2008 Wrap-up!

It's that time of year when we all look back at the previous year's events and often choose the best and worst. So I decided to vote on my Top Ten Favorite Movies, Top Ten Best Movies of the year and Worst Ten Movies...here they are:

Tami's Favorite Movies of 2008: (1 being my absolute favorite)
1. FROST/NIXON
2. IRON MAN
3. SEX AND THE CITY
4. WALL-E
5. THE DARK KNIGHT
6. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL
7. MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY
8. DEAR ZACHARY
9. CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
10. MADE OF HONOR

Honorable Mention: BOLT - this was such a cute kid's movie with a great message!

Special Mention: TWILIGHT - my most anticipated movie and the most disappointing, yet strangely best change in reaction on the 2nd viewing. Overall, still crap.

Top Ten Best Movies: (1 being the best, 10 being still pretty damn good!)
1. FROST/NIXON
2. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
3. CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
4. WALL-E
5. THE DARK KNIGHT
6. MILK
7. UNDER THE SAME MOON
8. TELL NO ONE
9. IRON MAN
10. RACHEL GETTING MARRIED

p.s. I haven't seen GRAN TORINO, THE READER or REVOLUTIONARY ROAD or THE VISITOR yet...

Worst Movies I saw: (1 being the worst, 10 being just bad)
1. SPEED RACER
2. FLASH OF GENIUS
3. MONGOL
4. THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
5. LEATHERHEADS
6. 27 DRESSES
7. YES MAN
8. WANTED
9. INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL
10. QUANTUM OF SOLACE

Would love to hear what you guys agree/disagree with!!
Happy New Year!

More Christmas and more kids!!

Chris and I flew in to the East Coast on Saturday morning, arriving at my brother's house a couple of hours later. For the next two days, we hung out with Tom, his wife Rebekah and their son (my super-cute and fast-growing nephew) Eric!
I'd heard that Eric was a big fan of "Thomas the Train" and that wanted a new piece to his train set, but I had no idea! On Sunday, he played with his new train set for hours and hours on end. It was really adorable! And what's even funnier about Eric, is that he is so specific about how he wants things and is soooo close to being able to express it exactly to us. Right now, he's doing very well with talking and is virtually communicating with very little of the "what? what did you say" happening. However, with the trains, you'll put some of the pieces together and he'll just say "NO!!!" very suddenly and then you have to figure out what he wants you to do with them. It's typically a matter of turning them around or moving them in the other direction, but it's sometimes a guessing game. But still, it's amazing to me how much further along he is developmentally than he was three months ago at our wedding! Anyways, here are the photos we took with him...lots of the same, I know but I was trying to get the best shots!


After visiting with Tom and Rebekah, we went down to see my parents in CT for our next Christmas celebration. There, we got to go over all the wedding photos in person for the first time, as well as see their reaction to the book we put together for them and the other gifts I lugged across country. It was great to see Mom, who is having a very tough time right now, though we are all hopeful that 2009 will finally bring better health her way so that she can see us more often and do more with Eric.

Last night, we got back on the road (Chris insisted on driving since he seems to think I fall asleep at the wheel lately....I admit I was tired driving from Providence to CT, but there were no close calls or problems! I was a bit tired but I willed my eyes to stay open!) and we arrived here in Portland, ME! Mara and Matt have crazy work schedules, but we were able to spend a couple of hours with them last night and then most of today with Mara til she had to head off to the station about 3pm. It's nice and cold here and we got a bit of snow during the night. We are hoping for more tomorrow night for NYE, but we shall see. More of our trip to come later!!

Merry Christmas!!

I know I am posting a bit late, but Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! It's been a bit hard to sit down at a computer since Xmas, so here's a brief recap and some photos of our day.

This year is the first Christmas I have not celebrated back east and I have to admit I was a bit sad not to be a part of all the snowstorms and great winter weather that was going on last week all over the Eastern seaboard (and truthfully all over the country!!). However, it was the Danisons' turn to have Chris and I there for the 25th and I must say, I was thrilled that it was so chilly in LA for the holiday. It would have just been too weird to be in a tank top or shorts on Christmas Day!


On Christmas Eve, we drove down to Orange County after Chris got out of work (Boo Hilton! He had to work the 24th and the 26th!) and spent the night hanging out with his parents. We played cards and began the gluttony of beer, cookies and other goodies!





Chris and I then went for a walk and took a look at the neighbors' lawn decorations...some were absolutely hideous, and some weren't so bad. here's a brief selection of our "favorites".


