My Top 9 favorite Christmas Movies

People are often surprised to find that behind the glasses, pearls and khakis, my husband and I have a pretty "special" sense of humor. Around here we really get into the Holiday Spirit with a marathon of our favorite movies beginning the day after Thanksgiving and culminating with the 24 hour A Christmas Story broadcast on Christmas Day. For our own amusement we decided a long time ago to classify Christmas movies as any movie with at least one Christmas scene which makes things a bit more interesting...

Here are H and my top 9 favorite movies and some of our favorite quotes (In no particular order):

The Holiday(Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Cameron Diaz)
"I'm a full-time dad. I'm a working parent. I'm a mother and a father. I'm a guy who reads parenting books and cookbooks before I go to sleep. I spend my weekends buying tutus. I'm learning to sew. I'm Mr. Napkin Head! - Graham

Coming to America(Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones)
Ahem. "She's your Queen toooo be.. an object of affection! To be used at your discretion! To quench your royal fire!"- Oha

You've Got Mail (Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Dave Chappelle)
"If I only knew your name and address I would send you a bouquet of sharpened pencils." - Joe Fox

Trading Places (Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd)
"You ain't Jacoozying nobody!" - Billy Ray Valentine

Love Actually (Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson)
[neither understands the other's language]
Jamie: [in English] It's my favorite time of day, driving you.
Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It's the saddest part of my day, leaving you.

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (Chevy Chase)
"It's the holidays, we're all in misery." - Clark W. Griswald/Sparky

A Christmas Story
"Meatloaf, meatloaf, double beat loaf. I HATE MEATLOAF." - Ralphie

A Charlie Brown Christmas (the Peanuts Gang)
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" - Linus Van Pelt

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Mr. Grinch & The Whoville Gang)
"And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say - that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of *ten* Grinches, plus two!" - Narrator

The Color Purple is an honorable mention. I didnt include it because although its a phenominal story, its a bit depressing. But of course hands down one of my favorite movies of all time...

What are your favorite Christmas movies? Did I leave any good one's off the list?

Happy New Year!!

Wishing you and yours the best year of your life!! I'm looking forward to MORE in 2012. MORE for my family, my career, my health, and relationships. 

Here's to MORE blessings and prosperity than you can stand!!!

Looking just like her daddy??!!! LOVE.

Six Geese a Laying?

So here we are a couple days before Christmas and I'm still on this Twelve Days of Christmas kick.. I think I'll change that to the Six Days of Christmas so that we will all be ready in time.. Instead I'd like to talk about "doing"  the things that make Christmas such a special time of year as opposed to "buying" things..

At our house we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE celebrating Christmas (and any other holiday for that matter) and although we are a relatively new little family ( five years and counting!), we already have some traditions we look forward to every year..

Singing/Playing Christmas Songs..
So immediately after Thanksgiving we pull out the preset playlist that hubby put together a few years back for the car and house.. I've been complaining that there aren't enough "soulful" songs but after he pointed out all of the James Brown and Brian McKnight song.. I retracted my statement.. well not out loud..

At any rate, I realized today that in addition to the traditional Rudolph and Frosty songs, my 3 year old knows the words to:

Mele Malikimaka (The Hawaiian Christmas Song) by Bing Crosby
This Christmas by Donny Hathaway
Mr. Grinch and most other songs from the Glee Christmas Album

Makes my heart proud...

Lighting a fire and watching Christmas movies.. 
That includes all movies with any Christmas scene.. So when munchkin goes to bed we watch:

Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd
Coming to America with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall (I see a theme happening)
Oh and You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (Love this one!)
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase

Holiday Lights Tour
This year, I made hot chocolate and popcorn and we all piled in the car in our pajamas (right before bed time) and cruised a couple of neighborhoods ooohing and aahing at Christmas lights.. Make sure to do this right before bed time.. Then just slide your little elf under the blankets when you get home:)

Baking Cookies
Speaking of little elves.. My special elf, helped me get ready for my pal Beth's Annual Cookie Exchange..

