End of 2010

Well, somehow the last 2 days flew by. How did that happen?

On Thursday I drove home from SA. It took 4 hours on the way down and 5 1/2 to come back. (Boo traffic.) When traffic looked like this:

I stayed glass half full by doing this:

(notice my new scarf I got from Charming Charlie?) As you can tell… I was bored. I choose to think it was a desire for positivity, not narcissism, that lead to the mini car photo-shoot.

While I was driving I ate:

and

 

After the drive home I had meetings Thursday and Friday for church stuff, I did laundry (hurriedly) and played with some of my new toys from my shopping excursion.

My new birds!

Latte made with my bodum milk frother (love it!)

And I even found the book I was looking for that I saw on Allie’s blog last week! Yay! Now all I need is my camera!

I’m participating in Diana’s eat-in challenge in order to save money for my camera and kick off 2011 healthier, so I had my last supper (er…..lunch) at Pei Wei before my meeting Friday.

And after my meeting I came home to get ready to celebrate New Year’s (or New Years?) with friends.

It started with Family Dinner at Rachel’s, Chorizo White Bean Kale Soup and homemade bread, and lots of good conversation. I know I say it a lot, but I am so blessed by these girls.

And then we headed over to Kathryn and Victoria’s for the celebration! Victoria had her DSLR and let me play with it all night, so bring on the good photos now!

Kathryn and I both have extensive Friends trivia knowledge, and though I always beat her at Friends Scene it, we both think she knows a bit more trivia and I have faster reflexes. So we did a trivia-off. Which totally reminded us of this episode! We each won a round, so I guess the champion will have to be determined another day.

We also somehow ended up taking pictures as super models, practicing our best smize.

We had a great time and rung in the new year right.

Hoping to have another post for you soon with all my New Year’s Resolutions (and I have a lot). Keep a look out for that!

 

2010 was an amazing year, and I’m looking forward to a lot of changes and a lot of excitement in 2011!  Happy New Year!

 

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Roommate Gifts and One More Day!

Today has been relaxing and productive. With the nephew being born and trying to finish up Christmas shopping, today has really been the frist day that I’ve been able to relax. Ahhhh….

But first lets backtrack…. Deb and Sarah and I realized last night that we needed to do our Christmas because it may be our last night together before we go our separate ways for family Christmas. So we opened some wine, had dinner, started Fellowship of The Rings, and opened gifts. It was fun. We haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. (That’s probably not true…we laugh a lot all the time, but last night was especially fun.)

Present exchange was fun, and I wanted to show you what my roommates gave me- lots of fun stuff!

Sarah gave me this beautiful set of makeup brushes from Bare Essentials. Hooray! I’ve been needing new makeup brushes forever!

 

Deb gave me a stocking hanger (because both of us didn’t have one!) with a Christmas tree and an angel, two of my favorite Christmas symbols. She asked me the other day what my favorite Christmas symbol was- I didn’t even pick up that it was a gift hint I was giving her. I was thinking how great a question that was and had to think long and hard to come up with an answer. She stumped me!

She also gave me a jar of pumpkin butter- yum! My roommates have to live with my love of all things pumpkin, cinnamon spiced, or otherwise fall flavored, so she picked the perfect gift for me. I hadn’t been able to find any pumpkin butter anywhere this fall and had to settle for peach pecan butter (which is still really really good) that I found at Target. Now I have pumpkin butter!!! (Anybody want to guess what I had for breakfast this morning?)

And then we did stockings. I was most excited about this because we don’t do stockings in my family, so I’ve never had a stocking to stuff or open. It was fun shopping for little things I knew my roommates would love and wait to see what was in my stocking!

I don’t know if it’s because my roommates are sisters, or if I’m just really easy to shop for, but my stocking totally had a theme. Citrus!

Blood orange body wash, Lush bath bomb, Sephora pink grapefruit sorbet body scrub, blood orange chocolate rooibos tea, and clementines! Everything is orange and grapefruit! I love it!

Also, some SUPER cute fingerless gloves, a Christmas tree ornament, and a See’s chocolate sucker (yum!)