On Christmas Day, we woke up for a delicious breakfast of the Danison traditional Christmas casserole (egg, sausage, spinach, cream cheese, tortillas and more cheese. YUM!) and I made our Pillsbury sweet rolls per our Chestna Christmas tradition. We waited until Ron, Camilla and the kids arrived to do stockings and gifts...but man it was hard to wait! There were lots of presents with our names on them :) And I've heard this before, but I must admit it's true...when kids are around, Christmas truly becomes about them and watching them enjoy their gifts...sometimes enjoying standing and jumping off the box more even than the gift inside the box! (see video of Mason below)... and remembering how excited we were as kids to get some of our gifts.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the gifts I still get, but it's just a bit different watching little kids. Madeleine loved her "karoake" machine, though I fear that Camilla will have to hide it b/c it may begin to grate one's nerves after awhile....


Anyways, we unwrapped gifts, ate some more, played cards, watched a movie (LOVE ACTUALLY per Camilla and my request!), had a big family dinner, and then Chris and I headed home to Butch and Sundance since Chris had to work in the morning.



And then the night of the 26th, off to the east coast! More to come on our adventures so far in the disappointingly warm, no-snow zone that is Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Beth's visit

My good friend from Brown, Beth Johnson, is in town this week visiting her sister (very preggie sister! yay Sarah!) and her husband Josh for the holidays. Since they are both still working and I am not (woohoo!), I got to steal Beth and spend the day shopping and catching up. We ventured to the Grove, which I am typically not a fan of, but today wasn't too busy early in the day despite it being prime holiday shopping time. It seemed to be picking up when we left around 3, so I was glad to get out before it became a madhouse.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting at my apartment over some Starbucks and holiday cookies. It's always so fun and refreshing to be around old friends, who, despite the distances and time in between visits, are as easy to talk to as if you saw them yesterday. Beth in particular is such a sunny person to be around, it's hard for her not to brighten your day with her easy smile and hearty laughs!

And now tomorrow it's already Christmas Eve! How did that happen? I feel like 2008 has flown by extraordinarily fast! I know a lot of that had to do with the wedding and the planning, which made things a bit crazy, but still! It makes me want to try and take more time in the coming year for days like today, where I wasn't running specific errands and trying to do 3 or 4 things at once...today was a nice, breath of fresh air - a time when I was able to just enjoy hanging out with someone without worrying about what wasn't being done or what time it is. While this is a tall order to try and repeat all the time, since weekends are so precious, it's something to strive for.

Getting all wrapped up in the holidays!!

It's been a great weekend for getting fully into the holiday spirit! Chris' cousin Jeff and his wife Mia were passing through town on Saturday, so they stopped by for dinner! Chris' parents' came up as well, and it was great to be able to entertain at our apartment. We kept it simple in terms of food prep, having a brie & cranberry appetizer that Camilla has made for us a couple of times. (SO simple- cut up brie, add dried cranberries and garlic; throw it in a bowl and bake at 350 til it's melty and bubbly!) For dinner, I made lasagna (that's right-I cooked people!!!) and Mary brought up salad and dessert. Anyways- we had a great time...4 bottles of wine later...played some cards and hung out. (plus I got to use my new Christmas placemats and napkins, which makes me a loser but a happy one!!)

Today, we had brunch with the Michelsons, who we hadn't seen since the wedding, and it was great! They cooked an early Hanukkah meal, serving very delicious potato latkas as one of the main dishes. Laura is recently back from her two month volunteer job in Peru, and Julia's home on break from her Harvard MBA program. She's heading to Buenos Aires for New Year's, and as much as we are looking forward to our planned trip, I was a bit envious of her - sounds like SO much fun! Chris and I have never been to South America and we definitely need to go!

Tonight was all about relaxing and getting ready for Christmas this week. I love wrapping gifts and as you can see, I had a couple of "helpers", who were getting into just about everything I was working with. Ho Ho Ho!
p.s. Below I posed with my newly acquired Twilight t-shirt that was a gift (that's right people- I didn't buy it, it was given to me, so don't start with me!) b/c I love it and have been sleeping in it at night! Chris is thrilled, let me tell you!

Kitty love...

I don't want to feature Butch and Sundance too too much on this blog, but it's sometimes too hard to resist their cuteness- I mean, check out these photos from this morning! They were curled up with me in bed this morning and just being super adorable....it's clear that they love each other so much!!

Cuteness factor? 100!!

Hockey anyone?

Monday night, Chris and I went to the LA Kings game versus the San Jose Sharks. Hilton gave 8 tickets to some of their employees and we were in the American Express suite, which was HUGE! Apparently there are regular suites and event suites, which are essentially double the size. It also comes with a bartender, which I'd never seen before. That was pretty sweet (ha ha- no pun intended), though I was driving so I took it easy. The Kings lost 3-2 in a shoot-out, but apparently the Sharks are a good team, so it was impressive that LA held their own. The best part of the game was the fight, of course, that broke out about midway through. It went so long that the refs actually stepped in to stop it...both guys got some good punches in! We had a good time, not that you'd know this based on Chris' expression, but he doesn't apparently like to smile in photos any longer. Whatever.

