Gauged

My ears are all warm and fuzzy. I gauged my ears. Well…with help. I don’t think I’d have been brave enough if my friend hadn’t been a pro piercer before. So instead of a 16 I have 10’s in my ear. Little teeny black tunnels. I’ll take a pic whenever the redness goes away…haha. I had totally wanted to do it forever, but I just really didn’t want to do something irreversible. I could still gauge a couple more sizes before I reach the point of no return. It’s funny how piercing and tattoos and stuff like that are addicting. I’m already like “8 gauge isn’t that much bigger”. Funny hey. I think I’m pretty content with 10’s. It’s cool too cause they are tunnels so I can still wear my coconut earings that I just got. It’s probably the first impulsive thing I’ve done in a really long time. It felt good. Silly, but good.

Two Christmas dinners down… Three to go. We have one every night this week. I totally messed up tonights and forgot I had French Class and Dinner. Sucky, but at least I did my French homework. The teacher let me off easy this time. Merci Coco! Je t’aime! Je ne suis pas assez intelligent. Here was my verse for this week

Romains 3:23 “Car tous ont péché et sont prive de la gloire de Dieu.”(aside from 1 spelling mistake when I checked it I got it right all by myself!) It says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

All I can say is that I’m defninitely better than Mr. Bean. His French is bad. In the new Bean movie (soo funny) this is a sample conversation:

Waitress in France: Would you like some coffee?

Mr. Bean: Oui!

Waitress: Cream or Sugar?

Mr. Bean: Non!

Waitress: Your French is good Monsieur.

Mr. Bean: Gracius!

If you don’t know whats wrong with that you need to take my French class.

Nudists in December (cold buns)

I think I’m raising a nudist…

For the last 2 days Emily has spun into a crazy tantrum if I don’t let her take all her clothes off. I’m trying to be open about it because she appears to want to potty train. So she takes all her clothes off then sits on the potty for 2 seconds and then wants to run around naked. It’s cute so I let her and she runs back and forth to the potty not peeing in it. Then she gets bored of the potty, which she insists must sit directly in front of the Christmas tree. (Nothing like peeing with good scenery). Now picture this huge fight to put a diaper on again. I’m not against potty training, but I am against nudists peeing on my carpet. We get the clothes on…she takes them off again. We put them on again, she gets distracted for 10 minutes…then off they come again…Ahhhh. For serious I don’t think I’d mind so much, but its December. Who has time for nudists in December? Who wants to be a nudist in December?? It’s getting old to say the least.

My mom was my hero today! Yay Mom. She rescues me lots, but today was just one of those days. I played on the worship team at church and my mom held Em while I was on stage. Right after I took Em to the Nursery to play until Sunday School time. The second we got in there she started freaking out.”Teacher Karen!!!!!!!”(note: to save room I condensed the “!” ’s to a minimum.) Teacher Karen is Em’s new favorite person. Who doesn’t love a class that always has food! We are trying to get Emily used to Sunday School early so she will have an easier transition. Anyways…So today I was just in the mom mode of “AHHHH” when my mom came to find me in the nursery. She asked if I wanted to let her take Em to Sunday school. one big loud “Hallelujah” later, I was calmly walking back to my seat at the front of the church as if I hadn’t been ready to pull all my hair out. My mom was such a life saver today!

A tradition I love is opening stockings. I love all the neat little things you get Christmas morning. It’s rather silly, but probably my favorite part is the orange in the toe of the stocking. I’m not sure why, but its tradition. We talked about tradition at church today. So yes I admit it’s a tradition AND I don’t know why. Still have the “Tradition” song in my head from “fiddler on the roof”.

I feel like my blog is a little disjointed today, or maybe I just have crappy segues, but thats a lil’ look see into my brain for today. Here’s to tomorrow!

Here is me right after snowboarding in the back yard!

Billy Bob Teeth

We went Christmas Tree Hunting Yesterday! It was so fun. Coco came with us too. It was her fist time Tree Hunting. I might add it was the perfect day for a first hunt. It snowed alot this week and then is warmed up just enough for us not to freeze. Coco found her tree first, then me and lastly after hiking down the side of a mountain…my mom found a suitable tree for her living room. We joke that mom can never find a tree next to the road, but technically she found our tree and let us have it. Then she wandered off and yelled at us from way down a hill. I proceeded to fall not once, but twice on our way down the hill. AND I was carrying a saw. My elbow is a bit sore today. We all got great trees.

