Through the Opera Glasses - 69 - A Very Supernatural Christmas

Happy New Year!

My husband and I have just returned from a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday with his family in Toronto. More on that later in the week. I'll be putting my Eye Candy Thursday Thirteen series on hold for a few weeks in order to share our trip and other goodies with you, so do drop by on Thursday if you'd like to see what we got up to in the Big City.

Christmas money sent us dashing off to our favorite haunts, and because we're currently in the midst of a Supernatural obsession, we ended up with what you see here in our luggage:

















Gift cards for Chapters brought Supernatural companions for seasons 3, 4 and 5.

The Boxing Day blowout sale at Wal Mart got us the DVD box sets for seasons 1, 2 and 3.

And a last hurrah at HMV found the missing season 4 that was nowhere to be found at Wal Mart.










Now I can get my daily dose of Dean and Sam any time I want. My muse is currently very insistent on daily Dean and Sam.


















Did you indulge in any book/movie/TV/music obsessions this Christmas?

Announcing:

This year A Piece of My Mind will be changing up a few features. One of them is posting every second week for Poetry Train Monday, alternating with Through the Opera Glasses, which used to appear on Tuesday's.

Thursday Thirteen - 186 - 13 Ways to Admire Jared Padalecki

1 - A tall drink of water with a passion for rescuing damsels in distress - furry four-footed damsels, that is. Jared Padalecki is a hero on the small screen and off.











2 - Jared Padalecki - currently appearing as Sam Winchester on Supernatural

6' 4"

Eyes - Hazel/green

Hair - Brown

Type - Athletic / Late 20's

He works as an actor / Animal rescue activist

Works in television / Film














3 - Jared grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and concentrated on acting though he'd once made plans to attend college.

Appeared on Gilmore Girls for five seasons (2000-2005)

Portrayed painter Thomas Kinkade in the made-for-television film The Christmas Cottage (2008)

Like his Supernatural co-star Jensen Ackles, Jared has done a lot of genre work, including:

Friday the 13th remake (2009)
Cry Wolf (2005)
House of Wax (2005)

Next photo is straying into Not Safe For Work territory...

























4 - Jared keeps in tiptop shape for the grueling stunt schedule required of his role on Supernatural.






































5 - No matter how delicious Mr. Padalecki may be, he's strictly eye candy, ladies - he belongs to Mrs. Padalecki, Idaho-bred actress Genevieve Cortese.

Also an actress, Genevieve met Jared on the set of Supernatural, when she had a featured role as an is-she-or-isn't-she-helping-Sam demon named Ruby.


















6 - Jared has appeared for the past six seasons as younger Winchester brother Sam. Along with his older brother Dean, he follows in the footsteps of his father, a hunter of the paranormal. When vengeful spirits, ghouls, angry pagan gods and all manner of gruesome beasts start taking down humans, the Winchesters step in and start taking down monsters.













7 - Sam looks so adorable when he's sad. Just sayin'.

Sam's sensitive nature sometimes pits him against his brother Dean as he tries to find alternatives to destroying the monsters they encounter. Of course, there's a reason Sam needs to believe that monsters can somehow be freed from their own natures.












8 - Remember my soft spot for a man in chains?

...well...

Supernatural gives us a tied-up Sam with wonderful regularity.















9 - And then there's the fact that Evil Sam is disturbingly attractive.














10 - I'm also quite fond of Sam's staring-down-disaster expression.











11 - But it's his straight-man-to-Jensen's-wisecracking role that is Jared's biggest strength.

These two actors hadn't met before being cast as brothers on Supernatural, but the producers played cupid to a real life bro-mance between them. They got along so well, they even lived together before they each married, and they were both there for the other on their wedding days.

Here's a clip that showcases their easy chemistry with each other. The clip has fun with the premise of the show when Dean and Sam need to become patients in a haunted mental health facility. Sometimes it pays to simply tell the truth...

(Note: in the clip they are using aliases.)

CLICK HERE to watch clip















12 - And Jared is an awesome crier.

CLICK HERE to watch clip




















13 - Jared is a serious dog lover and animal rescuer.

His two dogs - Harley and Sadie - were once shelter dogs. Jared helps coax strays off the streets of LA and to raise money for A Dog's Life.

I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas today

Please join me at Popculturedivas for my latest obsession.


Supernatural, which began airing its 6th season last week.


Want to see why I love it so much? Drop on by.