Fifteen Year Anniversary

15 year anniversary
Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00682

Today is our fifteenth anniversary and to say that the past fifteen years have been an adventure would be an understatement. Luckily for us we have this blog to look back on and ee all of those adventures. 2020 has been an insane year for the entire world but I think it has been one of our best. We’re so fortunate to have two wonderful children who are both doing well in school and outside of school. Both kids are coming into their own in their martial arts training. We had to spend much of the year training via Zoom but they both stuck with it and are doing very well. Eva has her first phone and her first job to help pay for that phone. Andy moved to a new room and is enjoying the space and having more independence. He’s quite fond of omelets and asks to make them a few times a week. while he needs supervision with the stove he does pretty much everything else himself.

As for Allison and I this time at home has been a great time for us to connect and spend more time together. We have been taking daily walks all Summer and we’re both closer to our wedding weights then ever before. Our walks also give us time to talk about things and discuss what is going on around us. While we both have our own pursuits we are lucky to be able to spend part of the day together without any distractions.

I sincerely thought that I was ahead of the game this year on our anniversary plans. I booked us tickets to one of our favorite comedians and had an $800 spa gift certificate courtesy of a campaign I did with Nintendo. It looks like we may be celebrating our 15th in that style on our 16th or 17th anniversary depending upon how things with this pandemic go. But we’ll take it one day and one step at a time together.

Movie Review: COME AWAY

Come Away Poster

We received a free screening pass to watch Come Away in our home last night for free. Opinions are our own.

COME AWAY is a beautiful and brilliantly clever story that interweaves the stories of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. It plays like an origin story for the two characters and all of the little details of their two stories are revealed in very interesting ways. The story centers on 8 year old Alice and her brother Peter, their parents and older brother and their Aunt. Through the course of the movie we see glimpses of several characters like the Lost Boys, Captain Hook and the Red Queen. Even Tinkerbell and the White Rabbit’s origins are revealed. I especially loved the explanation of Tinkerbell. I thought that was so clever and delightful. You can see how the imaginative play world of these children comes alive in amazing and terrifying ways.

Live is wonderful, almost idyllic for the siblings with long days playing in the bucolic countryside where reality often gives way to fantasy. However, a tragedy befalls the family and then the trauma of that tragedy puts the family on a trajectory towards sadness and despair. It is up to Alice and Peter to set things right and they certainly try their best to do so.

The characters are wonderful and the acting is exceptional. Everything is so beautiful and detailed and full of little nods to both stories that you cannot take it all in the first time around. I kept looking and looking to see how certain elements would be introduced to the story. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the movie with one exception. Andy gets a little freaked out when people are injured. He’s a very sensitive soul. There is a traumatic moment that is glimpsed later in the movie but that was enough to set his imagination going and he was out. When we discussed it further he saw that there was much to enjoy about the movie and that one moment should not have ruined it entirely for him.

COME AWAY will be in select theaters and ON DEMAND on Friday November 13. Take a look at the trailer below.