Merry Christmas!
Thank you for sticking with me through the countdown! Enjoy your holiday and I will see you in the new year!
Cheers!
Gidget and the Boy
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 24
Watching this movie on Christmas Eve is a tradition in my family. I love it. It's not necessarily a Christmas movie, but it always puts me in the holiday spirit. The boy and I particularly bonded over this scene. Excuse the poor quality. Happy Christmas Eve! And remember, It's a Wonderful Life!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 23
Today is my birthday....today is also my little brother Tyler's birthday! It is an extra special birthday cause year after year we get to share it together and I never received a better birthday gift than 21 years ago when I got my new baby brother.
{Here's one of our past birthday celebrations; I think I am turning 11 and Tyler is turning 5.}
Happy Birthday Tyler!
{Here's one of our past birthday celebrations; I think I am turning 11 and Tyler is turning 5.}Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 22
Santa Claus is Coming to Town!
If you have been reading this blog regularly, I am sure you are aware of my obsession over Mr. Bruce Springsteen. Here's a very special Christmas video from Bruce that I simply must share! Enjoy!
If you have been reading this blog regularly, I am sure you are aware of my obsession over Mr. Bruce Springsteen. Here's a very special Christmas video from Bruce that I simply must share! Enjoy!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Countdown to Christmas~ Day 21
Oh to be in England!
I am traveling to Haywards Heath by way of London today to meet up with the boy's family. I am so excited to see all of them and begin my British Holiday! {Christmas is almost here! Can you believe it?}
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Christmas Countdown ~ Day 20
In the Bleak Midwinter: Part 3
by The Boy
In some ways the ultimate song of and about Christmas melancholy is Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas. In three verses, intertwined with the Troika section from Profkiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, Lake boils the imagist nonsense out of the fabric of
Christmas, in pursuit of an honest, straightforward message that speaks more of our lifelong need than our immediate desire. Somehow, like Raymond Briggs' The Snowman (pic right), Lake manages to hint at the struggle to feel the magic of Christmas as an adult - to regain that sense of wonderment once it's been colored by a deeper understanding of human frailty and corruption. The fact that by the song's end the narrator, if you will, has managed to regain that sense of the magic of Christmas is hardly an uplifting climax. Because once the canvas has been painted black, you can't paint a blue sky over it.
I don't actually think that's true in art terms. I don't paint, though, so I don't know.
It's not an entirely consistent song - it isn't clear, from start to finish, what it is that Lake finds so abhorrent about the Christmas he has been sold - and the fact that he ends with the line 'the Christmas we get we deserve' is a bit odd. I mean, if I have a crap Christmas, couldn't that be because I'm poor, or because I've been shot by my best friend or because I've lost the use of my ears due to working very hard in mines?
But melancholy was never entirely neat, perfected and comprehensible, by its very nature it tends towards idiosyncratic expressions and undiluted bitterness. But Lake's song is certainly indicative of a general trend in melancholy Christmas songs to pull back the veneer of the joyous, perfect Christmas as an intelligent, compassionate creature and understand our reasoning better. Why do we force up this light from the depths of darkness?
These songs, maybe more than your regular upbeat Chrimbo tunes, get at a fundamental, oft-mistook truth: Christmas is a communal expression of hope.
May your Christmas be a hopeful one.
-The Boy
by The Boy
In some ways the ultimate song of and about Christmas melancholy is Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas. In three verses, intertwined with the Troika section from Profkiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite, Lake boils the imagist nonsense out of the fabric of
Christmas, in pursuit of an honest, straightforward message that speaks more of our lifelong need than our immediate desire. Somehow, like Raymond Briggs' The Snowman (pic right), Lake manages to hint at the struggle to feel the magic of Christmas as an adult - to regain that sense of wonderment once it's been colored by a deeper understanding of human frailty and corruption. The fact that by the song's end the narrator, if you will, has managed to regain that sense of the magic of Christmas is hardly an uplifting climax. Because once the canvas has been painted black, you can't paint a blue sky over it.I don't actually think that's true in art terms. I don't paint, though, so I don't know.
