The Most Christmas-y Weekend of All

This weekend we:

– Went to my company Christmas Party (which I organized and threw)
– Went to Trent’s uncle’s HUGE Christmas extravaganza (where we took a photo with a stuffed bear wearing a sombrero)
– Had final rehearsal’s for Lucy’s Dance School’s Christmas fundraiser (it’s on Thursday, HELP!)
– Addressed approximately 1 million holiday cards, by hand because I’m old school and I think it’s nicer even though my hand is now cramped and vaguely resembles a claw
– Went to the Kansas City Ballet’s performance of the Nutcracker (Lucy cried, and I cried at her crying)
– Went to the “Christmas House” (the video below explains this place better than I ever could), where Lucy, who is obessed with all things related to baby Jesus (strange considering our non-religious home and the fact that when she sees a cross she starts yelling “Mama, look, it’s the letter T!”), parked herself in front of the nativity scene and stared for 15 minutes straight

Ho, ho, ho, people!

Top Five Christmas Movies

I admit it, I’m a sucker for the holiday season. I am one of those jerks playing Christmas music in October and squealing with delight when Target and Costco put out their holiday decorations before Halloween. I love everything about the season: lights, trees, decorations, Starbucks Peppermint Lattes, Bailey’s in some hot cocoa and even snow.

But one of my personal favorite parts of the season is snuggling in with a good holiday movie. I have already spent a ton of time this year bedazzling stockings and addressing cards, and these films are the best to have playing in the background during these mindless tasks. Now, as has been previous stated around here, I’m a bit of a nerd, so these movies may be a bit off for some of you Christmas purists. But for me, it’s not really Christmastime until I’ve watched each and every one.

Home Alone
Every kid of my generation remembers watching this movie and thinking Macaulay Culkin was the coolest kid on the planet. We all cheered as those idiot robbers got smacked in the face with a paint can or iron, and all wished we could camp out in our parents’ bed with a gallon of ice cream and late night television.

While You Were Sleeping
I know, I know…this one is pretty bad. But I had this movie on VHS and watched it so much I had to buy a new one. I thought Sandra Bullock’s character was adorable (Random Sidenote: Her character’s name in the movie is Lucy) and asked for approximately one million beige sweaters for Christmas that year. Note to self, pale, blond, 14-year-olds do not look good in beige sweaters. Bonus points for a dreamy Bill Pullman. (Yes, I just said that.)

The Grinch/Charlie Brown Christmas Double Feature
These cartoon features are a total must see at my house, and have been for years, even before we had kids. Now, I should point out, I’m talking about the original Grinch, not the crappy live action version they made a few years back. Charlie Brown is always awesome, not only because of the snarky Lucy (who we love around here), but the fact that in the last few weeks, my son has become a real life Linus, carrying his blanky everywhere he goes. Halloween costumes for 2012, anyone?!

Elf
C’mon, you gotta love Elf! “I LOVE SMILING, SMILING’S MY FAVORITE!” Also, I will watch anything with Zooey Dechanel, so help me god.

Love Actually
This is by far my FAVORITE holiday movie of all time. I watch it every year, sometimes more than once, and every time I find myself smiling. They keep trying to recreate this movie in the U.S. (New Years Eve, Valentine’s Day) and it’s never even close to as good as the original. My favorite storyline is a three way tie between the prime minister/girl in the amazing red coat, the little boy/girl with the incredible voice, and Mr. Darcy/the Portugese cleaning lady. So good.

Happy watching!

Eye Candy

A while back I posted some photos from our family shoot with Nicole Coleman, but I held back a bunch, since I knew I was going to be using a few for a holiday card and I didn’t want to spoil it! But now the decision has been made, the cards have been printed, and about half have been addressed (my poor, cramped hand), so I figure it’s time to share more of the fun!

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The story behind the shoot is I really wanted to do something fun, easy, and un-posed, since that’s when I feel like my family is at it’s best. We are not supermodels, and with a (then) 10 month old in tow, I knew we’d never get a perfect shot. This summer I had the idea to do something at a county fair, but when the day of the shoot came, it was (not joking) 111 degrees. So, yeah. That was cancelled.

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At the time, we decided the best course of action was to wait until the weather got a bit cooler and reschedule the shoot. Then we both promptly forgot about it, due to our girls starting kindergarten, our lives going bananas, et cetera. We finally put a date on the calendar for October, and I told Nicole I’d find a fun place to do it.

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I have no idea why I thought of Worlds of Fun. Those of you not from Kansas City have no idea what you are missing. Worlds of Fun is sort of like Six Flags, but smaller and dirtier. And smellier. But it’s a place I adored as a kid, I begged my parents to spend every birthday there, so I thought it might work.

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[Ed. Note: To fully understand the grossness of Worlds of Fun, you’d have to see an after photo of my shoes at the end of the day. They went from yellow to black.]

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I did not, however, account for the fact that come October, Worlds of Fun is basically the Kansas City headquarters for Halloween, complete with some of the scariest haunted houses in town. The entire park was filled with skeletons hanging from trees, scary music blaring through the speakers, and there was more than one coffin in attendance.

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Mom, is that a ghost?

It is a testament to Nicole’s skill that you can’t tell any of this was going on in the photos. She captured exactly what I wanted. My family, being their awesome selves. I look at these pictures and I see the story of us.

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And of course, Nicole was kind enough to attempt a posed photo as well. She is awesome.

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P.S. Our Christmas card photo isn’t posted here, but it was also sort of posed and is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Awesome. And once I get those suckers in the mail, I’ll post it here. Pinky swear.

I Did It! And my dad’s hair is epic.

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Goals, man. They are pretty awesome. I ran my first 5K last Saturday and I was lucky enough to have my dad join me. I ran way, waaaaayyyy better than I expected and my dad ran his best race since 2007. It was surprisingly emotional for me, especially watching my dad finish strong. It’s incredible to think a little over a year ago he was living in my basement during cancer treatment. He’s such an amazing guy. Damn, now I’m all choked up again.

Before I start blubbering like an idiot let’s move on to my key running tool, music. Specifically, embarrassing music. This is my 5K playlist. In order to avoid freaking out about normal race related items (I’m going to fall over dead on the side of the road and it’s going to be so awkward for the other runners to jump over me), I spent a stupid amount of time crafting the perfect playlist. I wanted it to reflect how I’d be feeling throughout the race, starting slow and even, then pumping me up at the end so I’d finish strong. I timed it so as I crossed the finish line, my girl B. Spears would be blasting in my ears. Classy, I know. But it worked. So if you are planning a race soon, I recommend listening to as much Britney as possible. Actually, you should be listening to as much Britney as possible regardless of your race status. Duh.

Family Photos – A Sneak Peek

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A few weeks back my lovely friend Nicole took some photos of our little family at a local amusement park. Nicole is in the midst of a major brand relaunch and we were lucky enough to serve as “test subjects” for her. The entire shoot was done solely on film instead of digital, and I think the look is just gorgeous.

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Part of the idea behind the new brand is that Nicole will be capturing images from the real lives of families. Of course we took a few posed shots, but for the most part, Nicole just hung out with us, her trusty camera capturing exactly who we are as a family. I couldn’t be happier with the result and I can’t wait to show more!

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If you are looking for an incredible experience and want to capture more than just your average family photos, I highly recommend Nicole. You’d better believe when the new brand goes live, I’m going to be all over it!

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