Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas or is having a fantastic holiday season if you're not a Christmas participant. We, at the Yummy household, had a great Christmas! Lil Mootz was having none of the gift opening, but he thoroughly enjoyed getting new toys and then ignoring them to play with the wrapping paper and boxes.

We also celebrated Lil Mootz's first birthday! Yes, it's been a WHOLE YEAR since this little munchkin entered our lives...

I have tons and tons of pictures to share with all of you.  However, the Lil Sis is getting married on Thursday and so, as the Matron of Honor my time is very limited right now.  Also, my Gram passed away last week and the funeral is tomorrow.  As soon as I can I will post all of Lil Mootz's super cute first Christmas and first birthday photos!

We also have a contest to finish up here!  New Parent hasn't announced the winner yet of the Amazon Baby of the Week contest.  When they do I will announce the winner of my contest and the $50 gift certficate.

Until then...

Snowstorms, Christmas Candylane & Santa

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  For those of you in the Northern East Coast area, I hope you enjoyed your snow.  I know we did.  We woke up on Saturday to about 3 inches, so we snuggled in for a Saturday in front of the fire and TV.  Lil Mootz liked looking out the window and watching the snow fall.  When all was said and done we had about a foot of snow.

Yesterday, we journeyed out and visited Christmas Candylane, Hershey Parks annual holiday attraction.  Even though it was a bit nippy, we had a fantastic time.  We bundled Lil Mootz up in his stroller and we walked around the park and rode a few rides.  With all the snow on the ground and the lights all lit up, it was really beautiful.  Lil Mootz also sat on Santa's lap for the first time!

All bundled up and ready to go!

Enjoying the Chocolate World Ride. This Christmas House is made entirely of candy.

Enjoying our s'mores!

(Stonewall and I waited 4 years for these s'mores. We visited Candylane on our first date 4 years ago. We ordered s'mores last night from the same stand we tried to order them from on our date. However, 4 years ago we got this response, "We're out of chocolate." At first, we thought the woman was joking with us. But she was serious. The s'mores stand at Hershey Park, the amusement park of Hershey Chocolate, was out of chocolate.)

Lil Mootz enjoying the s'mores with us!

Lil Mootz enjoying his first ride!

Lil Mootz NOT enjoying the carousel.

Riding the train and visiting Santa's reindeer.

Visiting with Santa!

Don't forget to vote for Lil Mootz at NewParent.com and enter my contest!

Have a great week everyone!

Show Me Some Ed Hardy Love

I'm not really sure what the deal is, but I've been lusting over Ed Hardy gear lately. His stuff is so NOT my usual style, but I'm still feelin' it.

My eye doctor sent out a newsletter (yes, my eye doc sends out a newsletter and yes, I read it) and advertised that they were selling Ed Hardy sunglasses. That's when I fell.

Je suis amoureux. *swoon*

And then this morning I came upon these bad boys -

And these aren't just any bags.  Oh no.  These are diaper bags.  Ed Hardy diaper bags by Christian Audigier.  So yummy mummy worthy.

So family who reads my blog, I know it's a bit late for Christmas gifts, but I do have a birthday coming up in early January and if you're looking to make it to the top of my favorite gift-giver list...

*******

Don't forget to vote for this lil cutie at NewParent.com for Amazon Baby of the Week! 

After you vote let me know and you are entered to win a $50 gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs.  Check out the contest rules here!

Enter My "Baby of the Week Finalist" Contest & Win!

If you haven't read my last post yet, Lil Mootz is a finalist in the New Parent and Amazon Baby of the Week contest!

I really want him to win (obviously), so I decided to give everyone a little bit of incentive to go vote for him.

I am giving away a $50 gift certificate to Lisa Leonard Designs. If you've never seen her designs you really should head over (after you vote for Lil Mootz, of course) and check out her jewelry. I'll be honest, I can't decide which piece I like more.

So here's how it's going to work:

To enter the contest and for 2 entries:

Click on over to New Parent and vote for Lil Mootz!  Then leave me a comment and let me know you voted (hopefully, you also gave him 5 stars when you voted). (If you already voted and left me a comment on the previous post you are already entered!)

If you want extra entries then you can do one (or more) of the following...and don't forget to leave a comment for me letting me know you did these things!

5 extra entries:

Post about this contest on your own blog (don't forget to link back to this post!)

3 extra entries:

Twitter about this contest

1 extra entry:

Go to Lisa Leonard Designs and let me know in your comment what you plan on buying with your $50 gift certificate.

