Kristen Bell has a new interview in the December issue of Flare Magazine, which she covers. They did something weird with her hair, but the editorial is impressive overall. They put her in glamorous holiday outfits that get me in the mood for Christmas and New Year’s parties. I especially love that navy dress with the sequin neckline, it’s gorgeous.

Kristen’s interview is as good as the photos. She gets candid about her home life with new husband Dax Shephard, she’s very protective of their daughter, and she reveals that she was worried she wouldn’t bond with her baby like she does with her dogs. Kristen is an animal lover and famously got weepy on Ellen just at the thought of seeing a sloth. She’s freaky about animals and she knows it.

As background, Kristen and Dax, my current favorite couple, welcomed their first child, daughter Lincoln, this March. Kristen and Dax were married in a small civil ceremony at the Beverly Hills County Clerk’s office last month. Dax told Jimmy Kimmel that the wedding cost a total of $142. There were no guests at the ceremony, although friends came over later with a cake that said “World’s Worst Wedding” on it. So when she says that she likes to stay home with Dax and that she tries to keep her life as down to earth as possible, I believe her.

She was worried she wouldn’t love her baby as much as her dogs
“I kept saying to Dax in all sincerity during my pregnancy, ‘I just don’t know how I’m going to like her as much as I like the dogs. I was being serious. Because I f*king love my dogs; they are my children. I love people the more i know them, and I didn’t know her. It could’ve been a water bottle in my belly, that’s about how connected I felt to her during my pregnancy. But within about 24 hours after she came out, my hormones reset, and they reprogrammed my feelings about her.”

Her birth plan
“I found it very important when making my birth plan to research both sides of the argument. I tend to lean toward a more crunchy-granola, organic-type lifestyle, so I thought, I’ll bring the yoga ball, I’ll have a playlist. And we got there, and none of it applied.”

On protecting her daughter from the paparazzi
“Dax and I realize it might make someone smile when we have sassy Twitter fights, or when I tweet something that he says to me. I’m fully aware that it’s a tiny taste of our relationship. But the real day-to-day, we are extremely territorial of. I would really not like to see the aftermath of the first person who tries to take a picture of Lincoln. There are going to be a lot of stitches.”

Why people love Veronica Mars
“Veronica says the things you want to say in tough moments and kind of grabs her balls a lot, which is very appealing.”

She and Dax are from different sides of the track in Detroit
“Dax and I would not have been friends in high school. He was a drug addict and he was wild, and i was very much a good girl who went to Catholic school. He is also five years older than I am, and he lived in Milford, which is a bit more drive-your-tractor-to-the-7-eleven-type Michigan, and I was closer to downtown Detroit.”

She secretly lived in Chris Kattan’s guest house
“I drove cross-country to L.A. when I was 22. One of my girlfriends was living in [SNL actor] Chris Kattan’s guest room, because they were friends, and I was secretly living in his pool house with another friend when he wasn’t there. It felt like a natural risk to take at that time in my life.”

On her secret to a strong marriage
“Our main rule is: Check your ego at the door, and be aware of when the other person is spinning out. As artists, everything is vanity- and narcissism- driven: my career, the strategy behind it, the next level I want to hit, my photo shoot, how I was in my acting scene, my premiere. So we try to do a really good job of being human beings in the rest of our life.”

On her social life
“Dax and I prefer to stay in. It’s not my first choice to put on a pair of heels and a dress and go out on a Saturday night.”

[From Flare Magazine, received via email]

I didn’t have a problem bonding with my son in utero. I have always had cats and while I love them I kind of mentally put them aside during my pregnancy. I still cuddled with them! I just couldn’t change the cat litter while I was pregnant and I knew that my baby would take center stage soon. Maybe it’s different for dog lovers, and I’m sure it’s different for everyone.

Kristen gets papped occasionally with her daughter, here’s a link to photos of her carrying Lincoln on set. So I think when she talks about knifing the paparazzo who tries to take a picture of her daughter, she means anyone who gets too close and in the baby’s face.

Also, I would like to put in a plug for Parenthood, which is Dax’s show on NBC Thursday nights and is one of the best shows on television by my estimate. I recently caught up with this season (I was away for a while) and I was blown away by how consistently good, and relevant, it remains. It’s one of the few, if only, dramas I’ve seen that accurately portrays relationships and families. Things are wrapped up in a bow a little too often, but overall it’s incredibly realistic, touching and funny. Give it a chance if you haven’t seen it. Dax gets some of the best lines on that show. Dax’s character, Crosby, recently had a plotline that reminds me of this story. He was having trouble bonding with his newborn daughter, and was suffering from sleep deprivation. He bent over the baby and said “I’m sure you’ll be the best thing that ever happened to me someday, but right now I really hate you.”

Cover credits: Kristen Bell wears a Dolce & Gabbana dress. Photography: Yu Tsai, Opus Reps.