Very Merry

Three years ago, my new boyfriend Dave (if I was even calling him my boyfriend by then) showed up at my doorstep in Somerville and surprised me with a small Christmas tree. Of course, he remembered to buy me a tree stand as well, because that's what Dave does: he does the nice thing, and then he does the extra-nice thing, and next thing you know, you're married to him. (OK, I skipped a few steps, but you get the gist.) We took a picture of that little tree, as if we thought it just might be the first of many.

This year, we decided to do without a tree. We're trying to save money, and we'd be spending Christmas morning at my sister's and then driving to New Jersey for ten days. No point.

On Tuesday night, our friends Kerry and Christian showed up on our doorstep and surprised us with a small Christmas tree...plus gifts for Will and the two of us to go beneath it. "It's not right to celebrate Will's first Christmas without a tree," they argued.

Our week continued with three joyful Christmas Eve parties, a great morning with my parents, Rachel, Ben, Belle and Joseph, and the easiest ever trip down to NJ: 4 hours, 40 minutes, including two stops!

Tonight we went to Dave's cousin Pat's house (he and his lovely wife Vicki host an annual holiday party for the Noon clan) and watched as the baby was happily passed from a cousin to a sibling to an uncle to an aunt and over to a cousin's kid--we didn't know quite what to do with our free hands!--and then Uncle Bill said he had something for William.

"I know you named Will after my dad, your grandfather," he said to Dave. "So I want him to have this watch." Dave's grandfather, the William Noon after whom both Uncle Bill and our little Will are named, had received a watch for forty years of service at his job, with his name engraved on the back. When he passed away, Dave's grandmother gave the watch to Uncle Bill; now Uncle Bill wanted to give it to the newest William Noon. It was a sweet and meaningful gift and we were very moved. We were also interested to hear that the watch had stopped at 7:07...the time of death on Pop-Pop Noon's death certificate.

We went about our business at the party, but soon enough an even eerier thing happened: the watch started again, out of the blue, as Grandpop had it in his hand! Cindy said "Everybody wave...Pop-Pop's here to say hi to little William!" and we all waved to the great-grandfather who had created this huge and happy family.

And I thought, How lucky! We have each other, and friends who come bearing Christmas trees, and families to love us and to help us navigate new-parenthood, and sisters-in-law to work out and gossip and laugh with, and brothers-in-law who want to play with their baby nephew and will even let you fix their hair (more on this later), and a son who only cries when he needs another eight gazillion ounces of food down his gullet. I thought about how even though this is our first Christmas without my beloved Grandpa Joe, he was still there for nearly 28 years of my life. So lucky.

I know this is a rambling post, and I have a million more stories from this past week and pictures to accompany them (not to mention all the work I still have to put into the Noon Guide site). Until I'm finished immersing myself in family and friends, however, those posts will just have to wait. Happy holidays!

Visitors from Afar

Lisa and Kristoffer visited us from Kenya; Leah and Johnny came a shorter distance (from New York) but had just as much fun with young William. And we had a great time with everyone!

(These photos are from two weekends ago, so Will was 11 weeks old.)

The After Effect

I did not cheat and take a picture directly after Kellyn did my hair. I waited two days, washed and blow-dried on my own, and then took a series of exceedingly goofy photos. For more ridiculous self-pictures and fun style-related conversation, visit the Noonguide site. And now, for your viewing delight:

I look surprised...about what? I am the one taking the picture, so there's really no basis for confusion. And yet.

Playing Dress Up, the Noon Way

Here's the deal. All those style-related posts were making me so giddy that I started to become a touch obsessive. As in, I would read a comment and then call the commenter and ask them about another aspect of the hair/the makeup/the lashes/the bronzer, and then I would start planning a new follow-up post, and it all got a bit out of hand.

So I decided to move most of the beauty and style and gossip stuff elsewhere...specifically, to the Noon Guide blog. That way, here I can go on and on about Will and how he's almost twelve weeks old and still sleeps with his head at a ninety-degree angle from his shoulders, and I can conduct an extensive cost-benefit analysis of buying a jogging stroller, and I can post family photos and keep a running record of Our Life At This Very Moment...and if you'd rather skip all that and just weigh in on Erin's choice of bridal makeup, you can go there instead.

(And if you're interested in my taste in both strollers and bronzers, you can read both! In fact, I hope that many of you will.)

**UPDATE: The Noon Guide blog will be up and running by January 1. A link to that site will be listed prominently on this one, so visit me in 2009!**

Now Hair This Instead?

A little more modern than the Jessica styles, don't you think? I'll post "after" photos tomorrow.

Many Looks for Muhlhan

In anticipation of doing a bridal makeup demo with Erin in January, I started perusing some photos of Amy Adams, another beautiful ocean-eyed redhead. Here are some options I came up with, and the accompanying notes. Erin is an...opinionated person, and I'm sure she will make up her own mind (and look gorgeous in doing so), but your thoughts--though they may well go unused--are welcome.

This is tbe most natural look of the four. The hair is in an updo, but only a semi-formal one. Amy's wearing thin black eyeliner on her top and bottom lids, and her lip is nude, which puts her blue eyes and the tendrils framing her face that much more in the spotlight. It's definitely pretty, but I don't know that there's much else to say about it.

Amy's hair is half-up in this photo, which is a look I adore on Erin. She looks a bit more Hollywood here: bronzed skin, sheer pink gloss on her lips, and a more defined eye with extra liner and mascara on the outside. My favorite part of this makeup is the mascara on upper and lower lashes for a truly glamorous--without being too dramatic--set of peepers.

The first word that comes to mind: dewy. It looks as if Amy's makeup artist may have forgone the matte foundation on this particular night. On the eyes, we see a more muted liner/mascara combo--see how Amy's lashes go out rather than flip up? She's rocking the ingenue image with peachy blush and lip color and a full-on porcelain base tone. The gathered side 'do is actually one of my most adored hairstyles, but it's probably more fit for a bridesmaid than a bride.

If I had straight-up, no-bones-about-it red hair and light eyes (and this hairstyle went with my dress), I would choose this as my bridal look. There is an appropriate balance between matte and shine on the face; the cheeks and forehead are tinted barely with a peachy bronze, but the outer cheeks and jawline are accentuated with a blush that has just the right amount of orange in it to complement the hair. Her eyes scream DRAMA, but with only black liner and mascara and a brown-based shadow that work with the pink-brown mouth to tie the whole look together. Finally, her eyebrows are so well-groomed here, and nicely shaped brows are the classy icing on every va-va-voom cupcake.

So...Erin and everyone else, what do you think?

Guess Who's Wearing Size 3 Diapers?

My eleven-week-old son, that's who. I had to switch from Size 2 after there was a bit of an explosion down under this morning. We are now using chlorine-free Seventh Generation brand because we got such a good deal at Diapers.com, and because I never miss an opportunity to "do good" (for the planet and for Will, at least theoretically) without paying extra cash.

So now young William is in diapers meant for children weighing 16 to 28 pounds. This hefty range blows my mind a little bit, but I will try to ignore it and pretend I am not worried that my son will someday be the subject of a Discovery Health channel documentary on giantism. (Just kidding, I'm really not worried. Most of the time.)

I know it is ridiculous to even mention this, but I don't get anything for talking about any products or websites here. My only reasons for writing about what I like and don't like are to have a record for my own purposes, and to offer suggestions to friends and family who are interested. I would have zero problems making extra money via those reviews, but I doubt that my objectivity will ever be compromised in such a welcome way. ;-)