Meanwhile, the little K-kids spent the night and here is a tiny tidbit of our post-breakfast activity.

In other news…Starring Guini and Gemma May; produced by Gavin and directed by the nonna.  It is in post-production as we speak.

In other news…

Meanwhile, filmmaker, Gavin Kelley, has started doing impressions of his Nonna (mostly her “cuss words” like “O pooey,” and “O booger-snots”),  which send her into convulsions of laughter.

My dad played this so loud on the Hi-Fi, I’d come running home to listen from 2 blocks away.  My mom always wanted him to turn it down a little, but 1723 York Street, 1970, pulsed to the rhythm of, especially, this song, “(Come and Go with Me to My) Father’s House!”

Here is what I have against Dave’s new TV, his Apple-TV thingy and the Netflix subscription (all Christmas gifts) is – OMYGOSH!  There is all this great stuff available.  What should I have been doing early this morning?  Well, probably something much more fruitful than watching Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain in “People Will Talk,” which is just-so-mid-century-BEAUTIFUL and cute and romantic and touching and ridiculous and lovely and c’mon – CARY GRANT!!!

What should I be doing now besides deep-conditioning my hair, catching up on some house stuff,  and making a packing list?  Well, possibly not watching Frank Sinatra {Sinatra: The Classic Duets, where he performs with Ella “Moonlight in Vermont” Fitzgerald and Dean Martin and pretty much anybody from the Rat Pack, his daughter Nancy, Elvis Presley, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and more!!!},

but I. can’t help. myself!!

I am wholly and thoroughly distracted by great music.  O yes, I am !!

Singing along.  I am Ella.

She:  For future reference, I have a red Volvo.

He:  Please, Dr Albright, we barely know each other.

Hhahhahaha haha hhha!!

For Christmas Dave got a new TV (me), an Apple TV thingy (Stormie) and Netflix subscription (Dave and Tara) and a whole new world of complete TV series streaming around the clock.

Christmas Pinterests.

There were lots o’ Pinteresting-gifts among our family at Christmas.  But I will save those for another time.  These are some of the images and where to find them from my “Pinterest Board,” which I so aptly named {Love & Joy Come to You~Christmas Celebrating.”  These are just odds and ends that struck my fancy.

You may see all of my boards at   http://pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/

or the Christmas board specifcally at http://pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/love-joy-come-to-you-christmas-celebrating/

Well, now…let’s see…

I pinned some inspiring home Christmas decor

The {link} for this simple red and white staircase on the left doesn’t work anymore.  I couldn’t find {source} info for the staircase on the right.  It was just a repin.

I pinned food ideas and recipes

The snickernoodles lik came from a bright, beautiful beautiful blog: http://www.joyshope.com/. And don’t you just love these peppermint Rice Krispy treat snowballs?  Almost too pretty to eat {source}.

I pinned trees I thought were just beautiful to look at or maybe fun to make

My daughter, Stephanie had a white tree this year.  I just love the classy, subdued colors on this softly glowing tree. It came from {HERE}. People are so clever when they don’t have space for a tree, as shown by this tree-on-a-wall that was from Apartment Therapy.  {see here}

I pinned music and movies I wanted to remember to try or that I just already love

FINALLY bought Christmas in Connecticut on DVD at Kmart for $5 this year.  We’d still been using the old VHS.  Zooey D. totally reminds me and everyone else of one of my girls (guess!) and I love her voice! So this is delightful. of course!

I pinned stuff to do with the grandbebes

This was my very first Christmas-board pin, from www.megdeurksen.com We are actually still working on these…almost finished.  It is not too late!

I thought this ornament was sort of prophetic since it is for Christmas 2012 and it has NINE grandbebes on it

(I only have 6, remember, but I am thinking/praying/hoping there is a fruitful year ahead!!)

Can be purchased for me (*ahem), here!

I pinned some typography with words I liked and graphics with cool design

There was a whole series of the cutest retro-looking cards (left) at {THIS SITE}. FREE Christmas printables on the (right).  Isn’t that cool?  You should bookmark that site.  Better yet, PIN it!  CLICK HERE

I pinned things that reminded me of my childhood Christmases

The angel on the left?  That is one I had on my tree top this year.  My mom gave me our actual 1964 grocery-store-purchased paper and carboard angel with the spun-glass “angel hair”.  I saw several blogs this year with it.  Thrilling!  Mine does not have a box and has been quite used. {source}… The centerpiece on the right reminds me of my mom’s well-worn white, leather ice skates she had for many years from her childhood.  {source}

In general, I pinned a very happy, meaningful board.  I didn’t “do” everything or try every idea (Though I will share some with you!), but I have a good start for next year.  Have I mentioned before?  Pinterest is fun!

1.7 seconds after they got through the front door, this is what I saw.

