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First let me say I am a movie buff. I like old movies, new movies, silent movies, talking movies, black and white movies, and colored movies. I like action, drama, horror, and comedy. I love everything about movies, however, there is one genre of movie that I absolutely love more than anything and that is the comic book movie. You see, growing up in the 1980s comics were my escape into a fascinating world where any and everything was possible. These books were more exciting to me than even cartoons or movies. At the time the movie industry was limited by their limited technology so my favorite heroes of the day came across the screen looking cartoonish and in some cases downright embarrassing. Then the first big budget Spiderman movie happened. The one with Toby Maguire. I was blown away. I was stunned as Spiderman swung through the streets of New York. I was hooked. And now, all the years later, the movies have only advanced and grown into an amazing universe that has set a new precedent for other franchises to follow.

My girlfriend and I went to see Spiderman No Way Home and wow what a movie. Tons of surprises which I will not spoil here. Guest appearances, surprise appearances all around and of course action galore with a little romance thrown in for good measure. Over all, a thrilling ride. My son, who doesn’t find anything outside of Tesla cars interesting, set glued to the big screen the entire time. The movie was rather long but worth every minute of it. Oh, and you have to stay for the finale end credit scenes.

A different kind of Christmas

Lorie Ann McReynolds

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas. My Christmas was different this year. This was the first Christmas without both of my parents. All the “firsts” are hard. My daddy passed away in January of this year so my sister, my brother and I have had many firsts. I was actually dreading this Christmas without him. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. All my family and my sweet guy came to my house for Christmas dinner. We ate a delicious meal and then watched the kids open presents. (We adults don’t exchange gifts but I did happen to surprise my sister with a My Heritage DNA kit. I will talk more about that in later columns.) While the kids played with their presents, the adults played games. My nephew’s girlfriend brought a very interesting but challenging game from Disney. We all need more practice with that one. But then we played my favorite game, Pictionary. I think it is my favorite because of the laughter it creates. You are given a word on a card. And from that word you are supposed to draw a good enough picture for your partner to guess that word. We laughed until we cried. Even though I am dating an artist (see comic strip below), we still lost. But it was a lot of fun.

So, this Christmas was different for sure, but it was still very good. Laughter and love filled my house. Special memories were made. And yet while our hearts were heavy from missing our daddy, we knew he was celebrating Jesus’ birthday with Him. And with our mom. You just never know how God can turn sorrow into something wonderful. So, next Christmas I think I will try to make my daddy’s banana pudding. It was one of everyone’s favorite desserts.

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