It’s 49 degrees outside and, basically, midnight, and all I want to do is have a winter picnic.

There’s something about how the moon looks and how it’s cold but not too cold. I think even if it was snowing I’d still want a picnic.

It doesn’t even need to be anything fancy. Something simple, calming and romantic.

Warm blankets wrapped around our shoulders, on top of a hill watching the city lights while drinking hot chocolate with cookies and foil wrapped toasted sandwiches. All the picnic spots in LA close at 10pm. But there are plenty of places to park a car and talk.

My life’s best and most meaningful conversations have been in a car. Car talks are so intimate if you’re with the right person. It’s pretty much completely quiet except for your voices.

Maybe I’ve been reading too many books and watching too many hallmarks. But I think I’ll wait another week until people are finally in the Christmas spirit, have up their lights, and then try to drive around.

Maybe I can convince my boyfriend to wear a matching onesie, get some hot cocoa and drive around. Maybe I can come up with a nice winter sandwich by them. Or maybe make popcorn since well be driving around.

I know picnics are usually associated with summertime. But why not be adventurous and try out a winter picnic?

I love the tv movies that CBS and ABC made in the 60s and 70s. I know they made the cartoons to get more people to watch tv on Christmas, but they put a lot of work into it. All hand drawn or stop motion, with some even having big celebrities of the times like Fred Astaire in Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. The original How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a classic. The animated Rudolph, the red-nose reindeer, still plays every year. And even though I own it on DVD, I still like to watch it on TV; it feels so nostalgic.

Nowadays you have some things that are pure cash grabs. They use the hype of whatever show or movie hoping that will be enough. Some things should never have been made- A Medea Christmas, A Christmas Story 2, the third Santa Clause movie. And then the most hated of them all, the 1978 Star Wars holiday special.

It’s hilarious how divided Star Wars fans are about the movies. You’ll hear things like, “The prequels are so terrible!” or “The sequels are so terrible!” Yet they come together to bash the holiday special.

This thing only ever aired once—November 17, 1978, and never again. It’s funny because that’s my mom’s birthday, so I like to say she cursed Star Wars.

I’m genuinely thankful to those smart enough to record their TVs back then because that made it available online and on YouTube for poor people like me who weren’t born yet.

I watched this a year or two ago because Disney+ made a Lego Star Wars holiday special inspired by the 1978 special. So, of course, I had to see the original.

The basic plot is that Chewbacca wants to go to his home planet to celebrate a Wookiee holiday; if I remember, it’s Christmas mixed with the day of the dead. Chewbacca’s primary goal is to spend the holiday with his wife and his son, lumpy.

It’s an hour and a half long; it wasn’t bad or good; it just was what it was. The plot is inconsistent and there’s a bunch of random cameos.

I watched it, and I only remember one scene. It’s Bea Arthur (Dorothy from Golden Girls) singing. It happens in the cantina, and the song has a cheerful yet melancholy tone. I love this song. I downloaded it, and every time it plays on my phone, I have to remind myself what it’s from because I always forget about the special.

I think tonight I will try to rewatch the special and see if I like it this time.

Also my very first time ever hearing about the special was actually a song that mocks the entire thing.

Are you a even a true Star Wars fan if you haven’t seen the special?

If you have seen it what are your thoughts on it??

There’s something about rain that makes me so happy.

It’s not raining exactly, just a slight drizzle, but it gives me hope. Hope that the holiday season will feel like winter.

California doesn’t get all the seasons. It’s sunny and hot, then windy, and then around Halloween, the weather gets bipolar. And this year is no different.

Something is soothing about the rain. I want a good book and a cup of tea and to lay on a bed or a comfy couch. I should have done that today, but I spent most of the day listening to jazzy Christmas music and stressing over nothing as I rewrote my story for the millionth time before giving up.

I always love listening to Christmas music because I forget about it, and it feels like I find music all over again. It’s very relaxing. The song Warm in December by Julie London is very easy listening. I’ve heard it a million times, but It always feels new to me when I rediscover it.

And I also found a song, not jazz but it’s new to me. Leslie Odom Jr.’s version of Winter Song. I’ve only ever heard the original version.

I really like the lyrics:

“December never felt so wrong,
'Cause you're not where you belong;
Inside my arms.”

I wish it were cold enough for me to keep someone warm in December. I’d love to live somewhere where it snows. I don’t particularly do well in cold weather, but I think it must be nice. I’d love to take a sleigh ride or a horse-drawn carriage.

Is it raining near you? Are you being harassed by the snowfalls I’m dreaming of?