Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Happy Day After Christmas

Happy Day After Christmas, for all that celebrate that one. If you don't, happy Wednesday on a day when I bet a lot of people still aren't around. Here's what I've been up to the last few days:

So Boyfriend+ and I hosted not one but two Christmases because we're nuts. My family came over for Christmas Eve, his family  Christmas Day. What, we could have had all of the family together at once? First up, we were sort of busting at the seams with Boyfriend+'s family, so adding more people would have meant a lot of people eating on whatever plate-like-object I could find and also probably sitting on the floor. Plus my mom just met his dad this past Sunday even though he and I have been together for 8 years, cos we take our time. Apparently.

Since I spent so much time in the kitchen, here's what we made
Menu for Christmas Eve!
For lunch: veggie pizza
For apps: baked brie, bean dip, bacon wrapped cheese stuffed dates + this white cranberry cosmo thing that is fantastic and I will probably continue to drink those until we're out of cranberry vodka.
For dinner: seafood paella (with shrimp, scallops, lobster, mussels, salmon)
For dessert: cookies, so many cupcakes that we picked up that afternoon

Menu for Christmas!
For apps: guac & chips, bacon wrapped cheese stuffed dates, caprese salad skewers (fresh moz, tomato, basil on a toothpick)
For lunch/dinner: bacon mac & cheese, apple & cherry stuffed chicken breasts, grilled salmon, sauteed spinach, steamed broccoli, white rice
For dessert: more cookies, rugelach, cheesecake, coconut custard pie, blueberry pie, ice cream

I mentioned that my family and Boyfriend+'s met on Sunday, which was a last minute thing. My mom, aunt, and I went to see The Lion King on Broadway. The costumes and sets for it were insane. So good. The rest of it was eh, but the costumes/sets made up for it. Anyway, after the show we all ended up meeting for dinner, which worked out nicely.

Boyfriend+ and I went out last night to see the new Les Mis movie. So if you could all go see it so we could talk about it, that'd be neat. Some quick thoughts:

Anne Hathaway was really good as Fantine. I understand the Oscar buzz.
I didn't have too much hope for Russel Crowe as Javert. He was better than I expected. But not as good as I wanted him to be, so whomp.
Amanda Seyfried as Cosette and Eddie Redmayne as Marius were both surprisingly good. I don't usually like adult Cosette cos she's so flighty and annoying but I liked her here. And I heard somewhere Redmayne wasn't great as Marius but now I can't remember where I heard that so I could have made it up. ALSO Redmayne has a lot of freckles so (having them myself) he got extra points.
Overall I wasn't totally blown away with the movie but I did have pretty high expectations. I also have a good amount of the music memorized, so, yeah.

From the audience I saw the movie with
There was a lady behind me that made SO MUCH NOISE during the movie. Not really talking but loud gasps every time Javert showed up on screen. And he is a main character and all so that happened a lot. At one point I wanted to turn around and tell her the rest of the plot. The story is 150 years old so I feel I'm safe from spoilers at this point.
I guess she was also a big Sacha Baron Cohen fan cos when he showed up on the screen, before doing anything other than standing there, she was cracking up.
The two people sitting next to us got up and left about 20 minutes in. I don't think they knew there would be singing...
A person on the other side, near the end, said "Well, this movie sure is depressing, isn't it?" While I understand the title is technically in French, I'm pretty sure you can see "Miserable" right there, so you should probably assume this won't be a sunshine filled jaunt through wildflower fields. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Why yes, I am listening to Les Mis now. How'd you guess?