Gingerbread Girls!

On Sunday afternoon, Auntie Tam Tam (as I am known to some) went over to start a new, annual, holiday tradition with Madeleine - building & decorating a gingerbread house together! Since she's only 3, Maddi of course was more excited by the frosting and candy than the actual decorating, but while it was still new and fun, she put a lot of the candy on the roof.(And I made a note to myself that I didn't necessarily need to buy the large house! It was a fair bit of work, which is why the whole roof is not white!)

It's My Cat in a Box!

If you don't get the reference, you don't have a very long pop culture memory...

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Saturday night, we were invited to head down to Marina Del Rey and watch the annual Boat Parade on Camilla's parents' boat. It was a great time with lots of yummy food, four toddlers running around and some pretty decked out boats!

We were worried that rain and wind would call off the parade this year (like last year!), and in fact, it felt a bit disorganized and like some people may have bowed out b/c of those worries, but there were still a lot of boats lit up for the occasion. Some were VERY high-tech, including one that had a program going where the lights were blinking in time with the music it was playing. Chris said they were playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra... whatever. A couple of other boats were decorated like sleighs, and a couple were pulling their dinghies behind them with a lit snowman or Santa Claus on them. Very fun! The kids were excited by them for a bit, before they took to running back and forth along the boat and trying to tackle each other. I managed to avoid most of that mayhem and stood at the front of the boat absorbing all the Xmas cheer!

Party People

We had our annual holiday party yesterday and as always, it was a blast! Chris and I started prep on Friday night, moving furniture around a bit, making jell-o shots and getting stuff ready for Saturday's bake fest!

I began the day early around 9:30am and got to work immediately. I got to use my new mixer for the first time - and I must say, wow! It works so well and makes all the dough so fast!! - as I prepared peanut butter cookies with chocolate filling, pecan & cranberry tassies (which didn't turn out as well in terms of presentation, but oh well), almond cookies and magic bars. Chris made hummus from scratch, crostinis for dipping, guacamole and we has a bunch of other snacks assembled too.

Sage and Jeff came over a bit early and so we toasted the night with some champagne as guests began to arrive. While we had a slightly lower turnout than last year, still over 40 people showed up! We managed not to get any red wine on the new couch - a very good thing! - and only one jell-o shot spillage....but our carpet's been destroyed for so long, we don't care.


About 2:30 I think the last stragglers headed home and we crashed. I say "I think" b/c I was pretty hammered by the end of the night, the jell-o shots having done their job. Around 9:00am this morning, I woke up and though I was going to die. I managed to will myself back to sleep after having some water and advil, and awoke once more at 12:30. I felt much much better but the rest of the day was spent lounging, drifting in and out of sleep and eventually cleaning up. I was in the mood to do so little and think so little, I even watched Britney Spears' documentary "For the Record" on MTV for an hour and a half...even the cats got into the laziness of the day, as well as trying to get their hands on some leftover. :)

A post about nothing....

This week's been mainly about getting our apartment and us ready for tomorrow night's holiday party, so there's not much new to report....though I thought I'd share a funny anecdote.

Wednesday morning, I was still asleep when Chris was getting ready for work and I started giggling in my sleep, which then woke me up. Chris was looking at me strange and asked me what I was laughing about. So I relayed the last part of my dream to him, which went something like this..."Well, I was dreaming that Gerald Ford was competing on American Idol and Ryan Seacrest came on and did the Dana Carvey voice from SNL as Tom Brokaw saying, 'Gerald Ford dead today...blungeoned to death by a microphone on American Idol.' " LOL....sigh. maybe you had to be there.
Anyways, if you have no idea what SNL stuff I am talking about, see the clip below.....

Favorite of the week...

Check out this hi-larious Prop 8 video from Funny or Die -

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Let's hear those sleigh bells.....

With our annual holiday party less than a week away, we drove out to one of the tree "farms" here in LA to get our Xmas tree. We spent a good part of the day (okay, who am I kidding- the whole day pretty much!!) decorating the tree and putting up all my holiday crap around the apartment. I was very excited!! And as always, the cats got very into the tree....and up to no good! we had to keep reprimanding them for eating it.

Before....
After....

On the road again...

Saturday morning we woke up and got on the road back to LA...but Danison-style, which means stopping along the way in small towns for an hour or so (it also means stopping at lots of rest stops for drinks and bathroom breaks...Seriously I slept through it on the Thursday a.m. drive up to Monterey, but I think they stopped 5 times for a 5-6 hour drive).

So on the way back, our first big stop was in San Luis Obispo, where we got out and walked around the Apple Farm Inn. It's a cute little hotel with a fun gift shop, restaurant, an Old Mill-style shop and obviously the old grounds from the apple farm. They were dressed up for the holidays and we had fun going through all the gift shop items.