Don’t be fooled- I know I only have photos of the gifts, but even more than that, the time I got to spend laughing, celebrating, crying, eating, talking, and being with my roommates was the best part of all.

Tomorrow I’m headed to Ft. Worth for Christmas with my fam (and new nephew!), and I can’t wait to celebrate with them all!

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It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I knew all day today exactly what I wanted to do tonight.

I wanted to look at Christmas lights. While drinking Starbucks. And listening to Christmas music.

Victoria obliged to come with me, and after a homemade dinner of mushroom cream chicken over pasta (forgot to take a picture, sorry!), we set off.

First of all, let me say one thing. I really only go to Starbucks once or twice a week. But since it’s always before work, the morning crew knows me. (Which I LOVE. But that’s for another post.) Anyway, Victoria and I walked in and were greeted by Cesar, one of my morning guys. I don’t know if Victoria was more impressed or concerned by the fact that he knew me by name… Let’s just say the stop at Starbucks ended in 2 cds, a dvd, 2 drinks, and 2 $5 gift cards, for a grand total of $10. Thank you feminine wiles and Cesar’s devil-may-care sales philosophy.

I had a White Hot Chocolate (read: hot chocolate made with white chocolate as opposed to regular), which was, as Cesar’s recommendation predicted, the bomb.com.

After that, we piled into my Jeep and headed off for Highland Village (read: rich part of town) to look at Christmas lights, with Charlie Brown playing on the radio. It was so beautiful and so fun, and Victoria and I chatted away about Europe, boys, and life. (I love all of those things.)

These photos don’t even begin to cover it. But the piece de resistance of  the night was a house I remembered visiting last year. We found our way back, and it was totally worth the hunt!

This house was so over the top, they even had music playing so that you could roll down your window and enjoy. Those boxes over Victoria’s shoulder are working jack in the boxes. The Christmas tree spun slowly. It was off the charts Christmas-y.

After about 2 hours of driving around we headed home full of Christmas cheer. Huzzah!

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Christmas Song

Although my goal is always to only write about things I adore and to focus on what I love, I can’t start this post off without telling you about something I don’t like.

I don’t like Dave Matthews Band.

I know, I know. Everybody loves Dave Matthews. Maybe this has something to do with why I don’t like them- I just have to be different. Who knows.

So despite my dislike of DMB, I am currently addicted to this song. It popped up on my Sufjan Stevens Christmas Pandora Station this week, and I was instantly hooked. To me, the biggest thing  that makes good music is lyrics that allow you to see the world in a different way; that express something you wish you had the words to express. And this song totally does it.

It’s so beautiful. I love the simplicity of the imagery of Mary and Joseph, the beauty of what communion is, and the overarching “love, love, love….” It gives me chills.

She was his girl; he was her boyfriend
She’d be his wife; make him her husband
A surprise on the way, any day, any day
One healthy little giggling dribbling baby boy
The wise men came, three made their way
To shower him with love
While he lay in the hay
Shower him with love love love
Love love love
Love love was all around

Not very much of his childhood was known
Kept his mother Mary worried
Always out on his own
He met another Mary who for a reasonable fee, less than
Reputable as known to be
His heart was full of love love love
Love love love
Love love was all around

When Jesus Christ was nailed to the his tree
Said "oh, Daddy-o I can see how it all soon will be
I came to shed a little light on this darkening scene
Instead I fear I spill the blood of our children all around"
The blood of our children all around
The blood of our children all around
The blood of our children’s all around

So I’m told, the story goes
The people he knew were
Less than golden hearted
Gamblers and robbers
Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers
Like you and me, like you and me
Rumors insisted he soon would be
For his deviations
Taken into custody by the authorities
Less informed than he
Drinkers and jokers, all soul searchers
Searching for love love love
Love love love
Love love was all around

Preparations were made
For his celebration day
He said "eat this bread and think of it as me
Drink this wine and dream it will be
The blood of our children all around
The blood of our children all around"
The blood of our children all around

Father up above, why in all this anger have you fill
Me up with love
Fill me love love love
Love love love
Love love
And the blood of our children all around

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