Christmas Is Coming...

I decided to dedicate this post to Christmas. This decision was based on many reasons.... 1) Christmas is my most favorite favorite favorite favorite thing ever. Our family has a lot of silly cute traditions. And I love them all. ("Them" can refer to the traditions AND my family, of course.)  2) My sister, who is also in love with Christmas, has been talking about it on a daily basis and making me yearn for it more and moore. And finally, 3)The weather is getting cooler. Now that it's officially fall the Christmas countdown just has to begin. Cooler weather is Georgia means it is 80 degrees. But hey, we'll take that. Anything but 90, please.

On a side note, I am really excited for the season in general. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Cooler weather...(FINALLY.) Crunchy leaves. Hot chocolate. Christmas cookies (!!!) and on, and on, and on....


So, here are my top 3 reasons as to why I think Christmastime is the best time of year. Excuse me, the most WONDERFUL time of year. 

BTW, it's 91 days away in case you were wondering ;)

1) As I said earlier, my family has a lot of traditions that we've been doing for as long as I remember. Actually, even before I was born (what a sad time that was....) We spend Christmas day at my grandparents house, Miss Momma and Mr. Diddy's house to be exact. We all squeeze into their tiny living room. Between the tree, the 7 or 8 of us, the other decorations, and the furniture, we usually have our piles of presents stacked up onto our laps. Now, a lot of families I know get up, run downstairs, and rip open their presents so quickly it is like they know the world will be ending in 3 minutes and they have to get them all opened before the world is over. This is how our Christmas day plays out: 
7 am: A and I wake up to see what Mr. Claus has brought. I go back to sleep.
9 am: Russ and MC get out of bed. We eventually get around to eating breakfast.
11 am: After showers, we pack (yes, PACK) up our presents and take them down to Diddy's house. We also bring along lots of cookies and goodies. 
noon/1pm: After the presents have been unpacked and put under the tree, and everyone has come and settled down, and Diddy has repeatedly said he would much rather eat before opening presents, and I have whined and whined about everyone taking so long, we finally start opening presents. This process begins by looking in our stockings to see the goodies Santa gave us. We all hang our stockings at Diddy's house and Santa just conveniently knows that all of ours are there. What a smart man. He's great, really. Now, we open presents in order of age. One at a time. I mean really, how great is it to draaaw the process out as loooong as possible?! We totally win that award. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's great.
4-5ish pm: Cooking the Christmas dinner begins. We eat. We are full. We keep eating.
9 pm: The Moore's head home.
midnight: Ann and I cry because we have to wait a whole year for Christmas to come again. 

2) Christmas lights and decorations. I mean, seriously. How fun is it when everyone and their mom puts out Christmas decorations?! You don't even want to know how much gas I/my family waste driving around and looking at house after house of beautifully, lit up, sparkling, flashing, some trashy, some classy Christmas decorations. We have our usual spots we hit up regualrly, but we are always on the search for two story Christmas trees. And more lit up wreaths. And more "drive through our property and see the acres and acres of Christmas decorations" places. And more places that try to look (and fail) as beautiful as Downtown Newnan looks at Christmastime. 

3) Christmas music. I don't even know where to begin with this topic. We pull out the Christmas cds as soon as the Thanksgiving dinner has been cleaned up. We have made play list after play list after play list. (Want a copy of them? Yes, you do.) You should all do the same because it will make you happy and giddy and sooo Christmasy and then next year you'll be writing a Christmas blog.

This is getting me way too excited. Is it too early to go ahead and pull out the CDs? christmascookingfamilytimechristmasshoppingchristmascarolswinterclothessantastorieschristmasbooks. I promise to stop with these 3 reasons so that I don't create the world's longest blog post. It is possible, but I'm not ready to hold that winning title quite yet. However, I will leave y'all with some pictures of my Christmas' past. Enjoy!

P.S.- Happy fall/91 days until Christmas!!!

Did I mention MC makes us take pictures with Santa every year and we have all 24 of them lined up in our house during Christmastime?

