Tag Archives: Christmas

You Have to! It’s Christmas!

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Yikes. Has it really been over a month?

Ok, ok, I could give you excuses [Getting my wisdom teeth out, DIYing my apartment for Christmas, family visiting, LIFE!] ….or I could give you a nice list. List it is. You see lately I’ve been taking refuge in the most likely of places: Netflix. There is nothing better to help me unwind then a gripping, well written TV show or an overly dramatic preposterous made for TV movie.

Recently I have discovered the genre of Christmas Romantic Comedies and, whoa, can we say gold mine [It even inspired a game for some good Valentine’s Day Rom Com fun later next year]? In addition to all the antics of your normal rom com you get a dose of holiday cheer which makes things infinitely more zany and simultaneously heart warming. It’s fun to guess how they are going to take those classic tropes and make them Christmas-y (I just love doing this in general).

Movie people like to put a lot of pressure on Christmas. I personally love in Christmas movies of all kinds where they give you a grand speech to do things simply because it’s Christmas [Because truth and love and virtue only apply on holidays and expire once new years hits.]. You HAVE to tell the truth. It’s Christmas! Confess your love. It’s Christmas! Tolerate this annoying person. It’s Christmas! Buy me a sandwich. It’s Christmas!

So without further ado here is my ranking of Cheesy Christmas love movies** (On Netflix Instant) for your viewing pleasure:

*Keep in mind these are not the best Christmas love movies or even made for TV love stories. These are my rankings of the made for tv (or similarly devised) Christmas love movies that I’ve watched in the month of December. This is a very narrow genre. Within two lines of the first descriptions you should know if these shenanigans are for you.

4. 12 Dates of Christmas

The basics: For some reason I cannot fathom, two people: Kate [Amy Smart] and Miles [Saved by the Bell alum Mark-Paul Gosselaar], agree to a blind date on Christmas Eve. It (of course) does not go quite as planned or renew anyone’s faith in humanity, so when Kate wakes up she has to do it again! And again! Until she get’s it right. It’s a Christmas-y groundhog day if you will.

Despite shaking your head through the first few “dates” at Kate’s utter clueless-ness and self destructive behavior during the beginning of the movie you can actually relate to her. You start to feel better once she starts getting her act together and not acting like a crazy person. Although her accomplishments are not always quite what you’d expect from someone given the instant replay option (I can bake and decorate Christmas cookies now!).

3. Holiday in Handcuffs

The Basics: Melissa Joan Hart [Trudie]needs a man to impress her family. The successful and good looking Mario Lopez [David] [Another Saved by the Bell alum!] walks in. So naturally she decides to solve her problems by kidnapping the handsome stranger. Antics ensue.

Despite hate-HATE-hating Melissa’s hair (Perm gone terribly wrong) for the first half of the movie you get into the story and can’t help but wonder where they are taking the dynamic between these two. I mean are we rooting for Stockholm Syndrome? Is that ok? Oh wait my moral dilemma has vacated my head due to that unintentional smolder Mario Lopez just threw at the camera.

2. Desperately Seeking Santa

The Basics: Jennifer, a focused, dare we say cold hearted, marketing exec, needs profits to go up at the South Boston Mall so she devises a genius plan to have a Sexy Santa contest. What she doesn’t anticipate is her verbal sparring matches and utter contempt for one of the contestants. But Sexy Santa turns out to have a sexy heart! Ok, that was weak. But you get it! He’s adorable and actually a really good guy.

There’s also evil corporate entities, danger of foreclosure…and boy band dance moves? Yup, you heard right. Seriously though, this would have been a great follow up movie for Justin Timberlake after Model Behavior.

1. A Christmas Kiss

The Basics: Wendy has an amazing kiss in a freak elevator incident…only to discover the man is actually her boss’s boyfriend. And he doesn’t recognize her because she was dressed up for a fancy party!! Oh did I mention that her boss is a crazy, vain, demanding person bent on getting engaged??  [DRAMA]

I know what you’re thinking: This is just a non high school version of the  Cinderella story. Well it is, but I like it anyway. Side note: Hillary Duff would’ve been great in this role.

