Movies. Movies. Movies.

We see a lot of movies. It occurred to me that some people don't.

For whatever reason.

In honor of the movie award season that seems to be taking off, I thought I'd do a run-down of last year's movies that we saw.

Most of them are not up for any nominations. 

But I don't think that necessarily means anything. :)

[Remember these are from 2012]

January:

When I tell you, you didn't miss anything as far as movies go last January... I'm telling the truth. There wasn't anything worth spending money on in the theaters. In fact, January 2012 ruined my goal of seeing a movie in the theater every month. Big thumbs down.

February:

I loved The Vow and would highly recommend it as a date night movie. It's sweet and sad and romantic. And semi-based on a true story.

This Means War was okay. Like... if you had a bunch of mediocre movies and this was a choice, I'd choose to watch it but only because Reese Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler are in it. Other than that, it was a little dumb.

Wanderlust is one of our favorites. We refer to it all the time and still watch it regularly. But we're big fans of Paul Rudd... like huge fans.

March:

The Lorax was cute. If you know the book or have a kid you'll probably enjoy it. 

The Hunger Games was... interesting. I'd recommend seeing it now so you don't have to catch up with the series when the second one comes out.

21 Jumpstreet is another favorite. We own it, refer to it, and quote it... all the time. It is so funny. So funny.

April:

The Lucky One is another good date night movie. A tad cliche but that never hurt anybody. It made me realize that I'm a little obsessed with Zac Efron. No big deal.

We felt like we had to see American Reunion because we grew up during the American Pie era. It was a good ending to a movie series and it's pretty neat that they got all the original cast members.

May:

Men in Black III was really good. It's just as funny as the first two, so I'd recommend it if you liked the others. But if you didn't like the others, then don't bother.

June:

Prometheus was not my pick. It was a little painful for me, but Sean loved it. So that says something. I didn't understand it half the time.

Magic Mike was a bit uncomfortable but a pretty good movie. It was our third Channing Tatum movie of the year... so it was very enjoyable.

Ted was hysterical, we watch it all the time. I love Mila Kunis in it and Mark Wahlberg is good, too.

That's My Boy was pretty funny. I wouldn't say Adam Sandler is back from making horrible movies but it was a lot better than some of his other recent movies.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World was depressing. That's it. Watch it if you don't mind feeling nervous and bad for the world.

July:

The Dark Knight Rises was okay. It was Sean's pick and he really loved it. I was mad that Batman's not even in the movie for a good hour. And that his voice is really low and annoying. 

The Watch was okay. I love Jonah Hill so I wanted to see it, but it wasn't totally great. It was a bit slow and stupid.  

August:

If you want to be confused about what you're watching, see Cosmopolis. Or if you like Robert Pattinson. No really. I've watched it twice and I have no idea what the movie is even about. Like none. I know he's in a limo, wants a hair cut and has a bad marriage. That's it. 

The Campaign was what you would expect it to be. Slightly funny but really dumb. I have to be in the mood for Will Ferrell, unless it's Elf... I can always watch Elf. 

September:

September was slim-pickings at the theaters again and we were left to see House at the End of the Street. It wasn't good. But it had you scared thinking that something scary was going to happen without anything scary ever happening. 

October:

Argo was amazing. I'd highly recommend it. It's nominated for a bunch of awards so I think that says something. 

November:

Silver Linings Playbook was really good. But it was emotional and more of a dark comedy than I thought it would be. 

I can't really say enough about Breaking Dawn part 2. Sean would say that he loved it because it's the final one and I won't have to drag him to anymore of the Twilight movies. But it was the best one. I swear. You need to see it.

We had to stop watching Lincoln. We didn't get it. Maybe we missed something or didn't pay enough attention in history class. But it's nominated for awards so they must have done something right.

December: 

Les Miserables was amazing. I loved it and Sean loved it. It was very impressive and is also nominated for things.

This is 40 was hysterical. Hysterical. It's already a favorite and something we refer to and quote all the time.

Well, that's it.

So, what about you?

What did you see last year?

It's Three Kings Day.

Happy Three Kings Day.

We celebrated with a meal with family.

Christmas is [mostly] put away.

Thank you cards were mailed on Friday.

Laundry is ready to be worn.

The kitchen is stacked with groceries.

Blog posts are scheduled.

[I'm imagining it's going to be some time until I'm back in the swing of things].

I'm as ready as I'll ever be to go back to work.

I'm already missing ABC Family, Harry Potter and naps with Apollo.

We hosted a football party, what?

We don't like football.
Well, no. Let's not say that.
We are those "jump on the bandwagon" sports fans.
The ones "real fans" hate.

