Christmas Movie Marathan

It's that time of year again to bring out all of my Christmas movies! I collect Christmas movies and I try to watch as many as I can every single year. This year is no different! 

During college, I would invite people over every single night to watch various movies with me (check this video out!)  I'm so excited this year, that I even made a calendar for Nathan and I to follow along!

What are your favorite Christmas movies? Leave a comment below!

November 29 - Charlie Brown Thanksgiving AND Charlie Brown Christmas
November 30 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas
December 1
December 2
December 3 - A Christmas Story
December 4 - The Polar Express
December 5 - Home Alone
December 6 - Home Alone 2
December 7 - Jingle All the Way
December 8 - Christmas with the Kranks
December 9 - The Nightmare Before Christmas
December 10 - Holiday Inn
December 11 - The Santa Clause
December 12 - The Santa Clause 2
December 13 - Saturday Night Live Christmas
December 14 - Elf
December 15 - The Family Stone
December 16 - Love Actually
December 17 - This Christmas
December 18 - Christmas Vacation AND The Muppets Christmas Carol
December 19
December 20
December 21
December 22 - Miracle on 34th Street
December 23 - It's a Wonderful Life
December 24 - White Christmas
December 25
December 26

2015 Christmas Bucket List

WE LOVE CHRISTMAS! So here is our 2015 Christmas Bucket List

Favorite Things from Disney World

Oh gosh, where to start. Ok, let me make one thing clear, it is VERY hard to pinpoint things that you don't like about Disney World. Because, I mean, come on.... it's Disney World.... 

With that said, don't think that things included in this post are the only good things. Hopefully you  wouldn't think that anyway. These are our favorite things that we did in Disney World.

Rides

Haunted Mansion. Now, I've got to be honest with you: before our trip in October, I had never ridden the Haunted Mansion, even though I'd been to Disney World 3 times before. Nathan and his family love this ride, and were shocked that I'd never sat in a "doom buggy." Anyway, I rode it; I liked it; done and done. The Haunted Mansion is a great ride because of all of the special effects that are incorporated. When you think about this ride being developed in the 1970s, it makes it even more cool. I personally enjoyed the ride because of the constant play on words and witticisms.

Star Tours. Confession time. I've just recently seen all 6 of the Star Wars movies for the first time. This is of course in preparation for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Anyway, this is a simulator ride, so people who get carsick or motion sickness, probably wouldn't like this ride. We, however, thoroughly enjoyed it. We also found out that the ride has over 50 different variations and Disney will continue adding new variations as episode 7-9 are completed. We rode Star Tours 3 times, and every single experience was different!

Seven Dwarves Mine Train. This is the newest ride in the Disney Parks and is a Roller Coaster in Magic Kingdom. One cool thing about this ride is that it uses a new system where the individual cars rock back and forth independently. To some, this may seem scary, but trust me it's really not. Instead, you will experience one of the least jerky roller coaster rides ever! Another reason I enjoyed this ride was because instead of just giving you a picture at the end, the ride produces an actual VIDEO! Its so cool! The tower of terror does this too, and it makes me wonder if they are going to try and start integrating this into all of their rides. Its really neat! 

Click here to see more ride photos from Disney World.

Honorable Mentions: Tower of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster, Space Mountain, DINOSAUR

Shows.

Philharmagic. This is a 3D show at Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed this show enough to go watch it twice. I don't have a picture of this...

Festival of the Lion King. This was probably my favorite show, and occurred at Animal Kingdom. Its based around the Lion King but it is interactive and has powerful harmonic songs. I really enjoyed it! Its great for kids and adults.

Carousel of Progress. "There's a grrrreat big beautiful tomorrow...." This is actually considered a ride because it moves while the show is happening, but it is really most like a show. This ride was originally developed by Walt Disney for the 1964 New York World's Fair. It goes through several eras and talks about the different changes in technology. For nerds like us, it was pretty interesting! I don't have a picture of this either...

Honorable Mentions: Electric Parade, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Fireworks (obviously)

Food.