I finished decorating mine last night. Its not a hugely branched tree. It’s not “well-en-bough-ed”. So I couldn’t put up as many ornaments as I wanted to. I bought some of those cheap metal hook things cause I hate it when the string on an ornament it too short and you have to fight it to put it on the tree. Our Lights look a fair bit faded this year. I was going to buy new ones today, but I decided it best to save the money and get some during the after Christmas sales. Plus I couldn’t wait any longer to decorate.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is Christmas Crackers. Right before dinner everyone crosses their arms and holds a Christmas Cracker (not edible) with the person next to them. On 3 we pull them and the cracker goes bang, or sometimes it doesn’t. haha. Then inside of the cracker there are lots of different little things. There is always a hat! Usually several of the people in my family have to adjust theirs due to oversized-head-ism. But we all wear them for the first part of dinner. For sure for pictures. I remember one year when My mom and I made Christmas Crackers. We made them individual for each person. They had a joke and a little prize and all the usual stuff, but 6 people got Billy Bob Teeth. Those funny fake teeth that make you look like a hick. It was so much fun and soo funny to see even my grandpa with Billy Bob Teeth. We put them into the dogs mouth too.

Our Billy Bob Teeth Family Resemblance. (hey…there’s my ZED hoodie! And I don’t miss those glasses.)

Jeudi Treize #11 (Thursday Thirteen)

 

Thirteen of my favorite Christmas Songs - Just to carry on the Christmas favorites Thu13’s Gloria - Mercyme - My top this year The 8 Polish Foods of Christmas - Veggie Tales - Classic The 12 days of Christmas - The Muppets - Takes me back to some good ole lip sinking days O come all ye faithful - Pretty much anyone can sing this and its good Let it Snow, Let is Snow, Let it Snow. -We sang this in high school choir and I loved it. Sleigh ride - Played this one in Band. Little Drummer Boy - Jars of Clay The nutcracker. OP 71 12d Character Dance:Trepak Russian Dance - Tchaikovsky - cause it reminds me of Home Alone. Your a mean one Mr. Grinch. “I wouldn’t touch you with a 39 1/2 foot pole” Ukrainian Bells. What child is This? It’s just so pretty. Baby, It’s Cold Outside - the version from Elf Jingle bells batman smells. I don’t think it’s a fav I just always have it stuck in my head. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! http://pluckymama.wordpress.com/ http://palofmine.wordpress.com/

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Grown up Christmas

I think I was 19 the year I discovered what being a grown up a Christmas meant. Christmas wasn’t boring or forgetful, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. Somehow you realize that Christmas will never be the same as when you were little. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just different. The magic of making your wish list and running upstairs to the Christmas tree just change.

I remember it was a fun Christmas with my whole family around. My cousins were there, everyone was there. Christmas morning came and we opened our stockings and then we opened our presents. Generally I was really happy with all my presents. They were all really thoughtful gifts. Most of them practical gifts for a college student. When all the presents were opened and the morning had come and gone it hit me. I realized that for the first time in years I wasn’t sitting on the floor playing with my presents. I didn’t get any toys or games.

This wasn’t a bad thing, but it was a huge reality check. I was not a little kid anymore. It’s like when most people stop believing in Santa. Only instead of being 5, I was 19. Sitting there on the couch feeling…well just feeling different. I couldn’t even point my finger at what was so strange. I looked over at my sister and could see that she felt like that too. We just kept giving each other these weird looks.

Over the last few years I’ve come to realize that the magic of Christmas changes when you grow up. The joy you once took in Lego on Christmas morning is now the joy you feel baking weeks ahead of time only to give it away. After eating some of it of course. The joy you once took in tearing the paper off of a present is replaced with the joy of wrapping something beautifully so it looks gorgeous when you give it. The joy of tearing around the house in you pajamas is replaced by relaxing with a cup of hot apple cider and enjoying the company of friends and family. The anxious waiting until the Christmas eve service is over so you could open your 1 Christmas eve present is replaced with truly enjoying spending time thinking about Jesus, the real reason of Christmas.

Some things will never change. That Christmas my sister and I decided we would always buy each other a game or some Lego so on Christmas morning we would always feel like little kids again. That we couldn’t let go of. But the true joy in Christmas as an adult doesn’t happen Christmas morning. It happens in the small things. The smiles walking down the street, the eyes of a child’s discoveries, time spent with family and mostly through the eyes of a baby born 2000 years ago. This much I’ve learned.

Emily Sledding Last Christmas