Christmas Time!

I'm not terribly concerned about Christmas commercialism (for myself personally, as a Christian).
To take a break from paper writing yesterday, Josh and I ran out to Big Lots to buy some cheap decorations (my little gold ribbon tree!), wrapping paper, and the like. I had planned to not go out on Black Friday, but it was 5pm and I needed a break, and the craziness is mostly over by then, anyway. We got home with all our treasures and dug through the storage room for the Christmas things we had from before. We put up our beautiful new Nativity set from my parents, more candles, shiny things, and our little fake tree. Not to mention made a Christmas mix on itunes and drank hot chocolate with candy canes!
This does not bother me because we did not stress over the purchasing or putting up of the decorations. We just had fun. Christmas joy comes from Jesus, yes, but putting in a little effort to make the holiday sparkle - adding a little magic, if you will - helps me to spend a month thinking about Christmas, rather than two days, which is probably what it would be for me, if there was no big build up.
Josh is out helping to decorate at church (and yes, I am writing papers - right now!), which I'm sure is so much fun. God likes us to get together and have fun! We still have a few more presents to buy, a bunch to make, and some socks, towels and toothpaste to buy for the gifts for the homeless thing at church, and I'm excited about it. I'm also excited to sing songs about Baby Jesus with Lizzy, have time to hang out with people, and be generally exited about life.
Yay Christmas!

Shhhh... Husband Sleeping

Josh falls asleep reading Harry Potter 2

He distracts me from my homework even when he's sleeping

Winding Down

Well, I have only one more full week of classes as an undergrad. Wow. Finally. 9 papers and 2 exams to go... thank goodness for Thanksgiving break and an extra full day to write. As my poor husband will attest, I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch writing papers - and playing with these two little girls (thank goodness for technology and how it amuses all ages):

our angry faces (Bella doesn't really get it)

we all made it into the frame - amazing.

I spend most of my time with this one - she loves Photobooth (woo!), paper dolls and Pixar.

Happy Birthday, Magritte.

And thanks, Google, for the nice reminder of a great Surrealist painter's birthday (who knew how educational the internet could be).

Update

So I just realized I haven't been blogging very much recently. That probably has something to do with the fact that I write so many papers every week that I'm rather sick of writing anything at all. I've actually started writing blog posts and then remembered something else I had to write and left the blog for whatever the assignment was.
I may post a couple of my writing assignments (the shorter and more interesting ones) sometime, if I feel like it.
But for the time being, here is a little update in pictures:

I finally used my crock pot! Chicken veggie soup. Mmm. I finally ordered my Party Lite candles from MaryBeth! (The cool ones on the ends are from her) They are fantastic. You should get some.We drove to Spokane for the weekend to attend my Great Great Aunt Ethel's memorial. And to drive some of her stuff back to P-town.And I got some new glasses!

Mid-Terms

"This is the single scariest collection in Mesopotamian art. They're staring at you and it's personal. I mean, how many cups of coffee are we talking about?!"
-George Armantrout in Ancient Art, on the Statuettes of Worshipers at the Square Temple of Abu in Tell Asmar, Iraq.

Any Excuse to Dress Up

Sherlock and Watson lovin' on an unsuspecting Rachel. Sherlock befriends the thief. Sherlock and Watson catch deduce that the man in black with the necklace is the thief.