Sunday, December 18, 2005

Cool Thing #37 About Living in a Tiny Town

This is kind of our weekend in review. We got to go to a nice party at our neighbor's house on Friday night, then had a brunch here on Saturday morning, then the Melin Agency Dinner Party at Fiesta en Jalisco Saturday evening and we even went and FINALLY saw Narnia after dinner while Nicole babysat (she's 16 now, so we almost never get her to babysit anymore--SCORE!). We looooved the movie so much! I thought they chose a darling Lucy and an excellent White Witch (she looked perfectly like some Norse villain, but I kept thinking, "Get that woman some moisturizer!"). Narnia was beautiful as was the cinematography (except the cheezy green screen on the water parts), and I loved how the movie started with the Blitzkrieg. I haven't read the books since I was 11, and it made me want to read them again and look for all the gospel themes and symbols. The music was nice, too. YAY! I give it 2 thumbs up and a "9."
I also watched "Pay It Forward" on TBS or something like that on Friday, recommended by my mom. I liked it more than I thought I would. It made me cry at the end because the soundtrack is a song near and dear to my heart: "Calling All Angels" by Jane Siberry. I listened to that song constantly right before my mission and I used to sing it to myself when I felt lonely or daunted as a missionary. It became very personal for me and I don't' think I have heard it since, so it caught me off guard. Then today (Sunday) someone sang it on "Prairie Home Companion"...can you believe that? I haven't heard it in about 13 years, then I hear it twice in one weekend. That's weird, but a pleasant surprise. The movie was a reminder that little things matter and we all have a mission in life.
Okay, so thing #37 that is so cool about living in a small town is that Santa does actually come to your house unannounced:
At about 4:30pm on Saturday evening, Rich was taking the girls to go pick up their babysitter when he saw Santa driving a fire truck down our street. The girls ran down the driveway with him to see what was going on (you should hear Heidi say Santa--it's "TANTA, HO-HO-HO!").
Santa and his helpers brought gift bags for the girls (Addie's giving Heidi one in this picture). Yes, it's as cold as it looks in these photos--it was about 5 degrees, and yes, you see my kids outside with no coats...But they were too excited for coats!

2 comments:

cmhl said...

THat is fabulous!!!! how neat!!!!!

and I love the idea you posted about how to make kids realize more the meaning behind Christmas-- it was great..

Happy Gilmores said...

We went and saw Narnia last week for Family Night. We loved it too. I took some symbolism a little farther. Did you notice the Azlan's forces were all wearing cardinal and gold? (same colors as USC) and the witches general looked like Bevo (the Texas Longhorns mascot)? And the kid was riding a white unicorn (Traveler- the USC horse is white)- and who won? The cardinal & gold group. Bevo went down! 0k ok- I might have the USC-Texas national championship game at the Rose Bowl too much on the brain. But if this is an omen, USC is going to win.
It looks very cold in Livingston, but nice, warm and cozy in your house. Rich also did a good job shoveling the walk for Santa.

FAMILY LETTER 07.28.19

Dear Loved Ones,                                                                                                        We have just ...