Christmas is over...ready for Spring!

Christmas was good. Everyone got along for the most part, with the exception of a few bad attitudes, which was anticipated. We had 3 Christmases...it was exhausting! You guys who have 4 or 5 or more...I don't know how you do it! I'm pooped!

Anyway, I got a Chi flat iron for my hair, which I have been wanting forEVER! They are expensive, so I never would have bought one for myself, but I can straighten my curly, curly hair in 5 minutes flat, as opposed to the 30 minutes it takes with one from Walmart. This excites me.

I also got a pretty cool Mp3 player, a pink Sansa fuze.

Brandon bought me a few DVD's I had been wanting (Grease and Dirty Dancing), the new Taylor Swift cd, which I was especially excited about, and some stuff to go with my mp3player.

Brandon got 6 new Xbox360 games, and a GPS! We made out like bandits!

We did have a bit of bad luck this weekend, but all turned out well in the end. On Christmas night, Brandon decided to do some laundry, but didn't check his pockets...he washed his Sirius Satellite radio! Yep...round and round in the washing machine it went. By God's grace, it still works! I am convinced that it is indestructible!

We finally decided that Saturday would be our day at home, to rest and play with our new toys. Not the case. We had to return some stuff, which took the first half of the day because we had to go to 3 different places. Then, when we got home, Brandon got into his jammies, put one of his $300-$400 worth of games in the xbox, and it broke. Yep...the xbox died. Again, luckily, the Xbox people are going to fix it for free. He had to send it off for a few weeks though, so I am not sure what he will do for that period of time. I think the xbox is his lifeline.

Overall, we had a good Christmas. No major arguments or anything. We enjoyed our time with family, had some great food, and even started some new traditions. We got completely spoiled this year, but hopefully next year we will be spoiling a little Swindell. :-)

Isaiah 32:17

This Christmas, I am trying to remind myself of Isaiah 32:17, which says, "This righteousness will bring peace. Quietness and confidence will fill the land forever." I am trying to fill my heart with peace, and pray that we make it through Christmas quietly, and are able to enjoy and savor every bit of it.

I am troubled this Christmas. Sometimes the ones you love most (aka your family) can cause you the most pain, and the most problems. Why is that?

I will never understand my inlaws. I will always love them, but will never understand why things that don't matter are such a big deal, and why they cannot simply be thankful that they HAVE a family to spend Christmas with! So, this Christmas, I am shooting for peace. If things get out of hand and tension arises, Brandon and I will leave and spend Christmas on our own...at home. That sounds pretty good right now!

Speaking of Christmas, I have plenty of activities planned! (Some of which I wish I could change...cough cough) Tomorrow, Brandon will have to sleep for a while since he has to work tonight, so I'll probably just hang out during the day reading or watching Christmas movies. Then, tomorrow evening, we are going to my inlaws'. This is one of the few times that I am truly greatful that we live only a mile from them. We'll eat and exchange gifts, and I am sure someone will complain about what they got (or how it's labeled), and then Brandon and I will head back home. Before we go to sleep, we will get in our jammies, fix some hot cocoa, crawl into the bed, and Brandon will read me the book, "Twas the Night Before Christmas." We'll probably awake unusually early on Christmas Day, since we are like small children who simply cannot stand the suspense any longer! Before we open gifts, we are going to read the Christmas Story from the Bible, which is a new tradition! Yay! I am truly excited about this tradition. I want to take time to remember WHY we are opening presents in the first place! Then, we'll pray together and tear into those beautifully wrapped packages that we spent no telling how long perfecting! After that, we will have some breakfast...probably cinnamon rolls...and take a nap. After our nap, we'll head to my mom's and spend the rest of the day there. (Thank you, Lord, for giving us one set of family that doesn't cause drama!) At mom's we'll have yet another gift exchange and a large dinner, which includes a whole Honey Baked Ham! Woo hoo! Then, on Friday, we will make the drive to Sparta, TN to have Christmas with his Grandparents. So, this will be a full weekend, but we are praying it is a good one!

I want to wish you ALL a very Merry Christmas!!! God Bless!