Here’s why you’ll want to watch this one:

  • Sassy friends. So there is one girl who babbles on about fate and destiny while sighing romantically, but there is also that great sassy friend (This girl who’s an Grey’s Anatomy intern right now) who tells it like it is with classic sitcom-y attitude. Even better than her little quips is her good friend advice speech at the end where she says things that I would actually tell my friends. Well done.
  • Rich people problems. I love seeing rich people habits in movies. The boss in this movie is priceless. Oh remember St. Barts? Oops I ruined my Monolo Blahniks! GET ME A CROISSANT.
  • Brendan Fehr. Do I need to explain this? He’s that handsome former teen alien we all love. Or that charming young fellow on Bones if you are too old/young to be acquainted with the other worldy drama that was Roswell.
  • Makeover! These writers learned from the life of Laney Boggs that you can transform a girl simply by removing her glasses and getting rid of that unfashionable ponytail. Except for instead of tweasing her eyebrows to finish it off in this movie they drown her in glitter (It’s the holidays after all).

My caveat with this movie is if it was that easy to get handsome strangers to fall in love with you girls would be sabotaging elevators left and right. All the tired of excessive PDA people would be forced to take the stairs everywhere. Of course, everything else in all of these movies is completely realistic and one of these meet cutes will probably be the way I meet my husband.

Up Next: All She Wants for Christmas. According to the Netflix summary this Christmas Rom Com centers around a woman who works as an “efficiency expert at the local Christmas ornament company.” An ORNAMENT company. How could should not find love in time for Christmas??? Still I’m willing to invest 1 hour and 34 minutes to find out.

Currently: knitting my little heart out. Christmas is near and I had this silly idea to make things (I’m actually quite on track. Knock on wood).

A Lot Like Christmas

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Merry Christmas! I hope you’ve had a great holiday season. Here are just 25 things (in no  particular order) that have made this December “feel like Christmas:”

Red nails and green accessories. I already loved my cute red nails. When my friend gave me green earrings it seemed like the perfect combo.

Sugar Plum herbal tea. When you open this it smells heavenly.

Rereading the new testament. Once upon a Christmas my parents gave my sister and I each a little pink new testament that we could carry with us and read during the Christmas season. This year I decided to do it on my own.

The SLC film society’s Sound of Music Sing Along. Now Sound of Music isn’t a “Christmas” movie per say, but seeing everyone so happy and all those little girls running around dressed as Gretel just put me in the festive mood. Plus it’s fun to get to sing along to the songs and use all the props they give you in your goody bag.

Christmas music. My go to music girl Caity and my roommate Courtney both made excellent Christmas playlists. I am particularly obsessed with the cover of Christmas Wrapping Caity introduced me to:

Plus this video has been making the rounds:

A mini December marathon of Christmas movies. This included Elf, I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, Santa Clause, Love Actually, and I’ll be Home for Christmas (starring the one and only JTT, haha).

Ugly Sweaters.

This particular gem managed to snag me the "tacky" prize at the company Christmas luncheon.

This particular gem managed to snag me the “tacky” prize at the company Christmas luncheon. It was on loan from my sister.

White elephant loot. This year I scored fuzzy Christmas themed house slippers, smores kits, and play doh. My contributions were some rain boots I grabbed from the DI box and a goldfish (this one through some people for a loop).

Lovely gifts from friends. I’m lucky to have some pretty thoughtful and generous people in my life.

Skype. We got to Skype with your cousins in Arizona and it was so great to have them here for a little, even if it was via computer screen.

Christmas Lights; whether they are at Temple Square ( I went once with my family right after Thanksgiving and once with my ward), the Houston Zoo lights, or on my tiny Christmas tree.

Some of the lights. They created a path and had Christmas music. The animals were mostly asleep, but the Lion did come out :)

Some of the lights. They created a path and had Christmas music. The animals were mostly asleep, but the Lion did come out :)

More zoo lights.

More zoo lights.

Learning how to keep poinsettias alive. We bought a few poinsettias for our office and it has been way more of a challenge then we thought. It turns out they need waaay more water then we were giving them. Luckily they mostly seemed to recover ok.

Yuca, congri, and flan. We always get together with my Dad’s family on Christmas eve. We have lots of yummy Cuban food and have a good time catching up with everyone. For some of my family members it’s the one tie a year I get to to see them so I always look forward to it.

Decorating a Gingerbread House and tree.

I had a lot of fun decorating this little house.

I had a lot of fun decorating this little house.

Helping my sister move. Going to Provo brought back that end of semester feeling. I also did “Christmas shopping” at the same time by reclaiming all my clothes that somehow wandered into her closet over the semester.

Wrapping presents for refugee families. I went with my company to wrap gifts for the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City.

For work we decided to help sort and wrap gifts people have donated to the International Rescue Committee in order to help refugee families have a great Christmas. Some of us also helped sponsor a couple.

