Today was my first Relief Society book club meeting. You may remember this book club from my post about how 33 people signed up. I got off of work at 12:00 today, and for once I made good use of my flex day. I spent the majority of the afternoon cleaning the apartment and baking delicious treats in anticipation of book club:
Chocolate white-chocolate chunk cookies, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate mint chip cookies, and gingersnaps. All homemade, from scratch.
This is the apartment before book club:
And this is the apartment during book club:
That's right. After 33 people signing up, and making announcements every week in Relief Society, and sending reminder emails, and spending five hours baking, not a single person came. Does anyone want four dozen cookies?
Dear Whoever Broke Into My Car Last Night,
I hope you enjoyed "Christmas shopping" in the Timp Gateway parking lot. Whoever had a GPS on their list will be so happy come Christmas morning.
I hope to see you in court someday,
Kristin
I know it's a holiday classic, but is anyone else sort of creeped out by Baby it's Cold Outside? Take a minute to really listen to the lyrics. He's preventing her from contacting her family, keeping her away from the neighbors, and possibly slipping her a roofie (hey, what's in this drink?) Any song that contains the lyric "if you caught pneumonia and died" doesn't scream Christmas to me. I can just picture some serial killer lip-synching this song to his handcuffed victim by the eerie light of a Christmas tree.
The only "poster" I could find of Christmas in Boston
1. The Classics. Everyone has to love these. It's Christmas requirement. Try telling someone you can't stand White Christmas or think It's a Wonderful Life is overrated. Doesn't go over well.
2. Family Christmas Movies that you're Tempted to Watch Year-Round (and if you're a Willardson you do.) Home Alone (1 and 2--there are no others), The Santa Clause, Christmas Vacation, Muppet Christmas Carol (does anyone have the soundtrack for this? I'm serious.), Miracle on 34th Street (the 1994 version. The original belongs above), etc. These are respectable. No one can make fun of you for watching these, at least between Thanksgiving and New Years. The rest of the year, no Willardson will make fun of you. Well, maybe Wendy.
(Bonus points if you know what parts Dr. Cameron and Deputy National Security Advisor Kate Harper play in this movie.)
3. Regular Movies with a Christmas Element. My favorite movie falls in this category: Meet Me in St. Louis. Since the movie takes you through a year in the life of the Smith family, and only 20 minutes or so take place at Christmas-time, this isn't technically a Christmas movie. The fact that Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas was written for this movie lends it some credibility, but there's not so much as a Christmas tree or snowflake on the cover. Still, my family watches this one every year, and it feels distinctly Christmas-y to me. Other good ones that fall in this category are all the Harry Potters, The Family Stone, and While You Were Sleeping. Anything that takes place at Christmas or shows Christmas in more than a passage-of-time montage will do.
4. Too Cheesy Family Christmas Movies that Pass Only at Christmas. These are Christmas movies that you still watch every year, but only when you run out of the good stuff. I'm talking about Christmas with the Kranks, Jingle all the Way, Deck the Halls, etc. Maybe they're in this category only because they haven't been around long enough to become classics (not to be confused with Classics). Only time will tell.
In conclusion, Christmas movies are an important part of life, or at least December. I can only watch A Muppet Christmas Carol so many times. (It's not true. I could watch it every day) What Christmas movies are out there that I'm not watching? The Carrascos have turned me on to Mrs. Santa Claus with Angela Lansbury and Eloise at Christmas with Julie Andrews. Both are excellent. What are your favorite Christmas movies?
This picture is a little sassier than I intended, but I'm too tired to take another one and upload it. You get the idea.
Yesterday was a chilly, rainy Sunday. THIRTY-THREE (YAY!) people signed up for my Relief Society Enrichment book club that kicks off this month. To celebrate, Jenny, Kristi and I watched Dan in Real Life, Sound of Music, and Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. We made apple cinnamon pancakes for lunch and taco soup for dinner. It may have been the best day of my life. Or at least November.
Happy Birthday Kristi!
In your honor, I have divorced three couples and sent a drug dealer to prison.
*I have literally had the hiccups six different times today, each time for about twenty minutes. That's TWO HOURS of hiccups. I am one hiccup away from ripping out my diaphragm and running over it with my car.
*With all the gigabytes and tv tuners and media centers in this apartment, we can't get a single channel to work. So Jenny, Kristi and I have been crowded around CNN.com hitting "refresh" to keep up with the election coverage. Lame.
*Does anyone else feel that the actual election day is a little anti-climatic? I feel like I should have woken up to the national anthem, driven to work amid frantic pollsters getting out the vote, and walked by at least one person in a red, white and blue Uncle Sam gettup. Maybe it's because almost everyone I know (myself included) voted early this year. Today felt decidedly ordinary. Although I was impressed to see more "I VOTED" stickers than I can remember in years past.