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

tree at Diddy's

The Moore family Christmas tree. 12 ft in years past. Only about 8-9 now. How sad! ;)

Matching Christmas shirts!

Disney likes Christmas as much as me.

Christmas countdown!

One of those "come drive through our property" places. I only wish we could do this. Ohh lawd.

A family in our neighborhood puts this on their house. It is not officially considered Christmastime until the Grinch is up.

the Moore the Merrier

Using my last name in corny jokes never gets old, right?

Joseph just returned to Orlando after a vacation back home. I know you're probably thinking, "Who takes vacations to home?" Well, he does and we had a lovely "staycation" with him. It was definitely a laid back and relaxing time spent together. The main focus of his trip was eating at all the so called Newnan "hot spots" that he has been missing while away. I slowly felt my belly expanding. Pasta and BAR-B-Q and Pizza and Gelato, oh my! For those of you who are wondering what life with all five Moores back together looks like, I am going to give you a sampling of this joyous occurence.

Mom: What do y'all want for dinner?
(Joseph ignores question and continues to play on phone)
Emily: Let J pick. He is the guest.
(Mom and Emily stare at J)
J: I don't care.
Mom: Emily, you should pick because you're the pickiest.
E: I don't care! Why can't Joseph choose?
Mom: Oh, you don't care? Really? Ok, let's have <insert place she knows MLE hates>
J: Oh! That sounds good!
E: She wasn't being serious.
J: Wait, what? But that sounds good.
(Dad can be heard in background communicating about charter schools via phone)
Ann: Wait, what are we talking about....

The End. Thank you, thank you. I could have gone on much longer, but you really have to experience it in person to truly grasp the frustration...I mean love and kindness.

In other news, Diddy took me to the shooting range today...for the first time. Not any shooting range, but the one in Grantville. Now, for those of you who don't know Grantville let me leave you with this little story: One day as we were driving through a small, rural Georgian town Mary Caroline exclaimed, "If Russ Moore ever told me we were moving here I would slit my wrists." (She was being facetious, let's not get too excited about that remark) Hence the phrase "a slit-your-wrist-town" was born. Oh hello, Grantville. That would be you....according to Emily Moore anyways.

Diddy and I had a great time. Don't mess with us.

If you're not impressed, just look at the lil man in the upper right corner. Um, hello kill shots performed by Emily. (Ok, so I got lucky. Shhhh.)

Tomorrow begins the weekend. I am journeying up to Agnesland for part of it. Babysitting an all-nighter for another part of it. Being affiliated with the SAI alum chapter for another part of it. We'll see what other troubles I can get into to. (And later post allllll my wonderful stories about them....)

ROLLING. BACKGROUND. ACTION. CUT. and repeat.

As I was wondering what to post next for my lovely readers (maybe I should say reader...), I realized that I had only touched on my time spent in the fabulous life of movies. Voila! A new post is born. First let me give you some visuals of my bff's for this past week:

Oh, how could I forget Mr. Dennis Quaid?! He hadn't actually started filming while I was on set. Most of my time was spent walking behind/in front/beside/etc. Mr. Wormald. When I say most of my time, I mean the 13 and 14 hours a day I spent walking down hallways and across parking lots. (while wearing a sweater in the Georgia summer heat, of course.)


Let me fill you in on some movie secrets. These will change the way you view movies...forever! Not really, but it really is amazing everything that has to go into even just five seconds of film. As extras, we had to literally remember where our feet were at all moments so at the drop of a hat we could recall our location based off of where the director wanted to pick up filming. After the first 13 hour day of being outside while wearing a cardigan, I prayed that I would be so lucky as to spend my next day filming indoors. Well, God answered my prayer seeing as we did film indoors. However, one tiny detail He forgot to mention was that while filming indoors, air conditioning is shut down. Then, strips and poles and hangings of lights lights and more lights are added. After this, we extras are cattled in for a big party. BOOM! We have now created a space even more hot and sticky than the good ole outdoors. I, like my fellow extras, received many many blotting sheets. I think they were mostly meant for our faces, but I saw them being used lots of other places...

