Christmas 2009

Let me preface this post by saying, this is going to be another long post with lots of pictures. Sorry. This is what happens when you have one of the busiest Christmas seasons EVER. I think we spent more time on the road and partaking in festivities this Christmas than all other Christmases combined! It may have been the busiest Christmas, but it was also one of the best Christmases ever.

That said, we started the holidays off with a little shindig at our new place in East Point. We made lots of yummy treats and had a few good friends over to enjoy some games, some chatting, and as always, lots of laughing.

David's delicious cookies.

Mr. Paul Mitchell, Esquire treated us to a Christmas reading of "Strange Seashells and Their Stories" - a holiday classic. In front of a "roaring" fire, too!

We played a brutal round of boys vs. girls Christmas Win, Lose or Draw and I finally got to break out my $1 Target junk bin reindeer ears that I insisted I must have or my Christmas would not be complete.

Sarah's brilliant representation of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer". Only, this Christmas, the reindeer decided to really cement the deed and use a truck.

Sarah liked the switch.

. . . and so did Joseph.

We chatted and had fun playing more games.

A party is never a party without Ashlyn and Miles. Love them.

And as always, my love finished the night with a cookie.

After the party, and a week or two of merriment in Atlanta, we headed to the mountains to begin Christmas with our family. We started the fun with a stop at the Niggley's beautiful home in the Cohutta Wilderness. The Niggleys always make the holidays special with great food and great company, and this year, with a great dancing, singing Christmas tree hat!

David with his pretty mom.

The hat, literally dancing off of my head.

Christmas Eve with Grandmom and the Murdocks.

Christmas Eve love.

Christmas morning, awaiting the mayhem of present opening.

Dewey and his new gun. Time to leave.

Christmas Day evening, we found ourselves at my parents' abode, playing more Christmas Win, Lose or Draw. This time it was a little less brutal, but still hilarious.

Our good friend Josh, playing along with the crazy Dunns.

Daddy drawing the best interpretation of "figgy pudding" ever.

Figgy Pudding. The two little blobs at the top that look a little like poo are figs. The bowl and spoon are self-explanatory. But the best is the rectangle with two rows of dashes. Those are Fig Newtons. Brilliant.

No Christmas would be complete without a family dance contest.

I clearly won.

Merry Christmas!

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . .

. . . but the fire is so delightful.

Six more days till Christmas, and less than that till friends, family, and great food.

I can't wait!

Getting Hitched

One of the most wonderful people in the WORLD is getting married on New Year's Day.

My beautiful best friend, Summer is marrying the equally wonderful Greg on the first of January. I couldn't be happier for them, or more excited about the big day, as I have the honor of being Summer's Matron of Honor! Summer's sister, Sydna, is the Maid of Honor and Summer picked wonderful bridesmaid's dresses for us. No horrible pea green monstrosities here, just a beautiful, flattering dress that I can't wait to wear! Over the past few weeks, I've been able to be a part of the wedding festivities, including a shower in Franklin Springs and her fun, and funny bachelorette party in Athens.

The bride and her bridesmaid's with Sydna's wonderful bow bouquet.

Me and my Sum.

The bachelorette party at Cali & Tito's in Athens. So much fun!

So, so, so excited for the New Year for so many reasons, but especially for the beginning of a great marriage.

I love you Summer.

Currently Reading . . .

The title of this post is a lie. I've actually finished reading this book and have moved on to it's sequel. As the picture shows, I've recently finished reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.

David and his mom have suggested this book to me multiple times, but for some reason I always put it on the back burner and chose something else. I am SO GLAD that I finally made time for this book.

The story is about a modern author who feels disillusioned with the current state of the world. He feels that he and the rest of the world are being lied to, but he doesn't know by whom or what the lie is. One day he sees an ad in the paper:

"Teacher seeks pupil, must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person"

The narrator answers the ad only to find himself in a room with an overwhelmingly large gorilla named Ishmael. Even more surprising than being in a room with a gorilla is when the gorilla begins to communicate telepathically with the narrator.

I know this sounds kind of weird, but stay with me.

The narrator decides to look past the fact that he is able to communicate telepathically with Ishmael (which suggests that the reader must also suspend disbelief) and proceeds to have a series of discourses about the origins of our culture and about what Ishmael describes as the reason things are the way they are.

I'm really glad that I decided to finish this book before doing a post about it. About halfway through the book, once I had delved into Ishmael's explanations of what drives the two cultures described in the book, the Takers and the Leavers, I began to feel as though the world is spiraling out of control and that there is no way to fix it. I felt that the book was telling me that we've passed the point of being able to heal the planet and that this dismal fate is all due to our unwillingness to see ourselves as ONE of God's creations, a helper in taking care of the earth, rather than as the creation that has the right to destroy any other creature or environ, mistaking wants for needs. After finishing the book, I still agree with the second part of the above statement, but Ishmael's final lessons in the novel reveal a possible course to changing the way we view our role in the world. I ultimately left the novel feeling hopeful, yet concerned.

There is so much more to the book than solely what I've mentioned above.

The author provides a wonderful explanation of the agricultural revolution and our culture's movement away from the more sustainable methods of food gathering, such as the hunter/gatherer tradition, and many, many others. He also discusses the correlation between an increase in food production and unrestrained population growth. I had never really thought about those two together in the way that the author presents them.

This novel has changed my perspective on so many ideas. I don't want to misrepresent the ideas in this novel. The above thoughts are merely my interpretation of the author's words. I wanted to share my thoughts on this novel, because I feel that generating dialogs about ways to improve the life of the planet must be one of Quinn's goals in writing the novel.

