Holiday Media Magic

My husband and I are big fans of movies, music and books. We have hundreds of Blu-rays and DVD’s, CDs and since my hubby doesn’t like to read (*gasp* I know. Tell me about it.) I have hundreds of books. At Christmas time, we have our favorite movies, music and authors. I wanted to share a few of our favorites, even though everyone has probably seen, heard or read them all.

Movies:

from youtube

The hubby and I started a tradition a few years ago to watch Christmas Vacation every Christmas Eve while we get things ready for the morning. It makes things a bit less hectic through humor. ;) And although I’ve seen this movie a million times, I STILL laugh at it. Still.  “Are you serious Clark?”

A few others movies my kids love and recommend are Arthur Christmas, Home Alone 1 and 2 (These ones come with a really good lesson about NOT being naughty like Kevin is to his parents at times. Yeah. I’m THAT mom…), Elf, The Grinch (not cartoon), The Polar Express (I’m the only person I know that thinks this show is creepy, but everyone else loves it…) and Prep and Landing. This year we’re introducing my kids to The Santa Claus movies.

Music:

One of my very favorite Christmas CD’s is Pentatonix: That’s Christmas To Me. They have two other ones out, which we have all three and listen to them regularly, but That’s Christmas To Me is hands down, my favorite. My kids are obsessed with Pentatonix and my hubby and I love them too. Which is funny, since my hubby’s favorite band is Pearl Jam.

A few other albums we love and recommend are The Piano Guys: A Family Christmas, Kelly Clarkson: Wrapped in Red, Josh Groban: Noel, Tran Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller. I’m obsessed with the Tran Siberian Orchestra’s Carol of the Bells. It’s my ringtone… Hahaha

Books:

Oh, books. My favorite things in the entire world. Besides my family of course. ;) While I usually prefer reading YA and MG books, for some reason I crave romantic reads around Christmas time. They don’t necessarily have to be Christmas reads, but it has to have a romance. I love the Timeless Romance Anthologies around this time of year because they are quick and romantic novellas that I can read for a moment during a busy day, Julianne Donaldson’s books, Sarah Eden’s books and Michele Paige Holmes has some lovely romantic reads as well.

I also love re-reading my favorite MG/YA books around Christmas time too, like the Harry Potter series and Percy Jackson series. I’ll listen to them on CD with my kids and they love it.

If you have any recs for any Christmas movies or music or your favorite books, comment below! I'd love to hear them.

Thank you SO much for having me! I’ve had such a blast! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Chantele Sedgwick is a YA author, harpist, wife to one and mom to four. She loves fairy tales, happy endings, Kit Kats and (judging by her bookshelves), buying way too many books. She lives in Utah with her family and can usually be found reading, or talking her husband’s ear off with her endless supply of book ideas. She’s the author of Not Your Average Fairy Tale, Not Your Average Happy Ending, Love, Lucas, Switching Gears (Feb 2017) and Interlude (2018).

Identify Your Beast

 We don't promote our books here, although all of us RRH bloggers are writers.

So, this isn't a promo. It's just some fun that our own, Tara Tyler, came up with to promote her middle grade book, Broken Branch Falls.

Here's the deal:
You take a short quiz and at the end, you are assigned a character name and trait.

I was an elf, and my name was Dodee, which was much closer to my reality than the first time I took the quiz and got goblin- that must have been pre-coffee me.

Just for fun...take the survey below and let us know...what sort of character are you?

Beastly Survey

                                                          Want to read the book?

                                                          You can buy it Here!

Not in the mood to read? 
How about a movie?

Summer 2017, the sequel, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, is coming to one seriously fun movie. 

Jumanji
Starring Robin Williams, this story centers on a 12-year-old boy, Alan, who starts playing a mysterious game. The game causes a shift in reality that unleashes all sorts of action, adventure, and total mayhem. Alan and his friends must finish the game in order to set their world back to rights.  

So, before watching the sequel*, grab the original. 

Or check your local library! Did you know your local library often has movies you can check out just like books? 

*A little movie trivia for you...Jumanji 2017 was originally set to be a sequel, but the writers quickly rewrote the script to be a continuation to the original story rather than a remake. So glad Hollywood got smart. There is no need to tamper with perfection and Robin Williams in this film is perfect. 

V: Visitors

Welcome Visitors! It's V Day. And my house is the cleanest when I have visitors coming. So come on over for a visit. Just give me some advanced warning...





Why I love to have VISITORS (once in a while.)

1. As I said before, the house is cleaner - things get extra scrubbing when visitors are coming like the microwave, the basement, the dog...
2. I get to try out new recipes - I like following recipes (and improvising) especially on an appreciative audience of visitors!
3. Visitors are more appreciative than the local denizens - ah, I just said that, but it's a definite bonus. they notice the cleanliness and effort of being a hostess (and mom)
4. We do more fun stuff with visitors - we do touristy things, we go to movies, we eat out, and we play games - yay!
5. My family usually behaves better when visitors are around.
6. My puppy gets more attention, which he deserves.
7. I love to catch up, visitors bring interesting conversations - not much of that around my house full of closed-mouthed (yet loud and obnoxious) boys!

my favorite visitors!!

Do you do anything special when you're expecting visitors?

