Christmas In Missouri...

(... is better than Christmas at the Dursleys'.)

We had such a great time at Christmas, I would be remiss not to document it a little more fully.  The Wife is doing a fun series of Pretember posts too.

Just doing a little Christmas tree shopping.

So this Christmas was spent with Julie's family in Missouri.  It was splendid for Bobo to finally meet some of his cousins/aunts/uncles on his mum's side, and to get reacquainted with his grandparents after meeting them when he was much tinier.  We had also realized that we hadn't been to visit for FAR too long, so it was high time we had a good long visit (and quite long too!  Over two weeks, though apparently also not long enough, since I realized too late that I missed out on a couple weeks of vacation time this year...  I don't even).  Here are some the fun times we had:

• The Boy's first flight!  I will readily admit that I have been inwardly anguishing at the thought of this for some time now...  I didn't want to be That Guy with That Baby who won't stop crying, but it turns out all my fears were totally unfounded.  This boy was a perfect traveler, he slept some of the time, and when he didn't sleep he didn't make a peep the entire time, except for the cute kind that causes everyone around him to smile and laugh and admire.  Let's hope this continues all throughout his babyhood (should we happen to travel again anytime soon...).

• We had a fun trip to St. Louis, which included The Boy's first visit to an art museum, the zoo and the science center.  It was pretty nice weather to be out and about, and I even had a chance to meet up with one of my Survivor podcast friends.

The new sea lion/seal tank was a big hit, and the kids were gladly filling in strangers on the difference between the two creatures.

Tiger with tiger.

Aslan, O Aslan!

Photo shoot!

WHAT.

Then this invariably happens.  Ow.

But I usually get him back by gnawing on his lower extremities, which he evidently finds hilarious.

Just taking a little stroll with my new friend Ivy.

Those eyebrows.  Sleepy Bobo.

This is unfortunately as close as we came to seeing the elephants... But it was still the perfect opportunity for a Senior Picture photo.

He will love the dinosaurs one day, just like his mum.

What up, Jeremiah?!?

•  We had so many funtivities.  We went roller skating and played TWO epic games of laser tag at the local funplace, we listened to a lot of festive music, we visited the library, we watched some fun movies (including introducing the kids to two classic versions of A Christmas Carol [Mickey's and The Muppet] and introducing almost everyone to Newsies... that movie is so engrained on my brain, and now I finally have it in my collection [besides the old VHS at home, ha.  Oh, obsolete media.]), and The Wife languished through The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug again, as promised, to go along with those who hadn't seen it yet (I didn't mind staying home with the kids).  We played lots of Wii too, most notably various versions of Just Dance, which we definitely couldn't seem to get enough of, especially this one.  You're definitely gonna hear me roar.  You should have seen us when that song came on the overhead speakers at Kohl's and we all three stopped wherever we were in the aisles and immediately started dancing.  It was like something out of a musical.

No school like the old school.

I opted for classic skates this time, for reasons I know not.

Such a big fun tiger at the renovated library.  Even the sniffles couldn't keep him from showing some excitement.

The most appropriate of lounge wear!  He only lasted about five minutes into his first MCC viewing, but there will be plenty more opportunities to watch it together.

Thanks for the fun jammie pants, Wife and Mama!

• We ate so much great food!  Imo's, A Slice of Pie, TWO of Julie's gorgeous and delicious cakes, plenty of cheeses and dips and soups and other such nice things.

Chocolate strawberry for Marissa's baptism!

Chocolate orange for post-Christmas eatings!  Neither cake lasted very long...

• We were glad to be there for the end of advent and also to see Marissa's baptism.  It blows me away how grown up those kids are, when I first met them when they were barely even four.  I sang a duet with William, which was really fun and turned out lovely (as did the trio I did with Sarah and Marci for the sacrament meeting Christmas program), even if I was dealing with a rare and even more rarely long-lasting cold.  I don't usually get sick, and even when I do it doesn't last very long.  Unfortunately, spending so much time with a little one led to...

He's learning to read already (jay kay).

He at least knows to look at books.

• ... Bobo's first cold!  It was quite unpleasant, and took its sweet time working through his system as well.  He's such a happy and sweet and nicely-sleeping baby usually that it was especially rough for him not to be able to breathe and sleep well with his congestion and coughing.  It was so sad that he was so sleepy and unwell and couldn't be himself.  Luckily we had several days on either end of his sniffles for everyone to know what a happy and delightful boy he usually is.

• Of course we had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  They were magical and fun and Bobo's first was brilliant.  I'm sure he'll remember every moment of it.

Thanks for the Christmas PJs, my parents!

Bobo examines the contents of his first stocking.

He loves his blanket from Mum!

As you can see.

He spent some quality time getting to know Puppy (and a puppy in general).

