New Shoes!

January 4th has now become "Buy Yourself A New Pair of Shoes Day."

When my Gramma Tooney passed away, we declared her birthday, January 4th, "Buy Yourself New Shoes Day."  My gramma loved shoes so much.  Shoes and jewelry.  I remember when we'd go visit her we'd go through her jewelry and shoes and try them all on.  When we'd show her how much we liked certain ones, she freely gave them to us.  Every time.  She loved to share the beauty of fashion.

And that is why every January 4th, we get together with my mom and buy ourselves a brand new pair of shoes.  We're trying to make it a national holiday.  Some of our friends have adopted it as their own, which we really appreciate.  :)

(Mom, Traci, Me, Gina. Ready to take on the shoes!)

(Our support group: Chris and Dallas.)

(Success!  Two pairs of heels!)

(Gi had success too and got an extra discount for being cute!)

(Don't worry, she's joking with that pair of shoes.)

(Mission accomplished. And I love them.)

(I didn't have bronze heels... And yes, that's me in the reflection.)

(They will be mine.  Oh yes, they will be mine.)

Scandalous.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to visit Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

You know the movie Valentine's Day (basically, it's a newer Love Actually, but I love them both)?  Well in that movie they go to a cemetery that's showing an old black and white film.  That was in this cemetery.  They still have movies that they show during the summers.  For those of you who live in Hawaii, it's basically like Sunset on the Beach, except it's in a cemetery where a plethora of Hollywood stars are buried.

(Looking out from the cemetery, you can see the Hollywood sign in the distance.)

(Jewish tradition calls for you proving your visit by setting stones on the grave.  Rita stated, "You guys get flowers and I get rocks." Lol!)

(You should look up her story.  It really is tragic.)

("Missed it by that much!")

(Our tour guide in front of Douglas Fairbanks' tomb.  She dresses like the Lady in Black once a year to pay tribute to the tradition of the strange visitor to Valentino in the mausoleum.)

(The gorgeous halls of the mausoleum.)

(Valentino.)

It was such a blast going on this two hour tour.  My six friends and I learned so much in words of history and scandal behind not only the actors, but the cemetery itself.  It's amazing how not only infidelity was such a big part of Hollywood even back then, but also drugs, sex and violence.

("Alfalfa's" Father.  That invention of his was supposed to enhance women's breasts.  What a way to go putting it on his gravestone, right?)

("Alfalfa" died after getting shot trying to get his reward money back at knifepoint from the man who found his lost dog.)

I think one of my favorite stories was that of Hattie McDaniel, the first black woman to win an Academy Award.  She was criticized by her own community, her own race because her roles were often the part of the maid, or servant.  Of course, Hattie proved to be perfect for the parts as she put her own attitude into the roles in which she played; often rolling her eyes or making faces.  What a way to go, being the first of her race to win such an award.  In last year's Oscars, Mo'Nique (Precious) made a point to thank Hattie for "enduring all that she had to do so that (she) would not have to."  This was when Cassie and I got teary-eyed...

We also saw the graves of Florence Lawrence (aka, The First Movie Star), Darrin McGavin (The Christmas Story), Vampira, Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten Commandments), Janet Gaynor Gregory (the first actress to win an Academy Award), Virginia Rappe (quite the scandal!), Don Adams  (I couldn't stop humming the Get Smart theme song), Rudolph Valentino (aka, Valentino), Peter Finch, Peter Lorre (Casablanca), Douglas Fairbanks (aka, The King of Hollywood), Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (Little Rascals), Mel Blanc, (think Bugs Bunny), and last, but definitely not least, Estelle Getty.

The other part where we got emotional was at Mel Blanc's grave.  I grew up watching Looney Tunes and have undoubtedly seen every single cartoon from it.  He did the voices for pretty much every single character in it from Bugs Bunny to Foghorn Leghorn.  Our tour guide showed us this picture and I got emotional, yet again:

The whole experience was just amazing.  My mom told me later that day, after I'd already left, that we actually have family buried there!  This means I must go back to pay my respects.  Oh and also attend one of the screenings in the summertime.

(We ate a late lunch here per Randi's request.  It would have been more enjoyable if there wasn't a football game on...  It was tasty though!)

(Cassie, Rachel and Ryan enjoying their S'Mores)

(Rita and I)

(Randi and John)

My New Favorite.

AND she's done music with Ingrid Michaelson. Bonus!

Isn't it so fun and peppy? Repeat, please!

New Found Fun!

