A few Christmas pictures

Pictures from Christmas!



The three-piece band! They sing some very jazzed-up Chuck E. Cheese anamatronic versions of popular Christmas songs (Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls). My sister, her friend, and I named them. The right penguin is Paco, the left one is Pablo, and the Polar Bear is Big Mike. The band altogether is called Big Mike and the Mikettes.



This is our Christmas tree from this year, decorated with stuffed animals again out of tradition.



These are the sun lamps that my sister and I got for Christmas. They gather sunlight during the day, which charges the battery, and they glow at night.



My baby bird, Roxy, who's actually not so much a baby anymore. This has nothing to do with Christmas except that that's when I took the picture. He's cute, right? Yes, despite the feminine name, Roxy is a boy. Initially, we thought he was a girl, and it was too late to change the name. It took long enough to switch from using the pronoun "she" to "he." Sorry about the bad quality--I shut the flash off because it scares him.

Last time I gossip about celebrirties--I swear.

So evidently Jaime Lynn Spears is pregnant. This sounds unbelievably heartless on my part, but if some kids show star got knocked up, I'd rather have them be on Disney Channel than Nickelodeon. If Disney continued to be linked to scandal like the old-news Vanessa Hudgens thing, I'd have fun revelling in the irony.

I don't think they should cancel her show though. I feel bad enough for her, having her life be a notionwide topic of discussion (which I'm contributing to--oops--but whatever. No one reads this anyway.)

Though I'd also think that she'd be really careful about doing something that would interest "US Weekly" since her and her family's reputation is constantly scrutinized. I mean, I'd become a Mother Theresa if I was in the position of being compared to Britney. Oh well. It's her life.

By the way, I heard that Lynn Spears (mother of Jaime and Britney) is writing a book on parenting. Okay...she has one daughter that just got her kids confiscated from her and another daughter that won't even be of legal drinking age when her kid goes to Kindergarten. Go figure.

I'm Dusting my VCR as We Speak

Okay, have you ever been poisoned before? I haven't either, but if I had to imagine what that feels like, it would be something similar to how I felt last night. That's the kind of debilitating headache/stomachache combo that can't really be described in words. I thought I got bit by a spider in the attic yesterday getting down Christmas decorations. My dad said it was sleep deprivation. Must've been, since I slept 12 hours--I got up at 11:30, later than I hever have in my entire life. I had planned to post that previous article yesterday, but I colllapsed on my bed out of dizzyness around 11:00 last night and didn't get to it.

Okay, enough of that. The subject at hand right now is Christmas movies! I have compiled a list by category of all the movies I want to watch before Christmas--hey, I dare to dream.

My self-procalimed holiday classics that I am going to watch no matter what:
The Santa Clause
I'll be Home for Christmas (Hit that one last night! One down, the rest to go.)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Santa Clause 2 (not as good as the original, but I still grew up with it)
Home Alone

Movies I've never seen but want to:
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
It's a Wonderful Life

Movies I really want to see again but have to find:
Miracle on 34th Street
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Juliana's Christmas Countdown!

Thus begins my countdown celebration of all things Christmasey! I should officially start this in December, but nobody reads this anyway, so who's judging?

This was supposed to be my post for yesterday, and I'll get to that story in my next post, the one actually planned for today.

To start off the Christmas season, here's a picture of my fabulous Christmas tree from 2004. You probably already know this, but every year, instead of Christmas decorations, we put stuffed animals on our Christmas tree (which is fake--therefore cheaper and not as messy). All my and my sister's dolls and teddy bears over 15 years, which now just sit around if they're too grungy or sentimental to give away, get their month of glory in December.



We started doing this when I was about 5--I was helping decorate the tree and put my teddy bears on the bottom branches to "watch." My parents liked the idea of something that wouldn't break around my then baby sister.

It's really dark, but can you see the one on the very top? THat's Mrs. Tittlemouse from Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit." She's out angel or star on top of the tree. :)

Mah. You really can't see it. Eh, I'll take a better picture this year. My camera's broken though. A new camera is the only thing on my Christmas list.

Mr. Napkinhead!

This is the Mr. Napkinhead scene from The Holiday (which, yes, is a total chick flick, but the writing is great, not so sappy, and the soundtrack is really good. I mean it rivals Dirty Dancing in terms of the soundtrack accompanying the mood, so don't brush it off right away. Not to imply that any movie can beat Dirty Dancing.)

It's pretty much self-explanitory, and I think it's pretty funny.

Paris Hilton Imitates Audrey Hepburn

I didn't think it was possible for anything to stain the reputation of American culture more than "South Park" already has, but I've learned a valuable lesson in not questioning their capacity for asininity.

This, right here, is not only a disgrace to American culture, but I'm sure this display is making the costume designers for Breakfast at Tiffany's roll in thier graves. If not that, then we should all be able to hear ghosts laughing if we listen close.

(I hate photo copyright laws--especially since my camera's broken)

High School Musical

If you know me, you know how much I hated High School Musical. I don't think I need to explain it--you've all heard the rant before. However, on the night of the premeire of the big #2, I was babysitting my little sister, and I promised to watch it with her. Guess what? I actually liked this one! *gasp*

Now, I'm sure my judgement was impeded when Zac Efron took his shirt off--I gained a new respect for his character. ;) :D But regardless of that, I started to see the value of High School Musical--its weightless. There's just enough drama to keep people entertained, but not enough to prompt the conservative parents to write letters to Disney. It's cute--instead of "light reading," it's "light viewing."



I used to hate that it was unrealistic. I shows kids this picture of an ideal high school with trivial problems that work themselves out in the end. Yeah, right. But, now that I am actually in high school myself, that utopian version of one doesn't seem so stupid. Its definitely nicer than a real high school. If you want a maple syrup coated story to make you feel good about the world, this is it.

I have to say HSM2 was awesome. They did a really good job with it, and I would actually watch it a second time. *gasp* again. I downloaded the music to make a CD for my sister, but I actually listen to it myself. It drains out a little bit of my famous Juliana cynicism that you've all grown to love. XD

I'm not about to rush out and buy an "I heart Troy" T-shirt, but I've grown to appreciate what High School Musical stands for. Love, happiness, and making dreams come true--we could all use some of that in our lives, no matter how old we are.