Now here’s an animated feature I’m actually excited to see! (It’s even received some great reviews.) Dreamworks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” opens across the country this Friday, March 26. In case you’ve yet to see it, the full, 2-1/2 minute trailer is below.
=================================================== But first, the movie synopsis:
From the studio that brought you “Shrek,” “Madagascar” and “Kung Fu Panda” comes “How to Train Your Dragon.” Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell, the action comedy tells the story of Hiccup, a Viking teenager who doesn’t exactly fit in with his tribe’s longstanding tradition of heroic dragon slayers. Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges him and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view.
DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” was produced by Bonnie Arnold and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. Rated PG.
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Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sdinius, and become a member of the CrazyBusy Mama Facebook fan page by clicking here.
Take heart, crazybusy mamas: Cooking potatoes just got a whole lot quicker! I don’t want to give away the gist of the video, because you’ve got to see it for yourself. All I’m going to say is this: “Put away your peeler.” My jaw dropped at the end of this video; yours probably will, too. As for my potato peeler, it’s staying in the drawer.
Enjoy this video — it’s very quick! By the way, it’s hosted by Dawn Wells, a.k.a. “Mary Ann” of Gilligan’s Island fame. (No, she’s not selling anything — this is just for fun.)
Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sdinius, and become a member of the CrazyBusy Mama Facebook fan page by clicking here.
If you need a humor break today, take a moment to enjoy this video made by fellow ExerciseTV blogger Jumoke Hill. (A word of caution, however: This video briefly shows Kermit the Frog getting caught shopping in the liquor aisle at the grocery store, so you may not want to watch it when your little ones are around.)
Don’t you just love gifts you aren’t expecting? My teenaged daughter, Erica, worked her tail off yesterday and got our decidedly unwelcoming family room looking very Christmas-y. She cleaned the room, put a lighted garland over the door, placed a few snowmen in various locations around the room, and even gave my stuffed Santa and Mrs. Claus a place of prominence on top of a book case.
She then tossed some Christmas pillows and a red and green blanket on the sectional, “lit” a yule log on the TV (you can find it on Comcast OnDemand), and set the most important decoration of all — our nativity set — on top of the piano. Last but not least were the soothing tones of Michael Buble’s Christmas album, “Let it Snow,” wafting from the stereo. (I’ve always liked that word…wafting….)
I helped a little by placing a Christmas tablecloth on our dining table (which is in the family room…it’s a big room), but she did everything else. She gave us a great gift yesterday, not just in the decor of the room, but she also helped us find the Christmas spirit that seemed to be so lacking around here in recent days.
Thank you, Erica.
In turn, I would like to “pay it forward” and hopefully spread a little of that Christmas spirit your way. Everything below is free. Enjoy!
Free MP3 Downloads of Christmas Songs and Carols at Feels Like Christmas. If you don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can play these directly from your computer while you’re working (or playing).
Get a letter from Santa! The Santa Claus Museum in Santa Claus, Indiana, has been sending letters from the jolly old elf to children everywhere since 1914. Every letter received by December 14 will receive a reply. It’s free, but please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of postage. There’s also an option to just print a letter from Santa yourself. No waiting!
Cartoon Cottage has some free animated Christmas clip art you can add to your blog or web site. They’re really pretty cute. They also have some fun Snowman clip art.
I love this next one! If you’re a lover of all things vintage and find the idea of an old-fashioned Christmas especially endearing, you’ll love these free vintage holiday images. Add them to your blog, tuck them in an email, make your own Christmas cards or labels on homemade goodies. You can also choose to use one as your holiday profile picture on Facebook, or even as your background on Twitter. The possibilities are endless!
Finally, check out the Christmas page at The Holiday Spot. There’s so much to enthrall you at this site that I’m not even going to start telling you what they’ve got. Just grab a cup of hot chocolate, start up some of the Christmas music you downloaded from above, and have fun!
I hope you’re enjoying the Christmas season so far. We’re getting our tree tonight (hopefully), so pictures will follow. Have a great day!
================================================= Sally Dinius is writer-in-chief here at CrazyBusyMama.com, a blog created to inspire and motivate busy mamas everywhere to feel healthy, fit, and in control of their lives. Follow her on Twitter at Twitter.com/SDinius, and become a member of the CrazyBusy Mama Facebook fan page by clicking here.
Here’s a little something fun my dad sent to me by email. From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! May you find much to be grateful for today! Among all the blessings of my life, I am also thankful for you, my wonderful readers.
‘Twas the Night of Thanksgiving
‘Twas the night of Thanksgiving,
But I just couldn’t sleep.
I tried counting backwards,
I tried counting sheep.
The leftovers beckoned –
The dark meat and white.
But I fought the temptation
With all of my might.
Tossing and turning with anticipation,
The thought of a snack became infatuation.
So I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door,
And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.
I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,
The pickles and carrots, the beans and tomatoes.
I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,
When all of a sudden I rose off the ground!
I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky
With a mouth full of pudding and a handful of pie.
But I managed to yell as I soared past the trees,
“Happy eating to all! Pass the cranberries, please!”
