Thank you Shore Fire Media for sending us a digital version of this CD to review!

As a proud owner of the first two Greatest Video Game Music CDs I’ve been very happy with their symphonic renditions of many video game songs that I hold dear to my heart.  I can even appreciate songs from games I have yet to play.  The first two CDs were performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and they did not disappoint.  The third entry features the Oprhei Drangar, an 80-piece Swedish choir and the female vocalist, Myrra Malmberg.  

The track list spans though several popular game series including Assassin’s Creed, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy, God of War, Minecraft, Portal, Skyrim, The Last of Us, and World of Warcraft.  There are thirteen tracks in total and some games have multiple tracks like Final Fantasy X and Skyrim.

My favorite song on the CD that I’m already familiar with is Skyrim – Dragonborn.  I was also familiar with Portal’s Still Alive, but I’m still a fan of the original rendition (though the choral version is still nice.)  Even though I haven’t played Dragon Age: Inquisition, the theme is really well done and is a pleasure to listen to.    The choir is very prominent (and rightfully so!) in most of the songs, but I couldn’t tell if they actually sang in the Minecraft song, Sweden.  The symphony did an excellent job and my kids enjoyed that song the most on the CD, but the choir was either not performing in it or were drowned out by the orchestra. 

Gamers who have played any of the games mentioned in this review should check out this CD and its predecessors.  The audio CD sells for $11.99 on Amazon or in digital form on iTunes for $9.99.

Thank you Airbud Entertainment for sending us this DVD, shirts, a mini barrel of monkeys game, some coupons for free rice and a monkey bag to carry it all in!  

My kids were excited to see this movie, especially after meeting its star actor, Crystal, the monkey who plays Monty in Monkey Up.  Crystal is 22 years old and has been in several movies including Dr. Dolittle 1&2, Night at the Museum, Zoo Keeper, George of the Jungle and many of the Buddies movies including Treasure Buddies, Spooky Buddies, and Super Buddies.  Monkey Up is her first movie where she takes the lead role.

Monkey Up is about an egotistical talking monkey, Monty, who is full of himself and wants to become a big time movie star instead of being the spokesperson for Monkey Up, a sugary energy soft drink.  Monty hears about an upcoming movie role, but the director would rather use a CGI monkey instead of one that’s full of himself and doesn’t know the first thing about family.  Instead of heading back to his trainer to do more commercials, he runs away and hides in a doll house.  

The doll house is delivered that night to a girl named Sophie whose family is a bit dysfunctional with her father switching jobs and her mother putting her career above her family’s needs. Her brother Ethan is nice to her, but is more interested in getting to know their new neighbor girl than spending time with her.  

Thank you Brigade Marketing for sending us a screener of this short film to review!

Waves ’98 is a short film (15 minutes in length) that takes place in Beirut in 1998. Omar is a teenager that is depressed with all of the somber news, his parent’s financial situation, and the rundown neighborhood he lives in.    One of his methods of escape for him is to sit on top of his school’s rooftop to view the parts of the segregated city that he has never seen before.  While he’s outside he’s seen smoking a cigarette, though the vision he sees later makes me wonder if it was just tobacco.

Later Omar is shown riding a scooter and I like how the real life images are blended into the animated environment. The scooter scene is primary real time footage and for once, the animated scenes take a back seat.  The animation becomes front and center again when Omar comes face to face with a giant golden elephant.  Omar enters into the elephant and is joined with a few other teenagers who are looking for a similar escape. 

The friends get to experience fun times at a beach and witness sea creatures swimming in space?  Their time together is short lived as reality creeps back in.  The ending isn’t very clear and had my husband and I scratching our heads and wondering what the overall message was.  Despite the confusing elements and subtitles (the default language is Arabic), we were captivated by the story and neat visual effects.   

If you like short animated films Waves ’98 is worth checking out though I’m not aware of any way to view it in its entirety.  The trailer can be seen at its website.   At the Cannes Film Festival, it was given the Palm D’or which is the highest tier prize awarded.

Thank you Click Communications for sending us this Blu-ray to review!

Bridge of Spies takes place during the Cold War in 1957 and is based on true events.  A Soviet spy has been captured and needs to be tried for his crimes.  The people are afraid of nuclear warfare and want swift and deadly justice to keep our country safe.  But who wants to defend this war criminal?  An insurance lawyer, Jim Donovan, gets the patriotic privilege of being Rudolf Abel’s legal counsel.

