Christmas 2014

Christmas this year was absolutely wonderful!

On Christmas Eve we have the tradition of opening one present and everyone gets Christmas jammies!  Here is the traditional photo of Sean and Tashena in front of the Christmas tree! I spent the night at my parents' house, much to the delight of Sean who wanted to watch the movie Elf.  He had it set up in the DVD player all day.  He also woke me up early Christmas morning to show me the letter Santa left for him!

Christmas morning!

Santa Claus left us lots of presents!

We draw names for stockings and I drew Tashena.  I got her the coveted Nike basketball socks, an iPod case, some headphones, and a gift card to Claire's.  Ironically, Tashena drew my name and gave me socks, several bags of my favorite candy cane kisses, brushes, some Burt's Bees lip balm (my favorite), and some storage boxes.

Tashena opening her presents.  This year she got a lot of clothes and jewelry!

Her big present was a TV.  She was very excited!

It is so fun to watch Sean open presents because he is so excited!  He got some Wii games, action figures, clothes, and a remote-controlled helicopter (which he played with all day)!

Sean's big present was an iPod (just like the one Tashena got for her birthday but in Hulk green instead of purple).

My favorite present was a pair of Dr. Martens boots.  I got a black pair last year and now I have a brown pair!  I love these boots because they last forever!  I also got some levis and sweaters, some DVDs, some new snow pants (I can't wait to go snowshoeing), and a Colorado Avalanche phone case!

Marilyn made Sean and Tashena rag quilts!  They turned out so cute and they were a big hit!

This is the aftermath!  It was such a good day.  I am so glad that my family is close and that we can spend holidays together.  I am so glad that Sean and Tashena are in our family because they make every holiday so much better.  I hope you had a wonderful day filled with family and friends!

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a pair of tickets to see the Utah Symphony New Year's Eve weekend.

Into the Woods

On Christmas Eve Marilyn and I took Sean and Tashena to see the first screening of Into the Woods because I literally could not wait another moment to see it.  Stephen Sondheim's Tony award winning musical is one of my very favorites and I have been waiting for months and months for the movie adaptation to come out.  The story incorporates well-known fairy tales, such as "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Jack and the Beanstalk," and "Rapunzel," to demonstrate that actions can sometimes have unintended consequences and wishes do not always turn out happily ever after.  It is a very faithful adaptation and its strength is in the wonderful cast.  Meryl Streep is amazing as the Witch and, although I was not especially impressed with her singing in Mamma Mia, I really liked her renditions of "Stay With Me" and "The Last Midnight."  I think Anna Kendrick is absolutely perfect as Cinderella and I especially loved her performance of "On the Steps of the Palace."  When I found out that Johnny Depp was playing the Wolf, I may or may not have squealed because, in my opinion, he was made for this role.  I was positively giddy during his version of "Hello, Little Girl."  My favorite song in the stage musical has always been "Agony" sung by Cinderella's Prince and Rapunzel's Prince.  I was a bit surprised that Chris Pine not only pulled it off but, along with Billy Magnussen (who I was not familiar with), he actually turned it into one of the highlights of the movie.  Pine is hilarious as the prince who was raised to be charming not sincere and I loved all of his facial expressions and all of his strutting around.  The entire cast is well suited to their roles and Rob Marshall does a great job staging all of the song and dance numbers, especially the aforementioned "Agony" in a waterfall.  I really love the production design, making the woods seem much darker and more foreboding than they are usually portrayed on stage, and I think the costumes are fantastic, especially those worn by Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters.  My only complaint is that Rapunzel's storyline becomes rather ambiguous (it is pretty bleak in the musical) at the end but it is a small deviation.  Overall, I think it is a fabulous adaptation and fans of the musical will probably love it as much as I do.  I highly recommend it;  in fact, I will probably see it again!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a pair of tickets to see the Utah Symphony New Year's Eve weekend.

Gingerbread Houses 2014

Ever since Tashena joined our family, we have had the tradition of making gingerbread houses (which is funny because I don't really remember doing this as a child).  This year we made them during the day on Christmas Eve.

Sean actually eats more frosting than he puts on his house (I have a picture like this every year) and we inevitably drop half of the candy on the floor, much to the delight of the dogs!

We buy the kits and then we use a hot glue gun to put them together (we never actually eat them).  We are impatient and we like to get to the fun part, which is decorating them, as soon as possible.  It doesn't really matter what they look like in the end because we have so much making them!

My masterpiece.

Marilyn's masterpiece.

Sean's masterpiece.

Tashena's masterpiece.

Our gingerbread house village!

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Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a pair of tickets to see the Utah Symphony New Year's Eve weekend.

A Christmas Carol at HCT 2014

Like The Nutcracker, another one of my cherished holiday traditions is seeing Hale Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol.  I've seen it so many times that I really think I could stand in for any part (happily, my services were not required last night) but it just wouldn't be Christmas without it!  The well-known story of Ebeneezer Scrooge's redemption after visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future is so touching that I always walk out of the theatre vowing to keep Christmas in my heart all year long.  Some of the actors (such as David Weeks as Scrooge and Brad Charon as Bob Cratchit) return again and again and I look forward to seeing them.  I also look forward to seeing new actors making very familiar roles their own and I particularly liked Brannon Killgo as the Ghost of Christmas Present and, of course, Jimmy Empey was adorable as Tiny Tim.  I love the familiar sets, the opulent Victorian costumes, and the beautiful Christmas carols sung by an octet throughout the play.  It is always fun for me to look for any subtle changes that are made to the production (again, I've seen it so many times I can detect any change in an instant).  This year there was a new set for Scrooge's Counting House, which I thought was highly effective because it put Scrooge above Bob Cratchit and the rest of the office serving to emphasize his isolation from everyone (I have no idea if Kacey Udy, the brilliant set designer for HCT, intended it thus but I literally cannot stop my brain from analyzing everything I see).  There was also a new costume for the Ghost of Christmas Future which I really liked because, quite frankly, the old one was rather scary!  Last night was another lovely evening filled with Christmas spirit but, unfortunately, it was the final performance of A Christmas Carol for 2014.  However, you can go here to check out HCT's 2015 season! I'm looking forward to it!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a pair of tickets to see the Utah Symphony New Year's Weekend.