So may your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey be plump.
May your potatoes ‘n gravy have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize,
AND MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS!!
Take a minute to enjoy this fun e-card from me to you, then pass it on:
One of my favorite things to do to relax is to enter contests and sweepstakes online. The best time of year to enter these, I’ve found, is the fall. The holidays are on the way, and retailers want to draw in as many new customers as possible. Besides advertising, the next most popular method for doing that is through coupons, freebies, and sweepstakes. And I am more than happy to oblige.
But isn’t it wasted time to sit and enter contest and sweepstake after contest and sweepstake? Not for me. Over the past few years, I’ve won a $100 gift certificate to Sleepyheads.com, a set of dishes worth around $100 from Anchor Hocking, and a $50 Target gift card through some dairy promotion. Winning is fun, and it does happen.
So, grab yourself a cup of hot apple cider and give these contests and sweepstakes a try:
Country Living and Delish.com Best Stuffing Contest Oh, yeah, baby. I’ll definitely be entering this one. I found a stuffing recipe years ago that I’ve tweaked, twisted, and made my very own. My family raves over it. Since finding it 13 years ago, I’ve made it every Thanksgiving except two. If I win, I’ll post the recipe here. Wanna challenge me? Hurry and enter your own stuffing recipe for a chance to win a $500 Williams-Sonoma gift certificate (you heard me). May the best stuffing win!
Outdoor Photographer’s 2nd Annual Nature’s Colors Photo Contest
Have any colorful pictures you’ve taken of nature? Here’s your chance to enter them and win your choice of either $1,500 cash or a DSL-R camera. It doesn’t have to be a fall photo — if you’ve taken a picture that shows nature’s vibrant colors, enter it! You could win.
I have a hobby that’s starting to get a little expensive: I feed birds. Wild birds, that is. At $8.99 per bag…per week. That’s more than I spend on my cat’s specialty food. That seed goes into two identical feeders on a post that was built from scrap lumber a few years ago by my son Jesse. It has four “arms,” two of which hold the feeders while the other two serve as perches.
Even though their feeders have been empty for the past couple of days, I’m convinced my birds have a certain fondness for me. Or maybe they’re just used to me. Oh, all right — maybe they’re just used to being fed. The chickadees seem to be the bravest of the lot, and will sit in our Japanese maple just feet away from me (though well-hidden) as I fill the feeders. Today, as I went out to “Birdie Island,” a semi-circle right off of our patio where the Japanese maple grows and the birds eat at their “diner,” the chickadees seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Appeared might be too strong of a word. No matter how I craned my neck, I couldn’t see them, but I could sure hear them. I heard a “phee-be-bee” just a few feet to my left — a low-pitched, scratchy monotone that always sounds like it’s being squeezed out of the birds by someone’s hand.
“Phee-be-bee,” answered a chickadee in the camellia 10 feet away.
“Phee-be-bee,” echoed another from a bank of trees at the back of our yard.
And on it went, for as long as it took me to replenish the empty feeders. I imagined their conversation to go something like this:
“Hey, Jerry, she’s finally filling the feeder. You hungry?”
“Yeah. What took her so long?”
“No clue. Hey, Bob, you comin’?”
“What?”
“I said, ‘you comin’?’ She’s filling the feeders.”
“What?”
“I SAID…oh, never mind.”
“What?”
As soon as I was back in the house, the chickadees were flitting back and forth from the feeders to the tree. Chickadees never just sit at a feeder like sparrows will; they seem to prefer “fast food” — more of a grab-and-go approach. They’ll make several trips during the course of one meal, grabbing a seed, then swooping back to the tree or bush they were watching me from to begin with.
As I stood there at the window, I watched another chickadee approach with that characteristic rise and fall swoop, grab a peanut, then zip into the tree. A couple of sparrows ventured over and took up residence at one feeder like Norm and Cliff did at the bar in “Cheers.” A rufous-sided towhee skipped around below the feeders, picking through the seeds the sparrows tossed over their shoulders.
I'm so glad to have you as a reader here at CrazyBusy Mama (Dot Calm)! If you've been encouraged, motivated, or both, I won't say no if you'd like to buy me a cup of coffee. :-)
I’m actually excited to see! (It’s even received some great reviews.) Dreamworks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” opens across the country this Friday, March 26. In case you’ve yet to see it, the full, 2-1/2 minute trailer is below.
Here’s a little something fun my dad sent to me by email. From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! May you find much to be grateful for today! Among all the blessings of my life, I am also thankful for you, my wonderful readers. 
Wanna challenge me? Hurry and enter your own stuffing recipe for a chance to win a $500 Williams-Sonoma gift certificate (you heard me). May the best stuffing win!
I have a hobby that’s starting to get a little expensive: I feed birds. Wild birds, that is. At $8.99 per bag…per week. That’s more than I spend on my cat’s specialty food. That seed goes into two identical feeders on a post that was built from scrap lumber a few years ago by my son Jesse. It has four “arms,” two of which hold the feeders while the other two serve as perches.
