When Carrie
and Randy’s gift arrived at our house, Jenna decided it would be the first one
which would be opened. We played a game of Monopoly though there’s at
least 20 games in our possession that I’d rather play. After I lost and
Jenna forfeited out of boredom, we turned on the Muppet Christmas Carol though
we really don’t have a great copy. I fell asleep while it played.
We had planned to open our first gift on
Christmas Eve after we watched “It’s A Wonderful Life” but since I had fallen asleep during Muppets, Jenna
decided to open the gift before “It’s A Wonderful Life” started. It
was a game!
Because of the time, we decided we would play in the morning
instead of right then.
Jenna decided to go to bed after only an
hour into the movie. Between 9:30 and 10:00 last night Roland retrieved the
presents from my closet. I spread the gifts beneath the tree. We
filled the stockings and finished with the movie. When “It’s A Wonderful Life”
ended, I went into the bedroom, though I don’t remember Roland coming into the
room until possibly an hour later. I don’t know why. When he did get into the bedroom, he read
a bit before turning off the light. At midnight Jenna opened her door and
asked if it was time to open presents. She gets very excited. I think she
must have left her room shortly after that as I noticed there were more gifts
placed beneath the tree and in our socks. I love it when my children get
into the Christmas spirit and each attempt to play Santa themselves.
I have been trying to organize my thoughts on this post and continue to be interrupted. I do not have permission for the pictures that I use and will remove them at the artist requests. I will continue to keep the links on where the pictures come from so that they may still be viewed.
When I
was in my teens I remember manypeople trying
their hand at doing impersonations of different characters - the most popular
being Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Kermit the Frog.I didn't view it as a talent would take anyone
anywhere.Boy, was I wrong.Fast Forward to being a mom.Jenna and I had been watching an episode that
Sesame Street had re-aired after Hurricane Katrina as the cast had experienced
a similar disaster and perhaps children could better deal knowing that Big Bird
had experienced the same trauma.It
wasn't until I had watched the documentary of said episode that I learned Steve
Whitmire was able to utilize his impersonating talent and ability to
impersonate Jim Henson's Kermit, who was the news reporter for the hurricane disaster.
muppet wiki
I was fascinated at watching the
behind the scene footage and all the work that is involved by those puppeteers
who move on their knees while having their hands in the air (I could not find
the hurricane footage use as a demonstration for just a few minutes - but
perhaps you'll get the gist with this wonderful tribute to soldiers featuring
Rosita and Elmo)
I took
Jenna to the Riddle Library on Wednesday.While there, I checked out a video called "I am Big Bird: the
Carroll Spinny Story" directed by Dave Lanaltina released in 2014.I won't be using the APA style to reference
as I am not being graded on this post, but will include several links.
www.iambigbird.com
We watched it that night, and I got
to tell you, it took me on a journey in which my eyes leaked (big surprise) as
I learned that Spinny had been bullied, abused, had felt like a failure to the
point of expressing interest in quitting his position with Sesame Street.He had divorced, was suicidal.It didn't help when Debra Spinny also teared
up as she explained about the connection to Lianzi Ouyangand how
hard it had been to leave her and how they had fallen out of touch - but I
think I'm getting ahead of myself.
journalchina
journalchina
Carroll Spinny was 81 at the time
the documentary was released - and still working on Sesame Street.How sweet that would be to be not only to be at
the same job for 46 years, but to love being there.I had always thought that it would be awesome
to grow up on Sesame Street and have a steady income before you even understand
what the word "income" means.
abc news
muppet wiki
abc news
Carroll loves his work, maybe even more
so than when he had started out - though he had always been interested in
puppetry.I think it's awesome that his
mom encouraged him to work with puppets.
tumblr
copperpot
So
many people don't see it as "real work" - but it is real work.It is real hard work.Very few positions in life come easy - and
just a magician or puppeteer may make it look easy,there are hours upon hours that go into
it.
www.iambigbird.com
Toronto Starship
tumblr
www.iambigbird.com
Jim Henson had asked Spinny to do
Sesame Street with him.
time
I was fascinated to learn that
Spinny is also a cartoonist.
tribecca
I was happy to learn he had found love again
with his sweet wife, Debra
esquire
entertainment
I
was floored to hear that NASA had asked Big Bird to promote the space program
by going to the space station with them (here).Big Bird was replaced when Ronald Reagan announced that they'd be
sending a teacher.I had posted
thathere not long ago
rockcellar
I don't believe that is all I had on my mind when I initially tried to create this post. This post does not do the film justice. They aren't kidding about a MUST SEE. (Be sure you have some tissues handy)
