I’ve been awfully neglectful of this blog since I started writing at Forbes.com. I resolve to do better in 2019.

We just finished a great Christmas, although one that came and went way too fast. But even so, Miss ViVi and I knocked out pretty much all of our “canon” of old Christmas movies that we watch every year, plus a good bunch of extras.

It all got me thinking back to one of my favorite Christmases ever. My oldest brother John had gone off to college, but was home on break. And cable TV had just expanded by a station called “TBS,” which commenced to showing endless movies for our enjoyment.

At some point during the break, John and I got onto a kick of watching them far, far into the night. It was a mix of the same old Christmas classics my wife and I have watched every year since we were married – “Holiday Inn” and “White Christmas,” for example. But TBS also threw in other old gems – “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” and “It’s a Bikini World,” among others.

I lost a lot of sleep during that vacation. But I got to spend hours and hours with my big brother, whom I admired a lot then and admire even more today (but don’t anyone tell him I said that, because he’ll get a big head). And I got started on a holiday pastime that has lasted for decades and become a staple of my marriage.

I’ll think I’ll cue up “It’s a Bikini World” for Miss ViVi tonight…