Merry CHRISTmas!

I HATE forwarded emails, texts, etc, and there are very few that I actually forward. This is one that I got on my work email, and it expressed me feelings about Christmas pretty well...only much more nicely than I would have (I have VERY strong feelings about this topic!).


MERRY CHRISTMAS....
On the way home last night, we were listening to the radio when a
newscaster
called his little 91 year old granny to talk to her about the
'Holidays'. He
mentioned that he had noticed that Christmas has become so 'politically
correct' that no mention of Christmas is made by most retailers, we now
wish
people 'Happy Holidays.'
His granny said she missed the Old Fashioned Christmas when everyone
wished each other 'Merry Christmas'.
We thought about it and agree...so this year we will be making a
conscious
effort to wish everyone Merry Christmas...our way of saying that we are
celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. So we are asking our e-mail
friends, if
you agree with us, to please do the same.
And if you'll pass this on to your e-mail friends, and so on...maybe we
can
prevent one more treasured tradition from being lost in the sea of
'Political
Correctness.'
God Bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

While the subject is open, here is my opinion in brief: if you are going to celebrate someone's birthday, INVITE THEM TO THE PARTY! (Don't try to say you celebrate something else this time of year, but not the birth of Jesus. That's just an excuse for a party. Christmas is what it is. Either recognize it or don't.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas: 1 Corinthians 13 style

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family. I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, through harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return, but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust... but giving the gift of love will endure.

~Author Unknown~

Thanks to Katie for this post! (Katie is an awesome blogger, and I steal a lot of stuff from her!)

Parade pictures

Here are just a few photos from the Nashville Christmas Parade last weekend.

It was COLD!

SNOW!

I am so glad we got to see some snow before Christmas! :-) Take a look!

Gingerbread Men!

Here is the recipe for gingerbread cookies I got from Karla's blog. The recipe is from Food Network. I was a little worried as I made them because this was my first time working with molasses, and I must say...I hate the stuff. I had no idea it smelled THAT BAD. Molasses reeks! I was afraid they would taste like they smelled before baking them, but they actually turned out very good. I usually am not a Gingerbread fan because it's usually hard and really spicy, but these are neither. They are soft and not spicy at all, and they hold their shape well, although the dough is kind of hard to work with because it is somewhat crumbly. This was a little more difficult than I am used to, but it was worth the work in the end. (click here to get recipe).


We're ready to decorate!

Yay!

Brandon couldn't wait...


He's hard at work.... (don't ask what exactly he's doing to the poor man. Not sure what the red blob is)

This one is supposed to be singing, but he looks scared instead...

Snow Day!

I am very excited to say that we have a snow day today! I absolutely LOVE snow days! And a snow day BEFORE Christmas never happens!!! I guess this is as close as we'll get to a White Christmas.

New Christmas Tradition

I have accomplished another task from my "101 in 1001." We have come up with a new Tradition to start this year. Actually, we've come up with a few, but for the purpose of this post, we'll focus on the one. This year, before we open our gifts on Christmas morning (or possibly on Christmas Eve), we are going to sit down together, Brandon and I, and read the Christmas story from the Bible. Although my dad is a former preacher, this is something we have never done before. So, since this is our new tradition, I felt the need to share it with all of you. So, here is the Christmas Story, taken from the Bible!

Luke 1:26-35

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you![a]”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel[b] forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.
Luke 2:1-35

1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.
6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
The Shepherds and Angels

8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Christmas Baking

I'm pretty stoked about this weekend. This weekend is when I am going to do most of my Christmas baking! I still haven't made my complete "menu" yet, but there will be several things on the list. So far, I know I'll make chocolate truffles, peppermint bark, chocolate covered pretzelz, peanut butter ritz cookies (2 ritz with PB in the middle, covered in chocolate), oatmeal carmelitas, and probably some cookies. We may make gingerbread men this weekend and decorate them :-) We are having a Christmas lunch at work next Wednesday, and I'm making a sweet potato casserole for that. I still can't believe there are only 2 weeks left before Christmas! Part of me can't wait, and the other part will be sad to see it go. Time goes by entirely too fast!

