Merry CHRIST-mas!

Well, it finally came! After all the long anticipation, Christmas finally came and went. And boy was it a great Christmas! There was plenty of laughs, fun, prayer, and, yes, presents!

All my life I've known the true reason why we have Christmas- because of Jesus's birth! It explains in the Bible, that a woman named Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. (I say woman and man- but they were really teenagers!) But an angel appeared to Mary and told her that she was going to be with child- with Jesus! Mary, with a humble heart, didn't reject what the angel had to say. But, Mary was a virgin. So when Mary told Joseph that she was pregnant, he decided he should "put her away quietly". (He was a good man, and didn't want to cause a public disgrace.) But an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and explained that the child in her was from the Holy Spirit. When Joseph woke up, he did was the angel told him to. So, Jesus was born in Bethlehem! What a sight that must have been. And now we have Christmas to celebrate his birth:).

I admit, when I'm opening up the present that I've wanted for half the year, my mind isn't always on Jesus's birth. But I think it's very important, that during this season, we remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!

This was Christmas Eve:). We almost missed going to the Christmas Eve service! (A tradition we've had for as long as I can remember). But luckily, traffic loosened up and we made it just as things began.

Another tradition we have is to eat basically all junk food for dinner on Christmas Eve. Boy did I enjoy that as a kid! (And, I admit, I still enjoy it now too.) :)
Christmas morning:)

After the Christmas dinner, we all went for a walk to try and burn off all those icky calories!

Beautiful sister!

:)

Birthdays, Concerts, Caroling= Busy Week!

The title of this post says it all- I've been BUSY! My time last week was spent a little like this:

Monday- School, dress rehearsal

Tuesday- School, celebrate Mckenna's birthday, 3 hour concert

Wednesday- School, celebrate Sierra's birthday, vioce lesson, bake 30 brownies and wrap presents for friends on Friday

Thursday- School, 3 hour concert

Friday- Last day of school before the Christmas break, and caroling!

On the up side, I kinda like being busy. So even though I was slightly exhausted by Friday night, it was an amazing week!

McKenna's Party

Practically the second we got to her house, Tucker (McKenna's dog) got lose! But, we eventually got him. :)We had some fun. That's for sure:)This cake was probably the best cake I have EVER had. No lie.
She got all the candles in one breath!
All of us before our body bags. (Aka- our concert dresses. That's what we call them)

This is the best group of girls ever. From left to right we've got: Catherine, Mckenna, me, Sierra, and Cammie!

After the body bags:)!
I wore boots, instead of high heels. They were tons more comfortable!

Concert

Group of choir kids:)

McKenna will probably always be my choir buddy. We're both the same height, and there's no sign that we'll be growing any more any time soon, so it's pretty much set in stone that we'll always be next to each other:)

We had fun inbetween times going on stage:)
Siiiigh. Such a pretty picture. And such ugly dresses.

Concert Number 2! (It was a combined thing, with Klein orchestra, band, and choir, so Kayla was in it too.) (If you don't remember, Kayla, my sister, plays the cello. Quite wonderfully, I might add)
Cute picturee:))

Caroling Time!

Friday night a group of freshman from church went Caroling! We had a blast. We stopped at a nursing home, and a lot of the people came out and listenend:). It was a good moment. After that, we stopped at a couple of homes and sang there too. What a great night.

I ended up wearing Brandon's Oak sweatshirt. Bahaha:)

Isn't this gingerbread house the cutest?

The Best Music Ever Made Was Created With: 1. A comb and 2. A piece of paper.

Yeah baby.

Hark the herald angels sing.... bla?

Well someone knows how to spell.

Wes, Brandon, me, Sarah, and Caroline!

(Hah. Check out the kid in the back. There's photogenicness for you right there.)

As busy as it was... the week basically rocked!

Catch-Up Time

Life has been so busy lately! I used to be so good about getting things up here within a few days since the event happened (Or even the day of!). But, quite a few things have been happening and I haven't written anything! And I wrote about none of it. So, even though it's a little late, (which I apologize for) here is another update:

Getting Our Christmas Tree!

We found our tree (Right behind us) in record time! Like 10 minutes. Usually we drive from place to place until we found the perfect tree.. but this one seemed just fine. :)
Got it tied to the car:)

"Before"
After! (If the lights showed.. you'd be in awe) ;)

Choir Hayride:

On the Hayride. I look gross, but it's the only one I got on the hayride!
Cammie dropped her hotdog in the fire. lol.

I love this girl!

:)

And then Katie burnt her marshmellows.

Haha.

For us, part of having a good time is acting.. pretty crazy.

(Obviously) :)

Catherine and I had some fun on the rope:)

Katie (on the floor) was trying to swing on the same swing as Cammie and fell...

the rest is history.

Cammie and my attempt to be on the same swing.

What a beautiful picture.

Don't you think?

It was a fantastic night! (Full of plenty of laughs)

Makeup Breakup Update

So, officially TODAY, I've gone a whole month without makeup! (Along with Cammie Jones, the only girl who stuck with this with me!)

After the first day, I was ready to call it quits. I thought about it all day long for about two weeks straight. Those were not the best two weeks of my life. I really hated the "new me". I hated it. I wouldn't look at myself in the mirror.

But in the middle of the second week, things started really changing. One day I went out the house and an hour later I realized: I hadn't thought about how I was leavng my safe haven without makeup on. And now I don't think about it nearly as much.

It was extremely difficult to get through this month. I thought about quitting too many times to count... but I didn't! And now it's not such a big deal to leave the house without makeup. In fact, some days it doesn't bother me at all!

Cammie and I have decided to continue to go without makeup until New Years Day, and then we'll decide if we think we're ready to wear it again (Not nearly as often, of course) or keep going.

Stay tuned...