The last day for voting is December 27, so on December 28 I will pick a winner!

Thank you everyone for voting!

Baby Of The Week Finalist

Our Lil Mootz made it to the finals of theNew Parent and Amazon Baby of the Week Contest!

Please please please head on over and vote for him! This is the final round.  If he gets enough votes he will be featured on the cover of New Parent magazine.

My Christmas List

I was tagged by Basinah at The Wolf and The Crow to participate in a fun Christmas meme.

As usual, there are the rules before I get to the fun part:

Want to play along?

Copy and paste the questions into your blog,

•Then tag 5 or more of your favorite blogs, and leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.

•When you post on your blog, please spread some Christmas Cheer, and leave a link back to Heather's blog (Top 10 Christmas), and the blog that you were tagged by.

Heather would like any blogger to participate in this meme, even if you have not been tagged She will go back and add your blog link to the list if you wanna play along.


1. Have you started your Christmas shopping?
I have, indeed.  However, due to budget constraints all of our gifts this year are custom made, so it's taking me forever to finish them. (This is the sucky part of letting your family know about your blog - I desperately want to show you all what I'm making, but I don't want to spoil all the Christmas gift-opening fun!)

2. Tell me about one of your special traditions.
One of my all time favorite holiday traditions is setting up our Christmas Village.  Long before me, Stonewall started putting together his own Department 56 Christmas Village.  Now we are building it up together.  We mainly buy from the North Pole series, but we have pieces from several different series.

Our 2008 Christmas Village

My two favorite Village stores - the Barbie Store and the Pet Store.

3. When do you put up your Tree?
Normally, our tree doesn't go up until about the week before Christmas.  However, this year, with it being Lil Mootz's first Christmas, I was super excited to get our tree up ASAP.  We decorated our tree last weekend and you can check it out here: Our Christmas Tree!

4. Are you a Black Friday shopper?
H-E-double hockey sticks, NO!  This year I had to go to Target on Black Friday to buy a few last minute things for my sister's bridal shower (I totally wasn't even thinking when I made that plan a few days earlier) and it was absolute torture and misery.  The line snaked the whole way through the store.  I will NEVER make the mistake of going out on Black Friday, either for Christmas gifts or just for something random, again.   

5. Do you travel at Christmas or stay home?
We stay at home.  Well, we stay in our respective home county.  We open gifts at our house first thing in the morning.  Then we travel to my uncle's house for Christmas brunch.  After that we visit my parents and Stonewall's parents.  So while technically we don't "travel" for Christmas, we do rack up the miles in a 20 mile radius.

6. What is your funniest Christmas memory?
Hmmmm...there have been so many funny Christmas memories.  One that jumps to mind was Christmas 2005.  Stonewall and I had just met, so I was still living with my parents.  For Christmas that year we decided we would go on a cruise instead of buying gifts, so we had a tropical Christmas theme going on.  We took a photo of our dogs in front of the tree all decked out and we turned our favorite photo into our Christmas card.  Looking at this photo still cracks me up! Poor Boo all squuzed in there.

7. What is your favorite Christmas Movie of All time?
My all time favorite Christmas movie is "Love Actually."  You can check out my favorite 13 Christmas movies here: My Favorite Christmas Movies!


8. Do you do your own Christmas Baking, what’s your favorite treat?
HAHA! Hardly.  I much prefer to purchase my Christmas cookies in the supermarket or at a local bakery.  On the rare occasion that I do bake, I like pecan balls, sugar cookies, and my MIL's butterscotch cookies.

Wait a minute...after typing about the butterscotch cookies it dawned on me that I don't make those.  The MIL does.  So I guess they fall into the "local bakery" category.

9. Fake or Real Tree?
REAL! Always real. Otherwise, before you know it you'll be a saucy redhead trying to convince people your 4 foot sparkling white "tree" is "awesome" and "the way to go."  And it's not.  It's just not.

10. What day does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
Right about now.  I'm doing all my shopping online this year and these are the last few days when items can be ordered with "Standard Shipping" and still make it here by Christmas Eve.  After that you have to give up your first born child or you can guarantee it won't make it to your front porch until Dec. 26.

*Clarification: I did say in #1 I was making our gifts.  Basically, I'm using programs like "Snapfish."  Cheaper than normal gifts, I do have to design/make them, but they also have to be ordered and shipped to me.* 

11. Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
I'm a bit confused by this question.  When else would you wrap presents? 