Despite his family’s concerns for their reputation and safety, Jim accepts the job and represents Mr. Abel honorably.  In fact, the cards are stacked against Rudolf and some legal shortcuts were taken to get him into court.  Even when the legal discrepancies are brought forward, they are disregarded by the judge.  Jim Donovan doesn’t give up and stands his ground and pleads for the court system to spare Rudolf’s life as a good gesture towards Russia.

While the arraignment proceedings are taking place, a top secret U.S. pilot is shot down in Russia and a U.S. student is captured while being on the wrong side of the newly erected Berlin wall.  Jim Donovan goes above and beyond the call of duty of simply representing Rudolf Abel, and is instrumental in negotiating his safe return to his family.

Without spoiling any more details from the movie, I will say that it’s well worth watching for yourself. When I saw that Bridge of Spies was directed by Steven Spielberg and starred Tom Hanks, I had my expectations set pretty high.  I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed and highly recommend it.  Bridge of Spies is rated PG-13 due to strong language (a few SOB’s and F-bombs) and violence.  There are some emotional scenes with people losing their lives trying to reunite with loved ones on the other side of the Berlin wall.  Anyone who likes movies about war or justice should definitely check out Bridge of Spies.

Thank you Falco Ink for sending us this DVD to review!

David Lyfe had a good life, a nice house, a great job, a pretty wife and daughter, and a baby on the way.  He was a wonderful dad and a loving husband.  Things couldn’t get much better until he found out that his company was merging with another bank.  He detested having to fly out to California to lay off the people he personally hand-picked for that location.  To make matters worse, once that was handled, he was given the same lay-off spiel by his boss! To cope with the news David decided to drown away his sorrows at the hotel bar.

It’s there that he meets a lonely housewife named Amy and they share stories about each other’s life and spouses.  David is happy in his marriage, but Amy is not since her husband doesn’t pay much attention to her and her desire to have kids.  I’d like to say that they parted ways but instead David makes a mistake that will cost him his family, house, and job opportunities.  

When David hits rock bottom, he meets up with a pastor and starts to stay at their homeless shelter.  The pastor’s daughter took an interest in David since she sensed her deceased mother’s “presence” around him and knew that he deserved a second chance.  Can David repent of his sins and regain his wife’s trust and earn her forgiveness?  You’ll have to watch this eighty-two-minute film that has earned Dove awards for yourself.  It’s recommended for audiences that are twelve and older and I agree with that rating.    Although intimacy is not shown, it is implied and there are alcohol references.

Overall I found the movie enjoyable, but predictable.  The acting is decent and the main character is a good guy who makes one mistake and pays dearly for it.  The wife is rightfully hurt and her mother (who was cheated on numerous times) is pushing for her to divorce him.  As a Christian I like the message of redemption, but I’m not so fond of the spiritual sensing that the pastor’s daughter had with the local homeless residents. 

Thank you Bohlsen Group for sending us this book to review!

The author Frank Wilkins was an agnostic that was seeking factual evidence that God exists.  There have been many documented miracles in recent history and numerous “coincidences” that have impacted our world’s development in a huge way.  Did you know that a mysterious fog settled in the Battle of Long Island that let George Washington evacuate his 9,000 men without being detected and with no loss of life?  Without this “providential fog” as history books describe it, America’s history could have been altered severely.  

Another interesting historical figure is Joan of Arc, an insignificant peasant girl that was guided by visions and helped Charles VII recover France from English rule.  Her leadership and military victories as a mere teenager are unheard of and leave little explanation other than divine appointment. As a side note, the game Jeanne d’Arc covers much of the same events!  

The author also talks about a personal encounter with demonic possession and how he has found faith in God through Catholicism.  While many Catholics may appreciate the accounts of apparitions describing themselves as the “perpetual virgin” or the “lady of the rosary”, other Christian denominations will disagree with those titles.  I was also turned off by the author’s recommendation to pray daily to St. Michael the Archangel.  1 Timothy 2:5 states that we have one mediator between God and man and that is Jesus. 