Back on the road, we then drove down to Solvang, a little Dutch town, whose buildings are outfitted in the old style. The lunch we had at a former greenhouse was absolutely delicious! And the treat in the neighboring bakery was even more yummy! It was called a "napoleon hat" and it was a cookie with marzipan in the middle and coated with chocolate on the bottom.

Walking around, we of course went into the Christmas store there and continue to peruse the town for a couple hours. Then finally, back in the car and home to LA....where Butch and Sundance were anxiously awaiting our return.

More stuffing....

On Friday morning, Mary and I got up early (ugh- very early! 6:30am!) and went shopping as per tradition at the local mall. We were surprised this year that some of the bigger chains didn't seem to be doing much in the way of Black Friday sales, but we did find some great bargains at Ann Taylor Loft and Lucy (my favorite work-out apparel store). We got back to the house around 10:30am and everyone was up and having breakfast.

After stuffing ourselves with Mia's breakfast casserole and biscuits, we headed out to Carmel. I'd never been, but I understood why people think of this small town as a ritzy area, where the rich prance around the boutiques, art galleries and wine stores with their little dogs. And when I say boutiques, that ranges from genuine small businesses to a Louis Vuitton store that just is fashioned to look like a boutique. But the place was dressed up for Christmas and we had a lot of fun walking around and pretending to shop for the massive diamonds in all the windows. We also took a quick tour of the each area and saw all the people playing with their dogs!

Back at the house, we had a belated lunch and stuffed ourselves with leftovers. And then I fell asleep for an hour or so on the couch before waking up for a game of Tick (fun card game that's an offshoot of gin rummy), and then off to dinner! For more....food.

Dinner was at this yummy Italian seafood restaurant right on the pier. Their clam chowder was excellent, as was the calamari and crab cakes. I couldn't even finish my crab cake appetizer/dinner and left feeling pretty stuffed yet again.

Back to the house for a bit of wine (little less than the night before) and of course, dessert. OOF! More stuffing!

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

This year, Chris, his parents and I drove up to Seaside, CA (near Monterey) and spent the holiday with Chris' cousin Jeff and his wife Mia. Until last December, they had been living in Japan, where Jeff was stationed for three years on the Misawa Naval base.




Jeff and Mia had been wanting to try to fry a turkey, something both they and we had heard a lot about in recent years. Using Alton Brown's brine recipe and frying method, Jeff rigged a pulley system for the turkey for safety - see the video and photos below. Though the outside looked crispy, the turkey was tender and juicy inside! Yum! Look at our spread!




After dinner, we chatted, had dessert and then the parents started falling asleep. They were done for the night, but Chris, Jeff, Mia and I stayed up late drinking wine and beer by their outdoor fireplace in the chilly air. We had a great night and were so pleased to spend so much time with Jeff and Mia! Plus, they are cat people like us and have two kitties - Simon (6 year-old black ca, demon-eyed cat below) and Rudy (much older grey cat, who was a bit more stand offish) - so we felt even more at home!

Second Chances....

Everyone in this life deserves a second chance, right? Well, maybe the same applies to movies. After a few people whose taste I usually agree with, or at least respect, told me that they were entertained by the movie, I decided to give TWILIGHT another shot and saw it Wednesday afternoon in the theater again. I must say, the second viewing was better...I think that since I was expecting all the awful, horrible, badness, I was able to sit and let the movie just wash over me instead. I saw what it was trying to do and some of it seemed to work a bit better, though I still maintain it's a crappy movie. But I at least enjoyed myself enough to walk out and leave the bitterness from the opening night behind. That made me happy....I didn't like having my Twilight experience tainted in any way.

Premiere-gate

Last night was the Los Angeles premiere of FROST/NIXON, the last movie I worked on before I left Imagine a year ago. This was my boss' project and I was really involved and saw it through the end of shooting before jumping ship and heading to LMP. So it was extremely satisfying to see the movie last night and see how GREAT it is. It was also fun to remember all the behind-the-scenes work we all did and see the actors portray the people I had spoken to and met with while we researched. I haven't had quite such a gratifying experience before in terms of being a part of a movie and I'm glad that that feeling came with this one....It's a really, really good movie! And it's actually about something, which is also nice. When you see the movie, you'll see the obvious parallels to what this country is going through now. Plus I think the performances are top-notch, the editing works so well, the music is fantastic and it's actually pretty funny. All the comedy came through and it makes what is a very intelligent movie a lot of fun as well. So even though I'm slightly bitter that I didn't get my credit on the movie....(slightly = extremely), please please go see this film! It's really worth it and it's a movie that needs good word of mouth buzz to keep it in theaters. Doesn't exactly have the marketing appeal of a MARLEY AND ME or a TWILIGHT, so it's run will most likely succeed or fail based on moviegoers talking it up!