christmas in review.

What?! It's December 29th already? Just a minute ago it was rushrushrush before Christmas --and now it's come and gone. The days after Christmas (despite STILL being in the Christmas season--twelve days, you know) always seem so empty and sad. Listening to Christmas music continuously just isn't cutting it.

Nevertheless, Christmas 2009 came and went without mishap. Jana, my best friend since forever, came home from Philadelphia for a few days with her boyfriend. Rachel came back to us from DC (about time!) and we spent our days baking cookies, wrapping presents, and listening to Christmas music.

And my biggest surprise: I finally got my DSLR camera! I still haven't figured it out all the way, but I'm getting there. I went a bit nuts with it over the holiday:



Can it be Christmas again yet?

How were your holidays?

Day 1 . . .

. . . of my fabulous week off!

I'm so excited to have a whole week away from work--spent reading, crocheting, catching up with friends, and sleeping in. Let's hope :)

Today, my day was spent:



walking around, eating, and shopping in Northampton,

and cuddling with MH and Stella.

(Christmas photos to come!)

merry christmas!

Wishes for a hopeful and blessed holiday!

my story from the back porch.

Remember this post? Brooke, from Playing Grown Up, has another blog called Stories from the Back Porch, where she tries to continue the story-telling tradition by retelling past tales. Cute, isn't it?


This season, she's highlighting readers' holiday stories--and today mine is featured! Be sure to check it out.


What's one of your favorite holiday memories?

(Photo via Stories from the Back Porch, via zvaella)

farewell, sweet applications.

They're done, finished, completed. I have nothing left to contribute to them.

There I am, grad schools, do with me what you will.

And please,

let your will be TO ACCEPT ME!

(despite how late these are, let's not go there . . .)

bright nights.

This past weekend, we visited Bright Nights at Forest Park,

"New England's largest holiday lighting experience."

Sounds kind of silly, but it's lots of fun. You drive through the park, with your radio set to their Christmas station, and see thousands of lights in hundreds of displays (even a Whoville neighborhood--Dr. Seuss was from Springfield!).

Isn't that fun?

Happy Holidays!

how i love this girl.

We met one fateful day at a study abroad info session. We took the MBTI and were the only two INFJs. Little did we know, we also had a lot more in common. SO much more in common. It's like we're long lost sisters (only, we look nothing alike). We are so similar, it's uncanny.

We roomed together once we got to South Africa, and roomed together once we got back home, too, in our own little on-campus apartment. Nothing could stop us.

Except for the fact that I graduated in May, and she didn't. We were roommates no longer. It's quite sad, really. I feel lost without Stephanie. She's finishing up her four years at UConn, and I'm . . . not. We suffer.



That's why drink dates are so necessary. I love our time together, chatting about the perils of living back home (she moved home for her last year) and reminiscing about our escapades studying abroad. We don't see each other nearly enough.

Scorpion bowls, here we come.




(Doesn't sushi always cure what ails you? It does for us.)

making the season bright.

This week, we had our huge annual event at work (which may have contributed slightly to my lack of blog presence . . .). Through the nonprofit I work for and a boys' prep school a few towns over, we raised over $10,000 and bought hundreds of toys for kids, giving them away at "Toy Shoppe." The parents are able to come and "shop" for their kids for free, in addition to enjoying a holiday party complete with Santa Claus and carolers. It doesn't sound like anything huge, but believe me--there was so much work put into this event that I don't think any of us slowed down for even a second, all week long. It was fun though, watching parents painstakingly make decisions over which toy to get their kid and seeing the kids posing for their pictures with Santa.

christmas is all around us

{Lucinda Symons, via Ill Seen Ill Said}

{Candy Hearts, via Oh, Mishka}

christmas in the house

Christmas Alphabet

Cocoa w/ marshmallows

Christmas Lights in Berlin

Oh Bokeh! Oh Joy!

oops.

So apparently I've been a little MIA of late. My apologies.

Sometimes I just have nothing to blog about, it seems. I'm sure if I really thought about it I could come up with something, but I'd have to force myself and it seems like that defeats the greatness of blogging. Right?

Do you ever force yourself to blog, for the sake of readers or numbers or comments?

a tidbit.

During my afterschool class yesterday, trying to teach the kids how give their opinions, take a survey, and then graph our results:

Me: For example, we could ask what everyone's favorite singer is, and the make a bar chart of our answers.

Eight-year-old male student: Oh, I have a favorite singer. It's a woman named Selena. But she died in 1997.

o christmas tree.

I love Christmas. A lot. If I could celebrate before Thanksgiving without feeling too guilty, I would.

However, I'm back home living with my family, and they're not quite as Christmas-crazed as I am. Our tree isn't up yet, decorations are hardly out, and there's not nearly enough Christmas music playing as I'd hoped for.

Alas, I now have one tiny bedroom to call my own, instead of a whole apartment at school. But that didn't stop me from putting up my own little tree. And a stocking. And lights. So maybe the bulbs are big as the branches, but that's okay. It's just a tiny plastic tree with cheap ornaments and my one hanging elephant from South Africa, but this little guy makes me smile.

Take that, living at home after college!

PostScript:

Maybe it sucks to be living at home, but it sure doesn't suck that I now work in an elementary school. Today's our first snow day!

gingerbread villages.

Awhile ago, some friends and I made our very own gingerbread villages (yes, we bought kits at Target, pretending they were for some kids or something, when really they were for ourselves). We put on the Christmas music, tried to believe there was snow falling outside the window, and rationalized building gingerbread houses before Thanksgiving (yes, I'll admit it--it was before we should have really been getting into Christmas hype).

My team (ahem, the better team, ahem) ended up with this, "The Candy Cane Crossroads:"

The other team, ended up with, um, this (appropriately self-titled "The Christmas 2012 Aftermath"):

Now, if you'd please be so kind, could you please settle a bet vote on your favorite village?

Much appreciated! Now go make a gingerbread house/village/city of your own and do share!

A Dapple Of My Weekend

My weekend included:

{a friend's Christmas choral concert}

{an adorable little boy I babysat for}

{our cow cat, Blanche}

{scouting out a good Christmas tree}

{my favorite picture ever}

{dragging out the snow boots!}

{and snowball fights.}

Hope yours was lovely!

Wherever you are in the world, is it beginning to feel like the holidays?

Our recent snowstorm here did the trick for me!

i want to wash my hands, my face, my hair. . .

. . . IN SNOW!

That's right--the first real snowfall.

It started last night, and we woke up this morning to a winter wonderland.

All I can do is think of the song in White Christmas about snow.

That, and act like a child, giddy with excitement :)