We Made it Merry and Bright: Continued December 30, 2008
Once I fell asleep on Wednesday night, and dreamed of sugarplums, I slept until 8:30 the next morning. Um yeah, you know Christmas has changed when you wake up at 5:00 on Christmas morning and pull the covers back over your head. I like to think that I have matured since my younger days of waking up at 3:00 just waiting for the first streaks of morning light, which was normally around 7:00. Dad would then make me wait at least another hour because he enjoyed cruel and unusual punishment on Christmas morning.
This Christmas I didn’t actually open one present until around 9:30. And yes,I was still in my pajamas. It was blissful. After I proceeded to get ready for the day, I was greeted by this sight walking through my door:
She is glamour personified. Actually I am now wondering why they don’t make sunglasses like those for adults. Not that I would actually wear glasses like that, but it’s nice to have options.
Around 2:00 the family started coming! Aunt Kris came bearing bags and boxes of Chex Mix and Muddie Buddies, as well as shrimp. Since I hadn’t eaten lunch, I proceeded to eat my fill of Chex Mix, until I looked at my aunt and said “get it away! The addiction is starting to take hold!” Her Chex Mix is something to behold, just the perfect amount of seasoning and pecans. Delicious!
We spent the rest of the afternoon eating, talking, eating, taking pictures, eating, laughing, and eating (notice a theme?) I did manage to take a break from all the eating to snap a few photos like these:
After eating our big, Christmas dinner, we commenced upon playing our annual “White Elephant Gift Exchange” since I drew number one, I was the first to open a present. This is what I received:
If I ever tried an online dating service (which I won’t), I think this would be my profile picture. Only a man’s man would attempt to contact a girl wearing an “Incredible Hulk” face mask. It would be my way of weeding out the wimps, and getting to the manly men.
After my gift was mercilessly taken from me, I then opened an even better gift:
The wonderful thing about this gift is that it will last all year long! That means it will take until next Christmas for me to finish it. It’s like a year long advent candy cane!
After all the gifts were unwrapped, we played game after game of Scattergories. Normally, I do pretty well, but I got beat by a certain team who shall remain nameless. I still think some of their words were a bit too creative.
And then on a whim of fun and spontaneity, we all headed to the movie theater to see “Marley and Me”, it was a cute movie, with a really cute dog. It actually made me have tender feelings toward chase, my diaper wearing, deaf and blind, dog.
Every Christmas is special, but this one, for some reason, was extra special. Truly better than I deserve.
Hope you had a great one too!
We Made it Merry and Bright… December 30, 2008
Hello, hello, hello!
I’m feeling rather jolly tonight, I call it “leftover Christmas spirit”. Let me just say that our Christmas this year was fantastic! I’m not really sure why except that this year was filled with more family, more conversation, and more laughter.
The only downfall is that it went by waaayyy to fast. But I had one of the best day after Christmas’ ever, too! I spent the day with my cousins shopping, eating, and of course, laughing!
We kicked our Christmas celebration off by having a superb Christmas Eve dinner and service in our own home, while the little girls serenaded us.
It was an inspiring rendition of “Away in a Manger”, that was too cute for words!
After the girls blessed us with their song, the “gift extravaganza” began! Each girl took turns while letting the others open their gifts. I was impressed by their patience, and willingness to wait. They did an excellent job!
I received some lovely gifts from Debbie, Daphne and Dustin, and Drew and Fran. I am enjoying them immensely. Thanks, guys!
After all the family had left, Mom, dad, and I opened our stockings and I watched my newly aquired “Wuthering Heights”. I know, I know, nothing says Christmas like a movie dealing with an insane man in love. Trust me, you could feel the Christmas spirit!
After I was throughly weirded out (in a good way!) by the love story of Heathcliff and Cathy I headed to bed. And visions of sugarplums danced in my head. (What are sugarplums?) I then woke up to a wonderfully, brown, warm day. Yes, you read that right, I did not have a white Christmas, rather a warm, brown one. But that will have to be finished tomorrow…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! December 25, 2008
I would like to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas! May the Lord bless you on this day!
Love,
Molly
A Happy, Healthy, Holiday to You! December 19, 2008
Ahem, once again, I’ve promised something , and have not fulfilled my promise. I told you I would take pictures of the concert with Travis last night, but I didn’t take my camera. Why? Well, please imagine a girl sitting on the second row, in a cute red and black polka dotted top, pulling out her Canon XSI Rebel. To snap a few pictures for her blog. If that doesn’t scream “Merry Christmas” I don’t know what does. I love you, blog friends, but not that much.
So, although there were no pictures, I can say that last night was AWESOME! Travis sounded great, as usual, and the orchestra was phenomenal!
I wish all of you could have been there…
Now, onto business. I have been busy in the kitchen this morning, baking up a batch of healthy snack food for a Christmas party I’m attending tonight. And since it’s the holiday’s, I thought I would give the gift of my recipe (in pictures!) to you! I know, I’m so generous.
First things first though, one must eat a healthy lunch to keep up her strength:
There is enough calcium in this cheese ball to build up some very strong and healthy bones. And the crackers are whole grain, it’s like eating oatmeal in a cracker!
Now that you are sufficiently strengthened for the task at hand, it is time to assemble the ingredients. First a healthy stick of butter, and a healthy two cups of sugar
The butter is made from real cream, so it’s totally unaltered, making it very healthy to consume. And the sugar is made from real cane, making it somewhat unaltered. We all know that they just refine it to make it pretty, and white. It’s sort of like make-up, just giving a more aesthetic quality.
Next, it’s time to add the vanilla (from real vanilla beans!), cocoa powder (from real cocoa beans!), and peanut butter (made from real peanuts!), and the oatmeal (real oats!)
