It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I usually get pretty excited to pull out the Christmas decorations but this year I was even more excited because I got to decorate my new house!

I like to put up my decorations the day after Thanksgiving because I like to enjoy them for as long as possible.  This year I started decorating at 11:30 pm!

It took me a while to decide where to put the tree because I had a few options in this house.  I decided that I liked it best in front of the window near the fireplace.

My sister found these poinsettias for me at the Home Depot for only $12.99.  I absolutely love them!

My sister Marilyn has started making the cutest quilted table runners.  This is the Christmas one she made for me.  I love it!

The tree skirt that I made last year!

A few more views.

It makes me so happy to sit in this room and look at the tree!  I love the holiday season so much and I am looking forward to many fun activities in December!

Note:  If you are interested in one of these cute table runners (she makes them for all holidays), you can contact my sister at thequiltingbeellc@gmail.com.

Thanksgiving 2015

This year, for the first time ever, I hosted Thanksgiving in my new house!  Of course, my sister Marilyn practically walked me through making everything while Kristine brought the rolls (they were from Kneader's bakery and they were delicious) and my parents brought the pies (from Village Inn).

What I was most excited about was using my dining room table!  I have wanted a table like this for a really long time and I loved seeing my whole family sitting around it!  Everything was so delicious and we had such a great day!

Note:  Sean and Tashena were especially happy to be celebrating at my house!

The Good Dinosaur

It has become a tradition to see a movie the day before Thanksgiving and I continued that tradition Wednesday by taking Sean to see The Good Dinosaur.  It is a wonderful movie and both Sean and I loved it.  In fact, Sean was absolutely riveted to the screen the whole time.  The movie presupposes that the meteor which wiped out the dinosaurs missed Earth and now they are farmers and ranchers while humans are wild cave dwellers.  The story centers on a young Apatosaurus named Arlo who is the runt of the litter and afraid of everything.  After Arlo gets trapped in a violent storm (more on this later), he is washed down the river away from his home and family.  He befriends a wild human, whom he names Spot, and together they encounter other dinosaurs (a trio of Pterodactyls, T-Rexes and their herd of buffalo, and rustling Velociraptors) and must overcome more natural disasters on their journey back to Arlo's family.  Arlo learns the meaning of friendship (in some really tender scenes) and how to overcome his fear (in some really violent and scary scenes).  There are also some really funny moments such as when Arlo and Spot find some fermented fruit and begin hallucinating (Sean turned to me and said, "I think the fruit is poisonous and that is why they are going crazy." Ha ha!) and when the T-Rexes are sitting around the campfire comparing scars (one of the T-rexes is voiced by Sam Elliott).   The story is very formulaic and derivative but I still found it to be compelling.  The animation is absolutely incredible!  It has the most realistic CGI landscapes I have ever seen, particularly the scenes with running water, featuring the beautiful American West.  One of the most stunning moments is when raindrops drip off some tree branches.  My only problem with this movie is that, for a film heavily marketed to young children, it is quite violent and scary (I literally jumped in a scene involving a snake) with the death Arlo's father in a storm, several near drownings, attacks by Pterodactyls and Velociraptors, and a violent landslide.  Sean, who is ten, was quite upset during the storms and mentioned them several times after the movie.  Sean ultimetely loved the movie and so did I!  I would recommend it as a fun family activity over the holidays with the proviso that younger children might be a bit scared.

Room

Last night I went to see the film adaptation of Emma Donoghue's best-selling novel, Room (which my book club read several years ago).  It is extraordinary!  Joy (Brie Larson), a young woman who was abducted at age 17, has been held captive in a tiny garden shed for seven years with her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who was fathered by her captor.  Despite the horror of her situation, she teaches Jack that the shed, which she calls Room, is the entire world and that everything in it is a friend.  When her captor reveals that he has lost his job and that he might lose his house, Joy realizes that she must take action to save Jack and tries to teach him about the outside world.  When they are rescued, Jack is completely overwhelmed by the world and everyone and everything in it and struggles with things as simple as climbing stairs.  However, as Jack becomes more and more confident in the world, Joy finds it difficult to reconcile the past seven years with her new life.   This movie is sometimes very unsettling to watch but it is also a beautiful story about a mother's love for her child (It reminded me a lot of the film Life is Beautiful where a father turns life in a concentration camp into an adventure for his son).  Both Larson and Tremblay give unbelievable performances, which are certain to be remembered during awards season, and I also really enjoyed Joan Allen's performance as Joy's mother, especially in her scenes with Jack.   The cinematography is very striking, particularly the dingy close-up shots which emphasize the claustrophobia of the shed juxtaposed with the wide and empty shots of the outside world.  While the novel is completely from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, this adaptation does a good job capturing his shifts in understanding (Donoghue also wrote the screenplay).  I would highly recommend this tense and psychological drama.

Note:  At this screening I saw the first preview for The Danish Girl.  I think I'm more excited to see it than the new Star Wars movie!

Mahler's "Tragic" Symphony

Last night the Utah Symphony performed an epic concert at Abravanel Hall (stop reading right now and go here for tickets to tonight's performance).  The evening began with Symphony No. 6 "Morning" by Joseph Haydn and it was absolutely beautiful.  I always like pieces which feature the woodwind section (I played the clarinet in school) and I loved the themes played by the solo flute and oboe in the first movement and repeated in the fourth.  The theme played by a solo bassoon and a solo double bass in the third movement was also quite lovely as was a theme played by a solo horn accompanied by the harp.  I really enjoyed hearing so many different instruments featured.  All of the musicians of the Utah Symphony are so talented!  After the intermission, the orchestra played the spectacular Symphony No. 6 "Tragic" by Gustav Mahler (The Utah Symphony is performing the entire Mahler symphony cycle to commemorate its 75th Anniversary this year).  With the nickname "Tragic," I thought this piece would be moody, atmospheric, and mournful.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  It is bold, lively, and energetic with rousing themes played by the brass and timpani, almost as if Mahler is raging against the fickle hand of fate.  The first movement conjured up images of battle while the second movement denoted a beautiful and romantic interlude until the hammer of fate (literally) falls on the protagonist in the finale.  The percussion section featured a giant wooden box which was struck twice by an equally giant mallet (I read that each strike represents a tragedy in Mahler's life and that a third strike is sometimes included which represents his struggle with certain music institutions).  It was incredibly dramatic, to say the least!  I loved it but I was exhausted after listening to such an emotional piece and I can't imagine how the musicians felt at the end!  Again, it was an epic evening of music and you certainly don't want to miss it!