Susan Solo – VA/DC/MD Photographer

This is the third year in a row that Chris and I have pledged to watch all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees before the awards show so that we can make an informed decision on which movie should actually win. You know, in case the academy asks for our humble opinions. In most cases, the nominations are movies that we wouldn’t necessarily choose to watch, so this tradition is sort of a way to stretch our cinematic palette, if you will. The tradition of “movie day” was born when we found a movie theatre that was screening all five of the Best Picture nominees in one day and we decided to buy an advance pass. When we arrived that day, it was totally packed and all of the good seats were taken so we just decided to wait and watch the movies when they were out on DVD. And we’ve done that three years in a row now. The academy expanded the Best Picture category to ten movies instead of five this year, which means we definitely have our work cut out for us. So a few weeks ago, we set aside an entire Saturday to watch several of the films: The Hurt Locker, District 9, Inglorious Basterds, and A Serious Man. We gathered up some of our favorite movie candies and popcorn, and we spent the day screening the noms from the comfort of our living room.

And with that, I’m hereby crossing #77 off of my 101 in 1001 list: Spend a whole day seeing movies (about 4 films) at a theatre. Now, I know it says “at a theatre,” but I have officially decided that I love watching movies at home 1000 times better than at the movie theatre. Don’t get me wrong, we have a Fox Cinemas close to us that is brand-new, huge, clean and offers very comfy seats in their stadium theatres. But (crankypants warning!) every single time I have been to the movies in the past couple of years, I always end up sitting next to someone who talks through the entire film, and it just ruins my experience. At home, it’s so nice and quiet and if Chris and I want to comment, we can always push pause (which of course also works for bathroom breaks!).

We have a few more movies to watch before we can declare our official picks, but in the meantime tell us what movies you’ve seen! Do you have a prediction for any of the Oscar award categories?

I think I have become a little obsessed with winter-weather photos these past few weeks. In all fairness, this has been a very unusual winter for us, and I’m just kind of fascinated by the weather in general. One last shot (for now) of the residual ice from the big blizzard. This was taken yesterday in the morning – I guess maybe this little holly busy was under a bunch of the icicles that were dripping, and the water re-froze overnight:

Happy Valentine’s Day, by the way! Hopefully your Valentine is keeping you warm and cozy today.

Hopefully you’re not tired of seeing snow pictures yet! Here are a few from the days after the snowstorm finally stopped and we were left with well over two feet of snow. I’m not sure what the official total was, but I think we were near 30 inches!