It's not an entirely consistent song - it isn't clear, from start to finish, what it is that Lake finds so abhorrent about the Christmas he has been sold - and the fact that he ends with the line 'the Christmas we get we deserve' is a bit odd. I mean, if I have a crap Christmas, couldn't that be because I'm poor, or because I've been shot by my best friend or because I've lost the use of my ears due to working very hard in mines?
But melancholy was never entirely neat, perfected and comprehensible, by its very nature it tends towards idiosyncratic expressions and undiluted bitterness. But Lake's song is certainly indicative of a general trend in melancholy Christmas songs to pull back the veneer of the joyous, perfect Christmas as an intelligent, compassionate creature and understand our reasoning better. Why do we force up this light from the depths of darkness?
These songs, maybe more than your regular upbeat Chrimbo tunes, get at a fundamental, oft-mistook truth: Christmas is a communal expression of hope.
May your Christmas be a hopeful one.
-The Boy
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 19
In the Bleak Midwinter: Part 2
by 'The Boy'
Yesterday, we breezed over a few miserable hymnals. But people stopped singing about God in the 1930s. Instead, they simply thanked him in their Grammy acceptance speeches. Today we look a some of examples of the latter day melancholy Christmas classic.
Whether it's performed with earnest yearning or with grim fatalism, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is a desperately sad Christmas song.
The optimism in the line "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" never sounds so unconvincing as when Judy Garland's Esther Smith sings it to her little sister Tootie in Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 1944). Perhaps Judy was thinking at the time of Hugh Martin's original lyrics: "Have yourself a merry little Christmas - it may be your last - next year we may all be living in the past". Yeeks! Thankfully, these lyrics were altered and it became a song about the hope that Christmas engenders, even if you're a spoilt rich white midwestern girl who's biggest concern in life is that she has to move to NEW YORK CITY WITH HER RICH FATHER. Pah!
Even before that movie, the most remorselessly miserable Christmas song was recorded in 1937 by Vera Lynn and later, more memorably, by Nat King Cole in 1953. The story is thus: The little boy didn't want a lot - just some soldiers and a drum. Santa didn't bring them and it broke his heart. All his friends got what they wanted but he's left with the broken stuff from last year (probably broken in a fit of rage by his abusive, alcoholic mother, but this is only implied). Then, eat this lyric: "I'm so sorry for that laddy - he hasn't got a daddy". That taste in your back of your throat isn't eggnog - it's your own heart crawling up your oesophagus, trying to escape the horror of your retching gut. Look at the boy there on the left. He's looking up the chimney. He'd be lucky to get a faceful of soot.
The Christmas Blues has never sounded particularly melancholy to me, perhaps because it heaps on the sentiment, rather than implying it. Or maybe because it's generally sung by smarmy, permanently chipper lotharios like Dean Martin.
The Kinks (Ray Davies there, on your left) followed in the footsteps of The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot with their song Father Christmas, in which a gang of kids mug a department store Santa asking for, respectively; money, a job for their daddy and a machine gun, instead of toys. Again, it's pretty remorseless - from Mick Avory's machine-gun clatter on the snare drum to Ray Davies' final, a capella reminder to "remember the kids who've got nothing while your drinking down your wine". But Ray - are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
The 'Me', 'I', and 'This' generations tended to indulge in shallow introspection compared to the melancholy troubadors of yore: see Mud's Lonely This Christmas in 1974, an affectionate send-up of the songs from Elvis' mostly melancholy Christmas album of 1957 which dips its foot into the hot bath of irony, jumps back from the bath and runs screaming, hysterical, naked into the cold streets in very unironical fashion.
Jona Lewie offered up perhaps the most bizarre miserable Christmas classic with Stop the Cavalry in 1980 (see below) - a sort of anti-war, 'missing you', transcendent Christmas card, featuring the unequivocal line 'Mary Bradley waits at home in the nuclear fallout zone'.
Wham!'s mopey ski-pop classic Last Christmas was released in 1984, while The Pogues' Fairytale in New York was born in 1987 - sounding like a torn out page from a Stephen Crane novel sung by Brendan Behan (left) at 6am on a Sunday morning.