The PJ party included, but was not limited to cookies for baking and Toys R Us for shopping and Good Times for eating and food playing.  There was hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream and popcorn and movies and 7up and cookies and cousins and the-best-way-to-spread-Christmas-cheer-is-singing-LOUD-for-all-to-hear and the Christmas story and  making ornaments for Nonna’s tree and the annual reindeer-head print using little-but-growing hands and feet and paint (what the heck am I thinking!??) and watching  Gilligan’s Island, of all things and sleepy little heads nodding off anywhere from between 9 pm and 2 in the morning (Guini and Hunter are almost always the hold-outs).  And somehow they still wake up at the butt-crack of dawn no matter how late the festivities and little monkeys jumping on beds and o-my-goodness: I was born for this!

I snapped these while talking to my mom on the phone while the kids ate breakfast with Grandpa.

The employees at Toys R Us did not seem nearly as joyously enchanted with our little monkeys as we were.  It was merry mischief.

Merry Christmas from us and our grandbebes.

With flash, with no flash.  Cameras!  grrrrr….

“It’s a great time to be a family.” Microsoft Windows 7.    I couldn’t agree more.  In light of a certain recent family wedding, this made me smile.

I love the father-daughter who sang one of my fav songs, “Home is Wherever I’m with You,” and their cuteness did not go unnoticed by Hyundai (who used Pomplamoose last year (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g947151eKQo).

This year they used Jorge and Alexa Narvaez.  SO CUTE!!

And then, for all you Star Wars lovers, “Nadar Did You know?”  Classic!

I am actually running around like a crazy woman doing wedding stuff, Thanksgiving stuff, wedding stuff, company-coming prep, wedding stuff, and etc…

One of me and the girls’ all-time fav songs from my best-ever movie::

And a teeny-sneak-peek into one of today’s projects.

Now off to the chapel to decorate…

Am I deliriously happy for Dessa and Ryan?  I am.  Will I live through the extreme joyousness?  I will.  Do I love it all, all the craziness, and zany, over-the-top preparation and celebrating?  I do.  I really do.  For real!

Song, “I Do by For Real.

Yes.  I saw it on Pinterest.**  So follow me already.

Social media.  Smart phones.  Pinterest…It’s so…social.  And smart.  But there are drawbacks…

But I ADORE Pinterest and am actually having fun “getting acquainted” with the styles and taste and heart of some young women I have sort of known.  And I get majorly inspired.   The young woman of today are crazy-amazing.  There is a creative-anointing on them for home-making and caring for their families that probably hasn’t been seen since King Lemuel’s mother explained the whole virtuous woman thing to him (Proverbs 31).  They are unashamedly putting their husbands and children first, cooking healthy, making the home beautiful and glowing with gorgeousness themselves (my own daughters are great examples of this), all the while running a business or three on the side.

If there is one small I thing I hope doesn’t happen (yet I see danger lurking)  is that in all the ways social media, texts, Tweets, email bells, and online surfing can fill up the days, I hope moms and their kids will still actually interact face to face and not just on Facebook.  I hope husbands and wives talk and make wild love more than they text.  I hope grandparents will get to hug their grandbebes more than they get to have Skype sessions with them.  I hope people will remember to unplug for no good reason, other than to be, just be, where they are and with the people they are with.

Penelope (1966) starring Natalie Wood

During a tedious wedding project, I watched a colorful, pretty-delightful-romp of a movie with Natalie Wood in the title role.  It had a tiny bit of slapstick-Greenwhich Village-Bohemian-1960s-artsy thing.  It had a banking executive and some high-society jewels and a yellow Givenchy suit to-die-for all based around Penelope, an engaging and intelligent, yet somewhat ditzy girl who pretty much enchanted every man in the movie.  “Picture a girl who walks with the rhythm of a lady tiger,  Picture a girl who talks with the sweetness of a honey bee…this is Penelope” the opening credits song explained.  And I actually grabbed a pencil to capture these words, which made me think of Facebook and all of the ways and options we can communicate with these days.

Penelope: I never open my mail. I usually stick it away in a drawer and then I actually forget about it or it gets lost.

Banker: Don’t you lose a lot of friends that way?

Penelope: Oh no. It’s just the opposite. You see, if you write me a letter and I answer it, then you have to answer mine. Then I answer your second letter and you have to write me a third in answer to my second. Then I have to write you a third and you have to send me a fourth. And pretty soon we’re so busy writing letters to each other, we haven’t had time to be friends.

[silence as these words hang in the air]

Penelope: Isn’t that true?

Banker concedes: Yes.

The first couple of minutes are the totally-groovy-1960s opening song.  Right about 5:29 you can catch a glimpse of the gorgeous Natalie in the yellow Givenchy suit. wearing a red wig.  Worth the look!

I am pondering.  Just want to make sure I am communicating correctly, in the most honest and advantageous way.  In the most friendly, truly friend-ly way possible.  With true friends.

**I do love me some Pinterest!  www.pinterest.com/jeanierhoades/