The original 1965 film is one of those that is so much a part of my history that hearing or singing the songs instantly transports me back to memories of being with my family when I was young. Like so many others, the soundtrack of that movie was the soundtrack for my early childhood, and I must want to pass on that experience to Sloane; its songs were some of the first few songs that I sang to Sloane when we met. My allegiance to this movie and its version is fierce (don't mess with Julie Andrews!) so when I saw that Carrie Underwood was playing Maria in the NBC's remake of the film/musical, I groaned a thousand groans. I had no plans of watching it, but the whole thing is available on NBC.com right now and one evening while searching for music to keep my cooking company, I decided I'd give it a chance. At the least, to have it playing for background music. My expectations were very low, but maybe because I had kept them there, it was bearable. Yes, the whole thing feels plastic and a little flat, it reminded me of a high school play, and Carrie Underwood's acting is sub-par (and her hair is so distracting), but it wasn't terrible, and I appreciated what they were trying to pull off with a live television version. But I found myself missing the voices and actors of the original version and wanting to hear the songs is what kept me watching. I visualized scenes from the original movie the whole time and it was Christopher Plummer's face I imagined during that moment when he is first hearing the children sing and then breaks into song, which for some reason made me tear up; I blame the nostalgia.
This made me resolve to rewatch the original version and experience it as an adult; I can't wait to watch it with Sloane someday. Sort of a sidebar: I had totally forgotten that the movie was based on a musical that was based on a memoir by Maria Von Trapp based on her real life experiences. I'm not sure why I forget that; maybe because I feel like those characters are the figment of my imagination. Anyways, I did some reading up online about the real Von Trapp family and it's all so very interesting.
Now that's settled, on to the tree!
I got super excited when Ken agreed that we should get a live tree this year. Some of that excitement came down to a slow roll when we were faced with the very unenthusiastic customer service at Walmart this past Saturday morning. One full hour after we got there, we left the store and arrived home with the tree still on the roof of the car. Things were looking up!….until we tried to get the tree up and realized all the knobs on the trunk of the tree made it impossible for it to fit inside the tree stand. So there it lay, waiting for us to get our act together. Ken and our neighbors came to the rescue and a hand saw took care of the problem. Christmas was saved!
The tree might need some more ornaments and I may slowly add more as we get closer to Christmas, but I love our tree right now. Simple, tinkly with lights and filled sparsely with handmade ornaments I've collected over the years.
We picked up this Mr. Fox at Target the other day. Sloane picked him out and she seems to completely accept the fact that he lives in the tree, to be taken down once in a while to be played with and then put back on the tree. you know, because he lives there.
At first, Sloane just watched us put up the ornaments, observing and trying to figure out what we were up to. Once she caught on, she was into it, asking us to 'elp' (help) her put the ornaments on the tree….which is why most of our ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree.
Every morning when we come downstairs and see the tree, she gasps a little in surprise to see the tree. It makes me so happy.
P.S. right at the moment when the tree went up and Ken and I were like, "SLooooooane, look at the tree!!! Isn't it wonderful to have a tree indoors…!", she had found these sunglasses somewhere, wanted them on and this is the first photo I had on my camera of our Christmas tree event. So.
This made me resolve to rewatch the original version and experience it as an adult; I can't wait to watch it with Sloane someday. Sort of a sidebar: I had totally forgotten that the movie was based on a musical that was based on a memoir by Maria Von Trapp based on her real life experiences. I'm not sure why I forget that; maybe because I feel like those characters are the figment of my imagination. Anyways, I did some reading up online about the real Von Trapp family and it's all so very interesting.
Now that's settled, on to the tree!
I got super excited when Ken agreed that we should get a live tree this year. Some of that excitement came down to a slow roll when we were faced with the very unenthusiastic customer service at Walmart this past Saturday morning. One full hour after we got there, we left the store and arrived home with the tree still on the roof of the car. Things were looking up!….until we tried to get the tree up and realized all the knobs on the trunk of the tree made it impossible for it to fit inside the tree stand. So there it lay, waiting for us to get our act together. Ken and our neighbors came to the rescue and a hand saw took care of the problem. Christmas was saved!
The tree might need some more ornaments and I may slowly add more as we get closer to Christmas, but I love our tree right now. Simple, tinkly with lights and filled sparsely with handmade ornaments I've collected over the years.
We picked up this Mr. Fox at Target the other day. Sloane picked him out and she seems to completely accept the fact that he lives in the tree, to be taken down once in a while to be played with and then put back on the tree. you know, because he lives there.
At first, Sloane just watched us put up the ornaments, observing and trying to figure out what we were up to. Once she caught on, she was into it, asking us to 'elp' (help) her put the ornaments on the tree….which is why most of our ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree.
she did a little happy jig when she saw all the ornaments on the tree
Every morning when we come downstairs and see the tree, she gasps a little in surprise to see the tree. It makes me so happy.
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P.S. right at the moment when the tree went up and Ken and I were like, "SLooooooane, look at the tree!!! Isn't it wonderful to have a tree indoors…!", she had found these sunglasses somewhere, wanted them on and this is the first photo I had on my camera of our Christmas tree event. So.
its a lovely tree and i like the sparse ornaments. i can't wait for eden to really experience a tree next year. she has seen the one at my parents house, but has not really got any idea of what it is. also i thought the NBC sound of music was horrid. there were new songs and they had people singing the songs at all the wrong times. like mother superior sang raindrops on roses. wtf?
ReplyDeleteSloane is adorable with Santa's hat. I expect your Christmas ornaments will be added up year by year.
ReplyDeletethis melted my heart.
ReplyDeletei love real trees i think the smell of them help bring a little Christmas pep to the house!
you should get a personalized ornament every year for sloane. and then she'll have a whole collection by the time she gets her own tree.
AWW
ReplyDeletehurray for ken figuring out the tree trunk
hurray for sloanie's jig
hurray for saena's idea, it's a great one!