.  Of course, as is customary in a Pirates movie, there was a scene after the rolling credits.  And it totally set it up for another movie!  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but that would be fantastic!  Anyway, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it!

A few posts ago I mentioned Pillars of the Earth.  I read Ken Follet's novel a couple of years ago, and absolutely loved it - and have read several of his books since then.  Starz made the book into a miniseries in 2010, but being a poor college student, I didn't get the channel.  Recently, it came out on Reelz, a channel we get.  Being produced on Starz, it is a little graphic, if that bothers you.  Austin semi-watched it with me, and asked me if it was true to the book.  I read it so long ago I really couldn't remember, but I do know the book focused more on the architecture than on the drama.  But that wouldn't make a very good movie, so I thought they handled mixing the two well for the show.

Love, lust, family issues, religion, politics, and even architecture and a tiny bit of history - this book/movie has it all.  I just found it on Amazon for $20 on blu ray - so tempting!

I haven't done a whole lot of cooking this week because we've been so busy, but we did make a first attempt at making crepes the other night.  It was easier than I thought it would be, but I need a better filling recipe.