New Years Eve day I had the best first date I've ever experienced with a guy.  After meeting at Jon's Coffee Shop, we went Geocaching.

It's my new favorite hobby and it's FREE!  It's also outdoors so you get fresh air, gets your mind thinking, and gives you great exercise too!  The first one we went to was called "Mickey's Coffee Shop" and was near enough to the coffee shop for us to walk to.  After entering the coordinates into his GPS device, we walked to the designated spot and the searching began.  It wasn't even a minute before he spotted where he thought the cache (pronounced 'cash') would be.  He lifted up a part of a light post and this is what we found:

(Mickey's Coffee House)

How fun is that?!  After this cache, I was so excited we did 2 more.  It was such a blast!!  It has become my new hobby and I am sharing the experience with anyone who wants to learn.  In fact, Friday, my friend Jenn came over to my parents' and after eating some Chinese food, we walked over to the park nearby and did out own geocaching.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite know how to use the application I downloaded onto my Blackberry so we failed the first one.  Luckily, I knew the area where the second one entitled "Diamond in the Rough" was located.  That one was a success and now she is hooked too!

Today I took my sister Gina out for some geocaching, while getting some exercise at the same time.  We went to "Rabbit's Lair" and after some hunting, found the cache and all the fun stuff inside!

Our second hunt was for the cache called "Shark Slaughter Seriously South of Slater."  This was by far my favorite cache of all time!  I think it's going to be tough to beat because this one was actually hidden inside a toy shark!  Gina found this tough to find one.  Who knew it would be in that weird drain-like thing?!  Gross, but WAY fun!

I am so excited to continue this hobby!  I am going to Maryland in February to meet my newest niece Nixie Rose (due January 28th) as well as celebrate my niece Jaiden's 2nd birthday.  I have already listed new waypoints for some geocaching fun near Tiffer and Seanie's house!  It'll be interesting doing this in the snow...  I can't wait for these new fun mini adventures!

A Cosa Christmas.

(While shopping for stocking stuffers, we came across this gem)

(Gi and I, Christmas Tree decoration success!)

This year, Christmas was pretty small.  It's always a good time, no matter who is there, but we were definitely missing some of our loved ones.

Traci and Chris only made it for Christmas Eve, which was a very heart-wrenching time for Traci since she has never missed out on a Christmas.  VJ and his family stayed in Portland with his in laws.  Plus, with 3 kids it just gets more difficult to travel.  Tiffer and Seanie stayed in Maryland since Tiffer is ready to pop with her baby, Nixie.  They celebrated their own Christmas but were sure to Skype with the parents early in the morning so they can witness Jaiden running with excitement to greet her new gigantic Nemo stuffed animal.

(JK sporting her Christmas fun as well as her obvious request for front teeth)

And so Christmas Eve followed our tradition of reading The Christmas Story out of the old Bible and then going around the room taking turns opening one special gift.  Since Traci and Chris were going to miss out on the big day, we allowed them to open everything, including stockings.  This year was a little different in that we each contributed to the whole stocking event.  Well, there wasn't enough room for my contribution so I did what anyone else would do in this situation; I dropped my piles of stocking stuffers amongst the both of them.

(The Godfather reading The Christmas Story as per tradition)

(Ready with our one present to open Christmas Eve!)

(Ash was spooning that doll all night long.)

(No surprise here.)

(The BEST present of all from Traci and Chris.  This is my parents' song.)

The next morning was a little different than I'm used to.  I woke up first, of course.  After all, having a job where I wake up before sunrise kind of trains me to continue the tradition.  I settles for 9am to go in and wake up the parents.... And then they sent me back to bed...  So around 11, I think it finally was, we all started out Christmas Day.

I think the best part of the whole morning was watching my parents open my gifts to them: cans and cans of food storage, wrapped individually.  Hey, it just makes for more gifts to open!  They were both very excited to receive what they asked for from Santa!

(A few of the 20 cans I wrapped for the parents)

(Total happiness with the new presents!)

We had our typical Christmas dinner which included me making stuffed mushrooms and artichoke dips as appetizers, and honey baked ham, Ash's Cheesecake Factory mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, and the works!  My parents invited a family over to help feast and we ended the night playing a ridiculous game called Quelf.

(Nothing is better than Peanut Butter for Gi.)

(My new coif from my stylist, Ash)

Great fun was had by all!  I missed some of my siblings but that's what happens when we grow up.  It sucks, but I know they're having a great time with their own families.  I hope everyone else had a fabulous Christmas like I did!