Weekend of Adventure!

Thanksgiving at the beach

Bear’s extended family owns a beach house down in LA, so every Thanksgiving, this is my view. It’s pretty heavenly snapping green beans to the sound of waves, but since Thanksgiving was so late this year we had to jam a whole lot of fun into one brief weekend.


For the 5th year in a row we spent Black Friday getting the real best deal in town. A ten dollar ticket bought us 14 hours of comedy from some of the best comedians working today. If you are a comedy nerd like me, the guest list at this show is enough to make you geek out all year. This year Jimmy Pardo let me take some clips of the show so I could share just how ridiculous this day is. I look forward to it all year.

A video of the show will be sold with benefits going to Smile Train, so check here if you want to see the fun for yourself.


Despite having a couple of sore bums from 14 hours in one place, there was no time to rest. Without my typical week in November to gear up, I had to hit Christmas in a sprint, so we rushed back home from LA and spent Sunday (our only chance to do it) going up the mountain to pick out a fresh tree. And, or course, chancing upon a Main Street Christmas Parade while we were at it.

That is a whole lot of fun in just a few days and I am still feeling exhausted. In fact, as I’m typing this it’s 7pm and my eyes are blurry and I’m wondering how soon Atti will let me put him to bed.

But I won’t go to sleep yet! There’s more fun to be had!

I couldn’t let another day go by without announcing my themed tree for the year!

I took last year off of trees to focus on the new Youtube channel, and because the house we were in at the time really couldn’t support it. But I sure don’t have that problem this year! And so many of you sweet people emailed and commented about missing the tradition that I’ve been on pins and needles with anticipation to bring it back.

This year, the theme is…. Cozy Christmas!

I’m thinking of hats and scarves and bundling up in front of the fire, sweaters and mittens and blankets, ear muffs, ski jackets, and flannel shirts. I couldn’t do a tree like this without knitting, but there’s not a lot. I have ideas for every skill level and using all sorts of techniques. There will be something here for everybody, and by everybody I mean anyone who thinks miniature hats with earflaps are hilarious, so, everybody.

Tomorrow I’m kicking off the tree talk with a video and blog post featuring all my best tree decorating tips. If you’ve ever wondered why your tree looks kinda blah, or if my years of decorating exponentially more trees than a sane person has given me a ridiculously overthought tree decorating philosophy, tomorrow you will have your answers!! (Hint: The answer to that last question is: Yes.)