The peanut butter had added calcium to it, so that makes it extra healthy!! Boy, I should have arms like Popeye by now with all the calcium flowing through my veins.
Finally, after all the hard work, you scoop the mixture onto wax paper (made from real wax! Sorry, couldn’t help myself)
And there you have it! A healthy, holiday snack the whole family will enjoy! Merry Christmas, arteries!!!
Needless to say, I’m excited… December 18, 2008
I cannot believe that I have not mentioned this to all of you! How could I forget to share the exciting news?? Some of you have already heard, but some of you have not.
Tomorrow night, yours truly (and 75 other people) are going to be singing with this guy!! I can hardly contain my excitement!
We have been practicing and practicing all the month of November and December. Thankfully we did this one last year so the music is somewhat familiar. It should be a great concert, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, and share some pictures. Because yes, picture-girl here will be taking photos.
I’m still trying to figure out how to take those photos from the choir loft, though. Any suggestions? I mean I don’t want to look obvious or anything. Not that I’m above it.
I’m singing back up with a group of people for Travis and the choir. Um, hello, I’m singing back up on a song that Travis arranged, while Travis is singing it. Someone pinch me! The hard part about it is that I really don’t know the notes, I just sort of “feel it” with my voice. So, if I go flat, I apologize in advance. “Sorry, Travis…”
If you live in my community, and would like to come, here is the info you need to know:
WHAT: “All Bow Down” with Travis Cottrell and Mt. Vernon’s Adult Choir
WHERE: Mt. Vernon Baptist Church
WHEN: Thursday, December 18th, 2008
TIME: 7:00 pm *It is advised that you get there early (like 6:00) since it is expected to be full.
COST: NOTHING!!!
Hope you might be able to come!
Singing Joyfully,
Molly
“Hallelujah”! December 8, 2008
Look!! I’m actually posting on MONDAY!! Mainly because I only have one more week of school until my Christmas break, and the workload is pretty light this week. How has your first week of December been? Mine was great, and the concert last Friday night at ASU was fantastic!
It was a wonderful way to kick-off the Christmas season, and they kicked it off in style.
I was able to snap a few pictures because miracles of miracles, they actually let me! Normally the man with the big, booming voice starts the show with “for the safety of the performers, please do not use flash photography.” I can understand that for dancers, they might be twirling and be thrown off-course by a flash. But singers? I mean, come on. It’s not like they will forget the lyrics because of a flash, some might, but that would have to be one highly sensitive person. Thankfully, ASU had confidence in their performers and let me snap as many photos as I would like. I felt like the paparazzi.
The first number for the evening was piece in some language I couldn’t understand, latin, maybe? I don’t know. But it was beautiful, and I enjoyed it very much. The second was the highly acclaimed “Steely Pan Steel Band”, and they were FANTASTIC! See for yourself:
One of my friends from church, Zawadi Morrow, is in the band and I must say that he really got into it! He was fun to watch!
I actually knew a lot of people in this years concert. It was fun to try and spot all of them when they were on stage. After a few more performances the Gospel Choir performed, and they had a soloist that sounded just like Aretha Franklin. She was phenomenal! I had a hard time staying in my seat during that performance. After the Gospel Choir, the lovely ladies of the Treble Choir performed two beautiful pieces, and I knew three girls in the choir as well.
I knew Jessica Miner, Hannah Price, Hannah Fuller. They sounded beautiful as always, and Dr. Porterfield looked lovely!
Soon After the Treble Choir the “Manly Men” (those of you who were at the Glee Club concert in November will know what I’m talking about.) of the Men’s Glee Club took the stage. Unfortunately, they were accompanying Dr. Julia Pedigo on “Have You Seen A Child” from “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, so I didn’t get to hear the actual Glee Club as much as I would have liked. But, from what I could hear they sounded great!
I knew David Barry, Josh Kelley, and David Omer. I had trouble finding them since they are all dressed alike. The entire Glee Club had an excellent sound!
The evening was finished off with two of my favorite pieces for Christmas, “Sleigh Ride, and the “Hallelujah Chorus”! Both were fantastic, and it was hard for me to stay in my seat for the “Hallelujah Chorus”, it was very majestic sounding. It was the perfect way to start the Christmas season! Hallelujah!
December Evening December 2, 2008
Happy December! I’m finding it so hard to believe that December is here! It seems that this past year has just flown by! Yesterday morning I awoke to some lovely snow falling, and the roads were covered with the beautiful “white stuff.” So I cancelled my plans for the day, and settled in to make some gingerbread ornaments for our tree! (I’ll take some pictures to show you once we get our tree up!) The ornaments turned out great, and I’m excited to see how they will look on our tree.
Once the maintenance men came to clear our road, my cousins and I went to the great store of Walmart! I say all that in jest, because going to Walmart during the Christmas season is equivalent to getting all your teeth pulled out in one day. Really puts you in the “non-Christmas” spirit! Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad, and to reward ourselves for braving Walmart on the first day of December, we drove ourselves to the “Candy Barrel” to purchase some various sweet, confections!
And then last night I challenged mom to a game of “Scrabble.” Man! I had forgotten how difficult that game can be. I knew it was getting bad when the only word I could spell was “UP” or “ME”. Something tells me that I need to do a few of my “Wordly Wise” exercises from middle school. But I took some pictures for you!
- The
The “Battlefield”
About midway through the game. Notice the word “UP in the left hand corner, that is my word. Genius, I know.
We then moved onto a rousing game of “Jenga”. Mom could barely contain her excitement.
Going in for the kill
This was mom’s first time playing “Jenga”. So you can imagine the horror she experienced when the tower came crashing to the ground.
All in all it was a very fun, quiet evening, that I hope to repeat soon!