Yes, heartbreak, rejection and loneliness were never more keenly felt by modern songsters than around the winter solstice. Darlene Love's baby left her in 1963 and she was still All Alone On Christmas in 1992, poor girl.
Tomorrow, Part 3 will take a quick glance at what is, to my mind, the most (and best) melancholy Christmas classic of all time. Here's Jona to play us out. Great gun throwing.
by 'The Boy'
Yesterday, we breezed over a few miserable hymnals. But people stopped singing about God in the 1930s. Instead, they simply thanked him in their Grammy acceptance speeches. Today we look a some of examples of the latter day melancholy Christmas classic.
Whether it's performed with earnest yearning or with grim fatalism, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas is a desperately sad Christmas song.
The optimism in the line "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" never sounds so unconvincing as when Judy Garland's Esther Smith sings it to her little sister Tootie in Meet Me In St. Louis (Vincent Minnelli, 1944). Perhaps Judy was thinking at the time of Hugh Martin's original lyrics: "Have yourself a merry little Christmas - it may be your last - next year we may all be living in the past". Yeeks! Thankfully, these lyrics were altered and it became a song about the hope that Christmas engenders, even if you're a spoilt rich white midwestern girl who's biggest concern in life is that she has to move to NEW YORK CITY WITH HER RICH FATHER. Pah!
Even before that movie, the most remorselessly miserable Christmas song was recorded in 1937 by Vera Lynn and later, more memorably, by Nat King Cole in 1953. The story is thus: The little boy didn't want a lot - just some soldiers and a drum. Santa didn't bring them and it broke his heart. All his friends got what they wanted but he's left with the broken stuff from last year (probably broken in a fit of rage by his abusive, alcoholic mother, but this is only implied). Then, eat this lyric: "I'm so sorry for that laddy - he hasn't got a daddy". That taste in your back of your throat isn't eggnog - it's your own heart crawling up your oesophagus, trying to escape the horror of your retching gut. Look at the boy there on the left. He's looking up the chimney. He'd be lucky to get a faceful of soot.The Christmas Blues has never sounded particularly melancholy to me, perhaps because it heaps on the sentiment, rather than implying it. Or maybe because it's generally sung by smarmy, permanently chipper lotharios like Dean Martin.
The Kinks (Ray Davies there, on your left) followed in the footsteps of The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot with their song Father Christmas, in which a gang of kids mug a department store Santa asking for, respectively; money, a job for their daddy and a machine gun, instead of toys. Again, it's pretty remorseless - from Mick Avory's machine-gun clatter on the snare drum to Ray Davies' final, a capella reminder to "remember the kids who've got nothing while your drinking down your wine". But Ray - are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?The 'Me', 'I', and 'This' generations tended to indulge in shallow introspection compared to the melancholy troubadors of yore: see Mud's Lonely This Christmas in 1974, an affectionate send-up of the songs from Elvis' mostly melancholy Christmas album of 1957 which dips its foot into the hot bath of irony, jumps back from the bath and runs screaming, hysterical, naked into the cold streets in very unironical fashion.
Jona Lewie offered up perhaps the most bizarre miserable Christmas classic with Stop the Cavalry in 1980 (see below) - a sort of anti-war, 'missing you', transcendent Christmas card, featuring the unequivocal line 'Mary Bradley waits at home in the nuclear fallout zone'.Wham!'s mopey ski-pop classic Last Christmas was released in 1984, while The Pogues' Fairytale in New York was born in 1987 - sounding like a torn out page from a Stephen Crane novel sung by Brendan Behan (left) at 6am on a Sunday morning.
Yes, heartbreak, rejection and loneliness were never more keenly felt by modern songsters than around the winter solstice. Darlene Love's baby left her in 1963 and she was still All Alone On Christmas in 1992, poor girl.