Be Our Guest Restaurant. This wasn't necessarily a favorite as far as food goes, but definitely the best we visited in regards to the atmosphere! Basically, you have a meal in the Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast. We made dinner reservations one afternoon and we sat in the "West Wing." (note: you HAVE to make reservations for this restaurant). I don't want to give everything away, but trust me, you want to try and eat here on your Disney World vacation! French cuisine, awesome environment, and the Beast even showed up at the end of our meal! This is definitely a must-do while you are at Magic Kingdom. Be Our Guest Restaurant wins the award for Best Atmosphere.

Try the grey stuff. It's delicious pretty good.

Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe. We ate at this restaurant at Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) on the day that we arrived. I literally can't describe how good the food was here.... Nathan got a steak and fries and I got chicken and garlic mashed potatoes. Oh my gosh, SO DELICIOUS!!!! Wolfgang Puck wins the award for Best Meal.

Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie. Obviously, bakery was in Epcot. Specifically, it was located in France in the World Showcase. We didn't stop here until the last hour of the last night, but boy do I wish we had explored it sooner. I got a beignet and it was the best tasting snack of the whole trip. To be fair, probably everything that this bakery served was probably melt-in-your-mouth (which is why I wish we'd eaten there every snack...) Les halles Boulangerie-Patisserie wins the award for Best Snack.

Honorable Mentions: 

Tony's Town Square Restaurant for great pasta and Lady and the Tramp theme; Pizza Planet for fun atmosphere; Karamell-Kuche for caramel snacks

Check out more posts about our Disney World trip!

Disney World Mania Series

Things to Do in Disney World (video)

Our Ride Pictures

6 Things to Take Advantage of at Disney World

Favorite Things from Disney World

BPP: Fall Bucket List Update #3

This is our final update on our complication of the 2015 Bucket List....

Travel to Memphis - My sister, Lauren, first moved to Memphis in Fall of 2012, and every year we plan a weekend to visit her and Blake. So this made the 4th annual Memphis Fall trip. As usual, we had a really good time visiting with them and seeing different things in Memphis.

Lauren has always been really awesome at showing us new things and taking us to restaurants where we've never eaten. This trip, we went to Rendezvous, and I'm surprised we had never gone there before! The atmosphere was great and the food was, of course, delicious. 

One afternoon, we chose to forego exploring and, instead, play Monopoly. It was really fun and competitive, even thought Monopoly is sort of lame sometimes (no offense, Nathan).

Make Homemade Pumpkin Pie - I successfully made it, and Nathan successfully ate it! Enough said. See the recipe here.

So... we, didn't get around to quite a few things on our Fall Bucket List. Some of the things we lost track of time (I think because we went to Disney World in mid-October) and didn't get to. These include going to a corn maze and camping in the backyard. 

Other items we literally just dropped the ball on. These are: drive around looking at leaves and drinking apple cider. 

And then the last one on the list was snuggle by the fireplace. We did this, but its sort of hard to capture a picture of this.

We had a great time with this Bucket List! Stay tuned for our Christmas Bucket List :)

Easy Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Nathan LOVES pumpkin pie. I love ALL pies (If you're in doubt, check this out). Anyway, so I don't think I'm terrible in the kitchen, but I'm definitely better at "cooking" than I am "baking." So trust me when I say that this Pumpkin Pie recipe is super easy...

Ingredients:

3/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
1 1/4 c evaporated milk or half and half
2 eggs, beaten
-pie crust
-whip topping

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Mix all ingredients and pour into the pie crust.
3. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
4. Reduce oven heat to 350. Bak an additional 40-50 minutes. Make sure that a toothpick or fork comes clean when you stick it in the middle.
5. Cool for 2 hours.
6. Serve with whip topping, or refrigerate.

Review:
We knew we were going to make a pumpkin pie this fall because it was on our Fall Bucket List, however, we are both sort of on diets, so we needed a good reason to make one in a situation where we could share. The opportunity arose when we had dinner with my parents and grandparents the other night.

Everyone commented on how great the pie was, even though Nathan is the only superfan of pumpkin pie! The thing I think makes it so delicious is the pumpkin spice; honestly, I'm not really sure. Additionally, I bought a graham cracker crust, which is not the typical type of crust used for pumpkin pie. The pie mixture soaked into the crust and ended up making the pie crust extra sweet!

If you are searching for an easy yet delicious dessert for a thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, this would be an excellent selection! I would recommend anyone to try this recipe, including beginner bakers or children. Also, I would recommend anyone trying this pie, even if you typically don't like pumpkin pie.

