A Very Merry Christmas

Ok - first of all, to see how the Huntsman family celebrates Christmas every year, please visit my sister in law Sheree's blog - she do exactly what I was going to do, so read it!



http://leeandsheree.blogspot.com/2008/12/yes-we-play-with-beans.html



So, I asked my friend Kari to sing with me on Christmas. Kari played Belle in Steve's production of Beauty and the Beast and she is just about the nicest person you will ever meet! Here's a photo of us practicing. And how brave I am - no makeup!!!

Smile, Baby!

As usual this year, I had grand plans for making Christmas dresses for the girls and a vest for Ryder. I even bought fabric. Then a week before Christmas, my friend Terrence calls to see if I can do some work on a show he's opening real quick like. Ok, I say, because of course - I like money. So instead of making them new dresses, I made 3 aprons, 2 smocks and a handful of alterations. So, the girls got to go shopping. These are what they picked out - I offered them frilly gowns, but these are what they wanted. I think they are classy!

Chloe, my elegant sophisticate. I like that her hair is getting longer.


Ryder didn't want to be left out in his studly vest! The hat he got from Nursery at church. He was excited for a new "Peter Pan" hat.

I especially like Pipers...she has a real eye for fashion!



Lola was sleeping so she missed out on the fun, but what a cute group!

Monday was our Huntsman family christmas dinner and gift exchange. Some years we have a dinner theme, but this year we just went traditional. It was good! The gifts were great and the candybar Bingo was a highlight as usual. Next year, though, we are going to have a kids round and then an adult round...it's hard to steal candy from kids!

Tuesday night was my hubby's birthday. Yup - he even came home from the hospital on Christmas day in a huge stocking that his mom still has. I got him some drawing stuff and we ate at our favorite restaurant - Red Robin, finsihed up some Christmas shopping and had some yummy Starbucks. Against his will, I got him some drawing tools for his birthday. So, it was stuff he needed and he was grateful. I love my hubby!!!!

For Christmas Eve we went over to my sister Ilona's house for dinner (Stimmel family Chimichangas) and gifts! Here are the cousins!

Chloe, Lola, Lucas, Ryder, Piper and Ava! The cousins have a blast when they get together.

Which leads us to Christmas morning. We were up pretty late that night and the kids were a little crazy, so imagine my chagrin when Chloe came to wake us up at 7am. Yikes! We left Lola asleep because she had been up really late due to a late nap. Here's a photo of the kids' spread.

Yup, Santa brought the girls their very own computer...ok, it was our old one, Santa just brought some new games and it will go in thier room. Ryder also got his own Laptop, they all got plenty of toys and clothes and giftcards.

"Our OWN computer!"

Yay! Unwrapping presents is fun.

Steve and I decided to forgoe exchanging gifts this year because of our special vacation we just took - that's all I needed, although he did get me some fabulous pajamas and I got him a digital voice recorder for when he directs shows.

What a wonderful Christmas!!!! I hope all of my blog readers (yup - all 3 of you) had yourselves a wonderful Christmas as well!

3 things that make me laugh out loud.

#1. This photo of Ryder. It just cracks me up every time I see it. It's so perfect, with the bread in his hands and his mouth and then those stupid glasses...hilarity! 2. This photo of Lola. She's wearing some of Ryder's old clothes because hers were in the dryer. Her dirty self fell asleep just like this...I love it so much, but I don't think I'll be putting her in that T-shirt anymore...it wasn't the best call in the first place, but she'll have this photo forever!

#3. This video:

The Twilight Before Christmas

My favorite part is where she's stuttering and says "Is this even english?" SO brilliantly funny. Hey - I love Twilight, but I love me a good spoof!

3 funny things are always a good thing!

I love...

WALL-E. I really love Pixar - I'm grateful for the movies they've made and what they have brought to my life and my children's life - entertaining stories with a great message.

I bought WALL-E for my kid when it came out - I needed it as a bribe for them to be good when I left them with a babysitter. Chloe and Piper had seen it at the theatre and loved it. I listened to it many times while they watched - always cracking up at the Hello Dolly songs...oh, Micheal Crawford, such a long way you came from "Put on your Sunday clothes", but I digress.

Well, about a week ago, I cozied up in my bed with the kids and watched it. I loved it! I missed a bit in the middle getting a bottle for the baby, but I really liked the whole story. I liked the beginning best, the fat people were disturbing, but what a heck of a commentary. It seems pretty blatant, but I think there's a more subtle meaning there - not just that being sedentary will make us fat, but that we should be cautious with our technology, stop to take a look around at "the pool" and nature, hug and touch each other. Oh, the trash thing - I know far fetched in all reality, but what a commentary! Anyway, I was quite moved at the end. It was great.