Tomorrow, Part 3 will take a quick glance at what is, to my mind, the most (and best) melancholy Christmas classic of all time. Here's Jona to play us out. Great gun throwing.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 18
In the Bleak Midwinter: A Musical Chronology of Yuletide Melancholy
by The Boy a.k.a The (little) Boy (that santa claus forgot)
It makes perfect sense that Christmas should sound a dull drone of sadness along with its brusque paean of merriment. After all, the planet chooses this time of year to remind us precisely how dark things can get, so naturally we might be inclined to brood on the darker points of our lives. We're also inclined to remember each year how much farther we are from our own childhood Christmases and thus how much closer to the grave.
But we strive, as a people, not to live or dwell in darkness - we light our homes, we bring evergreen trees into our living rooms, we celebrate the children in our lives, we send cards and presents to loved ones and we make merry until the wee hours of the morning to counteract the seasonal gloom. Those Christians among us choose to celebrate the birth of their 'Lord' - who they believe guided them from the darkness of ritual debauchery (or something) into the light of understanding and brotherhood (or whatever).
Thusly, most Christmas songs or carols, including the ones surveyed below, attempt to raise spirits rather than deflate them. It could be said that all good music does this - even songs inspired by grief or depression can be uplifting if they are composed of good music. Yet this posting series shall focus on the best of the expressedly melancholy Christmas songs to attempt to get closer to an understanding of yultide melancholy itself.
I suppose we can suppose that during the dark ages (see early daguerreotype, right) people sat around smoldering fires at Christmas time singing songs to each other in modal keys that were the purest paragons of human misery, barely noticing as the old folks among them quietly shifted off their mortal coils, not wanting to create a fuss. Christmas (as we now call it) probably began as a celebration by those who survived the winter solstice. So few did, back then before beer came bottled. However, we can but wonder at the struggle of such unenlightened chumps, because most of the old-timey Christmas songs that have lasted until today were born of the late 19th century and 20th century.
One notable exception is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, dating back perhaps to the early sixteenth century - a song which seems to bear the full weight of the middle ages on its shoulders with its doleful minor-key rendering of a mostly hopeful, praiseful lyric. It formed the thematic backbone of A Christmas Carol - seeming to provide Dickens with a perfect tone and ideal with which to approach the wretched horror of a Victorian Christmas. Dismay and Christmas Day are rhymed in the song and I was told in English class at school that when poems rhyme words they kind of tie the words together like, so that they are associated, yeah? I certainly felt dismay every Christmas I didn't get my Scalextrics track and cars.
Both lyrically and melodically melancholy, In the Bleak Midwinter is another fine example of the dreary British Christmas hymnal - with words from a poem by Christina Rossetti and adapted by Gustav Holst in 1903. It ties together all the cold facts of a bog-standard Christian Christmastime: the harsh, unforgiving weather; hopeful piety; poverty shared by Christ-child and pilgrim alike. But it is a fairly rare example of a bleak Christmas hymnal, most of which are fairly pompous and vaguely Anglocentric. I mean sure, you can say that See Amid The Winter's Snow and Silent Night sound vaguely sad, but they're only sad because they remind you of going to church on Christmas Day when you really wanted to get home and open your presents. They're both about how wonderful Jesus is and how magical his birth was. That's not sad, it's just strange.
The true source of great Christmas melancholy is in modern music.
We shall look at some such examples tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a clip from Richard Williams' Oscar-winning adaptation the aforementioned Dickens novel - the best adaption to my mind - with a majestic visual rendering of the message of that ancient, melancholy carol.
by The Boy a.k.a The (little) Boy (that santa claus forgot)
It makes perfect sense that Christmas should sound a dull drone of sadness along with its brusque paean of merriment. After all, the planet chooses this time of year to remind us precisely how dark things can get, so naturally we might be inclined to brood on the darker points of our lives. We're also inclined to remember each year how much farther we are from our own childhood Christmases and thus how much closer to the grave.
But we strive, as a people, not to live or dwell in darkness - we light our homes, we bring evergreen trees into our living rooms, we celebrate the children in our lives, we send cards and presents to loved ones and we make merry until the wee hours of the morning to counteract the seasonal gloom. Those Christians among us choose to celebrate the birth of their 'Lord' - who they believe guided them from the darkness of ritual debauchery (or something) into the light of understanding and brotherhood (or whatever).
