Man. It’s like the spirit of Christmas Present has taken over this blog, eh? And it’s not stopping with this post either because I want to talk about one holiday special that aired last night and remind you about another airing tonight.

I’ll do the reminder first so I don’t spoil anyone for what’s already aired. Don’t forget that tonight there is a special Holiday episode of Psych airing at 10/9c. It looks like it’s going to be hilarious and I CAN NOT WAIT! I need my Shawn and Gus fix. Best Christmas present USA could have given me!

You can watch a preview clip of the episode along with two great holiday psych-outs, Deck the Halls and Jingle Bells on USA Network’s website. In the meantime, here’s the promo for it:

Ok, now I’ve got things to say about the Top Chef Holiday Special. It’s amazing how much you don’t realize you miss a show until you get a little slice of it. I really miss Top Chef. The Amazing Race still comes in first on my list of favorite reality shows but Top Chef is breathing down its neck (especially with this season’s TAR so far). So it was great to see several of my favorites back in the kitchen again! Especially Tre, who I always felt was robbed this last season.

Let’s start with the Quickfire Challenge. I thought the game of Dirty Santa was a pretty clever way to incorporate the holiday theme. Of course, I would have liked it even more had they given them a little more challenging of a task. I didn’t think having to just include that incredient in a dish was all that tough. Also, there were really only two dud presents and it felt like there should have been a few more. Fruitcake, anyone?

I was very happy when CJ won that challenge. I really do like him and I always like it when the judge thinks they won’t like something based on the description and then is wowed by the result. Kudos to CJ for that! And there were several other dishes that looked great. I have no idea how they tasted but, if one could judge by looks alone, I’d have had a hard time picking a winner.

Oh wait, I completely forgot the hilarious stockings back at the apartment! How funny was it that they had items that related specifically to each contestant and something that happened to them during their season? The producers must have had a ball thinking up things to do for this episode! It was the perfect way to remind us ways in which each chef stood out in their season.

Ok, on to the main task. I caught myself trying to figure out what was going to happen based on the editing alone. From all the time they spent having Sandie talk about her chocolate pecan pie, I knew we were never going to see it served. I get the concern about desserts but I liked Tre’s approach much more. Focus on getting to the third course, don’t focus on what you’re going to make for it! Surprisingly Marcel was not annoying me at all during the special but I (and everyone I was watching it with) laughed quite a bit when his second course was basically described as “weird, weird, and unpleasant.” Poor Marcel, he’s so misunderstood.

No, no, it was Stephen and Tiffani who were annoying me this time. Stephen clearly not cut out to be a chef. I’m sure he’s much better at the restaurant side of things but he can’t even tell when his dishes are bad. At least the others know when they’ve screwed up a dish. As for Tiffani, well I didn’t like her during the first season and her absence from my TV screen did not make my heart grow fonder. Quite the opposite. She remains one of the most abrasive females ever to walk into the Top Chef kitchen. I’m sure her food is great and her pudding did look yummy but I can’t imagine people actually like working with her in the kitchen.

Needless to say, I was a little disappointed when she won. And, for the record, so was everyone else that I was watching the show with so I know it’s not just my old bias coming into play. I didn’t think she was as consistently good as Tre was and I really do think the judges partly gave it to her because no woman has yet to win at this competition. Because if they had truly gone course to course, they would have decided that Tre came up with four excellent dishes to her three. I think I was also a little disappointed because only one element of her final dish was something that hadn’t already been made by someone who had been eliminated whereas Tre pulled together the food available into a dish that hadn’t existed thirty minutes earlier.

Oh well, they’re both great cooks so I wasn’t exactly screaming at the screen. Plus Tre is such a great sport. Love that he was just happy to have come back and proven himself by getting to the final two. Good for you, Tre! I’d eat your holiday dishes any day!