If you tell my Dad I wrote this... I'll have to kill you.

My father is OBSESSED with Elvis Presley. The man is god incarnate in my dads eyes. Elvis was on in our house ad nauseum when I was a kid. I was tortured repeatedly with first the VHS copy then the fancy schmancy DVD version of "Elvis Aloha from Hawaii" Concert Special on a weekly basis growing up. How did I rebel? Why I became a hardcore Beatles fan thank you.

Oh and did I mention on a recent return trip to Memphis my dad spent 8 hours touring Graceland...8 mother freakin hours my friends TWO days in a row.

By now you're probably saying "Frances we get it... but what's your point?" Well when it comes to the holidays somehow someway Elvis wormed his way into my favorite holiday songs. Try as I might to fight it, this one song just get's me all warm and fuzzy inside. Bringing back memories of my dad popping on one of Elvis' gazillion Christmas albums while The Baby Bro and I decorated the X-mas Tree.

I'll be sure to see a doctor about this serious illness after the holidays.

Let the holiday traditions begin.

We are nuts about the holidays...not in the spiritual sense but in the "hey lets light out house up so they can see us from space" sense. Last year we had two count em two x-mas trees. The spirit of Santa and giving is full force in our place this time of year. We have lots of old traditions from our youths and some that we have begun for Stella. One has to be movies. There are certain television shows and movies that are one perpetual repeat this time of year. For Ned it's the Christmas Story. For me it's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animation-no Jim Carrey thank you) & Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. But two years ago my friend Melissa introduced to me the magic that is "Love Actually" this movie is just the sweetest and delightfully magical holiday movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hug and kiss on anyone that's within a 50 mile radius after watching it. It quite frankly has settled effortlessly into my holiday tradition. (Ned? well he'll come around after a few hundred times of being forced to watch it) But I don't care. I dare you to not get a little giddy when you watch this.



P.S. the boxes are almost all unpacked I'll start posting more frequently in the coming days.