Thusly, most Christmas songs or carols, including the ones surveyed below, attempt to raise spirits rather than deflate them. It could be said that all good music does this - even songs inspired by grief or depression can be uplifting if they are composed of good music. Yet this posting series shall focus on the best of the expressedly melancholy Christmas songs to attempt to get closer to an understanding of yultide melancholy itself.
I suppose we can suppose that during the dark ages (see early daguerreotype, right) people sat around smoldering fires at Christmas time singing songs to each other in modal keys that were the purest paragons of human misery, barely noticing as the old folks among them quietly shifted off their mortal coils, not wanting to create a fuss. Christmas (as we now call it) probably began as a celebration by those who survived the winter solstice. So few did, back then before beer came bottled. However, we can but wonder at the struggle of such unenlightened chumps, because most of the old-timey Christmas songs that have lasted until today were born of the late 19th century and 20th century.One notable exception is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, dating back perhaps to the early sixteenth century - a song which seems to bear the full weight of the middle ages on its shoulders with its doleful minor-key rendering of a mostly hopeful, praiseful lyric. It formed the thematic backbone of A Christmas Carol - seeming to provide Dickens with a perfect tone and ideal with which to approach the wretched horror of a Victorian Christmas. Dismay and Christmas Day are rhymed in the song and I was told in English class at school that when poems rhyme words they kind of tie the words together like, so that they are associated, yeah? I certainly felt dismay every Christmas I didn't get my Scalextrics track and cars.
Both lyrically and melodically melancholy, In the Bleak Midwinter is another fine example of the dreary British Christmas hymnal - with words from a poem by Christina Rossetti and adapted by Gustav Holst in 1903. It ties together all the cold facts of a bog-standard Christian Christmastime: the harsh, unforgiving weather; hopeful piety; poverty shared by Christ-child and pilgrim alike. But it is a fairly rare example of a bleak Christmas hymnal, most of which are fairly pompous and vaguely Anglocentric. I mean sure, you can say that See Amid The Winter's Snow and Silent Night sound vaguely sad, but they're only sad because they remind you of going to church on Christmas Day when you really wanted to get home and open your presents. They're both about how wonderful Jesus is and how magical his birth was. That's not sad, it's just strange.
The true source of great Christmas melancholy is in modern music.
We shall look at some such examples tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a clip from Richard Williams' Oscar-winning adaptation the aforementioned Dickens novel - the best adaption to my mind - with a majestic visual rendering of the message of that ancient, melancholy carol.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Countdown to Christmas~ Day 17
The boy is fond of Advent Calendars. I have never been too bothered about them, but he likes them. Specifically, he likes the cardboard ones with a piece of chocolate inside each day that you open. I feel like I have been a bad wife by depriving him of this simple Christmas pleasure the past two years. So I am thinking for next year I will make him this:
Pretty snazzy huh? This easy diy holiday project is thanks to gorgeous blog Sweet Paul . I think it's simultaenously sophisticated and fun take on the classic advent calendar. Read the how to by clicking here. And Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 16
With all the fun holiday festivities and gifts, it's easy to get caught up in the whole commercialization of Christmas. When I was growing up "Charlie Brown's Christmas" was one of my favorite holiday movies. But I would always fast-forward through the bit where Linus explains to Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. I felt it was far too boring. But now I think it's a great moment in that holiday classic. So Linus, tell us: what is Christmas all about?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 15
I'd just like to take a moment to say~
Hope you are all enjoying the eight "crazy" nights!
Hope you are all enjoying the eight "crazy" nights!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 14
The Boy shared this new holiday gem with me the other night. After seeing it for the first time, I immediately asked to watch it again. It's hilarious and weird and festive, and Bob Dylan....so you pretty much can't go wrong!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 13
Here's a scrumptious Gingerbread Cookie Recipe for you to save, bake and share, thanks to Martha Stewart.com. Bon Appetit!
