Jacob's Yearly Year's End Review of the Year- 2007

If you're just joining us, howsabout a brief recap of 2007?

Creatively, the year jumped off with an amazing start. January started with Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face being voted the 4th Best Short film of 2006 by FilmThreat.com
I also finished my work on Harvey Daggit and the Devil's Olives as well as the music video for Raine Maida's Sex Love & Honey.
Personally speaking, things were rough, as things were a bit turbulent in Kris' life.

February saw an amazing trip up to Windsor to see Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida.

March brought Harvey Daggit's acceptance to the website for Spielberg's show, On the Lot. Sadly, that's as far as it went.
It was also in March that we announced The Greatest Fan Film of All Time and The Girl and the Ghost.

April started with my very first newspaper interview about our films and continued with Tootsie Blow Pop exploding after being featured on MySpace.

The summer was mostly quiet as I worked away on Fan Film and Ghost until late August, when Mom and I embarked on another Canadian adventure.

More animation led me into November, which brought my first experience in live action filming. In a complete turnaround from the way the year started, Kris became a father and I became an uncle.

December was mostly more animation, enjoying being an uncle, and prepping for Christmas. Which leads me to now.

As I type this blog with the arrival of a new year at hand, I find myself feeling more optimistic than I was at this time last year. Though busy working on things I love, I spent most of 2007 frustrated and stressed out. In recent weeks, things have changed and I feel I've changed (for the better) too.

2008 will bring the completion of Ghost and Fan Film and, if my hopes become reality, the start of some wonderful new things.

I wish you all joy, health, and prosperity in the year ahead. Happy New Year!!!

And Many a Hall Was Decked

This Christmas was a goody.

Our morning tradition had a bigger attendance this year, being our first one with Jessi and Hanna joining us, not to mention it was Matthew's very first Christmas.


They arrived around 2:00 (our equivalent of morning) and Hanna took on the duty of passing out the presents.

I love a good hat.

Santa did great this year, I got some new speakers I had been hoping for, an excellent Superman statue, a whole bunch of DVDs including Once and the collector's edition of the soundtrack. I also got a really nice hat, just like my old Superman hat (minus the S emblem) which I lost that fateful night at the wine bar so long ago. I even got a lightsaber.

Add that to the DVDs Mikey got me, the awesome books Corey gave me, and the Festivus greeting from Eric, and I'd say I received quite the haul.

Giving gifts just gets more and more enjoyable each year. It was my pleasure to perform my unclely duty and give Matthew his first CD. I decided to meet our worlds halfway and give him For the Kids, a CD full of modern artists signing kids songs. It even has Raine and Chantal doing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.


Keeping to tradition, we loaded up and headed over to Grandma's, where Matthew met all of his crazy (in a good way) relatives.

Kayla holds Matthew
Erin takes a turn
Maude's in her element
My grandma and her great grandson

It was a nice and laid back time just eating, drinking, and visiting with everyone. At one point, I busted out one of the DVDs I got that morning. It wasn't just any DVD, it was a magical flashback DVD of epic proportions. Never did I think I'd find myself at the age of 25, sitting with Brendan, Jacqui, Jeff, and Ronnie as we watched Fraggle Rock.

Classic.


Later on, we all opened a couple more books. Mine were a beautiful hardcover edition of Justice, Volume 1 and a great looking 12" figure of the Cyborg Superman.

Photo by Brendan

As the night went on, everyone slowly filed out. We were the last to leave and got home at 10:30 after a long day.

Despite the total lack of snow, this Christmas really felt like Christmas, which I remember wasn't quite the case last year. It was really nice. And I'm glad.

Now I'll spend the days leading up to New Year's playing with my new toys. Ralphie better grab his Red Ryder BB gun and scram. This is how the big boys play.


Oh, and I got a pony too. His name is Bill.

On Christmas Day in the Morning

Another month has blown by at a mindblowingly fast rate. It feels like I've been so active this past month, leaving me with plenty to blog about, yet also leaving me too busy to actually blog about it.

Most of December has been spent animating and enjoying unclehood. It really is crazy how much the baby has grown in his month. I'm a sucker for the kid, I could sit and hold him all day.

My Christmas preparations were fairly easy this year, mostly thanks to the fact that I did the majority of my shopping online. It wouldn't be Christmas without getting out to the stores at some point though, which I did last week. Of course, the insanity of the crowds out there tends to turn my brain to mush and I forget what I went to buy in the first place.

Mom and I went to Anthony's last week for the first time in ages. I have so many fond memories of being there around Christmastime, I hoped to be able to relive a little of that. While it was nice, it's just not the same with so many of the old faces no longer working there.

This past weekend was basically one giant game night. Corey, Mikey, Eric, Brendan, and Jeff all hung out on various nights, with the peak occurring on Sunday, when we all converged at once. There were even surprise visits from Larry, Clint, and Jake.

A nice new twist this Christmas break has been spending time with Nikki. Our common nerdiness and similar movie tastes always result in a good time. I never thought I'd enjoy being beaten in a game of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. Then again, I never thought I'd be beaten in a game of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit.
She even talked me into seeing Enchanted with her last Thursday, which, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed.

And now it's the wee hours of Christmas morning, so I had better get to bed. Don't want Santa to skip over the house.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday!