A Note From Erin:
Hey! My friend, Muara, is a fellow Christmas Queen too and she’ll also be contributing her holiday traditions, tips, and faves here as well. Her iPhone case list below is a fabulous idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Welcome, Maura!
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Now that I have a pretty pink iPhone 6s, it’s time to outfit it for the holiday season. I like to get a Christmas case every year. Here are a few great options I found:
This is going to really wind up people who don’t like holidays to be released into the wild early, but did you know that Hallmark begins airing their Christmas lineup on October 31st? Yes! Personally, I’m loving it. I actually started “sneaking” Christmas music on Spotify last week. A little Kelly Clarkson…a dash of James Taylor…some Mariah…I couldn’t help myself. I’m also trying to figure out how I’m even going to fit a Christmas Tree in my new living room. That will probably have to be a post all on its own. It’s a mystery, Charlie Brown.
In the meantime, we’ll very shortly have the opportunity to re-watch some of our favorite, often completely implausible, and very glitter filled made-for-tv movies. Let’s be honest, some of them are really, really horrible. Then, there are a handful that you can rewatch over and over again. Everyone has their favorites. Here are my can’t miss hits:
Alice, played by Alicia Witt, has a narcissistic, metrosexual boyfriend who is a total waste of time. He’s so busy (doing his hair) that Alice has to fly all alone to meet his parents for the first time. At the airport shenanigans ensue (because otherwise there wouldn’t be a plot) and she ends up meeting a super sweet guy (Will) whom she incorrectly assumes is her future brother-in-law. Huh? You see, cute guy has the same last name as her boyfriend. He also happens to have a brother with the jerk boyfriend’s name. That would be enough proof for me. Alice goes home with Will, and his family is awesome, and they make cookies, and it’s all very picture perfect until you-know-who turns up. Just wait until you meet the actual in-laws…love it.
This one is essentially DJ Tanner meets Northern Exposure. Dr. DJ can’t get skim milk for her latte, her clothes aren’t appropriately warm (because you know…she’s in Garland, Alaska with a pashmina) and her stilettos are no match for the icy sidewalks. When she gets frustrated with these facts all of the townspeople say, “that’s Garland for you.” Now Chris and I say this to one another all the time.
So, Mr. Miracle, the book and the film, were both really good. I feel like it played on Hallmark once last year and then it was forgotten. Why? Rob Morrow was hysterical. He played Harry the bumbling angel who happens to be posing as an equally nutty English professor at a local community college. Was there something objectionable in the movie that I missed? Who knows, but if it’s allowed out of the vault this year make sure to tune in.
I didn’t want to like this movie because it sounded absolutely ridiculous, but then I watched it anyway and loved it. I mean, there were two ginger cats in it. I can’t resist that. I also became totally obsessed with the cat paw Christmas stockings that appear in the film, tracked them down, and bought them. Superman aka Brandon Routh is one of the leads which made me wonder just how much they get paid to work on these things. I’m also kind of shocked that they mention he was in Zack and Miri Make a Porno in his bio for Hallmark. That’s amazing. Someone better call the inten who updated the website. The family indecency people are going to be so mad at you…hahahaha.
This is another Debbie Macomber based film (I’m pretty sure she’ll have her own channel pretty soon just like Oprah) and the plot is pretty much The Holiday but with Faith Ford and Billy from Ally McBeal instead of Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. I don’t care though. This one is my absolute favorite and I watch it multiple times each year. Bonus: Tom Cavanagh! Who doesn’t love Tom Cavanagh?
Did I miss your Hallmark favorite? As for all of the new movies coming out this year…I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
It’s true! Home Alone is celebrating it’s 25th Anniversary this year and will be back in select theaters for 2 nights in November. I’m fairly certain I’ve watched this movie more than 1000 times. It was also the 2nd VHS tape I ever bought with my own allowance money (The Little Mermaid was the first). It’s one of my favorite films and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve already purchased tickets. Yay! Besides, Christmas isn’t complete unless at least one viewing of Kevin’s cute holiday shenanigans occurs.
Every Christmas I buy a new ornament to add to our collection. OK. I usually buy a lot more than that, but this one in particular has a purpose other than just being pretty. The “official” ornament’s intention must have some sort of significance to an event that happened during the year. For instance, when we took a trip to Seattle I bought this ferry. Last year we got a little obsessed with eating oysters, and the year before that we started using kettlebells at our gym and Etsy had just the thing to commemorate all of those single-arm swings and TGUs.
This year we bought a house, but instead of buying an ornament with a house on it — boring — I found a very elegant skeleton key that you could have personalized with your home address. Spoiler alert: this picture is not of my address. If you happened to have purchased your first home as well then I’d definitely suggest hanging one of these on your tree.
