Tis The Season

The White House has been decking the halls for Christmas since the mid 1850s, when President Franklin Pierce first brought a tree indoors for the holidays. In the 1890s, first lady Caroline Harrison helped decorate that year's tree, and a tradition was born.

The White House Christmas tree (in spite of the rumors, there are no generic "holiday" trees here) became official in 1929, during the Hoover administration, but it wasn't until the Kennedy administration that first ladies were charged with choosing an official decorating theme.

Caroline Kennedy takes a closer look at the official 1961 White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room. This was the first tree to have an official theme picked by the first lady; Jacqueline Kennedy decorated it with toys, birds, and angels inspired by "The Nutcracker Suite."

n 1962, President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy decorated the official tree with ornaments made by disabled and senior citizens. 

In 1965, first lady Lady Bird Johnson posed with the Blue Room with the White House Christmas Tree, which she had decorated in an "Early American" style with fruits, nuts, popcorn strings, and seed pods

When first lady Betty Ford decorated her patchwork-themed tree in 1974, she offered instructions so Americans could sew their own ornaments.

First lady Roselyn Carter decorated the 1978 White House Christmas tree with antique toys, dolls, and doll-house furniture from the collections of the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y

First lady Nancy Reagan gets cozy with a Santa-suit-clad Mr. T in 1983. That year, the tree was decorated with more than 2,000 old-fashioned toys and thousands of lights.

President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan posed near the 1988 White House Christmas Tree, which was decorated with hand-blown glass ornaments from the Eisenhower administration along with Nixon-era state flower balls; Mrs. Reagan also added 300 wooden candles handmade by the White House's carpenters. 

n 1990, first lady Barbara Bush decorated this Frasier fir from North Carolina with tiny porcelain dancers for another "Nutcracker Suite" themed Christmas Tree.

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First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton stands in the Blue Room in 1994. That year, the theme was "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and the ornaments were made by art students from across the United States.

First lady Laura Bush decorated the 2005 official White House Christmas tree with real lilies, crystal, and sparkling garlands. Her theme that year was "All things bright and beautiful."

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush in front of the 2007 White House Christmas tree. Each of the 391 ornaments on the tree represented a different National Parks Service site.

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The theme that first lady Michelle Obama chose for the 2011 White House Christmas Tree is "Shine, Give, Share." It honors military veterans and is decorated with medals and badges from all four branches of the military, as well as with cards made by the children of service members.

And There you have it bloggers! Some pretty great looking trees over the years don't you think? 

Entire pictures and info was found here

New Facebook layout

For those of you have Facebook, how many of you have been able to upgrade to the new look of Facebook known as Timeline? I LOVE the new changes. It's the only change FB has released that I actually really like. Your home page to your profile now resembles a lot like a blog page, which is why I think I like it so much. I still despise the "ticker" in the corner of FB showing who's commenting on what. That is super invasive and annoying, maybe they'll do away with it. 

I am sharing my home screen (a wee bit edited of course) to show you some of the new changes. I really like that you can document places, monuments in your life etc etc. those of you have have seen the timeline know what I'm talking about. 

Of course, I have already read some of the negative nancy comments from so called friends and family saying they don't like that people can scroll back to the beginning of their posts and such.

All I have to say is, people can do it even without the upgrade, they just had to do it the long way, which was clicking on pages and pages of wall posts. And as with all FB things, you can control what you want others to see and not see, so I'm not really sure why everyone is getting their panties in a bunch over this.  Personally, my take on FB is this:

If they are really your "Friend" then they already know your "past" things that you wrote on your wall years ago, who you dated way back when, so really, why "hide" it? your past is what makes you who you are today! Are we shameful of this? I don't get it...

I really like being able to see what I wrote back in 2004 (which at the time, wasn't much I found out! LOL) 

I also saw how many people I am no longer "friends" with.

I've really cut down my list. I used to be up in the 800s with "friends" and really I had to step back and delete a lot. At first it was fun to add "old friends" you know, those childhood friends you haven't seen since elementary school days. But really, as time wore on, other then the quick Hi how are you where have you been all these years update, that was really the only time I ever heard/talked to them! So just began to delete a lot. Had to be rid of those that would air their dirty laundry as status' too. Drove me bonkers. 

Fudge Fudge Call the Judge

Happy Sunday Bloggies! 

Anyone watch A Christmas Story yet? I start all my Christmas movie watching next week! woo hoo! 

Hey lovelies! Just wanted to let you know....

Tail Wagging Tuesday will be up and running on Dec 20th!!

I am going to post it early (before X mas) as it seems any link up post holidays, most are busy or out of town still with their families!

