By the end of November 2016, I had watched 15 James Bond movies in 31 days as part of a small project that I started called Breaking the Bonds. Although initially I had set out to watch—and recap as humorously as I could—every single Bond movie within that month, I soon learned that this was a much tougher task than I had estimated. In fact, this project—an extension of my 31 Days of Horror project that I had done the previous month (and of which I was also unable to watch, and write about, a horror movie every single day that month, instead capping off at 17)—started taking over time that should have been spent on my actual writing projects. What started as a silly distraction into the increasingly cartoonish world of James Bond kind of burned me out, to be honest. Although the response to the blog had been positive, by the time I finished the dreadful, non-canonical Never Say Never Again–itself a remake of the terrible Thunderball—I was so sick of James Bond that I swore off the project until I could muster enthusiasm once again for the dashing, quip-filled superspy.

Now, some three weeks later and with a few more pressing writing projects completed, I return to the franchise filled with holiday cheer and some nervous energy that I have to burn off.

However, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this blog held an important place during a harrowing transition in life; watching and writing about James Bond nearly every day gave me a much-needed escape during one of the darker months of my adult life, where my future, monies, and relationship status were up in the air. Watching our favorite super-smooth secret agent punch, shoot, and smooch his way through a life of wealth, adventure, and style provided me with an ideal world to escape into. He was never bad-mouthed and slandered online by vengeful exes, and he never had to move into his parents’ basement in his 30s because he went through a bad breakup.

Anywhoo, with that extremely stressful moment in my life over with, and with only a few weeks left of the brutally cruel year of 2016, I’ve decided to return to the Bond franchise and finish what I’ve started. I only have 9 more films in the franchise left, after all, and from what I hear, they get considerably better after the severe downturn the series experienced in the later Roger Moore outings. Besides, it’s the holiday season, and James Bond movies are popular to marathon around now, so it seems appropriate to resurrect this ghost of a concept in the spirit of Christmas.

Don’t worry: I’m still going to write the recaps in the same flippant and funny tone as before (I know: they were supposed to be funny?). I like to use these intros and conclusions to give a little context to you, my sexy, wonderful reader, as to my frame of mind before and after I go into these runs. Sorry if this entry was a bit of a downer, with the bad breakup/my life shattered to pieces stuff and all, but that’s why bad breakups are not known for their comedic aspects. But it’s all over now, baby blue. Let’s watch some Bond and have some fun before this year is done.