We made Madeleines again this year! I use this recipe.

And thanks to inspiration from TomKat Studio, I updated my holiday Labels!

My favorite part of this gathering: SNACKS!!

and Cookies!!

The host made the below, which were very reminiscent of little pecan pie bites.. When I got home that night I left my cookies in the car, and remembered these were in there at about midnight.. lets just say there were crumbs in my bed the next morning:-(

Fun Times!

happy belated.. again..

So you know me and my belated holiday posts.. so there are no suprises here:-) Not sure how these bloggers actually enjoy thier holiday and still squeeze in post. One day when i grow up I'm sure I'll be granted the secret keys to blogging success.. In the mean time, I thought I'd share a little of last weekend with you..

Better late than never is what they say!

I started out by reading a status update by a dear friend Tara who linked to an New York Times article on a little known fact about Memorial Day...  Its seems that:

The earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day took place on May 1, 1865. The beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the city’s official surrender.

The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.” Several hundred black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children’s choir sang “We’ll Rally Around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner” and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.

READ COMPLETE TIMES ARTICLE - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/opinion/30blight.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=opinion&adxnnlx=1306753261-S82yssCq3qMNxaXGta278g

So hubby is not only a former military brat but also a veteran of the Navy, which means he pulls these things out every chance he gets.. Its pretty funny (and cute) how he gets all worked up about getting the lawn ready to put out his flags..

In true Holiday weekend form, we broke out the grill... There's really nothing I love more than grilling out on the deck and having a couple of cool adult beverages (dontjudgeme:-)..

And he's becoming quite the skilled grillman (is that a word?) Thank You  Papa Russ.. He's stealing all of your secrets:-)

I wont tell you how yummy this was.. Lets just say finger lickin good...

Got the idea for this Watermelon Feta Salad while doing my weekly Publix run.. There was quite a long line at the sampling booth.. I snagged the recipe card right after:)

So we had a little spread, did a little power shopping, had breakfast at my favorite spot, and had a pretty relaxing weekend... Did I mention my birthday came and went in the haze? I turned 29  for the 5th time)...

The gardenias are blooming like crazy!! And munchkin and hubby have been making sure to bring them in by the handful.. My house smells heavenly! Unfortunately they dont last very long after they are cut..
Keep em' coming..

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend.

holiday wrap up.

i know its over. tell that to the folks who still have their lights up. and are still turning them on every night.

at any rate, if we are not judging them.. i figured i'd be in the clear for being fashionably late with posting some pix from my favorite moments during this past holiday season..

my next post will be entitled, "happy new year"!

at our house, you get new pajamas on Christmas Eve. since my hubby gets a little obsessed with Christmas themed movies (especially A Christmas Story) these flannel pantalones were the perfect gift.  The munchkin helped to pick them out.

ah. couldnt wait for this reaction.. she had been asking for a back pack like one of her school pals, so we surprised her with this.. she doesnt leave home with out it.

check it out!!!

we even got a little snow.. but we dont need that to start a fire.. if its below fifty and we have wood in stock..its all good:-)

something to eat, something to read, something to wear, and something you need. and small enough to fit in these stockings..

Pop Pop and munchkin..and his new Notre Dame sweatshirt thanks to Daddy.

I made two sweet potatoe pies, which turned out quite well I might say.. I gained 7 pounds over the holidays.. may have something to do with eating pie for breakfast every day?

since i have to drag the munchkin out of the playground sand box kicking and screaming everyday we thought this might lure her home..

one of my most favorite things is checking the mailbox for Christmas cards.. my mother in law asked why all the cards looked the same.. i think Tiny Prints is probably pulling through this recession just fine:-) they do have REALLY cute stuff.

this year, in lieu of our annual holiday party we opted to do a kid friendly after Christmas brunch the day after Christmas..

visiting and relaxing with family are the icing on the cake during this special time of year.. it's definitely a reminder of what's most important in this life.

hope your holidays were super special...

random holiday cheer...