I rated this recipe a 5/5.
Nathan rated this recipe a 5/5.


Original recipe from pillsbury.com.

Using Spreadsheets to Organize

Organization. It's what gets my blood pumping. It's what gets my heart racing.

Ok, I exaggerate, but not by much. 

I love organizing stuff. If something can be organized, it will be organized. (Disclaimer: this does NOT mean I'm not messy...) One of the best ways you can use excel spreadsheets is to organize ideas, thoughts, or items. 

In my previous posts about spreadsheets, I've discussed Using Spreadsheets to List and Using Spreadsheets to Schedule. Now we all know, that these tasks can also be completed using a word document, and a virtual planner, respectively. But the absolute BEST way to ORGANIZE is by using Spreadsheets. 

Essentially, a spreadsheet is a pre-made table that you can merge and un-merge cells as needed. Additionally, you can change or update it indefinitely, color coordinate, or add bolder lines for categories or sections. 

Organizing for Planning Purposes. This is sort of a mix between organizing and scheduling. I use the spreadsheet shown below to help me stay on track at work. Each month I update our website based on specific safety topics. At the beginning of each month, I simply refer to my spreadsheet and determine what needs to be changed, updated, or deleted on the website. It makes this task very simple. Using Spreadsheets to Organize takes more time on the front end, but saves you time in the long run. 

Another example of Organizing for Planning Purposes is when you are in need of "filling up slots." (Sorry, I'm not very good at thinking today.... Let me just give you an example, and it will make more sense). When we were planning our wedding, we spent a lot of time picking out the specific songs we wanted played at specific times. To make it even more complicated, we both have pretty strong ideas about what "good music" sounds like. So, we decided that our music picks would be equal. This specific spreadsheet was on Google Drive so that we both had access whenever we needed it and could add songs as they came to us.

You will notice that this spreadsheet is a more common format of "the table" as opposed to "the matrix" style (shown in the spreadsheet above).

Organizing for Knowledge Purposes. One way I use spreadsheets is to gather information from different sources online and keep it all together in one document. These types of spreadsheets are perfect for a quick reference for a topic that you are extrememly interested in. 

A good example of Organizing for Knowledge Purposes is this spreadsheet that lists all of the Books of the Bible. Of course, I could look up all of these facts in my Bible concordance, or Google, as I need them. But instead, now its all in one place for me.

This type of spreadsheet is great if you are really into facts, or if you are interested to know how things are categorized. A normal person probably wouldn't make a spreadsheet just to have random information on it that you could look up anyway, but I say, why not cut out the middle man all together and create your own reference. #SpreadsheetsAreFun

Organizing for Trending Purposes. Another great way to use spreadsheets when it comes to organizing stuff is, to organize in order to visualize trends. I personally don't do this frequently, but when I do, its always beneficial and satisfying. Ok....so don't judge me on this example.

This example shows all of the seasons of Survivor with random things that have happened in each season. The show has been on the air for over 15 years, so obviously some things have changed and evolved, both with gameplay and "twists" that production adds. The spreadsheet shows the presence of said gameplay or twists, and it shows ME the trends. 

For example, as a Survivor fan, I can see that for the past 18 seasons, there have been 15 "final 3" situations, and only 3 "final 2" situations (The first 12 seasons were ALL "final 2" situations). SO I know that, at this point of the series, it is the most likely that there will be a "final 3" as opposed to a "final 2."

Sorry everyone for the nerd overload.... The last installment of this series will be coming before 2015 ends. It will be Using Spreadsheets to Calculate.

Other Spreadsheet Posts
Tips & Tricks | List | Schedule | Organize | Calculate

BPP: Fall Bucket List Update #2

This is another update on our completion of the 2015 Fall Bucket List! We are really enjoying this!

Go on a Hayride - This year we went on a hayride at my parent's church Fall Festival. It was a pretty fun time: corny scary stories that will inevitably make kids cry even though they are not that scary PLUS the weather was almost perfect for a hayride! We enjoyed the hayride, as well as the hayride in general!

