Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas!

This was definitely one of the nicest Christmases I've had in a loooong time. I started off feeling very non-festive. I didn't really want to listen to the music or watch the traditional movies or do any of that stuff. And it pretty much lasted the whole 'season,' but in the end, it was still really wonderful.

I didn't stress about presents or anything. I made a bunch of homemade Christmas cards (most of which still haven't been sent out...whoops, not stressing about things can be counterproductive.) and cookies for co-workers and friends.


We drew names for each other in our family and only bought our person a gift. I would recommend this for anyone in a larger family who is on a budget. The lower stress (that is key here) and ability to spend more on one person and all was a lot more fun than trying to buy everyone something. The only problem with this system was that every time I went out I could never find stuff that my person (Matt) would like and always found tons of stuff that every other family member would have loved. But in the end I was able to find stuff for him and I even got it wrapped in time for the big day.
I got to meet up with Courteney to do some shopping on Tuesday. We bought Christmas earrings! Hers were Christmas lights that blinked. Mine had bells that jingled. They were totally gaudy and totally fun. And they were appropriate for Christmas. You gotta have some fun!

We spent a few hours on Christmas at Harper's Ferry. You know, my happy place. :)




I pointed the camera their way and Adam said, " on 3, we'll make funny faces! 1...2...3!" and he made this goofy face and Holly just smiled normally.
Dad asked me to take this picture of him and Solomon. This reminds me of the pictures of couples in front of some grand scenery hugging or kissing...only it's Dad and the dog. It made me laugh. So very dramatic these two.

And they can be thoughtful sometimes.She's just so cute. She wasn't ready for me to snap the picture and Adam distracted her and she started laughing. I like candid shots.

All in all, it was a lovely day. We came home and had Christmas dinner (indian curry, we balk at tradition!) and watched the end of The Christmas Story and a Dogs 101 marathon (they had an episode about Newfoundlands but it came on late so we watched all the episodes leading up to it while we were waiting.) and I fell asleep. I also watched a (slightly creepy) version of the Nutcracker and it made me sad because I miss dancing so much! And I miss being skinny so much! I'm not going to think about it. :) Maybe someday I'll get into some dance class again and it will be so much fun!

I made a new bag on Christmas Eve, but I didn't take any pictures of it. So I'll do that sometime and post about it! Until then, this will probably be my last post of the year because on Sunday I'm leaving for DC. I'm going to RADIATE! Wish me luck. Have a great New Years!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

School is out!

Yes, school is finally finished for the semester! I've been off for about a week but my schedule has still been really busy with work. We've had a couple of incidents this week where the weather forecast was calling for freezing rain and both times we got away without having any problems. So that was really good, but it did kind of wreak havoc on our work schedule. We went to work, but most of the patients didn't show up. I don't blame them. On Tuesday I was only at work for a little over an hour when it started sleeting and I decided to go home. The temperature stayed around 34 though so nothing actually froze. :) Besides working extra days I have been able to do some "Christmas-ey" stuff too. I went to a Christmas show at my friend's church and got to see a bunch of people I knew, but hadn't seen in a long time. I also went to the light show at the park (my camera battery was dead...I found out when I got to the park so I didn't get any pictures) which was really pretty. I might go back tomorrow if it's not too rainy to try and get some pictures of it although I have the worst time trying to take pictures at night. We'll see if I get some good ones though...if I go back at all. And besides all of that we (Campus Crusade for Christ) did a cookie giveaway at school which was fun too. And a lot of work! Last Friday we went to the homeschool coop Christmas party which is always fun too. I haven't seen some of these people for about a year and all the kids are so tall! I feel so short! Today I am meeting Courteney for lunch and to do some shopping (I know, 2 days before Christmas is not a good time to go shopping, but we were both working so much last week that we didn't have time). This is our tradition! It started 2 years ago when my sister got married (they just celebrated their anniversary...2 years goes by very quickly!) and I had been so busy finishing 6 classes, tutoring and helping with the wedding that I didn't do any Christmas shopping, and Court had been so busy with her first semester at school taking like 7 classes that she hadn't done very much shopping either, so we met up at the mall 2 weeks before Christmas and got all our shopping done. It was probably the most productive shopping trip I've ever gone on. We've been doing it every year since then. Well, we've done it once since then, but we plan to do it every year. We're not even Christmas shopping this time. We're all finished with that. We're just shopping because that's the tradition. That and I need to exchange a jacket I got last week. :) And I miss hanging out with her cause she's at school 32 weeks out of the year. :( It will be even more fun too because our sisters are coming. Her older sister, Becky, lives in Indiana and I haven't seen her in about a year so she and Jacqueline are coming too to catch up with each other.

So basically here's what's been going on around here lately:
school is out
I'm officially off of work for the next 2 weeks!
Christmas in in 2 days
I've made (and given away...I didn't keep them all for myself) ridiculous amounts of cookies to take to school and work and parties and other offices I've worked at and they are FINALLY gone!
I got 4 A's and 1 B in my classes this year
I finished the requirements for my 2 year degree...just waiting to see if the board will allow me to graduate since I missed the deadline for application...
I'm in the process of applying to WVU's dental hygiene program
I'm going to RADIATE this Sunday
I haven't done any sewing, but I did make some cards. :)

I better get off here now. I have to take a shower and be ready to go in about an hour and a half so I will try to post some pictures sometime soon. December really turned out to be a bad month for blogging! So was November! We are still on dial-up internet so I can't do too much on here unless I take the laptop up to Daily Grind or somewhere where a wireless internet connection is available. So if posting is kinda sparse, that is the reason why. I miss wireless.

I do have some plans for some projects I would like to make and I have some shower ideas for my sister's baby shower. Only 3 more months before I meet my niece! It's so exciting!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Dear blog,

I really miss blogging. After this semester is over (in about 3 days) I am planning to finally do some fun crafty stuff and write about all the things that have happened in the past few months. It may take awhile, but I'm determined to do it!

So I'll be back soon! Don't go away!

:)