The One with the Christmas 2009 in WA

Chris and I were the first ones awake at 6am on this beautiful Christmas morning. I guess we're still 5-year-olds at heart.

Allie recently decided she finds Brandon Boyd (the lead singer of Incubus) attractive. Back in high school I shared the same infatuation so I created an ink drawing of him my senior year for my AP Art portfolio. I passed this drawing on to her for Christmas. Ow ow!

The best present I got is top secret and I literally can't even say what it is until at least January 5th. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be blogging about it as soon as I get the A-OK from my dad.

It's true what "they" say though - giving is better than receiving. A couple months ago I was figuring out what to get everyone in my family and I was having a hard time deciding what to get for my mom, a.k.a Malm. Suddenly I had the brilliant idea that we should treat her with her very own version of What Not to Wear. Every day she wishes she had new clothes and every day she wears some form of gray or black, or a sweater that she bought years ago (I'm talkin' 1996 and earlier...). Me-thinks it's about time for an upgraded wardrobe! I texted Allie and asked her what she thought, got her stamp of approval, then I texted Dald to see if he'd fund the present. He had to mull it over for a few hours, but coincidentally within that time Malm complained to Dald about her clothes and he decided this would be the perfect Christmas present. It's been fun planning out the details behind her back. At one point she told us she had to work all day Saturday (the day of our intervention and shopping spree) but I told her absolutely no way, she HAD to get the day off. Which led her to believe that she was going to a play or show of some sort. Sure Malm, that's it!

Let me just say that I think my Malm is divine. She's the most patient, loving, caring, beautiful woman in the whole wide world. And I know it's so totally super shallow of me to say that I only wish she'd dress better. I mean, what do I know, I'm no Stacy London or Clinton Kelly. Heck, I used to go to school in MY DAD'S T-SHIRTS! It wasn't until about 7th grade that I realized clothes were important to me. My feelings about this transformation for my Malm were reaffirmed when she came walking down the hall in this:

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huuuuge fan of scrubs. I love being comfortable. I change into sweatpants the second I get home. But wearing sweatpants inside out because "she has a texture thing"? Oh boy. I'm sure we can find some sort of comfortable and fashionable material to lounge around in Malm :)

And so, on this lovely Christmas morning, Malm opened up ten different envelopes in numerical order.

Each envelope contained a picture of a $100 bill with a word written on it: 1)This 2)money 3)is 4)for 5)your 6)very 7)own 8)version 9) of 10)What Not to Wear. Of course she started crying, that's what she does, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Once we got home from the cabin, and after our failed attempt at seeing Sherlock Holmes (sold out! Bummer!) we raided Malm's closet. We ransacked her closet. We pillaged and pilfered her closet. We took out over half of her clothes and shoes. When I recognized shirts and sweaters from when I was in elementary school, that means they had to go.

She's still got a handful of grey/black items to keep her sanity.

And we left her with what we deemed her most stylish and fresh tops, which is actually a lot.

But the rest was put into 10 (yes TEN!) garbage bags and driven to the DI trailer this evening.

Watch out Bellevue Square, cuz tomorrow, we're comin' to get my Malm a whole new wardrobe!