Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is on TV right now. It's a nostalgic and sentimental movie for me. Yes, crazy Cornelius and the gay elf (seriously, he's got to be gay, right?) get to me every time. It's always been my favorite Christmas special, and Charlie Brown was my brother's. Every year for as long as I can remember we watched them together along with the Grinch. And then my mom and dad got in on the deal when The Christmas Carol came on - but only the one with Alastair Sims. Now that it's just me and my folks I still make sure to watch at least Rudolph and Charlie Brown every year - it just wouldn't be Christmas without them.  (Note to Dunderheads: Yes, my heart soared when Jim asked if Rudolph would still be on TV after Michael cancelled Christmas. Teehee.) Also, a couple of modern movies have become part of the tradition in the last few years - Love Actually and Home for the Holidays.

So, I'm curious... what are your Christmas TV/movie traditions?

Okay, I hastily added a teenie tiny red hat to my profile last night so that I could join James Gunn's Red Hat Nation. It was a very bad photoshop job that was driving me nuts everytime I saw it. Yeah yeah. I know. I have issues. So I had a little more time this evening and did a somewhat proper job of it with a regular size hat. And now people are telling me the teenie weeny one was way cuter. So I'm leaving it up to you the MySpacer.

Big hat?

Little bitty hat?

What's your vote?

Yeah I know. I have too much time on my hands.

I got a lovely surprise this evening when I got home from work. My SLiTHER giveaway loot had arrived! Although the mailman had obviously been determined to make it fit into my mailbox instead of leaving a parcel slip. It took me almost five minutes to wrestle it out of the mail slot, and at one point thought I was going to have to rip part of it (!) but thankfully I got it out in one piece.

What a week. I've had some absolutely fantastic moments, and some pretty horrible ones too. I'll skim over the horrible since no one really wants those details. I'll just say this: worst stomach flu EVER. On the bright side, I spent a lot of time here at myspace while I was stuck in my apartment and it seems to have paid off. I happened upon James Gunn's blog just as he posted about his Slither giveaway. I knew it was coming up, but because I can't (or at least shouldn't) access myspace from work I hadn't planned on trying to win anything. I was just really lucky that I came online when I did. I won a shooting script of Scooby Doo 2 signed by James, which will be accompanied by a personal note. How cool is that? So, I emailed back and forth with James a couple times to verify info that afternoon. Later the same day, I got an email from Jenna Fischer! I had asked her something about the Cupcake Courier (I must have one!) and she was kind enough to answer. So naturally I'm feeling pretty cocky and the next day I email Brian Baumgartner to try and wrestle some info about the big programming news he teased us about. He wrote back and while he didn't spill the beans, he did give me kudos for trying. There's more! Later that week, while participating in GMMR's buddytv.com chat, someone noticed that a couple of The Office cast members were online, so I emailed Brian to invite him over. I went back to the chat window and about 10 minutes later I refreshed myspace only to find that Brian had immediately replied to my email asking for a direct link to the chat! By the time I sent him the info, he was already offline. So close! If only I had checked my email earlier. So it's been kind of a surreal week. The cast of The Office just amazes me - they are so fantastic in how they interact with their fans. I feel so lucky to have found our little Office family here on myspace. Well, we're not so little anymore, are we?

In other news, I'm heading to a Halloween party this evening and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's. I'll be sure to post some pictures tomorrow.

Whew. That was one long summer of waiting. I'm of course referring to highly anticipated, much-discussed season premiere of The Office. You know, once the season finales come and go in the spring I can usually put them out of my head within a day or two until the shows return. Every now and then there are exceptions. Ross and Rachel about to cross paths at the airport on Friends. Sydney wakes up to find 2 years have passed and Vaughn has moved on to hideous Lauren on Alias. And then there was casino night at Dunder Mifflin. Oh Jim. Oh Pam. Sigh.

So I'm not sure yet how I feel about the season premiere. I mean, as much as I want Jim and Pam to get together, I know it's next to impossible to make a show work when you go ahead and give the fans what they want. It would totally be a "jump the shark" moment if they ended up together as a result of casino night. I watched the show while in the buddytv.com chatroom moderated by GMMR and it was really cool to read everyone's reactions as the episode progressed. Everyone was so appalled as we started finding out the horrible truth. Pam told Jim she had wanted to kiss him since forever too. Yay. Then (in one of my least favourite moments ever from this show) she cheapened the moment by chalking the kiss up to them both being drunk. Oy. Then Jim's mood changed from uber-serious Jim back to normal fun Jim, and he says something like, "I'm not drunk. Wait. Are you drunk?!" It was really cute but just a weird pace change because the scene went from being really heartwrenching and serious to being light-hearted and back to normal. Weird. Then Pam kind of hesitates and shakes her head no, which saved the scene for me. It made chalking up the kiss to being drunk seem like something that she had said because she just didn't know what else to say and I can totally relate to that. Jim asks if she's still going through with the wedding and she nods yes. So painful. But - had to be done. Sadly. But - and this is a big but - I so did not expect to see Ryan sitting at Jim's desk. He actually took the transfer to Stamford and left Pam et al in the dust. We find out in an awkward moment between Pam and Roy that they did not get married when the camera zooms in on her ringless hand. Yay. Yippee. Woohoo!

Anyway, I'm not going to go over the details/conversations etc of the rest of the show, because if you've read this far I think it's safe to say you've seen the show already. But what bothers me about the new season is that the whole dynamic of the show has changed. It's probably a good thing in the end, but it's very hard for me to adjust. Even though Jim's still on the show, he's at a different branch so he's interacting with all new characters. The atmosphere in Scranton is so different without him there. Not just because of Pam. He's Dwight's foil. He's also one of Michael's foils. I'm sure there will be a merger/downsizing on the horizon which will bring Jim back to Scranton, but till then it's going to be weird. Weird isn't necessarily bad, though. I think overall, this was the best way to go with the premiere. I think it has set things up for a great season and it keeps us rooting for Jim and Pam. We want them to work together again. We want them to be friends again. These things can and will happen. We want them to get together. I don't think that can happen just yet.

Bottomline: The show was surprising, hilarious, cringe-worthy on so many levels, scream-worthy (both good and horrified screams), uncomfortable and torturous. Just how I like it. Top 3 moments?

3. Roy's talking head scene - the new look, the mug shot, and his decision to fight for Pam. Delicious.

2. Dwight and the gaydar - Jim sent him the gaydar which was, of course, a metal detector and it goes off because of his belt buckle. That moment was priceless.

1. Jello - Jim's face changes from glee to pure confusion/dread/fear as Ed Helms's character goes off on the garbage can. Ahhh. That was truly great.

After watching the episode I logged to nbc.com for Greg Daniels' blog extravaganza. I just love how the cast and crew are so open to the fans and so giving. It is so rare, which is another reason I love this show so much. I also continued chatting on buddytv.com and we all hashed out our feelings about the episode and what's to come. I had to tape Grey's Anatamy, so I'll watch that now which should be over in time to catch John Krasinki's appearance on Conan. Oy - I'm not getting to bed till very late tonight.

Well thanks for reading my first ever My Space blog. Congrats and kudos to all cast and crew members! The episode was definitely worth the wait. Counting down to next Thursday already...