merry christmas

merry christmas to me!!













merry christmas to us all!!!

take time

words written by st francis of assisi in the 13th century. may they encourage your heart as much as they did mine. peace! :)

My Dear Sister Clare,
How kind of you to ask how you can help the brothers in Assisi prepare for Christmas while I am away preaching in the country.
I know there is much to be done. Food must be prepared for the many brothers and sisters who will return from work to celebrate the feast with us. And food must be prepared to share with the poor. The townspeople will expect us to arrange another manger scne and Midnight Mass. We must locate animals and torches, even a baby! We must find a priest for Mass and deacons to assist.
You know that in my heart Christmas, the feast of love, is my favorite feast - the one I wish would never end. It is the time when the poor should be treated royally and the animals are not only welcome but necessary to our worship.
But, dear Sister Clare, do not let yourself or any one of us get caught up in busyness. That is false preparation for the great Christmas feast. God would have us prepare quietly, in our hearts and in our living. We must pray and wait for the Incarnation but be prepared for it at any moment. Look at the faces of the lonely and befriend them. See Jesus in the hungry and feed them. Put seeds on the roads for the birds. And stop to thank God for the beauty of the moon on a cold dark night.
This is how to prepare for Christmas.
Pax et bonum!
Your little brother, Francis

Quoted from Jeff Smith's "The Frugal Gormet Celebrates Christmas,"
William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991.

pointless

so there's 15 minutes left in the work day and my brain is just DONE. i don't really have much to say...

nathan and jency are officially dating and i don't think i've ever put that up here!! BAH!! it's so freaking exciting i don't know what to do with it!! chris and i teased them about getting married and stuff until we were all sick of it. then we all spent time up at hope house...and i also just realized i never posted pictures of our trip!!!!...and the rest is history. it's so weird that they are actually together after us teasing them so much. i don't think i've ever set anyone up before. apparently it happens to chris all the time though. maybe he's a prophet. daniel and kirby are apparently married b/c of christopher. my husband is amazing. make that GOD is amazing...

in other news, i bowled in the annual bowling tournament yesterday. it made my arms hurt like insane-o crazy, but it was way worth it!! we had a blast!! it's so fun to see everyone having fun across the whole alley. my first game was 117, second 97, third 108. emily would be embarrassed...our days as the bodacious bowling banshees are long forgotten. she broke 200 once!!!!

and after that was the headmaster's christmas party. more people than should have legally been allowed were crammed into the headmaster's house and there was food food food!!! i didn't go last year, so i wasn't sure what would be present in the form of nourishment. i said to chris, "what if it's only dessert?!" and we were both starving so got krystal before heading up there. TRAGEDY!!!! they was the BEST food i've ever had!! imagine the most expensive and ritzy wedding reception you've ever been to. now multiply it by about a hundred and you've got what we had last night. even with a belly full of krystal, i still ate. i was in pain. and i had bananas foster for the first time ever!!! it was divine!! but i am in desperate need of a winter dress. bare shoulders and legs was just a bit much last night...

in other news, chris and i still have some shopping to do. good grief. i gotta go do just that right now. halleluia for shorter hours!! (it's 4:00)

well waddoyaknow

well i'll be. yesterday it was blocked, today it's here for me to enjoy once again. i know you were all mourning the fact that you wouldn't be able to read my inner-most thoughts. never fear!!!!

so chris just said that one of his claimants who lives in key west, fl, has a deep dish chicago pizza shipped to their house every christmas. no, i've never had chicago deep dish pizza. heck yes we're going to order one...someday at least....

blogger shall die

i like blogging. i really do. for some strange reason i enjoy typing up thoughts and experiences for the whole world to read. but i'm really starting to hate blogger. it won't let me post pictures, it won't let me post comments on my friend's blog, i really think it hates me. and what's with the blogger beta stuff? it wants me to switch to the beta version, whatever that is, and i don't want to. i don't even know what it is, but i don't want to do it just because it's telling me to. how's that for a defiant personality??? maybe it's slowly taking away my privileges and will keep doing so until i make the switch. i have one thing to say to that: BOOO!

in other news, WE'RE GOING SKIING!!!! i get a lovely spring break, and chris has lots of paid time off, so he's taking off when i'm off and we're heading to colorado. we reserved the room at the bnb ($80 a night, baby!!) and we got airline tickets today ($294 round trip for BOTH of us!!!!) halleluia. i'm telling you, i'm so excited, i can barely concentrate on work. (well, i can barely concentrate on work anyway...) chris has never been skiing before, and i've been a bunch, but not in the past 4 years or so. so it will be FUN to get back out there and teach the love of my life a little bit of what i adore and see the sights and breathe the beautifully crisp colorado mountain air and see the gorgeous and humongously clear colorado stars. i am SO excited!!!!

okay. my arms hurt and i must go do some filing before i leave this place. raise your hand if you're really wishing it were COLDER??? (today's high was 68!!)

*edit* okay, so as soon as i posted this originally, i went to switch to the beta version (yeah, i'm an idiot for complaining about it...) and i clicked whatever i needed to to sign me in so they could switch me and the new window said "blocked" (i'm at work) and the reason was "sex"...um...er....EXCUSE ME???? what the crap? see???? i TOLD you the beta version was BAD!!!!

scary mary

if you have ever seen mary poppins, watch this. it's one of my favorite movies (literally) and i think this is hysterical!!

and if you've seen the shining, this one isn't too bad. :)

selfish shoes

remember my post about the shoes being sized wrong and all? well, i reordered them from another website in 7.5 regular width. they were too narrow. so i ordered them again from the same website in wide width. they are about the same size as the original pair. GAH! i'm telling you, i'm giving up. i am done trying to own the cutest shoes ever!!!!!

in other news, christopher and i attended a gillian welch concert last wednesday, and my life is not the same. her voice, her songs, david rawlings' harmonies, their stage presense, their ability to blend, everything was just amazing. the only instruments played (save one or two songs with the banjo) were guitars. only two people were on the stage. one song they were singing and playing so quietly and beautifully it drew tears. i'm telling you, they're amazing!!!

before the concert started, chris and i were talking about how some of the seats were positioned in such a way that the person would only be able to see speaker. i said we should move one of the speakers, and chris said "i've heard that when she starts her concerts..." and i thought he was going to say that she asks if everyone can see her okay (he said something about sound check and that we probably shouldn't move the speaker) which led to a hilarious scene in our minds of a completely vain musician coming on stage and doing a sound check, something like: "check. check. check. can everybody hear me? check. check. can you hear me? is that good?" normal, right? yes. normal. but then they would do a visual check, something like: "okay great. now can everybody see me? can you see me? sir? yes, you in the back. can you see me alright? okay, you, over there. can you see me? can everyone see me?" still in the "microphone check" voice. we were rolling laughing saying we should make a short film or something like that. so anyway, gillian and david came out on stage, played a song, and when it was over, the first words out of her mouth were "can everyone see us okay?" BAH!!! i almost died. it was hysterical!!! she was referring to the lighting being really low and "moody", and how she wasn't feeling very moody. they turned the lights up and the show went on. but it. was. hilarious. i was amazed.

in still more news, christmas is almost here, and amazon.com proves itself amazing once again. last year i bought almost every christmas present from that website, and this year is no different. they have everything! and it's all discounted!! and they have free shipping!! and the shipping is fast!!! and they have great boxes to wrap in!!!!! it's just great. BUT. i bought one thing from the amazon auctions - it's kind of like ebay where singular people are selling things, but they're for a set price and it's not really an auction...it's like ebay but everything is "buy it now". anyway, the guy sent the wrong thing. i wanted "where the red fern grows" from 1974. he shipped "where the red fern grows, part 2" from 1992. the invoice said it was "where the red fern grows" from 1998 (a remake, apparently). when i went to check my order online, the link said it was the 1998 version, but when i clicked on it, the description was the 1974 version. boooo! so i gave him negative feedback. yes, i should have contacted him first. i see that now. but i had a horrible headache and was having an even horribler day and i just thought the jumbled-ness of the transaction deserved negative feedback. anyway, he emailed me directly asking what was wrong, i told him, and he proceeded to ask me to remove the negative feedback. i ignored him and contacted amazon.com to see if that was normal and/or okay to do. they responded saying they would handle the investigation and i probably wouldn't find out the results. great. he emailed me again the next day asking me to remove the negative feedback. i started to get freaked out that he would hunt me down and get revenge or something. those people take their feedback very seriously. he emailed me a third time telling me he wouldn't refund my money until i took the negative feedback away, and i realized it just wasn't worth it - making this poor soul in washington state angry, so i tried to change it, but i couldn't figure out how. i responded to him with this information and asked him to help me, and i haven't gotten a response yet. BOOO! i guess i'll just keep the movie.

in even more news, i got a haircut. FINALLY! wearing coats and scarves and hats and layers upon layers is so hard with long hair. almost two years ago i got my hair cut for locks of love and it was SO STINKING SHORT. it was too short. it barely went behind my ears. anyway, it had grown out a bit by the time cold weather came around and it was so easy to deal with all those layers that i missed it this year with my much longer hair. so it's hacked. above my chin. hooray! and i have concluded that the greatest place to get your haircut is great clips. it's really affordable, the stylists pay more attention to what i want better than any other place, and the two times i've used them have been the two best haircuts i've ever had. try it! i'm telling you, it's great.

in still more news yet again, i've made my family's recipe for russian tea for years now, and have already made it several times this season. everyone always gives such high compliments and loves it so much, that i thought i would give all you faithful readers a little gift of the recipe. it's really, really good. i've always made it in a percolator, but just last year discovered that it's just as good made on the stove, so i threw away my crappy old boughtatajunkstore percolator and didn't even look back. enjoy!! :)

Russian Tea
2 cups oj (not-from-concentrate)
4 cups water
2/3 cups (one small can) pineapple juice (it comes in 6 packs of little cans)
1 lemon and 1 lime, squeezed
2/3 cups sugar (i use a little less)
2 tea bags (any kind)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
6 or 7 cloves (i put these in a tea-ball so i don't have to fish them out!)

mix all ingredients together in a pot, heat on medium to medium-high for about 20 minutes (i don't really know how long...just until it's "done") stir occasionally. it's okay if it boils, but that's not really the goal. the smell that fills your house is almost as good as the drink itself! refrigerate leftovers and either reheat or pour over ice! it's great both ways!!

advice for the holidays!

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it's rare. In fact, it's even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don't like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have SOME standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Reread tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.