For work we decided to help sort and wrap gifts people have donated to the IRC in order to help refugee families have a great Christmas. Some of us also helped sponsor a couple. I couldn’t find the other pictures, but here’s one of the wrapping stations.

Cousin time. We always spend Christmas day with my Mom’s family. It’s always wonderful to see all my aunts, uncles, and cousins. This year we’ll all be at my Aunt Shelly’s house in the Woodlands.

Cinnamon and nutmeg on my hot cider at the Salt Lake Roasting company. There were so many yummy options here; I need to come back.

Hot cider and a delish quiche.

Hot cider and a delish quiche.

Early morning airport drives. This year my flight was so early I was in the airport before any of the shops opened, creating a severe, incurable bagel craving.

Relaying a s’more bar recipe to a frantic holiday shopper in the baking aisle at Krogers. I wish I had a way of knowing how her bars come out! I hope things go well for her; judging by the overflowing cart she was pushing she is expecting a large group for the holidays.

Church Christmas party and program. My Church catered a dinner for us and then on Sunday we had a lovely musical program (many people travel during the holidays so we had ours a bit earlier than most). Then I came to Texas and got to have another Christmas Sunday :)

Dickens Christmas festival. It was a blast to see everyone dressed up and in the holiday spirit. I even bought an adorable Christmas star. I forgot to take pictures, but luckily Courtney picked up the slack so I snagged these from her.

Me in the stocks at the Dickens festival. They also had lots of vendor booths and fun snacks. Everyone was dressed up and using British accents.

Me in the stocks at the Dickens festival. They also had lots of vendor booths and fun snacks. Everyone was dressed up and using British accents.

One of the people dressed up. We also saw a bunch of "Oliver" orphans running around.

One of the people dressed up. We also saw a bunch of “Oliver” orphans running around.

Hugs from my family and playing with my puppy, Bella. I love seeing all my Texas family and friends. I’m always happy to have a “green” Christmas in Sugar Land. Plus it’s my last bit of sister time before Gabby takes her big trip (so excited for her!!)!

Christmas wrapping and ribbon. I’m a sucker for pretty packages.

Seeing old friends. There are just some people who help make home feel like home. I loved seeing many of my friends at Church, in fact I got to hear many of their beautiful voices during our Christmas program. I was also very excited to see my friend Kimberly and meet baby Emma.

Me and Kimberly :)

Me and Kimberly :)

Baby Emma! I also saw Leslie (who just turned 3!) but I forgot to snap a pic.

Baby Emma! I also saw Leslie (who just turned 3!) but I forgot to snap a pic.

Well that’s it for now. I’m off enjoying the fam. Hope you’re having some good Christmas times.

Currently: Watching one of my Mom’s Christmas presents, Sense and Sensibility (And no, I haven’t been blogging all Christmas; I’m just putting the finishing touches on this while we all eat Christmas sweets and root for Miss. Dashwood!).

Let it Snow…Sort of…

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Normal people: Let’s watch a Christmas movie and make snowflakes.

Result: 2-3 snowflakes, then everyone slowly abandons the idea as they get sucked into the movie (Let’s face it the Santa Clause is a holiday gem).

Me: Let’s watch a Christmas movie and make snowflakes.

Result: A couple of cute snowflakes. These are pretty, but I can do better. How about 3-D snowflakes? Sounds good.

Then paper chains. Oh wait, let’s do patterned paper chains.

In the shape of reindeer.

And snowman.

And trees.

And stockings.

And candy canes.

And angels.

And Santa. Santa sort of looks like a elf. Still works.

Google other “paper crafts.”

It’s getting late now so an overly complicated project is in order… hmm youtube tutorial for origami star/ball thing? Yes. This makes a lot of sense and definitely represents Christmas. It has 12 separate components? Even better. They are supposed to magically snap together without tape? haha.

But what should I do with it all? Hang it from the ceiling? Ok. Still looks like it could use more. Hmmm, let’s add the tissue paper puffs I made for my friend’s bridal shower.

Contemplate making more items to truly “elf” the room. Mentally try to decide how much paper I have left…then realize it is 1 am, I have lost the tape, and I’m lying on the living room floor. Decide it’s time for bed.

Christmas decor

The light is terrible so use your imagination. This is supposed to be a fun filled paper snowflake room.

more snowflakes

More paper “snow.” When the air circulates at night they sort of twirl around.  Emily and Courtney also contributed a snowflake or two (they are my baseline for normal snowflake production, haha).

Merry Christmas!

Currently: getting swept up in the December Christmas-party-athon. The last one I went to was my church’s white elephant party. I ended up with a box filled with  s’mores kits and play doh.