Superhero Christmas

"I mean, first of all, let me say whichever superhero first came up with the idea of wearing a cape, he wasn't really onto anything good. The number of times I'm treading on that damn thing, or I throw a punch and it ends up covering my whole head.
It's really not practical."
~ Christian Bale

The living room is still a mini-mess {but getting better!} due the construction project that should have been done last Wednesday with the installation of a wall of built-ins to turn my sad laundry room into a kick-ass mudroom. Alas, nothing ever goes as planned. The doors appeared to be hung backwards (The raised panel is on the INSIDE. Turns out this is called a 'reverse raised panel.' Whoever heard of spending all that money and then hiding it behind the doors?), but in reality were ordered wrong. So that custom mudroom? Yeah. It will have to wait a few weeks until the new doors arrive. So no hardware, but it is functional. (And they are using it, yeah!) Just disappointing. That was supposed to be my Christmas present, something to show off. Why am I telling you this tale of woe? Because I promised pictures of my new mantel. And with the mess that is in my living room at present, it will be awhile yet before I want to share that view with you all. But I will soon!

I was sad about my unfinished cabinetry. So instead I went shoe shopping and got these.

{Petal Scalloped pretties from Anthropologie. Mine. All mine. ;-)}

Retail therapy never looked so good.

I have never ordered from Anthropologie but when I saw these I just had to have them. If there were a shoe that was me, it might be these. I have a love of pewter shoes dating back to that pair I wore to the Whitney Houston Summerfest concert in 1986. The one where it rained so much the glue on my shoes melted away. I left them in the parking lot and drove home barefoot. I love me some pewter shoes and have been searching for the perfect pair ever since. These are so much fancier, but I think I may have found my perfect match. Pewter with cutouts in bronze. These babies better fit. Because I am already starting to plan the jewelry I will make to wear with them and one of the new pencil skirts I picked up at Target of all places.

But none of that has anything to do with the title of this post.

Every year for the last few the Hintz family has done a theme for Christmas. I blame my sweet sister-in-law Mary for this foolishness. Each year we throw out ideas at Thanksgiving and then put them to a vote. We have done crazy Christmas sweater (that was the year that I got my then 11 year old son to wear a frost forest of trees on a pink sweatshirt!), pajama party (that was by far the comfiest), red and green (how much more cliche can you get?) and redneck Christmas (with one sister-in-law sporting a 5 o'clock shadow from makeup in a coonskin hat and the other one wearing the worst jumble of fake teeth sporting a pillow pregnancy and carrying around another baby doll child all while staying in character all night long). The theatricality of this crew can be quite astonishing.

Every year I have been suggesting the 12 Days of Christmas. You could come dressed as 5 Golden Rings, or 8 Maids a Milking. Or if you are like me, you might choose the 12 Pains of Christmas (like the song) and come as Stringing Up Those Lights or the whining child Buy Me Something. That would be most fun. I am still going to keep suggesting that until there are no other suggestions and they have to vote for mine!

This year the winner was Superhero Christmas.

So that means I need to put my super powers of deduction to work and figure out what that means for me and the Incredibles family. We could be our favorite superheroes, like Batman or Wonder Woman, but I sort of like the idea of coming up with my own. I did start a Pinterest board you can check out, but I could use some help!

I think that it will be a struggle to get my crew in some sort of costume. Oh, Tiny Dancer has all sorts of crazy dance costumes to choose from and she has already told us that her superhero will be some sort of Dancer Girl. She told me that she would have Plie Power. All she will need is a mask, I think (provided I can make one from felt or something lying around the house).

But what do you get the 14 y.o. in? Not to mention the 44 y.o.?!?

My son is named for a comic book character who has his own superhero alter ego. How clever - and easy - would this be for him to dress up as Stupendous Man?

But he is having none of it (and he is the only one of us that voted for this theme, so he better think of something or be open to the possibilities that I suggest!)

My first thought was to find some t-shirts that we could all wear. I love this one. I could see my husband wearing it.

{from The Joy of Ex Foundation}

Or how about this one for my son.

{from Red Bubble}

For me, as a former English teacher, I am thinking that this one would work.

{from CafePress}

 But this one is probably more appropriate...and true.

{from Red Bubble}

I love the simple addition of these wings to the laces on your shoes. Of course, Chucks are a must.

{from SmallFly on Etsy}

And how easy would this be to add cuffs to our t-shirts?

{tutorial for superhero cuffs from Buggie and Jellybean}

Or maybe we can get some funny masks like these.

{printables from BessiePooh on Etsy}

And there are all sorts of ideas we can use to decorate and eat.

Like these Kapow Cake Pops

and Wonder Woman's ropes and those funny lollipops with capes

{from The Party Dress blog}

and Kryptonite in a jar

{glow stick lanterns from LilBlueBoo}

I even found a company called Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

They have great gear that is essential to the modern-day hero like this

{from Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co}

In doing my research, I found a whole mess of sites with Christmas comic books. Who knew? Some of the covers are hilarious!

{check out those legs on Santa!}

{this one looks vaguely disturbing...}

I thought it would be fun to buy some party favors like these funky sunglasses and gliders

{from Oriental Trading}

{from Oriental Trading}

My niece is a darn good photographer and I have asked her to take my family picture each Christmas so I can use it in my New Year's cards (Christmas cards are just too hard for me to do.) I thought it would be fun to have some sort of a photo booth type set up with a city skyline we could fly over and some props we could hold up. {Both pictures from Love The Day}

And if she takes the pictures it will make for a really cute photo album is we all have to fill out our Superhero Identity sheet.

{wish I could find the original that this came from...}

Now I just need to get my cape back from the dry cleaners.

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So, what do you think? Is this Christmas theme crazy cool or just plain crazy? Help me out! I would love to hear your suggestions. I need to figure this out this week so that I don't have to be obsessing about it on the last shopping day, December 22nd!

Tell me... 
What would your superhero name be?
What are your special powers?
How did you get your super powers?
What would your costume look like?

And if you want some more fun, check out this Marvel Create a Superhero game!

{Watch the Christmas Knight trailer}

In nothing else, you simply must watch this short teaser of a film that is being shopped around called Christmas Knight of a superhero Santa on a mission. I totally want to see this in the theater!

Oh, and today is my day over at Earrings Everyday. Come on over and check them out!