My First Christmas Parade

I have been a horrible blogger lately. I apologize!

Friday night Brandon and I went to the Nashville Christmas Parade. This was both of our first Christmas Parades! It was very exciting, and we had a blast! It was freezing cold, though! I was all bundled up in my Timberland boots, jeans, layers of clothing, a down coat, and a scarf! The only part of me that really got cold was my feet. At one point during the parade, we had to step inside a record shop to warm our feet up because we could not longer feel them! Nonetheless, we had a great time together. I'll post a few pics in another blog.

We stayed in the rest of the weekend, playing board games and whatnot. It was a wonderful weekend. This is one of my favorite things about this time of year...staying home in our jammies with the Christmas tree lit, playing games and watching movies and baking cookies together. Ahhh...memories to last a lifetime. :-)

Carried Away

Wow. Christmas is a mere three weeks away! I can't believe it! This year has flown by so fast! Where do our lives go?

Well, I have been REALLY into the Christmas spirit this year, at least for the most part. However, I find that I have been very stressed out about our finances. It just seems as though every time we get stable and somewhat comfortable, or every time we are going to have some money to put into the savings, SOMETHING comes along to take it. We bought a chair to match our couch back in July, and we got it on 6 months no interest. We did the same thing with our couch and paid it off pretty quickly. Not the case here. The interest is added in January, so I've been freaking about it. My mom gave us our Christmas money early so we could get it paid almost all the way. Well, I'm not real sure where that money went, but it's no longer there. We were waiting till we had the rest of the money so we could write one check, but by the time we got the rest of the money, the other $400 was GONE. It's just seemed like we needed this and needed that. So, we still owe on the chair. I'm paying like crazy on it this month, but I'm scared to death that we won't get it paid off. On top of that, my tags expire this month, so there's another $100.

I think maybe I got carried away on my Christmas shopping. This is the 1st year since we've been married that we have been able to buy ANYTHING for our families. So, I kinda got lost in the spirit :-(

Oh well, I guess money management isn't my best strength. Not this time of year anyway. *sigh*

Thankless...a must read

Today I made a run to the Gyro place for lunch. The man in front of me ordered his food...a beef Gyro...and asked for some cucumber sauce (which just SOUNDS nasty!). The man behind the counter was working somewhat slowly, and didn't seem to be "all there." He informed the man that they were out of the sauce. At that moment, this man became upset at the fact that he may not be able to enjoy his $6 sandwich with this disgusting cucumber sauce, and stated (in ebonics almost), "oh yes you do! Don't tell me you ain't got none, I know you do!" The worker's boss told him (the worker) that there was a little bit left, and so the worker went to retrieve it. In the worker's absence, the customer says things (quite loudly) such as "what's wrong with you folks? Tell me you ain't got no cucumber sauce. You be tryin to lie to me." Yeah, ridiculous. The man returns with a squeeze bottle with a small amount of the sauce in it, grabs a little cup, turns the bottle upside down to fill the cup, and... SPLAT! The lid comes off of the bottle, squirting the entirety of the sauce all over the counter, leaving not even a drop in the man's cup. At this point, the "gentleman" (or not so gentle), becomes IRATE, saying "I don't even want it now. I can't eat it without my sauce!" and storms out the door, leaving his sandwich behind.

I'm sure my mouth was hanging wide open at the thought of someone acting so childish, but I was trying to figure out if this man was as old as he looked, or if it was really a four year old that had grown very quickly to over six feet tall.

As I left there (WITH my food), I thought, "the NERVE of that guy! The day before Thanksgiving and he obviously isn't thankful for ANYTHING!" I thought about all the kids in Haiti and Africa and other various places, who are literally dying of starvation right now. I thought about how they would have LOVED to have that sandwich, with or without the cucumber sauce, and how they would NEVER throw such a fit about something so small. It would make their day if they had a full, hot meal. I wanted to approach the man, but by the time I got over the shock, he was gone.

