~Merry Christmas 2005~

I had a good Christmas weekend, how about you? Hello? Hello? Anyone out there? I am beginning to think of this more as my own private e-journal since I don't have too many comments posted, but that's ok, too, because I am enjoying this catharsis through blogging!

Christmas day was enjoyed first by watching A Christmas Story with my Mom and brother around midnight while we finished some last minute Christmas wrapping. Then the day began by me playing Santa and taking a gift to a friend, followed by making breakfast for my family staying with me. I really enjoyed this and forgot how much I enjoy it since I live alone and haven't had as much family coming over lately. It was good to be a hostess to them this weekend! I then proceeded to attend church and look frantically for my family all over the sanctuary finally finding them only to see that there was no room for me to sit with them! Oh well, I was able to sit behind them and see my brother nod off and almost hit the lady next to him with his arm when he was stretching in his dozing! Hah! I did enjoy the sermon today in which Buddy reminded us of the importance of pondering things in our heart, analyzing the details, looking at God's plan at work, and truly recognizing the worth in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

I was then embarrassed to see my Mom laugh almost completely through the ending song in worship. She later proceeded to tell me that she asked her husband if the lady singing was Asian and he responded to her, yes, I think maybe so, but they are dubbing her voice with an African American woman. You would have to be there to understand this humor because this lady singing has an unbelievalbe voice which I compare to that of someone like Sandi Patty, and she was singing an African spiritual Christmas song, and she does look like she could be Asian, she is beautiful.

We then proceeded home to cook Southern Living Peppermint Red Velvet Cake, Green Bean Artichoke Casserole, and a salad with toasted almonds, strawberries, spinach, mandarin oranges, and creamy poppyseed dressing, my fav! Then off to lunch with more of the fam. We had a great day with my sis, Amber, and her boyfriend, Nathan, in from Chicago and my other sis, Angela and brother-in-law, Clem, and their 2 children, Nicholas and Amanda, my Mom and her husband, Larry, and my brother Nathan.

I have to say favorite dinner dish today, my sister's Cranberry, Green Apple, Oatmeal dish. Awesome. I did good today on not overeating. We then proceeded to play our family tradition Christmas game in which everyone brings 3-5 wrapped presents, kind of like dirty santa, and you go around and guess Red or Black for what your card turned over will be from playing cards. In round 1, if you guess correctly you pick a wrapped gift and place it by your side. This takes place until all the gifts are taken from the middle. Then everyone proceeds to open their gifts 1 at a time to show everyone what they have acquired. Round 2, the fangs come out! We then set a timer for 15 minutes and go around again guessing red or black, and if guessed correctly you can take someone's gift, and after 3 times taken it is frozen. Much fun, I won a target gift card, How The Grinch Stole Christmas DVD, and a cute pink sparkly SAK makeup bag.

There was a new tradition this year with my sister Angela writing presents with tags to us from different stars like To Julie: From: Bo Bice, Mariah Carey, Usher, etc...The funniest response to this was by my brother Nathan, "Who is this from?"......"Usher, Usher who...." In which we all responded "Yeah, Yeah, A'town, peace out!" There were several other top ten worthy quotes from family including my Mom saying, "I'm having problems with the dexterity in my hands..." as she was wiping down a kitchen counter! Also my response to my nephew Nick at the end of the game, I asked, "Is that all you got, 2 balls?" Meaning he won these 2 different type of balls from our present game, but my sick family started out bursting in laughter, maybe TMI for a blog! Well I could go on and on and probably will edit this bad boy with more Top Ten from the fam and pictures! I then ended the night with friends, and was a little sleepy and feeling restless, so I headed home to try and sleep, but am waiting on my Mom to get home! I tend to feel a little wishful at the end of Christmas day, but I think it's time for bed and I can just dream. It was a beautiful day, just the way it was!

Looking forward to 2006, I pray that everyone had a wonderful day in the Celebration of our Savior's birth.