Christmas Traditions

Where did December go?

It seems to have flown by, and Christmas is tomorrow!

Michael and I have been so busy this month with work, church events, and Christmas activities,

but we did make time to do our annual Christmas date.

Thanks to a wonderful, generous family we were able to eat dinner at Pappasitos again.

It was busy, but we got a table and enjoyed some fajitas.

We even had more than enough to take home for leftovers.

As per tradition, we went from dinner over to Barnes and Noble.

We each made our selections of books to read, and found a little corner to read...

the kids corner to be exact.

In the end, I think that we were both surprised by the decision:

*I don't know what is wrong with me this year!

I have just been loving all the snowmen.

Between the snowmen displays at Hobby Lobby, the movie Frozen, and this book,

I have just been loving them.

And it goes against all of my holiday beliefs instill in me by my mother!

In my defense, it is an adorable book.

And, it talks about Christmas so it still counts.

We ended the night by driving around to look at Christmas lights.

Here are some of my favorites.

I am so glad that this is one of our 'family' traditions.

It is the thing that I look forward to the entire month.

Hope you are enjoying traditions with family right now.

Some of the ones my family will be doing today include, eating breakfast at Wee Too, shopping at Park Avenue Thrift, and watching Muppet Family Christmas.

Its going to be a wonderful, perfect day.

Christmas Date Night

Yesterday was a very Christmas-y day for me

(aside from the fact that it was 80 degrees and extremely humid outside)

Michael went to see The Hobbit with some church friends,

so I spend the morning watch Christmas movies and wrapping gifts.

 I'm so happy I finally had time to catch up on all my Christmas tasks.

We only need a couple more gifts and we will be DONE.

Last night was also the only night we have free in December, so we used it to go on our traditional Christmas date.

The past 2 years we have been blessed to receive Pappasitos gift cards from sweet youth families, so I guess fajitas are somewhat of a tradition for us too.

You may remember that Michael and I started a new tradition last year of picking out a new Christmas book.

If not, you can read about it in this post here.

We continued that tradition last night and went to Barnes and Noble to pick out our book after dinner.

They had quite the selection, but some of them were just weird.

Here are the ones we each picked.

 We found a little corner and sat down to read them

(what happened to the seating areas in Barnes and Noble? There were none!)

A few of them only last a couple pages,

but the others we read all the way through.

We ended up choosing an oldie, but a classic, Charlie Brown Christmas.

After the bookstore, we went to get a coffee, and then drove around looking at lights.

We had heard about a neighborhood in town that goes all out - so we decided to go there.

Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint!

Each street has a different theme, and every house on that street has coordinating decorations.

America!

The Christmas Zoo

Disney

We even found a Snoopy-themed street!

The neighborhood also gives out awards to different houses:

Like this house that won best door last year

 And this house that won best lampost.

 It was the perfect Christmas date night!

I'm so happy that we were able to take some time just to spend with each other before Christmas gets here in just a few short days!

And our new book has already made itself at home on the bookshelf.

Freedom

Today is my first official day of absolute freedom.

The only things on my schedule today are a haircut, and a massage.

This is the life I love.

However, every now and then my brain forgets that I have no assignments,

or papers, or readings,

and it goes into panic mode again. 

Old habits die hard.

A lot has been going on around here, 

but I think after finishing 2 papers on Thursday,

the writing part of my brain refused to do anymore.

So here is a little catch up:

1) I got the internship site that I wanted!!

I will be spending the next year at Shield Bearer Counseling Centers.

This is a Christian (or faith-based) agency, not even 5 miles from my house!

My spirit, and my gas tank are overjoyed!

I can't wait to see what God has in store for me this next year!

2) I am now certified to do Prepare/Enrich with couples!

This is a couple assessment typically used with premarital couples

(hence the prepare)

but can also be used with marital couple therapy

(hence the enrich)

This is a great tool to add to my therapy box.

The certification came from a sweet friend's father, and the training took place at my old work, Memorial.

Several of my school friends came,

and it was just a great mix of a couple of my worlds.

*I don't care what you say, Sister, I'm practicing on you and Jon!

3) I finished a book in the first day of my freedom from school readings

It was Erasing Hell by Francis Chan

If you know me, you know I am a HUGE Chan fan.

I read all his books, and I always love them.

He is one of those writers that when you read his book,

you feel like he is just talking to you across a table at Starbucks.

This book was a great response to others that have tried to claim everyone will be in Heaven one day.

It was a tough read for my heart, 

but an excellent read for my soul. 

(I wish he would have finished it more solidly with baptism, but whatever.)

If you haven't read it - Do it!

And if you haven't read his others (Crazy Love and Forgotten God)

you're missing out!

4) We are in the process of becoming home owners!!

 Our closing is sometime in the next couple weeks!

We are so excited!

We are officially going to own the home we have been living in for almost a year.

We love it.

You should all come visit us!

5) We are also in the process of installing new floors in our home.

The house is pretty old (30 or 40 years)

but it has been very well kept up!

The only old carpet is in the living room,

and it was a little stained thanks to wear and tear, and teenagers.

So we are getting laminate.

But it is pretty, you can't even tell it's laminate, laminate!

We are going with the 2nd from the right.

I can't wait!

6) I only know 1 of my grades so far for the semester,

and it was in a class that I didn't think was going to end well,

but I got an A!!

It was our research class, where we did somewhat of a capstone project.

Here is a picture from our poster presentation.

I'm just glad it's over!

Well that is about it from here!

Hopefully updates will become more regular again now!

Happy Monday!

A Hobby of Mine

Tomorrow is the day. The day I have been waiting on for so many months. The day when Water for Elephants comes to theaters. Can you tell I am a little bit excited?

My sister told me about this book around Christmas, and then I saw the preview for the movie and decided I had to read it before the movie came out. Unfortunately for me, school had already started, and with it came massive amounts of reading. So, I gave myself 2 days to read WFE and am happy to say that I was successful. So now, I will be spending my Friday morning ($5 movie ticket? - I think so!) watching this. And maybe one of my days next week too!
I realized after finishing it that I am a sucker for books-turned-movies. I absolutely love them. Part of it is that I am a control freak, and I like to know how things are going to turn out before they even start. But its also just exciting to see how the director/actors will portray the story and characters, and if the movie will stay true to the book. Sometimes, (okay, maybe most times) the movie leaves things out and is a disappointment. For instance, this movie
a perfect example of a great book turned terrible movie.

Other books-turned-movies that I have enjoyed included:
Angels & Demons
If you can look past the bad acting, this one is pretty true to the book.
You can't have a list like this without HP! Judge me!
Like I said, not all movie adaptations are great. But I love them all anyways.
Here are some that I am excited about coming out soon:
Can't. Wait.A childhood favorite
I love the Pioneer WomanThanks Amber!Are there any others that you think I should know about, read, and then see? Leave a comment and let me know your favorites!