That got me thinking about tomorrow. I thought, "is there anything that we will eat tomorrow, that I would be upset about if I couldn't have it? Turkey? Sweet potatoes? Any one of the plethera of pies I'll have to choose from?" I realized that, while I really would never get THAT upset if I didn't get it, I would be somewhat disappointed. We all have our favorite holiday foods, and it just wouldn't be the holidays without them. Or would it?

Is the point of Thanksgiving to eat my sweet potato casserole? What if I couldn't have it? Would it not be Thanksgiving? Could I not still give thanks for what I DO have? Whoa.

We may not realize it because it is our very culture, but America is the richest, most selfish country in the world. Literally. We celebrate Thanksgiving with a huge Turkey (or the meat of your choice), tons and tons of sides, that we spend DAYS preparing, and a bunch of sweets. We celebrate Christmas by giving many wonderful, expensive gifts, wrapped in wrapping paper that costs around $4 a roll, with bows that are almost the same price. All the while, there is a family in Haiti that, tomorrow, will just pray to God that they survive another day.

Wow. Kinda makes me feel bad for eating that Turkey.

Stunned

Ok, so I was a little stunned to find SNOW on my car this morning as I left for work! What's up with that? It's still a little early for it to be this cold, much less SNOW!!!

Well, maybe we'll have a white Christmas for once...here's to hoping!

My new found love...

is the Peppermint Mocha Twist from Starbucks. I wasn't so sure about this one at first, since I don't care for the coffee taste so much, and mocha tends to be kind of strong, but I had to try it because I LOVE peppermint. And I LOVE it! It almost tastes like hot chocolate with peppermint, only with a hint of coffee. Topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, this is a very yummy Christmasy treat! You should try it!

However, I was bummed at the realization that the Starbucks Holiday cups lack the "The Way I See It" quotations. Am I the only one that did not realize this?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

At least in our house!

Me? Organized? Apparently.

Lately I have been extremely organized. Well, when it comes to schedules, anyway. I have actually created a "Christmas Holiday Schedule." This is a first, I must say. So was creating a Fall Schedule (which we actually stuck to, by the way!). But I have found out that if I do not write activities into my calendar, we will never do them. We always find an excuse, or something else comes up. But, if I write them down, then it becomes a solid plan, and I don't feel so bad telling people "no" when they ask us to do something else.

I have been REALLY into the seasonal spirit this year...first Fall, now Christmas. And when I say REALLY, I cannot express just how into it I am. I've always loved this time of year, but for some reason, this year I simply couldn't wait until Thanksgiving to begin the Christmas season. I suppose it is partly due to the fact that last year we lived with my parents and were flat broke, bored, and miserable. So, this year, even though we're still broke, I am determined not to be bored! I am so thankful to be on our own again...it feels wonderful. Last year just didn't feel like Christmas, so I am determined to make up for it this year! We already have the house decorated, packages wrapped AND under the tree!! Yeah...I've lost it.

So, here are my activites so far for this year:

11/22 Music at the Mills with the band Down Here.
12/5 Nashville Christmas Parade! (Neither of us have ever seen it!)
12/6 Annual trip to Opryland Hotel to see lights, and have hot cocoa in the Delta!
12/13 Brandon and I are baking and decorating Gingerbread Men! I am excited!
12/13 Later that evening, I am thinking of having a Christmas party/movie night with a few friends...food, popcorn, a Christmas movie, and maybe board games!
12/20 I scheduled an entire day to do my Christmas baking!
12/24 Christmas Eve at mom-in-law's
12/25 Christmas Day at my mom's
12/27 Possible Christmas in Sparta

I also plan to go on a carriage ride through Nashville one afternoon, as well as going to the Festival of Lights in Lebanon one evening. :-)

Simple Pleasures

1) I LOVE the sound of leaves crunching under my feet!
2) Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks
3) Watching children jump in piles of leaves, like I used to do!
4) Any dessert with apple
5) Hearing my husband say "I love you."
6) Holding and cuddling babies and lil ones
7) A good glass of sweet tea
8) Not having to drive to work because my mother-in-law is gracious enough to bring me!
9) Christmas music :-)
10) Text messages, and messages on Facebook and Myspace.