12. What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas?
I have two favorite family fun times.  Christmas Eve when we watch "A Christmas Story" and getting to see my entire family at my uncle's Christmas Brunch.

13. What Christmas craft do you like the best?
The one that involves signing my name with a flourish at the bottom of a receipt.  I'll give you a hint - it starts with "shop" and ends with "-ing for gifts."

14. Christmas music? Yes or No, and if yes What is your favorite song?
Sometimes. Not before Thanksgiving and about every other song after Thanksgiving.  Last year I made a list of my favorite Christmas songs and the list is pretty much the same this year.  I would add, "Celebrate Me Home" by Kenny Loggins.

15. When do you plan to finish all your shopping?
Well, if you refer back to question 10, you'll recall that by the end of this week I have to have all of my shopping done or hand over Lil Mootz and that's not really ideal. 

And now I have to tag (at least) 5 of you lovely people to participate.

Lin @ Linny's Vault
Jennifer @ Crazy Shenanigans
Steph @ Watching Airplanes
Jane @ Blissful Stedmans
N-i-c-o-l-e @ Flip Flops and Air Force Boots
Tonja + Jere + Kids @ Smile, You've Got French's
LaterG8r @ Tinkering L8

Even if you're not listed - PARTICIPATE!!

My Favorite Christmas Movies

A favorite tradition of mine during the Christmas season is watching Christmas movies. Here is a list of my top 13 favorite Christmas movies (I was going to do 10, but I was having a very hard time narrowing it down):

#13

Bad Santa

Stonewall and I watched this on our first date. I've never been a big fan of ol' Billy Bob, but he did a pretty decent job this movie and Sling Blade.

#12

Home Alone

I know once you pass the age of, like, 8 this movie isn't supposed to be funny anymore, but I still love it.  I mean, seriously, as a kid, who didn't want to be Kevin McAllister taking on the bad guys?  Plus, Joe Pesci is one of my all time favorite actors.

#11

Elf

Will Ferrell in an elf costume eating spaghetti with maple syrup and pop tarts, skipping through NYC, and building the North Pole.  Unless smiling isn't your favorite, what's not to love about this movie?

#10

A Charlie Brown Christmas

This is one of the first Christmas movies I remember watching.  Even to this day, while picking out a tree and trying to determine if this one has enough needles or if that one is straight enough, I think, "Maybe it just needs a little love."  And in this day and age with the constant struggle between being a religious holiday and being just a day of gift giving, Linus's speech is a good reminder as to what Christmas really is all about.

#9

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

The cartoon version (and the book) has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl.  When Ron Howard and Jim Carrey made their version I was so excited! 

#8

A Christmas Carol

The thing about this movie is I'm fond of several versions.  First, you have just the plain ol' straight forward movie.  Then there's the Muppet version and Mickey Mouse's version (probably my favorite version).  Finally, there's the Jim Carrey version.  Okay, I'll admit I haven't seen the Jim Carrey version yet, but I desperately want to!

#7

Miracle on 34th Street
I know most people won't agree with me on this one, but I prefer the newer version with Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, and Dylan McDermott. 

#6
Babes in Toyland
Always has been, always will be one of my all time favorites.  I could watch this anytime of the year. 

#5
The Santa Clause
This movie is one of my favorites because even at the age of 27, I still believe in Santa Claus. I love the message in this movie, "Seeing isn't believing.  Believing is seeing." 



#4
Christmas Vacation
I've seen this movie more times than I can count and it still makes me laugh like a little school girl. And who hasn't shouted (or, at least wanted to), "I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?" to at least one person during the holiday season?

#3
A Christmas Story
This movie doesn't even require an explanation as to why it's in the top 13.  We watch it every Christmas Eve as part of our Christmas tradition with our dad.

#2
Meet Me In St. Louis
I'm not 100% sure this counts as a Christmas movie because it does take place during the entire year, but it's always on TV around this time of year.  Plus, Judy Garland sings her famous version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" in this movie.  So I say it counts and it's a very close second to my #1 favorite movie.

#1
Love Actually
Okay, I know that out of all the Christmas movies out there this one seems kind of new and not as classically Christmasy as some of the other movies.  However, I really love this one.  It's funny and sweet and while it does take place during Christmas, I think it's a great all-year-round movie.  It's about love and not just "falling in love", but also neighborly love and believing in miracles and having hope and having faith in people.


 
So those are the movies I enjoy watching most during this time of year.  What are your favorite Christmas/Holiday movies?