I have memorized the script for the scenes in which I took part. If you ever want a performance, give me a call. The other "script" I heard for the week: "ROLLING. rolling rolling hold all traffic rolling rolling. BACKGROUND (my cue) background background. ACTION. action action action. CUT. cut cut. CHECKING THE GATE. SET TO ONE. set to one set to one." It was reminiscent of being trapped in a cave with an echo that is always always going going to to be be around around.

Cynicism aside, it was a great experience and I am so lucky to have had/still be having this opportunity. I can now check the "Be in a Movie" point off of my bucket list :) And yes, when the movie is released we can all go have a giant, "Spot Emily's Face" party. GET READY

AND CUT.

Movies, Moores, and Market Mania

This post was going to be all about my wonderful, spectacular, and amazing monthly trip to COSTCO. While I am sure everyone would LOVE to hear that story, I have found some place even more thrilling. The phrase "peeing in my pants" could not even accurately describe my excitement when I entered this place...

WOW! Talk about my new favorite place---this is it. Let me give some more visuals of the aisles and aisles of the yummy goodies found here.

Oh hellllllllllo fruit and vegetables. Come into my buggy , please.

Imagine about 200 more people in this picture, squishing around like frantic sardines. That was more my experience today. WORTH IT.

Anyways, I am now in possession of some magnificent fruits (freshly cored pineapple!!!), vegetables, cous cous, pita chips, mediterranean vegetable bruschetta, goat cheese, chicken and apple and turkey/sun-dried tomato/feta sausages, quinoa salad, greek yogurt, multigrain whole wheat bread, blueberry and cranberry muffins, and...I am so preoccupied drooling with excitement that I simply cannot remember the rest. Needless to say, it was a very fruitful (hehe) trip. Shout out to my Farmer's Market buddies: MC, Ruth, and Mary Ann. Nothing ends a trip to the farmer's market better than a (GIANT) treat from Southern Sweets.

Ruth and I destroyed a piece of this beauty.

In other news, around 11 pm Friday night I finished my week as a "movie star." There is so much to say from that experience---the movie and my stay with Granddaddy Ray and Nonny. However, I will have to dedicate a later post to those stories instead of taking the limelight away from my sweet DeKalb Farmer's Market. Stay tuned for some insides on the glamours of stardom ;)

It's Blog Time

I have a confession. I have no idea what I will be blogging about. (Sorry Dad for ending the sentence with a preposition). Now, after hearing my confession some of you may be scrolling the mouse over to the big red X or typing "facebook.com" back into the address box; however, for those of you that are continuing on...reading this sentence...wondering what I'll say next...let me explain: 

Recently I have had to take some time off from school. For some people taking a break from school is like coming up for a breath of fresh air, or getting off the crazy whirly/twirly ride at the fair and finding steady ground----for me, the thought of taking a break from school was horrifying. It was like ripping off that bandaid that noone ever wants to rip off. "How is that?" you may be wondering. My bandaid (school) was wrapped so tightly around all of my cuts and scrapes (stress, anxiety, the list goes on...) that I just knew if someone were to rip it off a situation similar to the opening of Pandora's box would occur. All of my crazies would be released and I would no longer have any stability or familiarity around me. Basically, my life would be over. (Why yes, I am that dramatic). Here I am, nine months into the dreaded "break," and boy was I wrong about everything. While these nine months have been completely unnerving, frustrating, and terrifying (my family could tell some pretty good "Emily Has Gone Crazy" stories...), they have also been the most refreshing and uplifting months of my life. I have learned more than I ever would have learned during two more semesters drowning in papers, tests, homework, and meetings topped off with a bit of good ole self loathing. 

So, while I may not have some great adventure or job, or a handful of small children running around saying hilarious things to share with you all through a blog, I do have some things worth a blog. I am alive. I am breathing. I am well. I have an amazing family and group of friends. AND, occassionally I do do interesting things that some of you, or even just one of you may enjoy reading. For instance, I have been on the set of the remake of Footloose this week as an extra. Also, today I will be making a trip to COSTCO. COSTCO = heaven on earth for Emily Moore. Just wait until you read the post about that glorious experience... :)