And So This Is Christmas

Merry Christmas everybody and anybody! I have had an absolutely perfect holiday; with Christmas Eve spent with friends (and lots of little kids to play with) and a Candlelight service at church, and today spend enjoying family, left-overs and presents. 

This year was a very small and very quiet Christmas, each member of the family getting a single gift from everybody else–so it worked out to three presents per person (or in MA’s case, one big present from Dad, Mom and I together). I think I like a small Christmas, though. It certainly gave us more time to enjoy each other! 

The only things not right about today were a) rain which turned to ice and b) no internet to speak of because of said rain. It took Mom the better part of this afternoon to post pictures of Christmas. 

 

 

 

My Presents

From MA: a pocket-sized Paperblanks journal and a very nice pen. 

From Mom and Dad: Music from all three High School Musicals on MP3. 

From the family: a hand-blown glass straw.

The gift card is from Aunt kgh; thank you!

EDIT: I used the gift card to get a sweater/top/thing–

 

O Christmas Herb

Like I mentioned in that post called “The Christmas Quiz”, I prefer live trees. I was very glad when we got one for this year…although it does admittedly stretch the definition of “tree”.

It’s a rosemary “tree”. The entire house now smells of rosemary…not an unpleasant scent by any means, although no one has been cooking with rosemary either. The angel beside it usually adorns the top of my family’s Christmas trees; this year she is next to it because, well, she is the Fat Bottom Angel, not the Skinny Bottom Angel.

As Cricket poking her head out from around the tree, all I will say is that a certain camera was pounced soon after this picture was taken.

 

And So December Creeps By

I’d like to say that I’ve been extremely busy and that is why I have not posted anything here in a while. In truth, however, there has been very little going on and none of it of a type to inspire a writing mood. . .but maybe that is the fault of the mood and not of the circumstances.

Well, there has been one event of note this month: my brother turned 21 on December 10.

My “Zahn” story is in a simmering stage…in other words, ideas are simmering around in my head, hopefully to break out into a fierce boil very soon. Maybe later this afternoon I’ll go turn the heat up.

Cricket caught (or stole) her fourth mouse. Ellie has decided that being around humans isn’t the worst fate imaginable. She’s actually taken to coming up to us to be petted.

It’s been cold and nasty out; but so far it only snowed once and it didn’t stick for very long. I think I’d prefer we had a lot of snow and that it stick. Almost anything is prettier to look at than half-frozen mud.

And so, between one thing and another, December creeps by.

 

For Every Action There Is An Equal And Opposite Reaction

In other words, my bed is raised up off the floor–as a direct reaction to Cricket catching yet another mouse. Actually, she stole it from Ellie and took off to my room to play with it. Cricket was happy; Ellie was not. Neither was the mouse, but that’s another story.

 

The Christmas Quiz

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Gift bags. I’m terrible at wrapping.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real; and I really like those Rosemary trees they have.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the week before Christmas…blame my dad, not me.
4. When do you take the tree down? Day after Christmas…and again blame my dad.
5. Do you like eggnog? You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had it.
6. Favorite gifts received as a child? Each and every one?
7. Hardest person to buy for? Most of the time it’s my brother.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dad.
9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever something leaps off the shelf, screaming out the name of somebody on my list.
11. Do you have a nativity? A couple.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Charlie Brown Christmas.
13. Favorite Christmas book? The title is completely escaping me…Oh, wait! I remember! It was a picture book about the twelve days of Christmas. I always like looking at the page with the 8 ladies dancing.
14. Favorite Christmasy dessert? Gingersnaps
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Cranberry sauce. Yum!
16. Lights on the tree? It’s kind of hard to put lights on a real tree, but colored.
17. Favorite Christmas songs? O Come O Come Emmanuel and What Child Is This?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both are fine.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? That depends on whether or not I’m reading ‘em off a list.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? The Fat-Bottomed Angel. Long story.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All the commercialism going on.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like Scottish bows and music!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Um…I don’t know. This year the menu will be very different as the family (including me) has gone mostly vegan.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Money for tuition, please. And maybe a new Paperblanks journal.

