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Live! From The Gist!
My Gabby, with Carolee's sweet Joey
We’re in Boston today (and yesterday) taping the remainder of the second season of The Gist. It’s terrifically fun, as usual, but also exceptionally exhausting. I have a couple of my girlies along with me this time and the three of us fell into bed for deep deep sleep while watching Kung Fu Panda 2, at an embarrassingly early hour last night. Good bonding stuff.
Also, we are doing a Christmas special for the show! Such fun and so pretty — wait till you see our Very Merry background. Look for it this December!
Me, Rachel, and Carolee, on the set yesterday
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New Babies
Did you hear the good news that Hallie and Jen have recently shared? I am so happy for these two sweet ladies who are enjoying pregnancy together this time around. Please join me in praying for them and their families.
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Year of Faith
At Catholic Digest, we are observing the Year of Faith (October 11, 2013 – November 24, 2013) with some short reflections on the Catechism by the ever-awesome Pat Gohn. Make sure you are a subscriber so you don’t miss out!
Also, for the Year of Faith, I am participating in an Ascension Press newsletter project, called Faith in Action. This newsletter features weekly reflections from Catholic authors that will be sent out during the coming year. I am honored to be a part of it and hope you will sign up to receive the free newsletters. Get all the information you need to subscribe to Faith in Action right here.
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Hot Stuff
Is it warm in here? Or is that just me? Or is that … oh, don’t be silly. I’m only 40! It’s definitely not that.
(right?)
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5K Update
I was happy with my finish in my recent race, but even happier (and prouder!) of Ambrose’s performance that day. He won his age group! He came in 11th overall! I am so impressed with that big, fast, hard-working boy of mine. He’s even too manly to wear the pink ribbon he won. Way to go, Ambrose!
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Planning for Christmas
Maybe it’s the taping of the Gist Christmas special, but for some reason, I have Christmas on my mind. I long ago accepted the fact that I will never be one of those hyper-organized women who gets all her shopping done by November 1, but a little pre-planning/brainstorming can’t hurt.
Inspire me! What’s the very best Christmas present you ever gave or received?
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Family Movie Night
I sometimes like to torture my immediate family members by announcing a mandatory Family Movie Night. I say “torture” because choosing a movie that is equally liked and appreciated by everyone, from age 6 to 41, is a tough task. We inevitably wind up catering to the younger crowd, at the older crowd’s expense. I try to make up for it with decent snacks, but it still would be nice to have a list of whole-family movies that have been successful for others to draw from.
What movies have you enjoyed as a family? Ones that meet the usual requirements for decency, but aren’t a total snooze-fest for older kids?
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That’s all for now! Hope your weekend is great! (Go see the lovely and pregnant Jen for more of these!)
Another Catholic runner momma! There are loads of us who run! I love it!
I’m trying to find my feet (no pun intended) again after Baby #5 — it’s darn hard to get started again!
It cracks me up that you Gist ladies are taping Christmas specials! Eeek!
Family Movie ….. call me crazy, but Princess Bride is a favorite in our home. 😉
Thanks, love! Being the lover of pregnancy that I am (ha!), I can use all the prayers I can get. 😉
xoxox
Er, and just to be clear…love the babies, just not the gestating so much. 😉
Loved Boston in the fall! I was so excited to go on the set of Catholic TV because I knew you guys had filmed there! 🙂 Such a great group of inspiring ladies!
Hey Danielle! Great question re: QT7. I’m always on the look-out for good movies, too. Not sure I can be that helpful given mine aren’t as old as your older ones. But we recently watched The Prince of Egypt and enjoyed it. What about Soul Surfer or Dolphin Tale? Little Women (the remake) might be a good choice, too.
My oldest has begun playing Christmas songs on the piano. I must have sung half a dozen of them today. 🙂 Best Christmas gift ever was the 365-day love letter I wrote for my husband.
For movies, my family has always liked oldies or musicals (I know, that taste isn’t shared by all!) Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers, “Pirates of Penzance,” “Bye-Bye Birdie,” Bob Hope (“Paleface,” “Road to__”), “The Court Jester,” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” or things like “I Love Lucy” episodes spring to mind.
Sigh, Christmas gifts. I hope people post other ideas! Sometimes we’ll do things like a basket of pastas, sauces, and dipping oil (or some theme like that). For college football fans, you could do a collage with magazine pictures of the glory days, autographs from coaches/former star players, things like that. (Maybe something similar could be done with pro teams, but I’m guessing it’s harder to obtain autographs.) When I was a kid, we were poor, so Christmas was often gifts of things we had, but knew the other person would like. My folks have money now, but my mom has continued that older tradition. Last year she gave me a beautiful Christmas wall hanging that I’ve always loved – it’s Christmas once that’s on the wall – since she knew I loved it so much, even though she loves it too and certainly would still have used it in her home. Gifts like that are my favorites!
Another movie suggestion – we have trouble coming up with movies that the whole family will like, but we have girls 5 and 8, and then hubby and myself in our 30’s…so the girls would be thrilled if everyone was a princess and every movie had a wedding (particularly Miss 5!) The other night we watched “Hugo” which we all thought was very good – only warning, there is a little bit of adult stuff, like the guard talking on the phone to the head of the orphanage about his wife running off and “relations” that went way over my kids heads, but is there (and seemed pretty unnecessary to me.) We also all enjoyed Dolphin Tale when we saw it. The girls and I enjoyed the Muppets movie that came out somewhat recently (with Amy Adams), and I think hubby would like it, too, if he had seen it.