And I spent some quality time with these girls.  We were so sad when they had to head home a couple days after Christmas.

• Also of course we had New Year's Eve and Day, which were fairly uneventful and spent mostly trying to keep The Boy sleeping soundly and happily.  We missed the ball dropping (as if it really matters, I know), and I didn't get my lifelong-dream-that-can-now-happily-come-true-every-year midnight kiss, but luckily there will be plenty more New Year's Eves, and hopefully not ones with a sick infant.  We even had a little snow, and he was feeling well enough to go out in it for a few minutes (which is a good thing, since we packed that adorable but quite fluffy snowsuit all the way across the country).

Do you want to build a snowman?

I do!  Also, my head was cold.

Om nom nom.  He has no idea.

Classic toys are the best toys!

This is basically the cutest set of church clothes ever.

• I read the Chronicles of Narnia throughout the month, finishing just after we came home.  Those books are just brilliant, and perfect Christmastime reading.

• Don't let's forget about the Great Annual Shave-and-a-Haircut!  It was high time, and we made sure that Bobo could be present for the whole thing so the transformation of Daddy's entire appearance wouldn't be such a jarring transition for him.  The Wife is getting better and more confident at cutting hair every time.

It's always a little difficult at the start.

But he thought it was pretty funny right away.

That's one mighty hairball, Owen.

Presented here in four phases: 1) Still always a little nervous, 2) The Jean Valjean, 3) Pretty much done, 4) Public reaction

• And the flight back was equally as  delightful and stress-free as the way there, even though there was a delay to boarding, which they didn't make mention of in the slightest and instead stood around acting like nothing was wrong or delayed or anything other than On Time, even though we finally started boarding AFTER we were supposed to be in the air.

Both (sort of) sleeping.

Both (definitely) awake!

• And in general we had a good time just sitting around and spending many hours chatting and talking and catching up with the fam.  It's always good to call or webcam, but it's always better to have some face time (literal face time, not Face Time), and we had a lot of opportunities to have fun, meaningful, interesting, deep, funny conversations, sometimes long into the night.

And there you have it!  And although we were glad to be home after living out of suitcases for a few weeks (and packing/traveling with three is definitely different from packing/traveling with two), we were sorry to say goodbye to Julie's kin for now.  Hopefully we'll be able to see them all before another shameful couple of years roll by.  We're already thinking ahead and have some tentative plans in the works, so hopefully that will work out.

Tee hee, his little grin.

A little present when we came home.

It was a most wonderful Christmastime, and The Boy's first was great fun.  He's more mobile and active and responsive than ever, and it was fun to see him react to all the glorious wonders of Christmas.

Narnia News

It's no secret that I have really enjoyed all three of the Chronicles of Narnia films so far, and I've always hoped that they would continue making them, and proceed with the original ordering that they have so far maintained. However, recently I came across this bit of news:

Confirmed: Walden is Talking With Fox About Making The Magician’s Nephew

(Link)

.....

I am not okay with this.

I love the idea of making The Magician's Nephew into a movie.  AFTER The Silver Chair and The Horse and His Boy.  If they do this, it's like skipping The Return of the King and going back to make The Hobbit instead.  Where's the respect for the series as a whole?  I'm going to take this quite resolutely as a rumor for now (the key word here isn't "confirmed," it's "talking").  The Magician's Nephew is one of my favorite chronicles, and I'm sure it would be a fantastic movie, but it just makes me a little anxious.  It's great that Fox has picked up the series, after Disney shamefully dropped it, I just hope they all do the right thing with it.  But I have to say I am glad they didn't make it first.

It makes me sad, but if they are going to jump around or skip chronicles, I almost wish they would just leave it how it is.  It's a sort of nice trilogy, and the Pevensies' involvement is for the most part over, at least as the characters most involved in the story.

Come on, The Silver Chair!  Inspire them!  I know you can do it!

The Chronciles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

A couple of weeks ago the latest installment of the Narnia film series was released.  We went on opening night and I really loved it!  I guess I can't say I was more excited to see this than I was to see the latest Harry Potter, but I did have to think about it for a few minutes.  I get more into the hype of HP, but Narnia makes me feel all happy and warm inside.

So Disney has for some ridiculous reason(s) relinquished their hold on the Narnia film franchise, but luckily Fox teamed up with Walden Media to produce the third in the series.

