We loves it, Precious!!!!

Today was a fantastic start to our holiday vacation!  We took the boys down to Tulsa this morning to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on IMAX.  The kids were so excited.  As we were buying our tickets, Ash and Zach impressed the ticket sales woman with all of their Lord of the Rings and LOTR Lego knowledge.  As Ash said, "The ring is evil.  I don't want one.  You have to throw it back into the volcano."  So cute!  (Funny thing is Ash keeps telling me that my wedding ring is like the evil ring- ha!)  Everyone LOVED the film!  Both boys were good as gold during the long movie, entranced the entire time.  Although Ash did pipe up periodically to ask when Bilbo was going to find the "evil ring".  It was great to be able to spend 3 hours back in Middle Earth again. Then we went to Chuy's Mexican Restuarant where we debated who was the best Lord of the Rings character.  We were split between Aragorn and Gandalf when Ash piped up that he liked Sam best "because he is nice and is Frodo's friend".  Again, too cute! (Although Ash is convinced that all of the hobbits are girls because they have longish, curly hair- ha!) I guess the only disappointing thing about the IMAX experience was the fact that the promised first 9 minutes of the new Star Trek movie to be released in May was not shown.  No idea why... We did get to see the trailer though, so all was not lost. 

Yes, it was a Christmas present indeed to learn that there is a Chuy's restaurant in Tulsa.  As you recall from our time in Houston, Chuy's is one of our favorite Tex-mex places to eat.  So, as I remarked on Facebook and in a bunch of emails, now that there are both Chuy's AND Freebirds in Oklahoma and so close to us, there should be NO reason that we need to go back to Texas! ... well, except for the HEB grocery stores... and the yummy 1905 vanilla ice cream...and Pappadeux's cajun food... and Trudy's Mexican Martinis...and the Houston Symphony...and... oh darn....

So, after a long day in Tulsa sitting on our butts and eating (gotta love it!), we hooted around at home for a little while.  Then we decided to be productive and engage in another Miller Family holiday tradition and make peanut brittle.  Total yumminess!!!! That stuff will not last long, especially now that Ashton has discovered it! 

I polished off the evening with a yoga with weights workout (went much better this week than last week), and Derek and I took Snickers on a walk.  It will be interesting to see what activities we get into tomorrow.

Let's see, other interesting events since I blogged last.  Well, last Sunday Zach learned to ride his bike. ... Well, more accurately, he learned to pedal continuously while only continuously riding turning left in a circle.  He still needs to learn to balance on straight-aways and turning the other direction.  But its a great start! Ashton and Derek made chocolate chip cookies together as well as dark chocolate covered pretzels.  Luckily most of that goodness made it out of the house to Ash's class at school.

 

The other big and stressful news was that Bartlesville schools were closed a day early on Wednesday due to a credible threat to the high school.  Apparently a high school student was plotting a Columbine-type of attack.  If you are interested, you can read all about it here.

 http://examiner-enterprise.com/sections/news/local-news/schools-closed-due-threat.html

We were glad that authorities were on top of things and took action to ensure all of our childrens' safety, especially after the tragic events in CT (I REALLY need to stop reading all of the news articles!  It just makes me so sad!).  So, the kids had a fun extra day off hanging out with Derek and Snickers.  On the bright side, they had dentist appointments scheduled so at least this way we did not have to pull them out of school or daycare.  Both kids did great at the dentist and no cavaties!!!

Oh yeah...the movie that was filmed here back in 2009-2010 with Ben Affleck called To the Wonder, has finally released a trailer.  The film looks a bit artsy and weird, but scenes from around the area abound - Price Tower, Community Center, even a scene with the Christmas lights tunnel at Johnstone Park! You can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q08W9X647wo&sns=fb

As with the movie that was just recently filmed here, we will probably go see both to support BVille!