Because when a Boston sports team is doing well... it's hard to get away from them.
These people around here, are crazy fanatics.
Always talking about "Red Sox nation", "Patriots nation", and all that jazz.
So around play-off time, we occasionally figure "if you can't beat'em... join'em".
Or we just forget about it and watch old episodes of Friends... what?

Well, I thought football was winding down... but it's not. Who knew?
Regardless, we had people over yesterday to eat and watch football.
So I figure... that's a football party.

Originally, I had big plans to do it up Pinterest style. But that crap takes time.
And coming off of the holidays, organizing, cleaning... I just didn't have time to make football cake-pops.
Or the expertise to do so.
Maybe one day.

Instead we had traditional foods that [I think] you'd find at a football party at the end of December:

Chili
Ribs
Buffalo chicken wings
Home-made pizzas
Taco dip
Cheese/crackers
Veggie platter (just to make ya feel a little bit better about yourself at the end of the day... "I had a piece of cucumber")
Chocolate chip cookies

We also had a lot of drinks.
A lot.

Thankfully, the Patriots won (unless you're a Miami fan because you're probably upset they didn't even score...) so it meant that our guests weren't upset when leaving. It was also a low-key, and low-level stress game so no one was yelling and becoming agitated. See what sports cause?

Nonetheless, Apollo still spent most of the evening away from everyone and way up high on the kitchen cabinets:

Sean and his brothers forgot the game was even on and spent most of the night playing instruments and playing with auto-tune:

And again we thought it important to take a family photo since Joe and Kim weren't here Christmas day when the last one was taken:

Four people in this photo didn't actually have Patriots shirts to sport and had to borrow them just for picture-taking purposes. Can you guess who?

The game ended at a reasonable hour so there was still time for some games.
We played Big Bang Theory trivia (apparently I don't pay attention to that show as much as I thought I did) and finished the night off with the game, Anomia.

I suggest that game to you.
Buy it.
You'll thank me later.

And because today is today.
I leave you with this:

Happy New Year's Eve!

Yearly Recap: 2012.

Every year it feels as though the year passed quicker than the one before it.

Here's my recap of 2011.

Here's my recap of 2010.

And, now, here's 2012:

January.

We rang in 2012 with family and then with friends. We moved out of Sean's parent's house and into our loft after falling in love with it. We had a horrible experience buying our first set of furniture. We celebrated 6 months being married. We watched the Patriots win. A lot.

February.

I had an asthma attack that landed me in the ER. I forced Sean to take me to Ikea many times to continue furnishing our new place. We watched the Patriots lose the superbowl. We celebrated Valentine's Day with Italian food and I baked way too many cupcakes.

March.

We traveled to Puerto Rico with our parents and stayed in a penthouse condo. I started reading the Hunger Games, became intrigued and made Sean take me to the movie. I really thought we'd win the lottery. We celebrated Sean's birthday (26) and I surprised him with a trip to a shooting range where I realized I really, really, hate guns.

April.

We traveled to Maryland for an anniversary party and on the way back stopped at 6 Flags. We celebrated Easter. I talked about how to be the wife of a musician. We also brought home Apollo and completely fell in love with her.

May.

We became "those people" when we started traveling around town with Apollo riding shotgun. I finished my Montessori training. I reflected on my work. We celebrated Memorial day with family.

June.

I finished another year of teaching. I made summer goals. Apollo became a guest blogger and my new favorite obsession as I spent all my days with her. I traveled to California. I wrote a post about my cousin having a baby. I blogged about Easton's baby shower.

July.

We celebrated the 4th with family. We had a sweet yard sale. I was confused and saddened with the news coming out of Aurora, CO. We were in tornado watches on a number of occasions and I created our tornado stash. We celebrated our one year wedding anniversary in Niagara Falls: one and two.

August.

Apollo graced us with her second post. My cousin had her baby shower and I made a diaper tricycle and some onesie cupcakes. I made some goals for my 26th year of life. We took Apollo on her first vacation to Maine. We attended a wedding, baby Easton was born, I went to an amusement park and finally went for a swim.

  

September.

I went back to work. Sean had surgery and I turned 26. I started taking Zumba and Country Line Dancing. I went to the first wedding without Sean, since he had surgery, and I realized that I don't like doing things without him. I ran a 5K [thru woods and trails] and surprised myself. We went apple picking, baby Lilyana was born, and my obsession with TV became a problem.

October.

