Christmas Guarantees

12/25/11

Christmas Day 2011 in Chicago

You're guaranteed a few things today:

-Someone will be shocked at how few cars were on the road.  "We made it here in record time!"

-Your relatives will open presents in order of youngest to oldest.  Your relatives will also break out the same jokes from previous years about who's older than whom.  Fake laughter will ensue.

-Someone will receive a Chia Pet.  Somebody must be buying them since the TV commercials re-appear each season.

-A long-winded rant from your angry aunt about how next Christmas there will be no gift exchange

-The gift of socks

-A text from an unknown phone number that says, "Merry Christmas!" that you'll spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out who sent it

-No one will receive The Clapper

-The finest wine...out of a box

-Green bean casserole

Best TV Commercial of 2011

11/29/11

The greatest TV commercial that you’ll see this holiday season isn’t for The Clapper, but rather Hyundai.  It features Jorge & Alexa Narvaez singing “Feliz Navidad.”  This is the same father-daughter combo whose rendition of Edward Sharpe’s “Home” has been watched over 16 million times on YouTube.  In the original video, Alexa wears a snowman on her shirt and a huge smile on her face while singing with her dad.  The “not a dry eye in the room” moment strikes when Alexa flashes a loving smile to her dad while singing the lyrics “Home is whenever I’m with you.”  It’s the simplest and most unrehearsed definition of love.