More recent miracles mentioned in the book include the visions and predictions given by the "virgin Mary" to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal.  The apparition predicted and described World War 1,2 and that two out of the three children would not live long lives while the third died in 2005.   All three of the children were given a glimpse of hell and their whole town got to witness and document the sun dancing in the sky on October 13, 1917.  While these events are well documented, these visions could very well be demons rather than Mary.  After all, Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).

Thank you Anchor Bay for sending us this DVD to review!

Love Finds You in Charm is based on the book Love Finds You in Charm, Ohio by Annalisa Daughety.  It’s about a young Amish woman named Emma Miller who fantasizes about living outside of the Amish community and doesn’t feel like she belongs.  To make matters worse, Emma feels that she is failing as a role model for her younger sister with her reading habits and longing to explore the world before deciding to join the Amish community.  

If Emma chooses to become a member of the Amish church, she has a marriage offer from Jacob who cares for her more than she does for him.

While she has a good life ahead of her in Indiana, Emma can’t help but wonder what the outside world has to offer.  Sensing her discontentment, Emma’s father sends her to her cousin’s farm for the summer to lend a hand during the tourist season.  Her cousin is a recent widow that lives in another Amish community in Charm, Ohio.  Without much hesitation, Emma packs her bags and hops on a train.

Thank you BH Impact for sending us this DVD to review!

Most Christians agree that Mary played a crucial role in bringing our savior into this world in His human form.  His conception was divine since Mary was not yet married and a virgin.  When she was visited by an angel, she accepted God’s will without thinking about the social stigma that would be placed on her or the emotional suffering that was to come.  She is truly a role model of humble submission. 

With that said, there are arguments in Christian circles that some denominations put too much emphasis on Mary believing that she can mediate between Jesus and mankind, that she too was sinless, and remained a virgin after marriage.  The Bible clearly states that Jesus is our mediator (1 Tim 2:5), all have sinned (Rom 3:23, Luke 2:24), and that Jesus had earthly siblings (Matt 12:47).  

The movie Full of Grace does not show any of her offspring caring for her towards the end of her life.  Instead, a (presumably fictional) woman named Zara is shown tending to her.   Sensing that her time on earth is dwindling, Mary sends word to Peter that she would like to speak with him one more time.

Thank you Sony Pictures for sending us this DVD to review!

The Kendrick brothers have been upping the ante with each film they have released.  I have enjoyed their previous entries including Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and Courageous.  While I have heard good things about War Room, I wasn’t familiar with the movie’s premise.  I assumed it took place in strategy room during a major war.  While I wasn’t completely off-base, this movie wasn’t what I anticipated at all and it exceeded my expectations.  I think it’s safe to say that the movies from the Kendrick brothers get better with each release.  

War Room begins with Clara Williams by her husband’s grave forty years after his passing.  He was a decorated war strategist and was very good at his position.  She realizes that war is a part of life, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare.  Clara is a devout Christian and spends much of her day in her bedroom closet praying for her family and friends.  While her closet is lacking clothes, its walls are covered in Bible verses and prayer requests.  At first glance it does look like an old fashioned war room.    

When it comes time for Clara to put her house up for sale she meets Elizabeth Jordan (played by Priscilla Shirer), a real estate agent whose marriage is falling apart. Their biggest issue is that they are putting their careers over the needs of each other and their daughter, Danielle.  Their romance is gone and Danielle is growing more distant and feels neglected each day.  

Thank you Greenleaf and Associates for sending us a screener to watch!

Susie’s Hope is based on a true story about the origin of North Carolina’s House Bill 1609 (dubbed Susie’s law) that authorizes up to ten months of jail time for people found guilty of cruelty to animals.  The movie begins with Donna and Roy Lawrence playfully bickering over the gender of their first unborn baby.  Since they don’t have kids yet, their gray poodle named Baby Girl is treated as one.   She is quite pampered and is dressed up in unique outfits with tiaras for various events.  

Despite it annoying her husband, Donna has a soft heart for animals that are neglected in her neighborhood.   Donna and her friend Ramona started taking care of a pit bull nearby that was malnourished and tied to a tree for several days.  After days successfully caring for it, Donna was brutally attacked by this dog and barely survived.  Thankfully she was able to break free and managed to meet Ramona who took her in the hospital in the nick of time.  The wounds were severe enough for Donna to lose her baby and any chance of getting pregnant again.