INGREDIENTS
Makes about 2 dozen town houses, 4 dozen deer or trees, or 6 dozen men.
Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies
These cookies have a dark color and a pronounced molasses flavor.
DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for 2. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high
dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a generously floured piece of parchment, roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Slide dough and parchment onto baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Cut out desired shapes. Transfer to parchment-lined
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
room temperature 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses Royal Icing
5. Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
6. Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as Ateco #0 or #1). Pipe designs on cookies. Let cookies stand at room temperature until set, at least 2 hours (preferably overnight). Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers for up to 1 week.
INGREDIENTS
Makes about 2 dozen town houses, 4 dozen deer or trees, or 6 dozen men.
Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies
These cookies have a dark color and a pronounced molasses flavor.
DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl.
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for 2. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high
dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
speed until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Divide dough into 3 portions, and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a generously floured piece of parchment, roll dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Brush off excess flour. Slide dough and parchment onto baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
4. Cut out desired shapes. Transfer to parchment-lined
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, baking sheets, and freeze for 15 minutes.
room temperature 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 1/2 cups unsulfured molasses Royal Icing
5. Bake cookies for 6 minutes. Remove sheets from oven, and tap them firmly on counter to flatten cookies. Return to oven, rotating sheets, and bake until crisp but not darkened, 6 to 8 minutes more. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
6. Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as Ateco #0 or #1). Pipe designs on cookies. Let cookies stand at room temperature until set, at least 2 hours (preferably overnight). Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers for up to 1 week.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 12
Just yesterday I visited the elementary school my mother teaches at and performed my solo from The Snow Queen production I am in next weekend. The kids were pretty adorable as they marveled at my tutu and pointe shoes. The whole affair was very festive and fun. It made me so happy to be dancing again!
(Here I am talking to some of the students and dancing; they all were sooo cute!)
(Here I am talking to some of the students and dancing; they all were sooo cute!)
Friday, December 11, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 11
Sending Postcards....
There's something about getting (and sending) actual Christmas cards in the mail that warms my cold embittered heart. The boy and I are working on ours. Until then, here's a few fancy Parisian holiday postcards I have on display. Oh, aren't they pretty?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 10
This may be my favorite Christmas movie....perhaps second only to It's a Wonderful Life. In any event, my brothers and I can recite every line in this movie, plus recreate all the musical cues. Here's a delightful sampler. Enjoy!
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 9
It has gotten so cold over the past week here in our little apartment, but I don't mind too much, since it allows me to use my Christmas-themed flannel sheets! They are so warm and snuggly. Just another of my favorite things about this time of year!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 8
Even though my wedding day is long over, I still enjoy perusing the wedding websites and blogs just to be inspired and see what new ideas people are trying. Even just for color palette ideas and party planning tips, the wedding sites can be extremely helpful. In any case, I was particularly excited when I stumbled upon these winter wedding bouquet ideas on Martha Stewart.com. I never considered the prospect of a winter wedding....maybe because in Los Angeles we don't get much of a winter. But if I had I would want a pretty and festive bouquet just like one of these! For all you winter brides out there, Merry Christmas! {all photos from Martha Stewart.com}
Monday, December 7, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 7
Last Christmas....The boy and I were still in our tiny, one room, bachelor apartment this time last year, so there wasn't much space for holiday decorations (see photo.) But we made the most of what we had and it was truly one of the best Christmases of my life.
Since it was our first Christmas together as husband and wife, we wanted to make it extra special. So we decided to celebrate all the 12 Days of Christmas! You know, like the song? "On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree," and so on.
I basically gave the boy twelve presents (we gave each other the 1st gifts on Christmas Eve and then continued giving each other one gift a day for the next 11 days.) I came up with some great gifts, but the boy had me beat. He was so clever and cute with his gift giving. Here's the rundown of what he gave me (try reading it in tune to the song):
12 Husch Wine Bottles (it was the wine club membership from my favorite winery we visited on our honeymoon)
11 Vinyl Records
10 Dollar Bi-lls
9 Teen Vogue Issues
8 Make-up Brushes
7 (th) Cosby Season
6 Pointe Ma-ga-zines
5 Gold Chicks (actually this was a gift he made in my honor, Purchasing a dozen chicks to give to HIV infected families in Poverty stricken countries.)
