Month: November 2016

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL

Brian Henson, the son of Muppet founder Jim Henson, took over directing duties after the untimely death of his father for The Muppet Christmas Carol, a re-telling of the Charles Dickens tale. Michael Caine, surrounded by legions of fuzzy, felt puppets, plays it straight as the crotchety Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who could care less about Christmas and the joy the season brings. Working for the skinflint is his faithful employee Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog), who begs Scrooge for a day off for Christmas. Scrooge reluctantly agrees and goes home on Christmas Eve filled with bile at the holiday merrymakers. But then he is visited by the sprits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and Scrooge, after revisiting his sorrowful past, hate-filled present, and doomed future, turns over a new leaf and becomes the most generous and celebratory person in town.

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS

Chuck Jones’ animated version of the classic Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas originally aired on television in 1966 and has since become a holiday family favorite. Voiced by Boris Karloff (who also narrates), the Grinch lives on top of a hill overlooking Whoville with his dog, Max. Each year at Christmas time, the Grinch’s hatred grows stronger toward those insufferably cheerful Whos down in Whoville. Content to exchange presents, eat large banquets, and sing songs in the town square, the Whos live in a blissful ignorance of the Grinch’s contempt. One year, he gets the idea to stop Christmas from coming by dressing up as Santa Claus. He cobbles together an outfit and makes his dog drag him around on a sleigh while sneaking into the Whos’ homes and stealing their presents, food, and decorations. After he has stolen every last thing, the Whos wake up on Christmas morning to sing in the town square, causing the Grinch to question the basis of his nefarious plan. Thurl Ravenscroft (the voice of kid cereal mascot Tony the Tiger) provides the vocals for the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.”

Learn with Linda!
We will celebrate Thanksgiving with stories, games and crafts.

Then we will have snacks and a party for Lucy (SHHH, she’s going to be 11.)
People are welcome to bring gifts. She doesn’t really need treats but if you get them, we prefer hair-ball formula.
She eats Friskies Shreds for canned food and Rachael Ray’s Nutrish dry food.
She needs frangrance-free kitty litter. (We usually buy “Tidy Cats.”)

We will gladly pass on other items to the vet clinic for their adoptables.

THE JUNGLE BOOK

In this reimagining of the classic collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling, director Jon Favreau uses visually stunning CGI to create the community of animals surrounding Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a human boy adopted by a pack of wolves. The appearance of a villainous tiger named Shere Khan (voiced byIdris Elba) forces Mowgli’s guardian, the panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), to shepherd the child to safety in the “man village.” Along the way, the boy meets an affable, lazy bear named Baloo (Bill Murray), as well as a snake with hypnotic powers (Scarlett Johansson) and an orangutan (Christopher Walken) who wants to harness the power of fire. Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, and Garry Shandling also lend their voices to this adventure tale.

We need to keep her in cat food and kitty litter.

The chair seat was created by Frank Newman and donated to us for Lucy’s benefit.

The drawing will be December 17.

Click here for PDFs of the application and the guidelines:

2016-pember-festival-of-wreaths-guidelines

2016-pember-festival-of-wreaths-b