Blogging took a back seat to life. I spent a weekend in the Cape with family and met Easton. We did Halloween things and visited Salem. I spent most of my time, energy and money on last minute efforts for the Obama campaign and told you why I was voting for him. We also met Lilyana, attended a wedding and Hurricane Sandy hit us. We had a day off from work and didn't get any trick-or-treaters for Halloween.

November.

I was thrilled when Barack Obama was re-elected. I showed you our new china cabinet. We hosted a couples game night. Breaking Dawn, part 2 was finally released. We hosted Thanksgiving at our place. I went shopping on Black Friday.

December.

I went to Houston for work. The news out of Newtown left the country re-examining... everything. We decorated for Christmas. I hosted a cookie swap. We sent out holiday cards. We celebrated Christmas.

[My original plan was to show one picture of the two of us for each month. You'll notice in May and June, we apparently, only took pictures of Apollo]

2012 was very good to us.

I hope it was good to you, too!

Happy New Year's Eve!

New goals for a new year.

It's a new year so it only seems fair to make some goals and resolutions.
I don't like to make goals that say I'm going to stop doing something, or break a habit or things like that.
I'm never successful in those.
When I want to stop drinking Coke, or stop watching so much TV it'll need to be spontaneous.
Not something that is written down and taunting me.

Last year was my most successful year in terms of progress with my planned new year resolutions. My goals were to:

- Accessorize
- Organize
- Prioritize
- Moisturize

In this next week, I'll let you know just how much I succeeded in those goals.

But today, let's talk about this new year that'll start in two days.

Not to be confused with my 101 in 1001 goals and my 26 in 26 goals... here are some goals for the new year.

- Create a 2013 memory jar like this one:

via.

- Write at least 200 blog posts

- Read for 30 minutes every day

That's it. Short and sweet. Easy-peasy. I want to be successful, okay?
Why set myself up for failure? That'd just be dumb.

What are your goals?

It's snowing.

Tonight we spent time at Sean's grandmother's house with family. Almost an extended Christmas celebration if you will. His brother Joe  and his wife Kim are visiting from Seattle so we all got together to exchange gifts and eat lots of food. What's better than that?

It started snowing while we were there. I don't like the snow. As we were driving home the roads looked like this:

Once home (very scary ride, let me tell you), we had to move cars. Our building has some crazy rules about parking when it snows and even though they're not holding up their end of the bargain and our lot looks like this (36 hours after the first snow stopped):

no salt, no sand, no snow plow in sight.

They've threatened to tow our cars if they're parked there between 7AM-9AM. Which means I would have to wake up tomorrow, probably at 6:30AM, to clean off my car and move it for the non-existent snow plows. No thanks.

So we moved them tonight thus avoiding the 6:30AM wake up call.

Here's a picture of our courtyard that is supposed to be shoveled and sanded for emergency purposes:

Looks great, huh?

You don't want to visit us. 

You'll probably fall.

Don't forget to find us on facebook.

Vacation.

We've had quite the vacation. Sean was off for a week, although he had to go in today. And I'm off until January 7th. What's that? You're jealous? I get that a lot.

I think Apollo is getting used to us being home. She's getting flashbacks of our summer together, I'm sure.

She's getting quite used to sleeping in until 9AM:

Waking up and having hot chocolate:

Helping with chores and putting away new gifts:

Taking a morning nap during ABC Family's 11AM showing of Gilmore Girls:

Around lunch time remembering the Christmas tree exists:

In the middle of the afternoon, finding a quiet place to take an afternoon nap. Preferably in a pile of my new clothes:

Helping with making some Christmas treats:

 Waiting for us to feed her dinner and becoming impatient thus turning into someone mischievous:

Playing with her new toys... for hours and hours after dinner:

And then waiting for us to bring her to bed.

...All to start it over the next day.

:)

We're spoiled.

It's taken two full days of cleaning, organizing, washing, drying, getting rid of the old and making room for the new... but I think all our gifts finally have homes.

I got a pile of clothes, things for crafting, beauty products, jewelry, a new iPhone case, gift cards, a new pair of Toms, and the Nexus 7.

via.

I'm actually pretty sure I'm forgetting to mention some things.

Sean was lucky, too. He made room for clothes, gift cards, a new case for his tablet, a contraption that allows us to watch movies and TV, tools, an external hard drive, cologne, and fancy headphones:

via.

I'm probably forgetting some of his things, as well.

Apollo made out, too:

For our house we were given decorations, ornaments, cookbooks, and various kitchen items including a knife set!

via.

Now we can have people over for dinner and not be embarrassed they won't be able to cut their food. 

Oh, and I'm on chapter 11 of the first Harry Potter book on my new reader. I hope to finish, at least, four of the books before I go back to work.

We'll see. Tablets are so fun!