2014: Year In Review

Snowshoeing at Tibble Fork Reservoir - January 2014

Snowshoeing at Sundance Resort - February 2014

Colorado Avalanche Road Trip - March 2014

Spring Break Road Trip - April 2014

Lava Hot Springs - May 2014

Yellowstone National Park - June 2014

Russia - July 2014

Utah Shakespeare Festival - August 2014

Mt. Rushmore - September 2014

Frightmares at Lagoon with Sean & Tashena - October 2014

Utah Jazz Game - November 2014

Christmas - December 2014

2014 has been a year full of adventures, challenges, and opportunities! I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store! Happy New Year!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a $50 Megaplex Theatres gift card.

The Year of Magical Thinking

My book club chose to read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion for its December selection. This memoir is an account of the year following the sudden and unexpected death of the author's husband, John Gregory Dunne. Didion dispassionately equates her grieving process with temporary insanity, becoming almost obsessed with the medical condition that killed her husband, feeling that she could have done something to avert the tragedy, refusing to give away his possessions because he might come back and need them, and deliberately avoiding all locations (around the world) associated with him. I did not relate to this book at all. It is an intellectual, rather than emotional, response to the death of a spouse of 40 years which reads like a treatise on grief (even citing research). I had not read anything by Didion, or her husband, before and I found it rather off-putting that she kept quoting herself throughout. I did not understand any of the references out of context.  I also found all of her name-dropping to be quite annoying, mostly because I didn't know the majority of these New York literati.  I was further alienated by her lavish and privileged lifestyle.  The fact that she still had to send out her laundry no matter how empty she felt did not leave me very sympathetic! Once again, whenever I dislike something that has received such glowing reviews, I wonder if I have missed something. However, I sometimes had the sense that this memoir was Didion's self indulgent way of coming to terms with her own grief with memories and anecdotes only she can appreciate and that it was published and so well received solely because of her friendship with the aforementioned New York literati. I can appreciate Didion's exceptional writing style, but I wouldn't recommend this memoir.

Note:  To be fair, this was probably not the best thing to read while teaching Hamlet to my seniors and Night, by Elie Wiesel, to my sophomores.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a $50 Megaplex Theatres gift card.

Megaplex Theatres Giveaway!

Winter is a time when I really love going to see movies and this year there are so many good ones on my list!  Are there any movies you are excited about seeing?  I am giving away a $50 gift card to any Megaplex Theatre (locations in Centerville, Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Sandy, South Jordan, Ogden, Lehi, Logan, Cedar City, St. George, and Mesquite, Nevada).  Just follow Phaedra's Adventures via Google Friend Connect (located in sidebar) and enter the Rafflecopter below.  You can get another entry by leaving me a comment telling the movie you are most excited to see (I loved The Hobbit, Into the Woods, and Unbroken).  The giveaway will run until Jan. 2 and I will notify the winner via email on Jan. 3.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

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.