Moana and Christmas

 I finally got to see Moana, and I loved it!  It's so much fun to see a story taking place in the tropics :bademoticon: when it's so dreary  outside this holiday season.  The artwork and animation was gorgeous, the music was great, and I liked Moana and following her on her journey.  I didn't even care there was no romance.  Dad went with me, and he liked it too .  I was worried we wouldn't make it into the theater in time, so it's one of the few reasons I put up with 15-20 minutes of commercials (much as I loathe them :bademoticon:).  On the one hand, you can take advantage of the commercials to get in and get your seat, despite not quite making it to the auditorium before the showing time.  On the other hand, most of the previews they show don't really interest me , make me want to cringe , or a few times I've had to shut my eyes and wait for it to end.  The only previews I took an interest in this time around, were the new live-action Beauty and the Beast  movie coming out next year, and this interesting true story drama about three women who went to  NASA  in 1961 to  work as engineers.  It's called Hidden Figures.  I could have lived without the little short cartoon they had before Moana called Inner Workings.  I've studied the human body for years, and the last thing I need is to see a silly and almost hideous cartoon representation of it; though it had a good message about enjoying life and taking risks once in a while.  Like with Brave, when the feature film finally came around after an eternity of commercials, I jokingly asked dad in whisper , "You mean we're gonna actually see a movie?"  Someone next to me whispered something similar.  

Dad and I have teamed up to decorate the house .  It's tough trying to find all the holiday stuff after a move.  We were only able to find like 1/3 of the things we usually use to spruce up the house.  We did find all 3 Christmas trees , though something bad happened today .  The dog knocked over our big one , and the top part of the tree broke off.  On the one hand, I'm actually kinda glad I have been too lazy to decorate it so far (no broken ornaments or ruined lights), but on the other hand, our 30-year-old tree is in danger of being thrown out .  Dad glued the central shaft on the top part of the tree, but the danged glue has to dry.   Domino is now on everyone's  list but mine, since I wasn't there to find the tree in its broken state.  However, I'm not going out of my way to dote on him like usual right now. :bademoticon:

The outdoors are a different story.  Dad and I got some new decorations and extension cords (we really need to find a place to store those things so that we can FIND them each year .  I have no idea why, but for some reason, our extension cords that we use for Christmas lights keep disappearing every year ) for the outside.  It's our first year with candy-cane  lights (I don't care if mom doesn't like them), making the lights on our wreath  functional, putting bows on the carriage lamps, and we took advantage of a "Star Shower" this year.  It is so cool!  Last year, in our last neighborhood, we noticed our next-door neighbors had this most peculiar device set up outside their home.  The dad had built a wooden "arm" onto the side of the porch eaves, and it had this little projector pointing at the front of his house.  It made the house sparkle at night, and we were amazed  at how lovely it looked.  It's a growing trend in holiday decoration, where a quick way to get lights onto your home, is to get a special projector that can shine little lights  all over the front of your home.  This year, in our new neighborhood, I saw at least two or three other homes that had such a device.  Mom and I planned ahead and got a Star Shower for cheap at a fabric store 4 or 5 months ago, and let it sit under the bar until December came up.  I knew dad would love to set it up, and I was right!  It looks amazing!  And this one isn't static either!  That really surprised me when he set it up.  This Star Shower is animated!  It's like we have little red and green fireflies playing on our house walls!  I love it!   

I'm participating in a musical  at our church.  The theme is "Christmas Around the World," and all the people involved are going to dress up in ethnic costumes.  I've chosen to wear a Celtic costume.  It's probably not really all that accurate, but I don't think anyone will mind.  It's just a long, loose green gown with long sleeves, a red cloak, a Celtic cross on a long cord around my neck, my hair will be down, and I'll be wearing a holly crown  and some simple flat shoes.  Other people have signed up for costumes from countries like Germany, the Philippines (we have quite a number of Filipino friends in choir ), Russia, Africa, the Netherlands, England, Asia, and a few other countries.  Not everyone can sew, so our choir director brought out some stage costumes used in the past that some of our friends might be able to use. 

There was also a cute project that some of us took part in for the musical.  The centerpiece for the stage is going to be a huge Christmas tree  covered in a chain of 12" dolls made of muslin, all holding hands.  You sign up for a certain number of dolls, and put down what country you're going to dress them up for.  You then get a blank, white cloth doll, take it home, and dress it in some ethnic costume.  We were told not to put faces on them because the people putting up the tree are going to do that all at once.  If we were unhappy about the color of the doll, we could always dye it with tea.  Mom and I took home 3 dolls.  Mom decorated 2, I decorated one.  Mom dressed one of hers in an African men's robe, vest, and little hat; and the other was a Nez Perce Indian girl inspired by Kaya from American Girls.  I dressed mine up as a Dutch girl :bademoticon:.  All three looked adorable!  We dyed the Native American girl with tea so she looked like she had medium skin.  The African doll was a bit of a doozy.  Mom had me buy the darkest foundation makeup I could find, but after she painted his lower arms, his lower legs, his head, neck, and upper torso, he didn't dry out overnight!  So I took my portable heater :bademoticon:, set him up in the bathroom my brother and I share, and had him lie in front of the heater to dry out.  I'd rotate him from time to time, and test the "paint" with Kleenex.  I didn't realize makeup on muslin cloth didn't always mix at first.  But it worked.  Mom glued a little bit of doll hair on his head and got him dressed.  When I took him to church later on, people were amazed that we got his skintone right.  We were delighted to find little shoes just the right size for the girl dolls to wear (though I would have preferred little wooden Dutch shoes for my doll, but you can't always be picky when doing crafts).  Getting hair for the dolls was a pain.  You would be amazed at how hard it is to find a doll wig to fit a doll's head that's made of cloth and is about 2.5" wide.  Mom finally gave up on getting black hair and put black yarn on the Nez Perce doll's head.  We were lucky enough to get a blond wig for the Dutch doll, and I went to work, hot-gluing on all her accessories.  

Other people in the choir who had also signed up did an amazing job as well.  When I brought the African one in (he was finished first) people were amazed that mom got his skintone right, and I explained how we did it.  I eventually got the girl dolls in.  I can't wait  to see the finished product on the tree.  They are going to sew all the dolls' hands together, paint faces on, and carefully string them around the big tree.  I look forward to taking pictures.