Well, I put it on for Ryder the other day and wasn't feeling well so I laid down to watch it with him. OH MY GOSH! I laughed my tail off at all I had missed - I missed Eve finding the plant and WALL-E dragging her around by Christmas lights to go on dates with him. PURE CINEMATIC GENIUS! I was truly impressed that I was able to feel so much emotion from robots - what a technical feat by Pixar. I loved it.

My favorite is Finding Nemo. My least favorite is Rat-ah-too-ee. Don't ask me to spell it! It's a sweet story and the letter the mean old reviewer writes at the end is great, it's just the whole thing about the rat cooking that's gross.

I love the Pixar Play Parade at Disney California Adventures, and I LOVE that John Lasseter, one of the key geniuses behind pixar, negotiated himself such a strong say in the Disney Theme Parks when they re-negotiated the Disney/Pixar relationship because what they are going to do to Disney's California Adventure is nothing short of inspiring.

Visiting the "Blue Sky Cellar" where they have details of the new plans for Disney's California Adventures Theme Park was one of the highlights of our trip! SO stinkin' cool. I especially look forward to the Little Mermaid ride and the World of Color show they will do in the bay. And the new entryway made to look like 1920's Hollywood (when Walt arrived) with red trolley cars and everything. And Cars land. My favorite website for D-land dirt is www.miceage.com. Very informational!

Well, the kids are off today, I'm off to do some scouting for a new costuming project I got hired to do - I just love little jobs that fall from out of the sky at Christmastime!

Randomness!

Just thought I'd share a few photos of our crazy, zany antics. None of these photos were staged, well, ok, maybe 1, but this is just us!

Here's Lola, flying around on her motorcycled. She loves it. So does Ryder, but he doesn't understand when his engine runs out of gas so quickly, so he's been banned from riding.

On Saturday, we went to look at model homes. We just like too! Here are the kids playing in a very large, under the stairs space.

Ryder and Lola in the shower. This is what they did when Steve told them to smile!

This is me in the shower - oh, edited for content! ;)

We went to see Uncle Ga- uh, Santa! He came to the church breakfast. Ho, ho, ho! Here he is with Piper

And Chloe as she rattled off her way long list.

Laptop, anyone?

And Ryder and Lola, terrified beyond belief. I do have more than one sweater, folks - that's just my favorite!

But Ryder was happy when he got his Candy Cane!

Last, but certainly not least, Steve had a little fun with some fun glasses he found. People are seriously always commenting on how we all have blue eyes (which was fate because Steve and I are both blue eyed - c'mon folks, thing back to 9th grade biology and the Punnett square - you know, recessive and dominant genes!) but this was too funny. Ryder's makes me laugh my tail off every time I look at it.

Well, that's all! Enjoy the freezing cold - someone ought to, I certainly am not. I'm typing to keep my fingers warm!

Christmas Cards!

I got to make some fun Christmas cards this year for family members! Here they are...don't worry, some of you will still get ours in the mail or hand delivered and the back is cool! I'll save that as a surprise!

Here's my in-laws family!

And my Sister-in-law who took our family photos. I took the photos on her card! And you may recognize some of the design elements...just look around you!

Finally, here's ours. I decided to do some not so traditional colors, but I love it! I've had the background for a year now, just waiting to use it!

I have another project I've been working on, but I'll have to wait until after Christmas to show you!

Oh! And check out 2 of the blogs to your left - Valinda and Sheree. I did both of their blog backgrounds/headers! Let me know if you want one - I'll totally hook you up!

More fun!

Here's some more random pictures of our trip...no particular order thanks to blogspots fabulous uploader...my last post almost drove me mad!

Anyway - enjoy!

Gotta love Cinderella!

I'm your dream come true!


No comment.


I think this is just a cool picture of Woody!

Oh, Steve - he's just so serious all the time!

I don't think I used this one in the last blog, did I? My smile looks dumb.

Eatin' breakfast, waitin' for the oil change.

We got stuck under the man eating plant in Haunted Mansion Holiday. Pretty cool, huh?

Waiting to get on X2!

Steve and his yummy sandwich!

I still may not feel rested, but I do feel refreshed. Can't wait to do it again! We are taking Ryder for his birthday on January 7th - that whole free thing. Yay!

What a trip!

Well, folks...we're back! I honestly tried to blog from the road, but for some reason my blog by e-mail didn't work. Whatever! Here's a brief re-cap from our trip. I will post more of the artsy photos Steve took with his new camera in another post.
So, we left bright and early on Saturday morning at around 5:30 am. This got us to LA just after 10am. Here are some photos of us shopping. It's kinda crazy there...

It's almost like a street fair - dozens of tiny little stores, most of them insanely unorganized and no price tags anywhere...bargainers paradise. Unfortunately, I'm not that good at bargaining.

Here is a trim shop - I meant for my expression to be more in awe but I kinda look disgusted...but I was really in awe! So much amazing stuff!

