Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving was great. We have another day to go to the indoor gocarts, La Reve, and a birthday party for Julianne’s sister Marabeth at the Palazzo in Vegas with the family and People magazine.

I am very proud and was so excited to be at the show this week after flying in from Nashville and Driving to California from Vegas to see Derek Dance and take the trophy tuesday night.

Derek unfortunately could not be with us for Thanksgiving. His rigorous schedule is keeping him so busy. Tuesday night Derek flew on a private plane to New York for Good Morning America and some other talk shows the following day.

He flew back from NY to CA Thanksgiving day and has to be in the studio friday to rehearse with the band and start rehearsing to go on tour with dancing with the stars. His schedule is up at 4 AM, meeting, talking and playing for the radio stations. Then, that night performing for dancing with the stars, and then play at a venue with his band after the show for a couple of hours. Then, start the next day, up at four and same schedule for 5 days a week for two months. I’ll see him either in Vegas or in Nashville.

I’ll start uploading a few pictures from backstage on Dancing with the Stars later tonight or tomorrow.

As I mentioned previously, we’re going to do a few little giveaways just in time for Christmas. Marriann will be giving away 2 autographed copies of Julianne’s recently released Holiday Collection CD. Here’s a short description of what’s found on the CD:

The Julianne Hough Holiday Collection, exclusively at Target stores includes: “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad,” “It Wasn’t His Child/Mary Did You Know,” “Santa Baby,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” among others.

If you’re interested in winning one of these CDs, leave a comment on this post. We’ll be giving one of the CDs to a randomly selected comment. The second CD will go to the comment which we like the most. Basically just wow us with something special. Surprise us!

As usual, any comments which are offensive, inappropriate, in bad taste, or we don’t like will be removed. Make sure you use your actual email when filling out your comment. We’ll be using that email to contact the winners. Please do not enter your email in the main comment section unless you want everyone (including spam bots) to see it.

We’ll be ending the contest at the beginning of December in order to get you the CDs in time for the Holidays.

Finally, remember to vote for Derek and Brooke tonight!!

It’s been quite a while since Marriann or myself have been able to post. We’re both going through moves of our family and so it’s been quite busy. Enough with the apologies.

I talked with Marriann today and she had a number of comments about Julianne’s elimination on the show last night. Obviously Marriann was sad to see Julianne eliminated, but she kind of saw it coming considering the scores they received. Marriann told me that Julianne was just sad for Cody since Cody had been working so hard. However, both Marriann and Julianne are cheering on Derek and Brooke and hope they take home the trophy.

Marriann also wanted to share a few thoughts about Brooke. She told me she thinks Brooke is a really hard worker and very serious in her approach to the competition, but still a mom. Marriann is excited to see Derek and Brooke perform in the finals and thinks they have a very good chance.

On a different note, Marriann and I are putting together a contest with a few special giveaways just in time for the Holidays. Check back soon for details of the contest.

Finally, you’ll have a chance to see Derek at one of the Dancing with the Stars tour dates and locations.

Note from John: I previously posted some things that are the same as this post, but Marriann gives some more details about it all.

Well, I spent most of the day yesterday getting my tires changed. I was going to change them three trips ago. Traveling back and forth from Vegas to L.A. for Dancing with the Stars does a number on the wear and tear of the car.

This friday in People magazine, Julianne will be talking about her endometriosis with pictures of her and her puppy (I’m in there too). Her puppy has been on antibiotics but after three weeks it seemed the medicine was also making her tummy hurt.

For all the animal lovers, which all the Hough kids are! You might be interested that we put Julianne’s puppy on a different brand of dog food. We are giving her vitamins and it has really seemed to help.

I was so proud of Derek and Brooke. They looked great Monday night. Derek choreograghed two dances one for Brooke and one for the team. He did a great job in both dances. I loved the blue costumes for the paso. And amidst all the teaching and practices, Derek spent two weeks every night after practice to decorate Shannon’s house for a Halloween party and scavenger hunt. The decorations were amazing. Lasers, smoke, spider webs, hanging skeletons, D.J. and dancing, it was a great success. Derek loves holidays. I always made holidays and birthdays a big deal. It’s fun to see the tradition carried on.