Both Donna and her husband mourned the loss of their unborn child, but Donna wished that her life was taken as well.  She wondered why God spared her and what the purpose of her life was.  Donna found her answer at a playground when she was taking a walk with Ramona.  In the grass was a mangled puppy that they thought was dead.  Surprisingly, it was still alive and was taken to the Guilford County Animal Shelter where they worked around the clock to treat the third degree burns, broken jaw, and hundreds of maggots found on the puppy.  

Thank you Brigade Marketing for sending us a screener to review!

Sound of Redemption – The Frank Morgan Story was successfully Kickstarted in July of 2012.  It’s a documentary about the jazz saxophone legend who spent a good majority of his life in and out of San Quentin’s maximum security prison.  While Frank was in prison he was in a band that put on paid performances and was treated well by the warden.

Many of Frank’s incarcerations were drug or theft related.  To finance his heroin addiction, he often fenced stolen property.  In fact, he once stole some recording equipment in front of Stevie Wonder while he was practicing in a music studio!  

Frank Morgan rubbed shoulders with many legends including his inspiration, Charlie “Bird” Parker.  Despite his dad being a guitarist for the group Ink Spots, it was Charlie Parker’s smooth saxophone playing that swayed Frank to follow in his footsteps.  By the tender age of fourteen, Frank was good at playing the alto saxophone and played in various clubs in California including the one his dad owned, Casablanca.

Thank you uFashion3C for sending us a review sample!

Every morning I remember to put some pants on. However, I don’t always choose to wear sweat pants with built in pockets. As luck would have it, those are typically days with ideal weather for walking the dog or riding my bike. For short shopping trips I like to ride my bike and I need to have my phone on me for the inevitable phone call asking me to pick up another item while I’m at the store. Without pockets, what am I to do?

My fluorescent yellow fanny pack is an option, though long out of style. Even if I did have my phone in there I wouldn’t be able to interact with it without removing it from the fanny pack. The universal running waist pack solved that problem with a slim design and a plastic window that accepts your swipes without having to remove the phone. The model reviewed supports iPhone 6/6S/6S Plus, and the Samsung Galaxy S5, S6, as well as Note 4/5. My Galaxy S4 with an Otterbox cover worked just fine. 

Another great feature is the headphone jack port that lets you connect ear buds to your phone without having to remove it from the belt. The straps are adjustable up to a 48” waist and the water resistant/sweat proof material is smooth and soft to the touch. (Much softer than my fanny pack!)

There are a wide variety of colors available from fluorescent pink, green, blue to dark blue, red, white and black. My hubby was bummed that I chose hot pink. For an additional ten dollars, hydration models sporting two water bottles are available. The base model is a reasonable $9.99 on Amazon and ships free if you’re a prime member. If you’re into exercising and don’t want to miss a call, then I highly recommend picking up a running belt from uFashion3C. 

Thank you Content Media Corp for sending us a screener to review!

The Halo series began in 2001 and after a few studio swaps, is still going strong to this day.  The current studio, 343 Industries, and Microsoft have worked together to make Halo: The Fall of Reach. It is based off of the popular book and is a prequel to the games, which discloses the backstory of John 117, also known as Master Chief.  

John and seventy-four other genetically superior children were handpicked by Dr. Catherine Halsey to participate in an elite soldier program called Spartan.  These six-year-old children were taken from their families (with robotic clones left in their place) and raised in a harsh military environment.  In order to survive, or even be fed, these children had to learn to work together as a team.  John was a natural born leader and it showed.

After several trials that sometimes proved deadly, the worst was yet to come, augmentation.  The surgical procedures shown in this film are a bit gruesome and the fatality rate was 36% as these procedures were experimental and inhumane in many cases.  The doctor questioned her motives, but in the end was convinced that the ends would justify the means as these Spartan soldiers were humanity’s only defense from the Covenant threat.

Thank you MPRM for sending us a screener of this film!

Many people are familiar with the humanitarian work that Mother Theresa has done in India.  She tried to deflect all of the recognition to God and said that she was merely a “pencil in God’s hand.”  In fact, she nearly declined accepting her 1979 Nobel Peace prize in person, but was later convinced to go to spread awareness of the poverty situation in India.  All of her tireless and mostly thankless work took a toll on her spiritual life and she confessed to feeling alone and isolated from God in various letters between her and her spiritual mentor, Archbishop Ferdinand Perier.

The film, The Letters opens up with a miraculous healing being accredited to a picture of Mother Theresa healing a tumor from a woman in India in 1998, a year after Mother Theresa’s death.  A priest is sent to investigate this miracle, one of the two required for sainthood in the Catholic church.  While investigating her life, the priest talks to Archbishop Ferdinand Perier and is given access to the letters which Mother Theresa wished to have destroyed. 

Because the letters still existed, the Vatican priest was able to gain insight from her selfless life and devotion to the poor.  While Mother Theresa began as a teacher in the Loreta Convent in India, she longed to help the destitute that were outside of the convent walls.  There was civil unrest when India became its own nation in 1947 and streets were unsafe for the students and nuns in the convent.  On a sabbatical, Mother Theresa received a calling from God to devote her life and to serve the destitute.  The Mother General at the convent doubted her calling, but the Vatican approved it and the eventual founding of the Missionaries of Charity which began with a dozen nuns and is now four-thousand strong. Despite the decline of many Christian organizations and churches, this ministry for the poor is growing.

Thank you No Starch Press for sending us this book to review!

Teach Your Kids to Code is a book designed for parents and kids to work together and learn the Python programming language.  The author, Dr. Bryson Payne has been teaching computer science to students of all ages from kindergarten to college age pupils at the University of North Georgia.  There are ten chapters that will cover the basics of installing Python, pygame, and learning about graphics, variables, loops, conditions, animations and accepting user input.

Most of the heavy lifting is done by the Python libraries turtle and pygame.  With turtle kids can learn to make programs that generate spirals and other neat shapes in various colors. After launching a turtle program or two you’ll quickly realize how it got its name as even an i7 desktop takes a few minutes to render the final product.

The coding itself is pretty straight forward and the book does an excellent job explaining what each function does and pieces it together bit by bit and combines it into a final program at the end.  One important factor that my daughter and I both learned is that spacing/indenting is critical in Python.  If a function is not properly indented, the program will simply not run and there will be no error code to assist you in the debugging process.  Typos are relatively easy to catch with the syntax errors, but indentation, not so much.  Fortunately, the source code and required media files are readily available on the book’s website.

Thank you EG PR for sending us a screener link!

Many people enjoy at least one cup of coffee throughout the day.  I must admit that I’m not one of them.  I’ve tried coffee before, but in order for me to enjoy it, I had to drown out the taste with so much milk and sugar that I may as well just drink a glass of milk instead.  After watching Caffeinated, there’s a good chance I just drank some crappy coffee and perhaps a specialty coffee may change my opinion on this popular commodity.

Even though coffee isn’t a big part of my life, the production of it is truly fascinating and this two-hour documentary explains how it is planted, harvested, hand sorted, washed, de-pulped, dried, roasted and then processed or prepared by a barista.   While the movie does mention mass produced coffee, its main focus is on specialty coffee and the farmers that make it.

Farmers from Nicaragua, India, Mexico, Turkey, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Guatemala are all interviewed to share how they rely on this fruit for their livelihood.  I learned that coffee comes from two different plant types, Arabica and Robusta, and that they grow in 4-6,000 feet altitude in the tropical band of our planet.   The Robusta plant is heartier and produces coffee beans with more caffeine and sugar, but less of an aroma.

Thank you Rogers and Cowen for sending us this DVD to review!

I have read and listened to the Bible in different formats and in a few translations.  I have also seen many film adaptions of Biblical stories and the life, death, and resurrections of Jesus.  Many of these films and story books leave out verses and some context from the scriptures.  The Gospel of John doesn’t have that issue as this is a word-for word movie adaptation of the entire book of John.  It has support for many different languages and translations.  I found it humorous that the KJV version is in stereo while the NIV translation is in 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio.  I guess those still stuck on the old fashioned KJV don’t have modern stereo equipment?      

The Bible translation is spoken over the Aramaic dialogue of the actors.  I didn’t recognize any of the actors in this film or even Jesus at first.  He didn’t look like typical painting portrayals of being Caucasian with brown hair.  In this movie he was more Semitic with black hair and a beard with a touch of gray in it.    

While my kids watched this 161-minute movie with us, it did lose the attention of my youngest a couple of hours into it.  Thankfully the whipping and crucifixion scenes were not as graphic as depicted in The Passion.  The message was very clear and touching to the point of putting a lump in my throat a couple of times.  