I'd like to thank all the little people..

Someone was preparing for thier Oscar/Grammy/Tony Award acceptance speech today.. too too funny.

Something tells me she's going to be a starra!

I cheated and bought already made ginger bread cookies to decorate.. the munchkin just wanted to eat the icing and hear the little candy balls as they rolled off the countertop onto the floor.. but as always.. such the good little helper.. and sharer:-)

 

this cracked me up! bye!

shrimp tortellini and spinach

and just because i thought it looked pretty, i'd like to post a pic of my latest concoction.. it looked alot better than it tasted.. that's because i was missing half the ingredients and tried to ad lib with some less than comparable substitions (i was trying to make this.) i need better lighting when i'm shooting pix of my food. or maybe i should put the food on white plates... at any rate...

ho ho ho! here we go!

we are nearly ready!

last week we got the ball rolling with our new advent calendar (made by mommy).. and finally got some of the Christmas decorations underway.. i'm still working on the wreath for the door.. i had it all done and i found it crumpled on the floor after the last guest arrived at our annual holiday party.. which went off without a hitch i might add.  except for the fact that the only pic i have is one of auntie lee-lee and the little munchkin.. somebody forgot to take pictures (papa bear:-)

here's the family photo in front of the tree we picked out last weekend. i thought i was going to use it for the family Christmas cards but decided to wait and see if I could get a better shot for the new year's cards instead..

the little munchkin loves her auntie lee-lee who came all the way from jax to celebrate with us.. h family style! we love her so!

 

so each year we give a nod to the hubby's alma mater with our garnet and gold Christmas decor. this year is especially bittersweet since the big man himself is stepping down. go noles!

 

so i tried my hand this year at some hand made ribbon ornaments. thanks to martha stewart, she's my absolute fav!

in addition to our growing collection of garnet and gold ornaments we add to the tree little treasures tied to any of our favorite Christmas past times and gifted ornaments from friends and family.

 my new favorite ornament  added to the tree this year is this little reindeer given to us by a new friend and super mommy of the cutest twin little girls...

 

stay tuned.. this week i'll be trying my hand at some hand made gifts.. this black apple doll (thanks for the idea leslie!) and some little velvet belts for the munckin. still adding to the decor for the holidays.. any suggestions on a kid friendly coffee table and dinner table centerpiece are welcome!!

a wild hair

little munchkin is taking a late nap so I thought I'd post this really quick!

so last night at about 10pm, i got a wild hair and decided to make an advent calendar for this Christmas holiday season.. I love it when i can pull stuff out of my "craft closet" and put together a whole project! so here's the stab at my first CHRISTMAS ADVENT CALENDAR!!

I just took small envelopes and put numbers on them, then filled them with little slips of paper with activities written on them. We'll be baking cookies, and watching movies by the fire, and going to see neighborhood Christmas lights.. all that GOOD stuff!

I used a cork board and put some of the holiday cards that we've kept over the last few years as a background.

Dec. 1 - Make Advent Calender.. check!
Dec. 2. Put up Christmas Tree... check!

here are some shots of my little creation:

Merry Christmas!!

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree

After the little munchkin's nap on Sunday we went to Big John's in midtown and picked out a tree! unfortunately it's still sitting in the corner undecorated surrounded by the boxes of decorations that hubby brought up stairs as soon as we got home... I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! and get SO excited at the thought of decorating for the holidays... but forget how much WORK it is to get that momentum going..
once we get the lights on we'll be home free!

after we picked up the tree we headed over to the HIGH to hang out for a few and take some pics for fun.  here are a few shots of our little adventure.

So there is this big tree with the beautiful yellow leaves right out front of the high.. does anyone know what kind of tree this is?!

 

 

The  holidays are already so much fun with the little munchkin around.. last year this time.. we were just happy to prop her up on a pillow... and now she can sing, and dance, and who knows what things we'll get into!! We can't wait!

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