Whenever I'm in my Oklahoma hometown, I try to make it out to see my dear high school friend Amy. It is impossible for our lives to be any more different from one another.
For example, she lives on farm. Not a farm farm (they don't depend on it for sustenance) but they have mules and pigs and chickens, so in my world that's a farm.
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We debated having a party, attending a party, or staying home. Then somehow we ended up at the Lakers game.
We wore the gold hats that they passed out when you entered the stadium and we ate garlic parmesan french fries and cheered the home team to victory. Afterwards we walked over The Palm for a 10pm lobster dinner and champagne.
By the time the west coast clocks ticked midnight, we were home. Full, both literally and figuratively.
The best part about being old and lame on New Years Eve is how great we felt on the first day of the year.
Happy New Years to you, HH readers. Did you bring in 2011 like a lion or a lamb?
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Every year when I tear open the wrapping on my new moleskin weekly planner, I feel a rush of exhileration. Oh, the possibilities the new year holds.
I understand why some people scoff at new years resolutions, but I like the way that January 1 sets things back to zero. We start the year shiny and new, but twelve short months later we're a little more raggedy but full.
But before we get to the next year, it's useful to look at the last. 2010 was one of the most remarkable and exciting years of my life. In sum:
I traveled to Colorado, Nashville, Oklahoma (six times), Carolinas (six times), New York (three times), Dublin, London, Madrid, and DC.
Best trip? Madrid
Our baby grew from an infant to this little person that we can't get enough of.
Best baby memory? Fathers Day.
In the middle of June we moved. I have loved putting together the new house (there's still a long way to go) including painting every inch of the inside and living through a major bathroom remodel.
Favorite Home-Related Thing: My Pink Living Room
There will never be enough days in the year to read all of the things on my list.
Judging books in which I'm non-biased:
Best Fiction: The Hunger Games
Best Non-Fiction: Columbine
I haven't made it through the whole stack of Oscar-worthy movies, so I hate to even list this category, but so far my favorite movie of the year: The Social Network.
I threw multiple parties this year, with different themes and varying sizes.
This was one of the hardest to pick, but the winner squeaked by.
Best Party of the Year: Pigtail's First Birthday
(I only picked from the parties I actually hosted. I attended some of the most fabulous soirees this year, including my own birthday party thrown by my sweet husband.)
I've learned so much about friendship and so much about my own priorities. I feel like I'm finally coming into my own after the growing pains of my twenties.
With all the whirlwind of 2010, most prominently The Gorilla's movie and all that surrounded it, one of the biggest parts of my year was starting this blog. Creating HH has become my main creative outlet and provided opportunities I never would have guessed. Through this blog, I've made dozens of new friends and stepped outside my creative box in a way that thrills me.
For all that, I thank you, HH readers. For reading, for commenting, for encouraging me in a thousand ways. You have made this year so much richer.
So I am a little sad to close the book on 2010, but am ready to embrace all that awaits in 2011.
How are you feeling on the last day of the year? (Feel free to link to your own end-of-year posts in the comments, I love to read them.)
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I didn't mean to be away from the computer for quite so long, but after suffering through all the stages of technology detox (anger, denial, stress, and finally peace) I feel like I've gained a littler perspective in the past week.
And a "taking stock" around the holidays and the end of the year is always necessary.
We ate. A lot. More than I can remember eating in years. The most memorable? The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls, lovingly made by my sister-in-law Beth. They were...beyond words. And probably a new Christmas tradition.
Beyond eating, and present-ing, and avoiding the internet, I also:
*cried at Christmas eve dinner
*hunted down a decent skateboard in my small hometown
*made my child sleep in a crib in the bathroom
*filled an emergency prescription for a toothache
*sat at IHOP for five hours, laughing, crying, and walking the aisle with a baby not my own
*petted a pig
*met up on the interstate with friends passing through
*took my nieces shopping and bought the same thing for myself and the thirteen-year-old
*attended a Thunder game
and
*threw a mini-reunion
I did not, however, step foot inside Wal-Mart or let nostalgia consume me. (Those things are not related, they just both tend to happen when I'm in Oklahoma.)
It was, all things considered, a beautiful Christmas.
I hope yours was, too.
*
Barring any further internet connectivity complications, we're back up and running here at HH. Tomorrow I'll recount the best of 2010, and on January 11 I'll celebrate the blog's first birthday with a light facelift.
If you don't want to miss a word, you can subscribe via email or reader by clicking here or receive these posts in your facebook stream by clicking here to "like" HH.
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I hosted a Hollywood Holiday Glitter & Glam party last week at the Foley + Corinna store on Melrose in Los Angeles. It was a chance for bloggers to meet other bloggers, check out the store, try on sequin-y clothes, and take an all-around break from the hectic pace of December.