You can visit other blogs from the A to Z challenge HERE.

Hail, Caesar!

I cannot wait to see this movie! I thoroughly enjoy watching old movies and this spoof on the industry looks hilarious! Plus it's got some of my favorite actors - George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, and more!

A fun movie to take your honey to for Valentine's Day! Or President's Day, even =)
Have a great, love-filled weekend, y'all!

#Tips for Managing Monday

You all are in for a real treat as we kick off 2016 with a GUEST POST from our favorite HouseHUSBAND! MARK KOOPMANS! He's an international man of mystery - and we snagged him in between his travels. Take it away, Mark!

Aloha,

Thanks to Tara, Liz and Ashley for guest posting this week with the Really Real Housewives. (Hey, after me, this blog can only go upwards and onwards for 2016.)

I was a stay-at-home dad for eight years and while things have changed, Mondays were always the most challenging day of the week. Here’s some tips that worked for me, especially when I had three kids out of school:

• Field Trip Day: Once the boys were playing at the playground, I used the time to make plans for the rest of the week (and avoid stares from other moms who wondered who this male interloper was!)
• Grocery Shopping: A necessary evil that often turned into, “An extra field trip, kids!” especially when I had to save time.
• Monday Movie Nights: With the boys staying up later, the threat of pulling Movie nights were a wonderful deterrent to earlier-in-the-day bad behavior.

Mainly though, I used Mondays to prepare for the new week, and here’s one more vitally important thing: Flexibility. This is much needed after discovering the just-cleaned living room is now the new, slimy base of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Without flexibility, rolling into the fetal position for a quick sob can be very bad for the back.)

Mark Koopmans was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. In 1989, he spent the next several years working in Holland, Spain, France and England. In 1994, he won his U.S. "Green Card," and is an American by choice since 2003. Koopmans began his writing career that same year with a feature for a regional magazine in California. Since then, he's worked as a staff writer for newspapers in Florida and Texas. Koopmans is also a proficient blogger and is working on his next book. He lives in Virginia, and is "Papa" to three active boys under the age of nine. He writes at night.

Winter Break Activities!

Oh no. School's out for two weeks! Time to entertain the kids - or let them play on their electronic brain-scramblers. Unfortunately both of those options are not good!

Here are some suggestions to keep those little brains active over the break:

• Crafts - you can find many easy Christmas/Winter crafts in magazines and online
• Volunteer - most kids don't have any idea that others are suffering in the world. We need to show them how good they have it and that we need to give back.
• Read! - Any time is a good time to read.
• Help Decorate - also a nice time to reminisce when the old decorations they made as little ones come out, especially the ones with their cute little faces on them.
• Help Bake - always fun and they get to lick the bowl.
• Help Clean - not fun, but necessary and they should earn their screen time!
• Play board games - I love playing board and card games. Lots of laughter and good times.
• Family movie nights - cozy, cocoa, cookies, and camaraderie.
• Hide the Pickle - a tradition to find the pickle on the tree each day, friendly competition, ha!
• Make a movie - my boys get wild creative hairs once in a while and want to record their inventiveness... dummies on film to enjoy in perpetuity. Harmless hilarity.
• Thank yous - make sure they thank their relatives for gifts!

We are all open to suggestions if you have any to add! Keeping it merry and bright!

What a Wookie!

Confession time -

I could have given you the countdown to the release date of Episode VII at any time in the past several months. The days to Christmas? Not so much. I guess you can see where my priorities lie. (One hint: The answer is always Star Wars)

So as soon as we got our tickets, my most pressing concern has been WHAT DO I WEAR TO THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT OF THE ENTIRE YEAR???? (Only my wedding keeps it from being the most important event of my decade)

Lucky for me, Target helped me make that decision tonight, and I have never been happier. Or furrier, for that matter. I probably won't be the only one, but be on the look out this Wookie at the theater release of The Force Awakens!!

Please ignore my filthy mirrors. Finding the perfect Chewbacca onesie was waaaay more important than cleaning.

Who else is dying for Star Wars?

Eerie Entertainment!

Who doesn't love lists? Now, what if I told you I had a list of things that included PICTURES?? Anyone cheering?

While looking up all things Halloween, I was thoroughly enjoying flashbacks as I perused the lists that Halloween had to offer. From movies, books, to things to do, I was in listing heaven. Some things on the list I have done, read, seen, and some I'm marking "to-do".

BUT WAIT! Shouldn't there be a list of things to do?? Things I MUST do?? Yes! Yes there is!

My Fav (any season) movie wasn't listed, nor was my fav horror book... so I here they are!

QUESTION TO THE READER:
1. What's your fav movie during Halloween?
2. Ever read any of those spooky books?
3. Wanna cuddle to a horror movie? I meant with Freddy Krueger.

We'd like to give a standing O to Tammy for taking over this week. She did a fantastic job! Thanks, Tammy! We hope you'll come back soon!

Tammy's a really real housewife...after trying to sleep in, hit snooze 3 times, rush 4 kids to school, go to work, come home to cook, clean little messes here and there, run kids to functions, swap laundry, work on current book, and kiss heavily on her man. Then...and only then, does she finally claim her title. *falls asleep with book in hand*