Carve a Pumpkin - This particular Bucket List item had a deadline. We had to do it before Halloween. Well, I guess we didn't HAVE to, but I wanted to, so we did. This was the first time Nathan had ever carved a pumpkin, and the first time I had ever used the pumpkin carving tools. We carved away while "watching" the Nightmare Before Christmas (there wasn't much watching because of our carving intensity). The pumpkins turned out mighty fine! [mine is the cat; Nathan's is the skeleton]

Watch Football Games - SO, the plan was to visit our Alma Mater and watch Murray State play a football game. We planned the weekend, arrived in Murray, then right before the game started, we decided not to go because it was raining and cold. Most likely, we'll not be going to a live football game this season, HOWEVER, we have been watching football on TV more this year because of the fantasy football interest that our house has. Since we didn't have a picture from us going to a football game, this Patriots Pride selfie will have to do.

Make Caramel Apples - I have to say, this was way harder than I had anticipated. I'm not saying its a hard recipe, I'm saying you have to be READY to swirl those apples in the caramel! The result was delicious as expected :)

Click here to see the previous post with our first 5 Fall Bucket List completions. Stay tuned for the final installment of our Bucket List completions!

6 Things to Take Advantage of at Disney World

Disney World is definitely a trip you have to save up for, we all know that. But Disney also offers a lot of free tools and perks that comes with the vacation. Here are some things you need to take advantage of on your Disney Vacation. 

1. Disney World App. On any smart phone, you can get the Disney World app, which gives you so much insight when you're planning what to do. It gives you your itinerary of any dining reservations you've made and/or Fast Pass ride selections, which is (I think) its main purpose. However, it does SO MUCH MORE. Its got real time maps that use your GPS to show you which attractions you're close to AND up-to-date wait-times! This is extremely helpful if you're trying to decide whether or not you want to walk across the park to ride a popular ride.

With the Disney World App, you can also make new dining reservations. Halfway through our trip we realized almost all of our reservations were Italian, so we decided to change one on the fly. You can few which restaurants are take reservations for specific time slots. Pretty handy if you change your mind, like we did.

Another perk for using the Disney World App is that you can view your PhotoPass pictures that have been captured on rides, with characters, or with any Disney photographer. Click here to see our ride photos (they're funny).

2. FastPass. A fast pass allows you to skip in front of other people in line so that your wait-time for a ride is exponentially shorter. You can get at least 3 a day, and sometimes after you use them all, you can get more.

PEOPLE, register for your fast passes... This is a free thing that anyone can do! It guarantees that you will be able to ride specific rides. Sure there are some restrictions, but why would you not do it? Even if you don't think you will use them, get them anyway!

Numbers 3-6are good things to take advantage of if you are staying at a Disney World Resort...

3. Disney Transportation. If you're staying at a Disney Resort, use their transportation. First off, it saves you gas.... Second of all, they know where they're going. No reason to get lost for no reason. 

Also, if you have a park hopper ticket, you can use Disney Transportation from park to park. This includes monorail systems, bus routes, and even boat rides! Check out each park's guide to find out about transportation for each. 

4. Refillable Mugs. If you are a heavy drinker (as in sodas....) then you should probably invest in a Disney Resort Refillable Mug. They are about $16, but if you consider that each individual drink is about $3, then the mug is a pretty good deal, regardless of if you get a dining plan or not.

The only thing to note, is that you cannot use the refillable mugs inside the parks, only at resorts. Still, its an excellent deal.

5. Extra Magic Hours. If you are staying at a Disney World Resort, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EXTRA MAGIC HOURS. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts. Only the people staying at a Disney Resort have access to these hours! This significantly decreases your wait-time for rides!

This is especially important if the extra magic hour is in the morning! Many people won't make an effort to wake up an EXTRA hour earlier after a long day. So, get your butt out of bed and get to the parks! One day, we literally rode Rock n' Roller Coaster once and Tower of Terror 3 times in just that one extra hour, because no one was there! Click Here to see our Disney World video.

6. Park Guides. This one is an old school one, but this doesn't even cross some people's mind. If you have to stand in line for an hour to ride a ride, doesn't it make sense to study the park guide THEN instead of waiting until you get off the ride. Be efficient with your time and plan the next few rides you want to ride or shows you want to see!

Check out more posts about our Disney World trip!

Disney World Mania Series

Things to Do in Disney World (video)

Our Ride Pictures

6 Things to Take Advantage of at Disney World

Favorite Things from Disney World