Thank you Harper Collins for sending us a copy of this book to review! 

I've never heard of Tim Hawkins or the term Jackwagon before. Tim Hawkins is a Christian comedian whose humor is suitable for the whole family to enjoy, despite some whiskey references here and there.  Since I didn't get an explanation of the title in the 209 page book, I looked up the term jackwagon and discovered that it's another way of calling somebody lazy or worthless. 

Diary of a Jackwagon is a collection of humorous and random thoughts and stories compiled in a span of twenty years.  There are forty-one chapters that are typically  a couple of pages each and there is no chronological order to them.  At the end of each chapter is a "Tweet Thought" which is a short joke ideal for the likes of Twitter.  My favorite one is "Mr. Literal then proceeded punching himself in the face in an effort to fight back tears."

I must admit that I smiled most of the time when reading this book and there were several moments where I laughed out loud.  I showed a friend the Turquoise Toilet chapter and she laughed herself to tears.  I'm not sure if the story is true or not, but it talks about Tim taking his kids to Home Depot to give his wife a much needed break.  He didn't anticipate buying a toilet but felt obligated to do so after it was gently used by one of his children.  

I enjoyed the comparisons of today's playgrounds to the ones I grew up with as a kid.  I too remember the ground being made of gravel or concrete with real see-saws and slides made of steel that are both fast and HOT in the summertime.  The parody songs about junk food and home schooling are entertaining as well.  

Thank you Bohlsen Group for sending us a copy of this book to review!

There are many theories about the end times, the anti-Christ and the mark of the beast.  I have read theories of the anti-Christ being the current or future President or Pope.  While the Catholic church is referenced as the “wounded head of Revelation,” the author, Ezra Celestin believes that the Beast of Revelations is not an obvious target.

The Catholic church got its “wounded head” from the reformation movement and the Protestants are still in the dark to the truth, unlike the Seventh Day Adventists.  E.G. White is quoted in the first chapter saying “We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn.  God and heaven alone are infallible.  Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed.  As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed.”  Despite the obvious ties with the Seventh Day Adventist church, this book was an insightful read.

I got quite the history lesson with the fall of the Roman empire, the origins of the reformation movement, the French Revolution, and World War II.  There are many Bible verses quoted to back up claims of the four great kingdoms being Babylon as the head of gold, Media and Persia are the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs are Greece and the legs of iron represent Rome in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision.  Daniel’s vision of the four beasts are translated as the lion representing Babylon, the bear is Media and Persia, Greece is the leopard with four wings and four heads, and Rome is depicted as the beast with ten horns.  

*spoiler alert* As for the beast itself, it’s none other than the Unites States with its calling down fire upon Japan in World War 2.  Also, if you add up the number of people in the president’s cabinet, legislative and judicial branches the number comes out to 666.  With the Republican and Democratic parties, the United States fits the description of the two-horned beast while the United Nations is the image of it.  */spoiler*

Thank you MPRM for sending us this DVD to review!

Shelby is a beagle that has lived in a dog pound for as long as he can remember.  He has a habit of escaping at every opportunity, and Doug the dog catcher (played by Tom Arnold) catches him every time.  Just when Shelby was about to be generously adopted by a rich mother and her spoiled son, Shelby manages to escape once again.  

Instead of running home free, Shelby gets hit by a truck and is taken in by the man who hit him since the vet’s office was closed for Christmas.  The wife can’t stand dogs, but she doesn’t get to meet Shelby as he slips out of the truck and into their basement as soon and the husband pulls into their driveway.  Their son, Jake finds Shelby and takes a liking to him and names him after his favorite magician, P. T. Shelby.  Jake bonds to Shelby right away since he doesn’t have any human friends.

Between Shelby and Jake’s uncle’s dog who is also uninvited, things get pretty hairy around Christmas dinner. Doug the dog-catcher comes by looking for Shelby and sneaks a peek of Jake’s mom changing her shirt after wine got spilled on it.  Besides the relatively tame peep show, there is plenty of potty humor involving laxatives and breaking the law to take stuff that is not legally yours.  In the end there is one good lesson taught, and that is to never beat an animal under any circumstance.  There are some warm and fuzzy moments at the end about Christmas being all about family and togetherness.  That’s all fine and good but I still prefer Jesus to be front and center during our Christmas celebration.