4th Annual Tacky Sweater Christmas Party

Come tacky, come merry, come hungry, come thirsty, come party…

Merry Christmas! Ghosts of Christmas Past: 2010. 2009. (Our first one, 2007, pre-dates the blog!)

Lovefeast 2.0

What can I say about Lovefeast that I haven't already said?

Apparently, nothing.  Literally when I sat down to write this post, I had some thoughts in my mind ... something about that moment when they hush the lights and each person holds a candle and passes their light from one to the next.  I was trying to organize these thoughts when I had a sneaking suspicion I'd heard them somewhere before.

Oh that's right.  On my blog, in 2009.

It looks like I have officially run out of anything original to say.

But, it bears repeating again... at least this snippet.

There’s a moment in the service when the lights go dim and the ushers arrive at the end of each aisle with a lit candle. Person to person, candle to the candle, the chapel becomes full of a warm, hushed glow in a matter of minutes. It gives me goose bump.

My mind always goes back to my favorite quote at this moment, by Marianne Williamson.

As we touch our candles from right to left, I always think of the end of my favorite quote from Marianne Williamson - “as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.” I think about how our dark world would be so vividly light up if each one of us just shared a little bit more of their light with every they came into contact with.

Easy to remember in the warm glowing chapel as “Joy to the World” swirls around you. Difficult to remember in the day to day of life that involves work stress, cranky customer service reps, bad traffic, late fees, tense relationships and shouting heads on every major station.

Letting your light shine so that others might do the same – this is what Christ was born to do. Celebrating Christmas is a remembrance of the birth of the greatest life that walked among us, that made a point to gently touch touch his light to everyone he came in contact with.

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” - John 12:46

All is calm, all is bright.

Rumor Has It

... That I just performed in front of a bunch of strangers for the first time in over ten years to a song I'd practiced for merely a week?

Rumor is true.

Somehow our dance trance instructor talked us into performing two dances at the awards ceremony of the Mistletoe Run at the YMCA.  It sounded like a good idea at the time, but about 5 minutes before we went on I thought I might throw up of performance anxiety. Luckily, it was kind of a random crowd milling about and the music started and I had no time to think about it anymore. It was fun, I got to support my dance trance instructor who I just love and my sweet friends Teri and Akanksha (dance trancers themselves) were in the audience cheering us on.

Oh, and let me just take a minute to give a nod to Teri, who set a personal best on the half after deciding to run it the night before, and Ak who ran a 5k at 27 weeks pregnant.  Ya'll rock.

And now, a moment to wax poetic about DT: I hope our little performance inspired a few people out there to try Dance Trance.  It
wouldn't be a huge stretch to say it's one of the best things I've done for myself this year.  I actually did DT for 2 years when there
were instructors teaching it at Wake, but then they graduated and no one picked up the reins.  I was thrilled when Stephanie started it up in January of this year, and I've gone almost every Tuesday since then.  It's my happy place.  I'm by no means the best dancer, but I love dancing.  It challenges my mind in learning and memorizing new dances, but it's a mindless space once I learn them where muscle memory kicks in and I just move.  I love running, because I get such a good thought space going on - I can brainstorm problems, I can think of new ideas, I can work through frustrations.  But DT provides me the opposite - if I start thinking about my stressful work day, all of a sudden I'm tripping and losing my place.  DT gives me an hour to turn
OFF my brain and just move. 

It also helps that some of my best friends here do DT too - Jamie, Anne, Akanksha, Teri, Kathleen - so every Sunday or Tuesday I know I will get to see my friends (and that they will hold me accountable if I don’t show up!)  It’s just been such an important part of my year and I haven't had any specific reason to write about it yet… so here we are.

Or I could just stop taking and share this.  (Thanks Teri for recording us!)

Faux Ceramic Thanksgiving Gourds

Since I’m on the topic of being crafty, I thought I’d blog about a project I did last year.  Yes, last year.  Am I the only person who keeps pictures in a folder called “To Be Blogged” and has things in there that are over a year old?  (Sorry, deserted recipe blog…)

But, it’s actually relevant… because I crafted these last year but I didn’t get to use them until this year.  And, bonus points, I did this before Pinterest even EXISTED.  That means I actually used my own creative powers, instead of copying someone else’s!  (Just kidding, I’m quite sure I probably saw this idea on someone else’s blog first.)

It started with seeing some ceramic vegetables on a Thanksgiving table – probably from Pottery Barn – and thinking to myself (yet again), “I can make those!”

And, hurrah, I did!

This time I was at Hobby Lobby after Thanksgiving, so I scored all these little foam gourds for just 50 cents each!

A little white spray paint….

And I had my faux-ceramic gourds!

These have been sitting the garage since last November and it has been driving Matt CRAZY.  He has cleaned out and reorganized the garage at least four times since last year, and every time he asks me if he can throw them out because I hadn’t used them yet.  I swear, if they didn’t make it on to this year’s Thanksgiving table I would have been in hot water for having them clutter up his garage shelves all year!

Fortunately, they fit right in with what I was envisioning for my Thanksgiving table this year. 

I love my little gourds!  And that’s not just the spray paint talking…

Pottery Barn Apothecary Jar Knock Off

There are 61 pins in my “Crafty” board on Pinterest.  And sometimes I have to forcibly restrain myself from pinning hundreds a day.  I don’t craft nearly as much as I’d love to, but on those rare days when a project goes from pinspiration to real life I feel oh-so-satisified with myself.

(Especially when the project is so easy it’s practically criminal to even call it crafty.) 

It started when I saw this in Hobby Lobby, on sale for $19.99.  I was looking for ideas for my Thanksgiving table décor and had seen pictures on pinterest of various Apothecary jars filled with things like pinecones or other fall-paraphernalia.  I pondered this for a second, but I was trying to do my Thanksgiving table on a budget and $20 seemed kind of silly… (Or worse, pay the $69 Pottery Barn version… eek!)

“I bet I can make that,” I thought.

That’s not an unusual thought for me at all.  I think all the time.  What is unusual… is that this time I actually followed up. 

I already had a vase like the top half of that jar that probably came free with a flower delivery.  I bought a candle holder $0.99 at Hobby Lobby and some glass glue.

A few drops of glue and voila….

I have an apothecary jar!  I didn’t up using it on my Thanksgiving tablescape, but I ended up filling it up with dried beans for a general fall decoration.

A few days ago, when I was getting out my Christmas decorations, out with the beans and in went some mini Christmas balls.

O Tannenbaum

This was the first year we’ve gotten a real live tree for Christmas.  We went to a nearby farmer’s market to pick out our fir and choose the perfect tree for our house.

It felt kind of funny to be picking out a tree when it was nearly 60 degrees out!  (Not that I’m complaining…)

Now the only problem is that this tree is quite a bit larger than the artificial tree we’ve always had, and our ornaments are looking a little spotty on it!

With the tree up and the smell of evergreen wafting through the house, it’s starting to feel like Christmas around here!

Thanksgiving: Round 2

Thanksgiving Round 2 was on Friday with my family who came from all corners of the country to be with us – Katie and Dylan up the road from Charlotte, my brother flying in from San Diego and my parents driving down from Rochester.  We were sad that Matt’s parents were able to join us because his Dad had come down with a fever.  (I’m hoping that it wasn’t the thought of my cooking that turned him ill!)  It was a quick 24 hours with my family visiting, but I enjoyed every minute of it – sharing kitchen time with my parents, gathering around the table to eat and the intense round of catch phrase that followed.  I was sad to wave them off so soon the next day, but grateful that I have a family that values each other so much they’ll go to the efforts they do to share a meal together.