*Seriously, with the hiccups. Can you punch yourself in the stomach?
*This is why I don't blog anymore.
"Listening to Sarah McLachlan makes me feel like I should make life changes"
I am in love with these 12 Days of Christmas plates Kristi and I saw while out and about today.
In love.
Adam is officially in Kuwait. If you're interested in keeping up with the Kuwaitis, or this particular American in Kuwait, you can check out his blog here.
This was a contract Bridget made me sign freshman year after I chickened out at a hair appointment where I was supposed to chop my hair off. I did finally cut my hair, but I don't think I dyed it. We should give this to Bridget's mom and get her opinion on whether or not green marker on the back of my Humanities syllabus would be legally binding.
This is the Christmas letter that Bridget, Ashley, Sage and I planned to send to friends and family for the holidays our freshman year. We also staged a photo shoot where we wore all black and draped Christmas lights around us. I don't have any digital copies of these pictures, but maybe Bridge or Ashley can oblige. They are hilarious.
This is a list I wrote in silver pen on black post-it note. Celebrities I thought were dreamy. And here I was hoping to deny eternally that I ever found Matthew McConaughey remotely attractive. I shudder at the thought. #6 is Jaron, of Evan and Jaron. Also, I had to google Brandon Albright and still can't figure out who he is. I really think he was a BYU student who we saw in a concert or musical at BYU and thought was cute. And finally, I can guarantee both Ashley and Bridget know what prompted me to put #9 Justin Timberlake on the list.
This is the invoice I got from TV Guide when Ashley and Sage signed us up for a subscription under the name Ms. Chenandler Bong. If you've ever seen Friends, that one pretty much explains itself.
Here, proof that we were once sweet and thoughtful roommates who left each other notes, and that we were crazy weirdos who had fake names we actually called each other. I was Julia, Bridget was Kennedi (with an i), Ashley was Meg, and Sage was Taylor. I can't remember why we came up with these names. But I do remember that my middle name was Rayne.
This is a phone message Bridget took for me toward the end of our freshman year. Brooke and I were planning to live in a very cute yellow house south of campus the next year and signed contracts with our potential landlord. She then called back the next day to cancel our contracts because she was getting divorced and wanted the house for herself. Then she called back the next next day and said nevermind, I'm not getting divorced! By this point we realized the landlord was crazy and decided to go in a different direction. I love two things about this post-it. First, that Brooke and I came this close to having a landlord names Pamela Anderson, and second, that Bridget wrote "No Divorce - house is open." It just cracks me up for some reason.
Anyway, those were all freshman year memories, but I think they're pretty universally humorous.
And, 2. lots of this for me:
But without the prom hair and diamond bracelet.
I have been a blogcrastinator. It's been a busy summer, and I admit my blogging has suffered both in quantity and quality. But in an effort to make it up to my loyal readers, which may no longer exist, at least the "loyal" part, I present to you Summer Blog Catch Up '08. Or, more accurately, July - August Catch Up '08.
Where I got to experience the Kristi Lee Cook power stance firsthand. Glad to see Kristi's inexplicable fashion sense carried over to the summer tour.
Additionally, it took my poor ears about three days to recover from the deafening roar that greeted David Archuleta. I took video so I could show you all just how ridiculous the screaming was, but you can pretty much get the picture by imagining "Ahhhhhh!!!AHHHHHHHhhhhhHHH!!DAVID!AHHHHHhhhhhILOVEYOUahhhhHHHH" for six straight minutes.
Then came Willardson BalboaFest 2008.
Balboa was a much more eventful trip than my camera's memory card (empty) suggests. It started off with a bang on Monday morning when an unfortunate slip aboard the Western Pride resulted in a broken left hand, as my more observant readers may have deduced from one of my two July posts. Too embarrassed to admit I was seriously injured, I toughed it out and caught seven sand bass with a broken hand. Around Thursday I started losing feeling in my fingertips and finally went to see a doctor who fitted me for a temporary cast. Which made it pretty difficult to wear this on the appropriate finger:
Yes, that's right Wendy, Adam and I are engaged. Finally (heavy sarcasm). In all seriousness, though, I'm really happy. PS, this picture doesn't do justice to my gorgeous ring. Turns out it's pretty hard to get a good close-up of a diamond. I gave up after about four tries. You really just have to see it in person.After California came Hawaii, which was pretty unbelievable. We spent lots of time with family, visited as many beaches as possible along the north shore of O'ahu, and overloaded (wait, not possible) on pina coladas. Mmmm pina coladas. I took so many pictures I think blogger would crash if I tried to upload them all. So here are a few of my faves.
Anyway, it's pretty clear I started out strong on this post and lost steam around Balboa. Uploading 33 Hawaii pictures is probably a cop-out, but at least it's something, right? Here's to more consistent blogging in September!
