The Happenings of December

Man, it’s really hard to find time to blog now. Tis the season of finals! But I finished one final today and now I have a 7 page paper and another final to finish. Right now, it’s not going well because I’m caught up in watching The Nativity Story! I love it. I’ve had many Christmas things going on lately, but good thing I did most of my shopping already!

Last Sunday I went to my 1st cookie exchange. It sounded fun and it was…..BUT the process of making special Christmas cookies was not a great experience. Don’t try to be unique when you’re in a hurry! I decided to use my new pampered chef cookie press, so I used the spritz cookie recipe and Christmas cutters that came with the package. The 1st batch was good and it went down hill from there. Long story short, they looked like play dough (red wreathes, green trees, blue snowflakes) and tasted like nothing with a hint of flour. It was funny but not! By midnight, I gave up on those cookies. I was not taking those to the cookie exchange! I began making the Candy Cane cookies using the recipe that my mom and I had used every Christmas. They took a lot longer that I thought, because 4am rolled around and I had only made 35 cookies…patiently rolling & twisting red and plain cookie dough. I gave up and went to bed. Long story short, I ended up having the best disaster story. The party was still fun and I came home with about 35 really good cookies that other people made!

Hmmmm, let’s see……I missed a couple other Christmas parties because I was working on school stuff of course. But I guess the last fun thing was our Choir’s cantata at Church called Fear Not! Oh ya, and the Women’s Chrismas party, which was full of eating and ornament exchanging! Anyway, We had worked hard for months on our song and it turned out pretty good, surprisingly enough. I usually don’t get nervous now that I am used to singing on most Sundays, but we had a big crowd, plus my family came. Thank the Lord, we had a lot of people at church to hear the good news through music! I’m glad the stress of rehearsals is over, but I’m sad, because that means Christmas is almost over….with only 9 days left.

I also did family pictures after our cantata. Just to let everyone know, it pays off to have someone take pictures for you, because it took forever to put the camera on a ladder, position it and everyone right in the amount of 10 seconds before the flash goes off. And you know one picture won’t suffice, so we ended up with a lot more. But I was happy that I actually go a picture with my nephew, Eli, while his eyes were open! He’s so precious.

Anyway, I’m still excited for more events to come this month like the Candlelight service, the last of shopping, spending time with Drew and other family without homework in the way, Christmas, Drew's cows to have babies (hopefully soone!), and then the thrills of student teaching! Oh ya, I got my placements and I will be at Frazier Elementary (Ethan’s school) and Hughes Middle school in Burleson. I also finished my last big teaching exam, which is one step closer to certification. Alright, now that I’m some what caught up…back to my paper that I haven’t started yet :) .

So if you want to know about thanksgiving and black Friday shopping, just read the blogs of thecrazylifeofthepreacherswife and crazeehugginglady. There’s no need to repeat the story again. Just know I had a blast!! Maybe I can get back to blogging now that Thanksgiving break is over….but I do have tons of projects that I SHOULD be working on before finals. I’ll get to that tonight!
I have been really lazy this semester and usually I kill myself with keeping busy, so last night I asked God to encourage me somehow to get up and exercise (haven’t been consistent in doing that in months and my body feels horrible), and start getting my school work done to the best of my ability. So, before bed I laid out all of my work-out clothes and work clothes. I wake up this morning and the verse I looked at was about perseverance. A portion of James 1 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” I got outside, dressed warm, but I didn’t know it would be THAT cold! Man, the northerly wind froze my face and breathing hurt my lungs, but I pressed on. Listening to my music while I run really helps me keep going, and even then, I got more encouragement when I wanted to stop at 13 minutes into my run. Josh Groban sang… “Don’t give up, it’s just the weight of the world.” I finished strong and then while I’m doing my cool down stretching, Teryn had arrived at the house to drop off Emma & Lilly for Whitney, she walks out and I scare her half to death because she thought I was a bum just sitting on the pavement. It was funny (or at least it was for me)! Anyway, I actually made it to work before 9am instead of sleeping late. So far, the day has been good and God has already answered a prayer (doesn't matter how small they are!). We shall see if I get some school work done tonight! But for now, I have to get back to work, actually I think I'm going home to get some down now! Latr!