It was such a great evening. I met fabulous women in real life that I'd gotten to know a little bit online and I giggled with girls I'd already had the pleasure of meeting.
with Rebecca from Girls Gone Child
Bethany from LA Stylist Mom and her friend Krista
Rachel from My Right Brain and Nora from The Pocket Lint
Elizabeth from Flourish in Progress and Anna from ABDPBT
(I'm so bummed these are blurry)
We munched on goodies from The Den of Hollywood and tried on sparkly things.
Chelsea from F+C and Romy from Romy Raves
Mary from The Recessionista and Rebecca
Chanelle from The Penelope Times
And I gave away things. Like two bags from Foley + Corinna and a beautiful bowl from Jonathan Adler and a $100 gift certificate to Madison.
It is at this point that I will express regret that my undergarments were showing the entire night.
Besides that, the night was fantasic. Lots of new friends that I hope to see again in the new year. Carrying Foley + Corinna.
I hope that the ladies left even happier and sparklier than they were they arrived, disappearing down Melrose with amazing gift bags filled with goodies from Essensuals London, The Den of Hollywood, Liz Earle, and Kate Somerville.
You can read other recaps of the night here at The Penelope Times and here at Julianna Morlet. Julianna drove all the way up from Temecula and I am so appreciative!
It was a great way to kick off the next leg of the holiday season. I'm already planning the next Hollywood Housewife event! If you don't want to miss out, make sure to subscribe via reader or through email, or follow HH on facebook.
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Mommy Mondays are when I unabashedly gush about my kid. Sometimes I talk about baby products or try to suss out important topics like car seats. Sometimes I show pictures of the baby on inappropriate movie sets. And sometimes, like today, I just take a little photo journey.
The weather this weekend in Los Angeles was just incredible. After all these years, it is still hard for me to reconcile Christmas trees and holly wreaths with 85 degrees and sunny.
But I power through it.
We decided to go to the zoo on Saturday. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but The Gorilla is a serious animal lover. He created a show back in 2003 simply so he could travel the world and look at animals. So we go to the zoo in many cities we visit, and have a zoo membership here in LA.
The first time we took Pigtail to the zoo, The Gorilla and I were feeling a little grumpy towards one another and we wandered the whole place and didn't see a single animal. I'm not kidding. Not one animal. This did not aid our moodiness, although we laughed hysterically about it later.
We did a bit better this weekend.
When we're at the zoo, I spend most of my time staring at their backsides.
They point at things.
And talk about the animals very seriously.
When I ask for a picture, I'm met with disdain. At the zoo, I am a sherpa. A glorified stroller-pusher.
So back to dad we go. And then, I just couldn't resist.
We're making our own kind of holiday memories out here on the west coast.
**
That's not all for today's Mommy Monday. Check back later today for a fantastic and unique gift idea for the camera-phone user in your life. It's a must-see!
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Will you come? I promise it will be fun. I will be wearing sequins. Champagne will be involved.
TWO Foley+Corinna bgas will be given away, as well as other fabulous giveaways from Madison and Jonathan Adler.
But you have to be present to win. And you have to be present to pick up your goodie bag, which contains things that you need and want. (Really - the goodie bag is great. I wouldn't lie about that kind of thing.)
All are welcome! If you want the official invite, email me at housewife (at) hollywood housewife (dot) com.
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A friend of ours offered the employees of his small business two options: a traditional company holiday party or a box suite at the Roger Waters concert where he performed The Wall in its entirety.
Obviously, they chose the concert. Our friend had a couple of extra tickets, so he invited me and The Gorilla and I have to say that it was the most theatrical concert I've ever seen. Not that I'm a huge concert goer, but this was pretty incredible by any standards.
At the end of the heavy and moving show, Roger said something along the lines of, "Thirty years ago, when I wrote The Wall, I was in a pretty bad place. I'm a lot happier now."
This made me like him a lot.
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I challenge anyone to visit the nation's capital and not feel a sense of reverence. It's impossible.
Yesterday was bright and clear in Washington D.C. and we bundled up against the cold to show Pigtail the Lincoln Memorial. We enjoyed the rest of the sites from the warmth of the rental car.
One of my very favorite memories of this Thanksgiving holiday: watching my husband and my daughter stand and silently read the Gettysburg address on the walls of the memorial, the sun shining behind them. It took several minutes to swallow the lump in my throat.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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I couldn't show you some of the pictures of Pigtail on the set of The Gorilla's movie because I didn't want to give anything away.
But now, since we're celebrating crossing the $150 million mark worldwide, it feels like the time to let out these doozies:
It's a weird world, folks.
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