Look at that expressive face, and she’s not even showing her trademark ear-to-ear grin in this one!

Welcome to 2013, folks! Here’s to another year filled with cheer and funny names!

Kicking things off is a delightful young actress most notable for her roles in Freaks and Geeks and Dawson’s Creek, but who came to my attention through her work on the surprisingly awesome show Cougar Town – Ms. Busy Philipps.

Now, if you didn’t peg me as someone who would watch a show called Cougar Town, you wouldn’t be entirely off base. But if you trace the facts, it seems inevitable.  Follow this logical progression:

• My love of the show Community is well-documented.Very well documented.
• The Community character Abed has a well-known tongue-in-cheek fascination with Cougar Town, for some reason.
• I like researching things. A lot.
• I found out Cougar Town stars Courteney Cox.
• Courteney Cox earned my undying appreciation for her work on one of the greatest television shows ever – Friends.
• I put Cougar Town in my queue.
• I spent the last 2-3 weeks recovering from surgery and watching a lot of TV shows (and Turquoise Jeep music videos).
• Therefore, I watched a lot of Cougar Town, and it is a truly enjoyable program.

In addition to a surprisingly diverse and interesting set of comedic scenarios and an impressive cast that also includes several notable cameos by actresses such as Lisa Kudrow and Beverly D’Angelo, it introduced me to the astoundingly-expressive smiling face of Courteney Cox’s younger cohort and fictional real estate partner.

Busy being Busy – always smiling!

But it turns out Busy is actually quite busy indeed. At just 33, she has 10 film credits and has appeared on 27 television shows, including multi-season stints on Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, ER, Love Inc. and most recently, Cougar Town, in which she has been one of the main actresses for 60 episodes and counting.

She’s also kind of hardcore, auditioning for a spot on Glee just one week after giving birth to her daughter, Birdie Leigh Silverstein, with husband Marc Silverstein. It’s not quite Ever Gabo Jovovich-Anderson, but a Birdie in the hand is better than a plain Jane name in the bush. And on December 10th, Busy announced via Twitter (which seems awfully appropriate for a mother of “Birdie”) that she is expecting another child in 2013. So not only will Busy have a busy 2013, but if her infectious awesome naming quality holds, we’ll be busy covering awesome baby names in 2013 as well.

Happy new year, everyone!