Christmas morning

Well, it's Friday, Sept. 30. When it first occurred to me that I really, really, really wanted to see the film Serenity, today seemed like a long, long time away. And now it's here.

It feels like those many-years-ago Christmas mornings. The movie theater is a big evergreen tree with shiny surprises wrapped underneath. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm getting, but will it be as wonderful as I'm expecting? And will the things I don't expect be cool - like an old record album I never knew existed - or lame, like a tie I'll never wear?

It also feels like more recent Christmas mornings, after I figured out that watching people react to my gifts is even more fun than receiving. Will Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite and all the others involved with the film like the crowds we give them? Will it be enough to justify continuing adventures? I'm fairly confident on that score, but I've been known to get overly anticipatory. I was shocked, for example, when "Brian Wilson Presents Smile" didn't debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. No. 13 was pretty good for 37-year-old music, but still ... Is No. 1 too much to ask for a movie based on an obscure science fiction TV show? To me it feels like the birth of the next Big Damn Movie Franchise, but who am I?

A promise, though: I'll keep this space spoiler free. I still remember that otherwise beautiful day in June 1984, when I was going to see "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and the local paper had a feature on all the Trekkies who went to opening night the day before. In the third paragraph they quoted one fan saying, "I can't believe they blew up the Enterprise." I vowed never to do that to a fellow film fan. I won't even tell you who Rosebud is, and almost everyone knows that.

Update, 5:41 p.m.: Oh my goodness, I'm exhausted. And it was the best Christmas ever!