Clueless, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Daria are back on TV!

 

Breaking news! The other day I was scrolling through the guide trying to find something good in the crap that is daytime TV and I came across Daria on Much Music. Then I noticed that Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Clueless were on back-to-back later. So it turns out that on weekdays Much Music airs Daria at 3:00 pm, Sabrina the Teenage Witch at 5:00 pm and Clueless at 5:30 pm! Obviously I set up series recordings for each on my DVR immediately.

Oh, and Much Music also airs Malcolm in the Middle at 7:00 pm on weekdays, but I was less excited about it because my boyfriend recently downloaded it.

Happy Valentine's Day...90's Style!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! To celebrate, I'm going to share some Valentine's Day cards I received during my childhood (sometime in the mid-90's) and have kept all these years.

My Favourite Baby-sitters Club Books

Last Sunday, I posted a list of my favourite Sweet Valley books, so this week I thought I would make a list of my favourite Baby-sitters Club books. My grandma bought me a box full of Baby-sitters Club books (it had at least 25 in it) and it got me hooked. I read pretty much all of the Baby-sitters Club books, including the Little Sister series featuring Kristy's younger step-sister, Karen and the California Diaries series about Dawn and her friends in California. This list is longer than the Sweet Valley one because I read more Baby-sitters Club books than Sweet Valley books.

Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation

This is a Baby-sitters Super Special. The Super Specials were my favourite BSC books. They're twice as long, have a more exciting plot and are told from the point of view of all the baby-sitters instead of focusing on one, as the regular BSC books do. I'm a sucker for summer camp stories - even though I've never been to one - so I loved this book. Also, it reminded me a lot of the BSC movie (they open a summer camp in the film), which made me love it even more. 

Baby-sitters' Winter Vacation

This is another Super Special. I remember liking it even more than the Summer Vacation book, but I can't remember why. All I remember is that it was basically just a winter version of that book. Oh, and I remember I read it during Christmas break one year...I usually try to read a seasonally appropriate book.

The Baby-sitters Remember 

Just one more Super Special for this list. In this one the sitters each share their most vivid memory. I liked how each girl got to tell her own story and the readers got some insight into their past.

 Dawn's Book

Dawn was always my favourite BSC character. This book is part of the Portrait Collection series, which are books which focus on a particular member of the club and basically tell their life story from birth until now. Since I loved Dawn I was very interested to learn more about her life. Living in California sounded like so much fun.

 Stacey's Book

Stacey was my second favourite BSC character, so I enjoyed this glimpse into her past. She talks about her life in New York, her diabetes diagnosis and her parents divorce, all of which I found fascinating.

Beware, Dawn!

I mentioned in my list of favourite Sweet Valley books that I've always loved scary books, so naturally I loved the BSC Mysteries. Since this one featured Dawn and creepy prank phone calls (a BSC version of When a Stranger Calls?!) of course it's one of my favourites.

 Kristy and the Vampires

I enjoyed this BSC Mystery a lot because they're filming a horror movie in Stoneybrook! And I love horror movies.

Mary Anne + 2 Many Babies

I forgot how much I loved this book until last week when I flipped through an old daily planner and at the back there was a list of my favourites and under "Books" I listed this one. In this book their health class does a unit called "Modern Living" where everyone splits into couples and have to pretend they're married, take care of a baby egg and pretend to manage their finances on things like rent, groceries and such.

 I liked this book because I wanted to have a class like this - it's like playing make-believe with your dolls. I always daydreamed about being adult as a kid. I wish I could tell my younger self how overrated being an adult is. I actually got to take care of a baby egg for my parenting class in high school, but it wasn't fun - I basically just put it on a shelf so it wouldn't get broken and forgot about it.

 Dawn and the We Love Kids Club

This one is about Dawn's BSC rip-off in California that she calls the We Love Kids Club. I basically just liked it because it's about Dawn living in California.

 Sunny: Diary 1

This book is part of the California Diaries series, which is a spin-off of the BSC series that focuses on Dawn's life in California. I expected it like the other BSC books, only with no baby-sitting, but it's much darker. I remember buying it at Zellers and my dad seeing the back of the book which says "I hate my life. Despise it. That's all I have to say. Good night." and he asked me why I would want to read a book like that. I ended up enjoying it a lot because I thought Sunny was such a cool character. She skips school to hang out at the beach with cute boys.