I am going to the results show tonight. I’m hoping to have dinner with Derek after the show. He is so busy after the show he goes to the studio with the band and works on their album that will be released in March. The band will be going on tour in December promoting the album. I am so excited. Their music has a very unique sound that distinguishes them from other bands. They are great musicians. Derek’s schedule is so busy but he loves what he does.

Julianne and I watched the show on T.V. Julianne thought the dance was great and beautiful. I loved the dress Brooke was wearing. After the result show, the dancers get their new music for the next week and they (Derek) design the costume they will be wearing usually that same night. The wardrobe team works 24 hrs. around the clock until Saturday. The dancers and Stars come for a fitting and Sunday they make any adjustments for Monday and even Monday they sometimes are making last minute alterations. I Salute the wardrobe team because they really work hard on a limited budget. I sew and I appreciate their work!

Til next time!

Sending pictures soon.
Marriann

WOW!

I originally drove from Las Vegas to see a couple of the Dancing with the Stars shows in Hollywood, but because of various things I have stayed five weeks. It has been so wonderful to be here with not only Julianne but Katherine, and Derek. It would have been very hard if I would have been in Vegas watching the show and find out that Julianne had to be run to the E.R. I am so glad that I was here in L.A. with Julianne when it happened.

Julianne is only 20 years old. But she has been all over the world. She has had many good and bad experiences and is very independent. Although she is very independent and is used to taking care of herself, it has been great to be mom and do all the things that moms do.

Julianne is so touched by the response of all the fans. I would like to thank all those who have expressed their concerns for her.

Today was the first day she has really been back to herself. She is a tough cookie! I have seen her compete and run off the floor exhausted and sick and then keep competing. Basically being an athlete, very busy schedules, flying red eyes and singing or dancing the same day Julianne has a high threshold for pain. In fact, that is one of the reasons her doctor was concerned about doing the surgery now instead of later.

She might continue suffering and more serious problems may arise. Julianne had a cyst on her left ovary that was removed. She had smaller endometrium cysts other places and her appendix was inflamed and had attached itself to her right hip with a lot of scare tissue that was removed. We are grateful to her doctor for being so thorough and competent.

Julianne’s wish and why she was so candid on T.V. is that her experience will bring an awareness to women to take better care of themselves and get the treatment they deserve instead of living with pain they might think is normal, and that left untreated could cause other complications.

Thank you all for your support. Julianne will be back on the show in another week. Stay tuned to the result show next week for a surprise that Julianne is so excited about.

Sorry, I haven’t kept current, but I’m sure you understand. When I get back to Vegas I have a ton of pictures I want to get on the web site.

Lots of love!

Being mom for now,
Marriann

Today I gave Marriann a call to get her reaction to Derek’s perfect score on tonight’s show. Marriann told me that she loved Derek’s foxtrot tonight and especially liked the costumes. She said that she watched it with Julianne at Julianne’s place. Marriann told me that Julianne described Derek’s dance as beautiful and great. Julianne was proud of both Derek and Cody.

Marriann also wanted to let everyone know that Derek choreographed the Paso Doble group number.

Marriann told me a little bit about a Halloween party that Derek and Shannon had at Shannon’s house. Marriann said that she always made a big deal on Holidays and so Derek seems to have carried it on. She described Derek and Shannon decorating the house like a haunted house with lasers, smoke and the whole 9 yards.

Sounds like a fun Halloween. Of course, I forgot to ask her if she took any pictures of the event. I can’t imagine that she’d go to such a nice party and not take at least a few pictures. We’ll see if she has any that we can post in the future.

Nice to see that even amidst all the dancing and singing the Derek’s doing he can still take some time out for some fun on the Holidays.

Sorry for the simple update. More updates coming soon.