 

Advent of Change

Today is the first Sunday of Advent–the start of the new Church year; and all too soon it is going to be the secular New Year. In between these two dates are the end of National Novel Writing Month, my brother’s 21st birthday, and Christmas. Shortly after New Year’s is the beginning of my EMT course, and in May (about the time I think the course will be ending) two of my cousins are getting married. One of those cousins has always been in my eyes a “big girl”, being several years my senior; but the other cousin is the one I always ran with at family get-togethers. First we played together and then, as we got older, we talked. But no matter what the activity, we were our own little Terrible Trio (along with MA)–although we somehow managed to stay mostly out of trouble. I did say mostly, mind. Even I’m not perfect!

Other things in my life have been making me think about the process of growing up. This week I saw all three High School Musicals…which behind all the catchy songs and crazy choreography are really the story of a boy growing up and deciding what kind of man he is going to be…and my current story has reached the point where one of the characters says:

“What I was going to do with the rest of my life has always been an annoying question in the back of my head…but after today it needs to be answered.”

I really haven’t a clue if growing up is a process that ever actually ends; if there is ever a point where you can say: “Aha! I’m there!” If there is such a point, I’m pretty sure I haven’t reached it. However, all these things combined have made me realize that I may not be entirely an adult–but I have certainly passed the stage where I can think of myself as a child. I’m 19 (a popular age for literary heroines–how’s that for an odd side note!) and I suddenly get the feeling that the pace of my life is about to speed up. I admitted in my very first blog post that I am not the biggest fan of change, but I think I’m ready for the changes that this new year will bring…and I don’t mean “Ready” in a cocky sense, but more as in my life is ready for the changes.

Anyhow, Pastor has been preaching about examining and de-cluttering our lives this Advent season, so I think I’m going to take this opportunity to clean out my Favorites bar. Here’s the stuff from a file named “Stuff I’ll want to read again”:

• Raising Homeschooled Daughters
• Emotional Purity and Broken Heart Syndrome 
• Beauty and the Beast
• The Ballad of Hua Mulan
• Something on Fanfiction.net that I had great fun in reading

 

Can’t Beat A Witty Pastor

I realize this is my second post with somewhat anti-Twilight undertones, but this is just too funny not to share:

A Very “Twilight” Thanksgiving!

My pitch for a new screenplay:

The thankful Pilgrims struggle up Plymouth Rock, giving praise to the Lord for preserving them during their long and arduous journey. At the top of the rock sits a brooding young man with unnaturally pale skin. He glitters in the light.

“Hello.” he says broodily. “My name is Edward. I’m a vampire. Your daughters are cute.”

“Aaah!” shout the stout-hearted Pilgrim men, and shoot him.

One giant wolf hiding in the woods says to another wolf standing next to him, “Let’s not introduce ourselves just yet.”

 

Wierd…But Funny

Really funny.

 

A Blog Award

Elisabeth of In My Own Little Corner gave me a blog award. Thank you, Elisabeth! I’ve never done one of these before, so here we go.

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Copy the award.
3. Post it on your blog.
4. Tell your readers 7 things they didn’t know about you.
5. Link 7 bloggers as recipients.
6. Notify winners of award with a comment on their blog.
7. Keep being awesome.