4 Streatfield Books
3 Mixy (CD) Mixes
2 Lovely Earrings
And a handbag just for me!
Not bad huh? I am one lucky lady to have the boy in my life!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 6
This song makes me think of the boy. He loves this one. And the video is just what you expect from a 1980's-multiple-pop-star-holiday-charity-recording-style-video. Doesn't disappoint.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 5
A few of my favorite things.....Here's something of a holiday confession. I love home-baked cookies around this time of year, especially gingerbread cookies, but I also have a strange affinity for the Pillsbury slice-and-bake holiday sugar cookies. They are certainly not anything special or unique, but the simple sweet taste and Christmas shapes and colors continue to thrill me. (Also the fact that they are ready to go and eatable in all of about ten minutes makes me particularly keen on making them.)
I made a batch just today and boy are they delicious! Just another Christmas detail that makes this my favorite time of year! Do you have any favorite Christmas cookies? Or another holiday themed dessert?
Friday, December 4, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 4
It's Beginning to Look A Lot like Christmas Part 2.....
The other night the boy and I received a wonderful gift from my parents. They gave us a lovely, new, pre-lit Christmas tree AND let us select some of the old ornaments that my family used to put up on our trees year after year, to display on our new little tree. It was so much fun going through all the funky old ornaments and remembering when we got them (or made them in several cases) and how we used to always get excited upon putting them up on the tree each year. I had so many Nutcracker ornaments it's ridiculous!
Now our little apartment really looks nice and festive. And we had so much fun decorating, even if I had a
bit of trouble with the lights! These are all the decorations in both the living room (which is a traditional red and green) and our bedroom (which I kept as a tiffany-blue color scheme.)
The other night the boy and I received a wonderful gift from my parents. They gave us a lovely, new, pre-lit Christmas tree AND let us select some of the old ornaments that my family used to put up on our trees year after year, to display on our new little tree. It was so much fun going through all the funky old ornaments and remembering when we got them (or made them in several cases) and how we used to always get excited upon putting them up on the tree each year. I had so many Nutcracker ornaments it's ridiculous!
Now our little apartment really looks nice and festive. And we had so much fun decorating, even if I had a
bit of trouble with the lights! These are all the decorations in both the living room (which is a traditional red and green) and our bedroom (which I kept as a tiffany-blue color scheme.)
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
cleaning products don't mean it's clean...
I didn't realize until just now that I had my 100th post the other day! Huzzah! Never thought I would be able to commit to this blog for so long.
I suppose I have to thank all of you (all the maybe 7 of you) who have loyally followed my posts and remained consistent readers. I never would have imagined myself as a blogger, but now this little blog has become a fun outlet for me and the boy and I love sharing our adventures with you!
I suppose I have to thank all of you (all the maybe 7 of you) who have loyally followed my posts and remained consistent readers. I never would have imagined myself as a blogger, but now this little blog has become a fun outlet for me and the boy and I love sharing our adventures with you!
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 2
This version of "The Nutcracker" is probably one of the main culprits in causing me to want to be a ballet dancer. I used to jump on my parents bed as I watched it....this scene may not be the most well known, but it had a major impact on me. After seeing this, "The Nutcracker" was forever an integral part of my holiday season and I was determined to dance the part of Clara for a good portion of my life. I got that opportunity when I was 12...and again when I was 14. As much as I griped about it, I love the Nutcracker and I loved how absolutely magical I found the whole story when I was a budding ballerina! Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Countdown to Christmas ~ Day 1
This commercial played every year back when the boy and I were younger, yet it has remained a part of both our Christmas memories. I think it's a fitting way to start the countdown, especially since Coca Cola happens to be my favorite beverage!
Tidings Tidbit: Did you know that the Coca Cola company helped to establish America's modern physical
interpretation of Santa Claus thanks to Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for the company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s?