The theme? Share your holiday photo of your pet(s)! You know, those family Christmas card shots, photos with santa, in front of the tree...etc etc :) the possibilities are endless! Be sure to link up! 

Book Review

I finally finished

 "The Hunger Games". 

Was it a good book?

Yes. Not something I would typically read. 

Was it one of thee best books I've read? Uh No. Not by a long shot. 

I still stand by the best two books I've read in the past 2 years have been Water For Elephants & 

The Help.

Would I recommend it to others? Probably, but only if they asked. 

I do plan to read the next book in the series as well.

I betcha didn't know...Christmas Vacation Edition!

Cody Burger who plays Rocky, did not have a single line in the entire movie.

In the scene where Clark has his total breakdown after receiving his “Christmas bonus” – membership in a jelly of the month club – he rattles off a jawbreaking, tongue-twister of an insult about his boss. The crew had placed cue cards all over the set behind the camera so Chevy Chase could read the whole insult without stopping. In its entirety, the quote is:

Aunt Bethany (“Is your house on fire, Clark?”) is played by Mae Questel, the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Christmas Vacation was her last movie.

The Griswold house is actually an exterior set on “Blondie Street” on a Warner Brothers back lot in Burbank, CA, as is Todd and Margo’s house (the neighbors next door).  The house has been altered a lot to serve other movies, especially the interiors, which are also only a set, not a real house

In one of the virtual tours on that site, you can see what appears to be the Griswold foyer set as it looks today.  The staircase as seen in the movie:

According to the Warner Bros. website, Blondie Street was built to look like a suburban neighborhood. It has also been home to many movies and TV series, including American Beauty, Pleasantville, Gidget, Bewitched, The Partridge Family, and Eight is Enough. There are 12 residential homes on the street in a variety of styles (some with practical interiors).

In this long shot looking down the street, you can see the house that was used for Sergeant Murtaugh’s (Danny Glover’s) family in the Lethal Weapon movies.

Here’s a close-up of Danny Glover’s house that I took from the first Lethal Weapon movie. To the right of it, you can see a house that looks like Samantha and Darrin’s in Bewitched!

This is the first National Lampoons movie with the Griswolds to feature Rusty younger than Audrey. In the past, Audrey was the younger sibling.

Younger Audrey, Older Russ

To Younger Russ, Older Audrey? Um John Hughes did you not watch the first movies in this series?!? Audrey is suppose to be the YOUNGER sibling! 

 Chevy Chase appears in some scenes wearing a black Chicago Bears ball cap. He wears the same Chicago Bears cap throughout all four Vacation movies. 

The scene where the cat bites on the Christmas lights cord and gets electrocuted was nearly cut from the movie. Prior to the first test screening. the studio execs wanted the scene taken out, fearing that it might offend some viewers, but producer Matty Simmons begged them to leave the scene in, and they eventually gave in to his request. After the first test screening, the test audience had scored the cat electrocution scene as the No. 1 favorite scene throughout the entire movie.

And there you have it folks! :) Learn anything about the film you didn't know?

Uggs Love/Hate Relationship

I love uggs. I bought my first pair of Ugg boots about 3 years ago, and they are still are in such good shape. 

Last year I got my first pair of Uggs Slipper/clogs to wear around the house.

At first, I loved them. But, as I wore them, I realized they were not cushioned at all for the heel. Hard as a rock. Also awkward to run in because they come flying off!

So I am wondering, do any of you own just the standard UGGS in slippers? Are they comfy?

Thinking of getting these..

Thoughts?

Monday Randoms

Did anyone watch the finale of Sweet Home Alabama? I did! I did! 

Tribble didn't disappoint! The final 2 girls were Tristan & Jackie.

County girl      VS          city girl

HE PICKED TRISTAN!!!

Aren't they adorable!?!?

City girl didn't stand a chance! 

I haven't heard or read anything via the internet as to whether or not they are or aren't together, but it appears via twitter, that she is going to be done with Nursing School at the end of this year, and then I think their relationship gets to fully take flight! 

Best of luck to them! 

I went to an Ugly sweater Christmas party on Saturday minus the ugly sweater part. I kid you not, there are NO sweaters at Goodwills in AZ. The sales cashier girl was like, you guys are a month late, those, the few that we had were swiped up over a month ago. 

whoops. My bad. 

My friend who had the party, has this ornament that I so totally want!

I guess it was last years Hallmark ornament, so when I hopped on Ebay to see if I could find it, it's selling for a pretty penny--minimum of 50 buckaroos. BOO. 

Not our best photo, I just got my hair cut the day before, so it looks SUPER short since I finally had my layers trimmed up a bit.