I'm pretty amazed by the popularity of one of the Christmas gifts I gave my oldest daughter, Bard, this year. And it's not just popular with her...the whole family's nutty about it!
Earlier this year, we began reading the Little House on the Prairie books. Finishing them is on my 101 in 1,001 list. I told my kids how much I used to love the television show, starring Michael Landon. I looked up the series on NetFlix, and, sure enough, there it was. Before I could even get it on my queue, the kids had brought one of the DVDs home from the library. We watched the first show in Series One and they were hooked. I have to admit, I was hooked again, too. I had forgotten what an awesome show it was.
The problem came when my dad, who's not very particular about the movies he chooses, brought home a disc from Season 6. I laid down the law. No watching the series out of order! After all, what impact will it have when Mary goes blind? Or how can we fully appreciate what a scoundrel Nellie is when Laura pushes her down the hill in a wheelchair unless we watch all of the awful things Nellie has done to Laura over the years? No more Little House DVDs from the library, I said. You simply must wait until they come from NetFlix. My motivation was to get through the books first, so that they children could see that the television series really wasn't much like the book series at all.
What I didn't expect was how eager the kids were to get their hands on the rest of the DVDs. Bard, for one, was totally into Pa. "You didn't tell me Pa was so hot!" she said. To be honest, it never occured to me. I mean, when I was a kid, Pa was just...Pa. :-/ I wouldn't have minded having him for a dad, to be sure. But that's just because he was warm and loving and wise, which was, ahem, in stark contrast to my own father.
I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping in three places this year. I shopped at Toys R Us for a doll, stroller and play food for the little girls, a local educational toy store for Playmobil stuff, and Sam's Club, because they're so awesome. I bought the kids a cool treehouse playset there, as well as all of my wrapping paper and most of my holiday foods. When I walked into Sam's Club to do my shopping, I decided to check out the DVD aisle. Bard wanted Pirates of the Carribean, so I thought I'd see if they had it.
Nope. No Captain Jack Sparrow here. But, Aha! They do have some good ones.
- Elf, which is a new surprise favorite of mine ("I like smiling. Smiling's my favorite!")
- Miracle on 34th Street, the newer one with Richard Attenborough and that adorable Mara Wilson
- Christmas Classics, with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns, The Little Drummer Boy and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
- And...oh, what's this? The Little House on the Prairie series! Awesome! I buy Series 2 (about 18 hours of shows) immediately because they don't have Series 1 in stock. I find Series 1 later and buy it, too.
I'll tell ya what...these kids, from 15 year-old-Bard all the way down to almost-two-year-old The Baby have just LOVED these shows! I can totally not remember a time when my children literally CHEERED at the TV like they did during Founder's Day or yelled at the screen like they do at the love-to-hate-her Nellie Oelson.
That was awesome programming, don't you think? I'm not a big TV fan. In fact, we don't have cable, satellite or even television reception. Maybe I'm just being overly nostalgic. Are there ANY shows being produced currently that are as awesome and inspiring as Little House?
I highly doubt it.