Tidings Tidbit: Did you know that the Coca Cola company helped to establish America's modern physical
interpretation of Santa Claus thanks to Haddon Sundblom's depiction of him for the company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s? Monday, November 30, 2009
Just Like the McCalisters...
This year, the boy and I are spending Christmas with his family in good 'ole jolly England. It will be the first Christmas I ever spend with his family and the first time he will have spent Christmas at home in two years. It's quite exciting. In fact, it will be the first time in four years he and all his siblings will have been together, under the same roof, for Christmas. As his sister Anna so eloquently put it: "We shall all reunite and have a house full like in Home Alone! (Only we don't live in a massive mansion in Chicago.)"
Personally I cannot wait. I keep imagining a perfectly Dickensian holiday, complete with begging orphans, Ebeneezer Scrooge and snow...oh, how I hope it snows!
From here on out I will be counting down the days to Christmas right here on this blog. Tune in each day for a bit of holiday cheer--videos, music, DIY Christmas ideas, free printables and more....there may even be a guest post by the boy!
This is my favorite time of year and I can't wait to share the festivities with you! Happy Holidays!
Personally I cannot wait. I keep imagining a perfectly Dickensian holiday, complete with begging orphans, Ebeneezer Scrooge and snow...oh, how I hope it snows!
From here on out I will be counting down the days to Christmas right here on this blog. Tune in each day for a bit of holiday cheer--videos, music, DIY Christmas ideas, free printables and more....there may even be a guest post by the boy!
This is my favorite time of year and I can't wait to share the festivities with you! Happy Holidays!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanks a Bunch!
So with the impending holiday, I naturally feel compelled to look at what I have been given and think about how lucky I am and have been over the years. So here is my list of the things I am most thankful for~I am thankful for Brita water filters
I am thankful for frozen Pizzas
I am thankful for vinyl records
I am thankful for emails
I am thankful for Disneyland
I am thankful for music
I am thankful for sunsets
I am thankful for love letters from the boy
I am thankful for literature
I am thankful for the dance lessons that I received growing up
I am thankful to all my teachers
I am thankful for having such loving supportive and giving parents
I am thankful for my Friends
I am thankful for my brothers
I am thankful for having such a nice home with the boy
I am thankful for all the people that have helped the boy and I succeed
I am thankful for gingerbread cookies
But most of all, I am thankful for my family and the boy...I am extremely lucky to have so much love in my life!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
moving slowly
photo: Leah JohnsonI have been going and going non-stop at such a fast pace these days, I feel tired and sore and just plain burnt out. I am looking forward to the long weekend, when I can hopefully slow down and relax a bit. I want to stop moving and just stay still so I can take in all the good things around me...
Monday, November 23, 2009
Alot like Christmas: Part 1
This is my favorite time of the year, and always has been. I'm the type who wants to start listening to Christmas music as soon as the weather starts to get chilly. I crave gingerbread cookies and eggnog lattes by mid-October. And I want to put up Christmas decorations as soon as I can possibly get away with it...the boy insists I wait till after Thanksgiving, and it slays me!
This year is no different. I started getting
into the Christmas spirit weeks ago, and have actually slowly been putting up little decorations here and there; I am very sneaky! But now I am no longer alone in my seasonal excitement as the City of Beverly Hills had their annual Christmas decoration lighting extravaganza the other night! The boy and I strolled the streets of the Bev Hills the night before the official lighting (when they were testing all the lights) and we basked in the glow of the beautiful holiday decorations and festive store window displays. If there's anything Beverly Hills knows how to do up right, it's holiday decorations. It really made me feel like it's officially the holiday season. Or at least that everyone has caught up with me and my holiday spirit!
Here the boy snaps a shot of himself in a Christmas ornament, and I try to pose like a proper holiday store window manikin. And below, you can see the cute penguins by the fountain outside Tiffany's and the lights stretching over Wilshire Blvd. So lovely. Finally, the paper poinsettia wreaths at Paper Source are so adorable and festive, I want to try to make some for our own home decorations!
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