Guide to Baby-sitting

I always wanted to start my own Baby-sitters Club, so I got this book to help me. I never did, but I did end up baby-sitting sans club and this book had some helpful tips to keep kids entertained.

  Karen's in Love

This Little Sister book prompted me to have a wedding with my crush, but sadly he declined. Honestly, what little boy would allow another little girl to "marry" him and kiss her in front of all of his friends? Can you say whipped?

 Karen's Prize

I liked this book so much I read it twice in one day. Since I'm a fairly good speller (even without spell check!) I always wanted to enter a spelling bee to see if I could win, but we never had them at my school.

Karen's Doll

I just loved this one because I had an obsession with dolls.

 Jump Rope Rhymes

I played jump rope many recesses during my childhood and used many of these rhymes with my friends. 

10 Favourite Christmas Specials From My Childhood

1. The Nutcracker Prince

I didn't just watch this at Christmas, I watched it all year long. This was one of my favourite movies as a child. I named several of my dolls after the main character, Clara. Also, I remember bringing my VHS copy to watch when my Grandma babysat my brother and I. Oh, how I wished I were Clara. Her dolls came to life and she had an adventure with them! And her nutcracker turned into a cute boy! I wanted her life so badly, but instead I settled for living vicariously by watching this video over and over and over and over and over.

2. Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas

Goof Troop was one of my favourite cartoons as a child, so naturally I loved this Christmas special as well. The Reindeer Rumba (a song and dance that Max invented when he was younger) is so catchy. I watched this last week on youtube and have had it stuck in my head since.

3. A Flintstone Family Christmas

When I was younger I loved the Flintstones specials that featured Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as grownups: I Yabba-Dabba Do!, Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby and this Christmas special. In this special, Fred bonds with an orphan named Stoney and makes him a part of the Flintstone family. It was even nominated for an Emmy Award. There are a few other great Flintstones Christmas specials:

4. For Better or Worse: A Christmas Angel

An uplifting Christmas special, based on the comic strip. Elizabeth is feeling overlooked because she's the middle child - "too big to be little and too little to be big." When April breaks their mother's beloved Christmas angel, Elizabeth is blamed for not watching her. So Elizabeth goes sledding to blow off steam but runs into a tree and gets a concussion. When she wakes up, she doesn't know where she is, but comes across a cottage where a nice old lady makes her feel better about being the middle child and helps her home. Meanwhile, the rest of the family has been panicking. When they realize that Elizabeth is home, they're relieved and apologize for the way they acted. At the end, Elizabeth gives her mother an angel that she made herself and she loves it.

5. Mickey's Christmas Carol

This has always been my favourite version of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge McDuck (who went on to star in another of my favourite cartoons: DuckTales) is Scrooge, Mickey is Bob Cratchit, Donald Duck is Scrooge's nephew, Goofy is Jacob Marley, Daisy Duck is his ex-fiance, Jiminy Cricket is the Ghost of Christmas Past, Willie the Giant is the Ghost of Christmas Present and Pete is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

6. The Muppet Christmas Carol

The Muppets also did their own version of A Christmas Carol, but with more singing. Obviously, Kermit plays Bob Cratchit and Miss Piggy plays Mrs. Cratchit. Scrooge is played by Michael Caine.

7. Frosty Returns

I know that Frosty the Snowman is a Christmas classic, but I always liked this sequel better. If you've heard the song, "Frosty the Snowman," then you know the plot of the cartoon. But Frosty Returns has an all-new plot about Summer Wheeze, a spray that melts snow. It also features new songs like "Let There Be Snow."

8. Pluto's Christmas Tree

This short is only 7 minutes long, but despite its length it is still very entertaining. Mickey and Pluto find the perfect Christmas tree but are unaware that it's home to two chipmunks named Chip and Dale. Pluto's Christmas Tree aired on TV in the 80's and 90's as part of a full hour of Disney Christmas cartoons. The others included Mickey's Christmas Carol (see above), The Art of Skiing (Goofy learns to ski) and Donald's Snowfight (Donald has a snowball fight with Huey, Duey and Louie). I can remember watching this on TV as a child and loving it. I wish they still aired all of them together.

9. Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

This was a straight to video release that came out in 1997. I remember getting this VHS for Christmas that year. Beauty and the Beast was my favourite Disney film and while this sequel wasn't quite as good, I still loved it.

10. It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special

Tiny Toon Adventures was yet another of my favourite cartoons as a child, so I was a fan of this Christmas special as well.