This just made me laugh. It should read "tulle" - the netting fabric used at weddings and stuff. TOOO funny!


After we found all the fabric we were going to find for the day, we ventured into the garment district. There was one lady with AMAZING gowns she makes for children. She wouldn't let us take any pictures, but they were inspirational!

That night, we made our way to Simi Valley where we stayed at a lovely hotel - with a hot tub which was great, and just had a relaxing evening.

The next morning we headed over to Magic Mountain. We didn't really take any photos there because it is a filthy, disgusting place. We got there before opening and went straight to X2. It's the most amazingly unbelievable thrill ride I have ever been on. On that ride, you experience sensations you have never felt before, and probably never will again. You should google it to see how cool it was.

Oh my!

Unfortunately, that ride set us up for a bit of disappointment. I did enjoy Tatsu - the "flying" coaster. It was almost all downhill after that. We then went on Superman: The Escape, Riddler's Revenge and Batman. They were filthy, disgusting and even smelly - the cue line, the loading area and even the actual rides themselves. I got totally sick to my stomach after those 3. After guzzling down a coke to see if it would settle me, we went on to Scream - a newer one but no big whoop and the Goliath - we had been there about 7 years ago when it was brand new and it was still great. Those were the major rides we wanted to go on. We went back to X2 to see what the line was like - it was way long and we had literally walked on all of the other ones, so we decided to get out of that stink pot and head to the shining goodness of Disneyland! It was only 1pm - so we had accomplished all we cared to see of Magic Mountain in 3 hours.

After a stop for lunch, Walmart and hotel check in, we headed over to Disneyland. As we entered the plaza, they were just allowing people to wait for the Candlelight Ceremony - a tradition started by Walt Disney himself. Even though it didn't start for 1 1/2 hours and it was standing room only, we decided to wait. It was well worth it! There was a fantastic orchestra, and amazingly large choir and a special "celebrity" narrator...

Here we are, waiting...

Here's a photo of the choir/orchestra.

And our special guest narrator..John Stamos. That's him - the little blur, I swear.

While I'm sure he's a very nice person and a decent TV actor, narrator he is not. We made some friends at Fantasmic later that night and the guy put it perfectly - when one thinks of the nativity, John Stamos doesn't exactly come to mind as the perfect narrator. He was simply boring - he had no inflection in his voice. It was kinda funny when one of the girls in the choir fainted and he helped her down - how chivalrous and great PR to boot, eh?

But the ceremony was beautiful - great music, soloist and very religious! They told the whole nativity story and even praised our Savior, Jesus Christ, even though they never mentioned Him by name. It was New King James versionized, but I didn't mind, I was just so thrilled to see a big name company like Disney recognizing the nativity. It was wonderful!

We also made it on the Haunted Mansion Holiday - it was our first time seeing that - it was SOOO cool, then to see Fantasmic (we sat for about another 2 hours waiting for that - it was mad busy) and then Fireworks. I didn't love the fireworks. I mean, they were great for a Christmas Fireworks show, but I SO love the "Wishes" show that I was underwhelmed. Even the snow afterwards was kinda a let down - just the same bubble snow we used in Beauty and the Beast. It made me cough.

But what a fun, amazing day.

Before our trip, I had asked Steve if we needed an oil change - he said we'd be fine, but then our car flashed "Oil Change Required" at us repeatedly, so on Monday morning we found the local Walmart and got our oil changed. $30! Yikes! Here, it's like $18. Shoulda listened to me! We made it back to the parks around noon.

Outside DCA!

Waiting for It's A Small World Holiday...I love the mermaids that sing "Jingle Shells"

Waiting in line for the Parade, talking to Lola and Ryder's babysitter, my dear friend Alda!

I was impressed by the toy soldiers - they really played their trumpets!

As a former trumpeter (bet you didn't know that), it was so cool!

I also liked the roller skating snowflakes. Like my artsy photo?

We had heard about Pixie Hollow - a Tinkerbell and Friends meet-n-greet that they put in where Ariel used to be. The line was "short" (and by short I mean 1/2 an hour) so we decided to check it out. It really isn't anything more than just a small area with large plants to make it seem like you've shrunk to fairy size and 2 meet and greet areas.

First we met Rosetta. She was so cute and really nice.

We had to get Sassy with Tinkerbell.

We spent most of the rest of the day in DCA and decided to re-visit "It's Tough to be a Bug" which was fun!

We really had a great time. It was just wonderful to have some Steve and me time. We needed it.

And I love my hubby SOOO much for driving all the way home - I was so exhausted, I kept falling asleep no matter how hard I tried to stay awake.

Also, MUCH LOVE to Lee & Sheree, Valinda, Alda and my mother in law for taking such great care of our kids. THANK YOU!!!!!!!