I have started the sequel to Ishmael called My Ishmael and it is equally as thought provoking as it's mate. Once I get a little more into it, I'll try to remember to do another post.

I hope many, many people will read both books.

Happiness is . . .

Once again, it's been WAY too long since I've done a Happiness is post. The past few months have been both fun and stressful, but as alway, I have a lot to be happy about.

Soooo, Happiness is . . .

1. a family who always takes the time to make you feel like a princess on your birthday.

2. getting over the stress of moving, being sick, and general business by building lots of fires in our fireplace and cuddling.

3. tapioca pudding

4. counting down the days till your best friend gets married. ( just 25 more days, Summer!)

5. the light in December

6. the air in December

7. realizing that instead of sitting in an hour of traffic on my way to work, I can take public transportation and relax, read a book, and cut my commute in half. thanks MARTA!

8. reading books that truly change the way you see the world.

9. laughing until my sides hurt when David got a clothespin stuck in his hair.

10. decorating for Christmas, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, Christmas parties, Christmas treats, Christmas giving - I. love. Christmas.

imaga via marthastewart.com

image via coastalliving.com

The end of November

Well, David is finally beginning to feel better. He still has a cough, but is rid of the pneumonia. He's trying to take it easy, but with the end of the semester approaching, he's back to living in the studio. He got better just in time for me to get sick. I went home to Toccoa for my 25th birthday last weekend and while I was there, I began to feel not so great. Then Monday came around and I felt AWFUL. It's not the flu, thank goodness, but I feel like I have pretty much all of the symptoms of the flu, minus a fever. I have a horrible cough, and an accompanying headache, general body aches and congestion. This has been going on since Monday and I can't seem to shake it. David and I are now running our own personal pharmacy. I'm taking Tylenol severe cold during the day and mucinex at night. I tried the honey and lemon juice, but I can't stomach all that sweetness, so I'm sticking with cough drops. By the way, every time I take Mucinex, I picture those horrible commercials where they dress snot up in people clothes and have them talk about moving into my sinuses. Gross. I have a lot to do this week and I would REALLY like to feel better so I can actually do it, but as of now I feel like sleeping for a week.

Even though I felt horrible this last week, I had a great time with my family for my birthday and David and I managed to host Thanksgiving at our new house in East Point. It was lots of fun. Here are the pictures from all of the festivities:

For my birthday, my mom decided that I was princess for a day.

She took me to get a massage, we got a manicure and pedicure together

and she made me take pictures in the princess tiara and sash she made for me.

I love my mom! She's the best at having fun.

After a relaxing day, my mom and my brothers took me to dinner and then to see New Moon.

Here we are, waiting in the line with all of the tweens.

After the movie, which by the way was better than the first, but still not right, we went home and ate yummy coconut cake. You can see my dad's birthday present to me in the background. We gave him the option of seeing New Moon with us, or staying home to do a month's worth of mine and David's laundry. As you can see, he chose the laundry.

Just a few days later, we had the Dunns and the Cates over for a festive family Thanksgiving.

David and Dewey did an excellent job carving the turkey . . .

The Dunn boys posed for a photo on our back deck . . .

We all got together for a Dunn family picture . . .

My love and I stopped for a hug and a picture . . .

Donna and I realized that we match . . .

The boys threw the football in the backyard . . .

Grandmom made a cameo . . .

. . . and we had a WONDERFUL night.

Bleh.

I know I haven't posted in what feels like a very long time. Here is my excuse, or excuses, really.

1. We just moved again for the third time in one year; that equals four different houses we have lived in in ONE YEAR. The thought alone makes me feel tired. With David consumed with school, that left me to do most of the packing and unpacking. I hope this house will be a winner. I guess it has to be for at least the length of our one-year lease! We're really liking it so far. . .

2. I have been working more hours at my current job at SPANX. Which is great, but means less time that I'm willing to sit in front of a computer once I'm home for the day.

3. David has contracted the flu. I hate the word "contracted", but it's late, and my mind is not willing to think of another word at the moment. We're not sure if it's H1N1. We don't think so since his fever is not as high as what it's supposed to be with H1N1. Neither of us have had the flu in a really long time, so we had forgotten how dreadful it is. I'm pretty sure that if you offered to put David out of his misery right now, he might say yes. He's passed out twice, once hitting his head on the side of our bathtub. He has the worst cough I've heard in a while (it's one of those horrible coughs where it just keeps going and going till you're eventually gagging). His body is so achy, I can't even touch him without him wincing. It's pretty much hell. I'm trying to be a good doctor and keep him full of liquids and Vitamin C and make sure he gets enough protein and rest, but I feel kind of helpless as far as being able to really alleviate his pain. I'm running on four days of no sleep and I feel like I'm running out of steam. We're trying to be really careful and keep a safe distance so I don't get sick, but it's excruciating, because all I want to do is cuddle and hug and kiss him till he feels better. I know David is really stressed out, because he has missed three days of school and now feels really behind - and he doesn't seem to be getting much better yet. On top of it all, today was the marathon and half marathon we were supposed to run. David trained so hard for this race. We were both so excited about running. Of course he would get the flu the week of the race. It figures. We talked about heading to the race for me to run, but decided that it might not be a good idea in terms of keeping me healthy. We feel like I have to be incubating the virus, and we were afraid that running 13 miles might be too much for my immune system. Plus, running on four days of no sleep would have probably resulted in me curled up on the side of the road, crying. This all adds up to a less than ideal couple of weeks.

Bleh.