1. My most embarrassing moment EVER was about a year ago, at the mall. I was coming out of the bookstore with my brother, I’d had a long day and I was tired. Any way, I got stopped by this lady. Her English wasn’t perfect, but I did get that she was wanted me to try out her sample of white creamy stuff. I just wanted to get out of there without being rude so I took a giant fingerful and popped it in my mouth. To my dying day (and possibly beyond) I will never forget the look on her face as she exclaimed: “Not to eat! It lotion!”
   And if that wasn’t bad enough I had to explain to my brother why I was scraping my tongue. He then took it upon himself to tell the whole story to the rest of the family.
2. I used to have the greatest difficulty pronouncing “Comfortable”.
3. I first started reading The Three Musketeers at the exact same time of finding out that some of my ancestors were French Huguenots from La Rochelle who were forced out of France. I, um, have never picked up the book again.
4. The most calls I get on my cell phone are when Mom and I are shopping together and she wants to know where I’ve gotten to this time.
5. I have pyromania tendencies.
6. I am often mistaken for Mom on the phone.
7. After playing badminton twice and twice tossing my racket in the air…where, by extreme ill fortune it came down in such a way as to make the rest of my team drop their own rackets to protect their heads…I was never asked to play again.

Now to pass it on…(I’m only allowed seven, so sorry if I miss anybody!)

Kelsey

Mom

Other Hannah

ForeverFan

RileyTea

Anne

Heidi

 

Wit By Accident

Said while reading a negative review of the “New Moon” movie: “Wow. That’s a rather biting review.”

It wasn’t until the rest of the family started laughing that I realized what I had said.

 

 

Happy Birthday to My Mom!

Happy birthday, Mom!

 

Boy, Ain’t Nature Fascinatin’

While surfing Wikipedia, I found an article on blue amber. I didn’t even know there was such a thing until today.

Blue amber when the light shines on it…

The same bit of amber when the light shines through it…

Pretty cool!

More about blue amber

Please excuse the title; I’ve been watching Newsies this weekend.

 

The Wardrobe

I now have a wardrobe to replace the closet I so gleefully took down. One of my neighbors bought it at a flea market or something, decided they didn’t want it and traded it to me for babysitting ”credits”. Pretty cool!

My Wardrobe

I doubt anyone going into it will find anything other than a very tight space.

That’s me in the reflection, by the way.

 

Introducing Daniel and Jack

After going to Ivy Tech on Thursday, Mom and I stopped by the pet store for her to buy some fish for her aquarium. While we were there, I looked at birds. I’ve really been missing Chip, and somehow I came home with two new parakeets.

These are some unusual parakeets: they do not swear, scream or otherwise engage in loud and obnoxious behavior. Instead they sing to us and live together peaceably. Wierd. So, introducing Daniel and Jack (named for Dr. Daniel Jackson and Jack O’Neil of Stargate SG1):

Daniel

Jack

Daniel and Jack 1

Daniel and Jack 2

 

NaNo ‘09: Update 2

3,535 as of last night. Slow and steady might just make the race yet!

These last two days have proven that 10 pages equals about 1,667 words, which is the minimum I can do and still make 50,000 words in 30 days. (Well, actually it is 1,666. a very long stream of 6’s. But I don’t think leaving .3 off a word will be very good for my already stretched sanity.)

The day before yesterday I was just overwhelmed. Yesterday I was fixated on the word count. Today I’m going to just write, and enjoy writing. I’ll try to make sure I do about 10 pages, but let the word count be hanged! Until tonight, that is.

In other news, I’m going to Ivy Tech tomorrow to met my instructor and be shown the lay-out of the place. I’m really rather excited!

 

Practice Does Not Always Make Perfect

If it did, I would have higher Spider Solitaire stats than 17 % after 135 games.

A familiar image on my computer screen

 

 

I’m Going To Swear!!!

They say that the big thing about swine flu is that it goes away and comes back. After I recovered from my bout with it, I swore I wouldn’t get the second round. I mean, come on, I’m a healthy gal! What use do I have of getting the flu twice in two weeks?

I stayed active, I drank tea and consumed foods stuffed with garlic.

Not an hour after I posted that last post, my throat started to hurt. Now I have a fever of 99.1 and those (never mind those adjectives popping up in my mind that are most unwelcome) body aches have returned.

I am not happy. In fact, I am rather cranky.