It was wonderful to see that with a new director and even a new studio, the film is very consistent with the world and feeling created by the first two movies.  It feels very much like a believable continuation, picking up with a slightly older Edmund and Lucy, as well as newcomer Eustace Clarence Scrubb as they join King Caspian on board The Dawn Treader.  It was great to see Caspian again (having by now thankfully ditched the distracting accent in favor of his natural English inflection), and Eustace was a nice addition, though I'm afraid to say the actor chosen was sort of repulsive at times (and yes, I know that's sort of the point of Eustace, at least at the start, but it made it kind of difficult to even watch him act for a while).  The (almost completely) returning cast are always great to see, even as far as Tilda Swinton returning with yet another cameo as Jadis, which would lead nicely to her possibly playing the Lady of the Green Kirtle in The Silver Chair, should the film series continue, and there are brief appearances by Peter and Susan as well.  The movie was as faithful an adaptation as the films ever have been, sincere in theme and message, making slight story adjustments as needed, and as appropriate, but maintaining the established Narnia feeling and tone.  The score was excellent, incorporating a few new nautical themes while maintaining the major Narnia themes thus far expected, even though a new composer has been enlisted (unlike the composers for other recent franchise films, who totally ignore the iconic themes of the series up until that point...  Yes, I'm looking at you, Deathly Hallows composer Alexandre Desplat...).

I admit The Voyage of the Dawn Treader didn't affect me as emotionally as the previous two (especially Prince Caspian--that movie made me feel some kind of miraculous cinematic emotion for whatever reason), but I think that's just because the story structure and one-quest-to-the-next format of the storytelling don't really get to me quite as much.  It was still excellent, even if just to see them continue the wonderful series in such a consistent and quality manner.

So it was an excellent evening in the theater, and I was glad to see a good number of people present, though from what I hear, I still fear that low numbers could be the demise of this series from this point (which is, I think, why Disney passed over the reins after unfortunately lackluster box office numbers for Prince Caspian, which is also a bummer since now I won't hear about it on my various Disney podcasts or see it in any capacity in the parks).  I encourage everyone to see this movie, take your family, tell your friends, spread the joy.  There's so much rubbish in the theaters these days, I think we really need to support when such quality films come out.  It seems like a lot of people didn't even realize it was out yet.

I really can't think of a way this movie could have been better.  Keep it up, Narnia.  I'll be buying my tickets to The Silver Chair around 2012 or so.

Holiday Movie Preview Take 2

The Narnia news just keeps on coming--Hot on the heels of my last post, the trailer has been posted!!!  It was beautiful to see online, but it was even more incredible to see on the big screen playing in front of Toy Story 3 (Toy Story 3... OMG).



It looks perfect!  Everything exactly as it should!  I have every highest possible hope for this movie!

Holiday Movie Preview

Updates on two movies I'm really excited about seeing this Christmastime:

First, we went to see a movie a couple weeks ago and my eyes popped and my jaw dropped when I spied this little display:

I was so excited I had to take a picture of me at the helm.  This is pretty much the first official advertising product I've seen for this third installment in the Narnia series, and I was ever so thrilled.  For some inexplicable reason, Disney decided to give up their production of it last year, but another studio picked it up and luckily, it seems to be really consistent to the previous two.

Not long after, I found this online:

I must have missed seeing this official teaser poster when it was released a while ago.  I just love seeing things that tell me that this is definitely coming out.  Of course, it has to come out in the ubiquitous 3D, but I'm just glad it's Narnia.

Second, here's the first decent trailer for Disney's Tangled.



I'm a little tentative when I see this...  I think this trailer might focus more on the male lead though, so maybe when I see one that's a little more about Rapunzel herself I'll be more on board.  I don't know why Disney princesses need to be sassy and hardcore anymore (or why their hair needs to be sentient and prehensile...), but I reserve my judgment because it looks pretty, and the 3D isn't as off-putting as it has been in previous human-cast animated films.

Still, I'm so excited to see it, I had to take this picture on our recent trip to Disneyland:

It's good because it seems like it's been quite a while since I've been really excited about seeing a movie in the theater.  Plus, it'll be winter by then!

WOW...

I mean... WOW! We just returned from watching the latest of the Chronicles of Narnia, and I just couldn't let another second pass before telling SOMEONE how amazing it was! I mean, really, why don't people make more movies like these?? Action, suspense, drama, romance, epic battles, innocence, goodness, and of course the symbolism /themes /message... It could be because there just aren't writers who are writing this kind of stuff anymore. Oh, C.S., how do we get along without you? In the days when even contemporary children's book series aren't safe from being tainted by the corruption and agendas of the world?? There were so many returning faces (some less welcome than others...) and a lot of new and interesting characters. The kids were great, growing so nicely into their roles, and Caspian himself was fantastic.

I am so glad that these movies are being made when they are. Even ten years ago the production quality would have just been totally substandard. Now they are just what they need to be (allegorical elements gloriously intact). I think C.S. would be very pleased indeed to know his movies are being treated with such elegance and respect. It's great how they manage to stay close to the source material but still branch off just enough to keep the battles and sidestories interesting.

See it. The astonishing series picks up right where it left off, and grips you until the end. And, it leads very much into the forthcoming The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. WOOT!