"insert witty post title here"

**Christmas Eve**

I had a lovely migraine keeping me company most of the day. I did a lot sleeping to try and fend it off, it only half worked.

5pm~ Off to Christmas Eve service at our church with my man.

After that we were off to his parents for supper and gift opening.

We had this super yummy soup (no idea what it was but it was good) tasty little ham puff things, cheese, crackers, meat and a whole array of sweets spread out on the table all night, I mean what's a Christmas get together without food?

OH, I got this adorable little music box from his dad that he made for me, perfect place to keep the necklace I got from L-dub (he's gonna just love that I called him that on here, muahaha).  They coordinated their gifts without even realizing, nice!

**Christmas Day**

Church to start the day off

No Sunday school, extra music and Gil finished way early, her NEVER finishes early!

Off to my parents house for round two of stuffing our faces and more gift opening.

NoTe~ My family believes in LOTS of food! Minimum 3 meats and five side dishes, not to mention the myriad of candies, breads, dips and desserts left on the counter throughout the day to munch on. I ate soooo much food!

Gift opening was organized chaos.

OH, I got Steve Madden boots from my mom and dad...

LOVE them ~ OK, so I picked them out. =)

We played cards, shot guns, rode horses, played video games and just chit chatted about anything and everything.  Before we knew it it was 9:30 and people were packing up grumpy and tired children to get them home and in bed.


**White Christmas**
We did not have one =(
Yes, I'm one of those nuts who loves snow especially around this time of year.  It's magical somehow and just makes things feel "right". =)
random fact... did you know in Nebraska the chance for a white Christmas is 30%.  That's about once every three years.  The last white Christmas was in 2009 so that means next year we are due for snow on Dec 25. crossing my finger. ;)

**The day after Christmas**

I had to work... at 8 am... bummer.

The streets were deserted, it was like a ghost town driving to work.

The post office was closed... no mail.

The bank was closed... no deposit.

Every other company was closed... no phone calls.

On the Bright side~

My boss wandered back to our office about 10:30 am and said it was pointless for us to be there and sent us all home.

AND

We get to wear jeans to work all this week (I didn't see this email til this morning so I actually wore dress clothes today but I can still wear jeans Wed, Thur and Friday!)

**The Santa Situation**

I read a blog today where a mom vented about Santa Clause, it was good actually.

Christmas is so commercialized, kids are pummeled with Santa and Frosty and goofy songs and caught up with getting on some fat man's list...

I love the way Shauna put it on her blog.

(Christmas is...) the day that the One who made every single beautiful thing and who keeps my heart beating and keeps the stars in the sky and the blood flowing through my babies' veins, humbled Himself enough to restrict his powers, temporarily, and took on skin and bones and muscles and human breath.

Too often we too as Christians get caught up in the commercialized side of the holiday and forget what it's all about.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't put up decorations (I absolutely LOVE decorating for Christmas!)
I'm not saying you shouldn't exchange gifts.
and I'm not saying that it's wrong to let you kids believe in Santa, that's your choice.

I don't think I'll let my kids though.

I don't want presents and lights and packages under the tree to be their focus.

I want them to realize what this holiday is really about, if Christ was never born then he never would have died and we would never have been offered this great gift of salvation.

That's what I want to impress on their little minds without the distraction of flying deer and red suits and getting on the right list.
I'm not trying to be a scrooge.

I'm a sucker for a little Christmas "magic" and I love the hub-bub and chaos that ensues this time of year.  It's fun and addicting.
Just don't get so caught up in it that you lose focus.


But I spose this can be applied all throughout the year as well.  There are so many distractions in this world to pull our focus away from where it should be, holidays only magnify those distractions.


**Boot Camp**
(yes, I know this last one is random... sorry, it's how I operate)
One of my roomies convinced me to sign up for boot camp with her.
I'm not sure what I was thinking.
It's only four weeks and we are supposed to start Jan 30.
well... three weeks hard core and one week of recovery/yoga.
it's at 5:45 am.
REALLY not sure what I was thinking.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Hopefully I survive to tell you all.
=)

Pins accomplished!

So months ago I started a Pinterest account as I mentioned here.  It's pretty addicting and while there are numerous fun and entertaining ideas, I pin so much more than I'll ever be able to accomplish.  This past weekend I actually executed THREE, yes three of those pins.  woot, small feeling of accomplishment. =)

1) Tile coasters
I actually saw this first from a friend and then rediscovered the instructions via pinterest.  You simply buy 4 inch square tiles from a home improvement store (mine were 16 cents each at Home Depot), Modge Podge, Clear acrylic sealant, scrapbook paper and felt.  They are super easy and you can have cute coasters to match whatever your decor style.  As you can imagine there is a much wider selection of scrapbook paper than coasters in the store.

cute right? =)

2) Button art/letters
I'd see a few variations of this one.  I couldn't find quite the right frames that I wanted but I found some were satisfactory.  The buttons were a little harder to find.  After searching three craft stores I finally managed to come up with some that worked.  Those along with the buttons I had in my craft stash already and some from a friend's button stash made up a fun combination.  I'm not a huge fan of the way the "L" turned out but it's still cute.  This one was a little more work but I think I'll try it again. 

more christmas decor!

and lastly...
3) Gluten Free Carrot Cake.
So my dear ol dads birthday was today, the big 6-2.  The funny part was this morning when he was asked how old he was turning he couldn't remember.  It was like, "Well I was born in '49 so what does that make me? Once you get past 50 you stop counting." (haha, I'll remember that Dad)  Anyway, his favorite dessert is Carrot cake.  My sister and nephew are gluten free so they often don't get to partake in dessert.  In an effort to be sure everyone would be able to enjoy the sugary confection I decided to give gluten free baking a go.  I made sure to buy new sugar, baking soda and baking powder to be sure that there was no bits of flour contaminating my ingredients.  Of course I didn't have any GF flour on hand so that had to be purchased as well, it's not cheap.  After a little reading I discovered that by buying Bob's Red Mill Pizza Crust Mix I didn't have to buy xanthum gum, apparently this flour mixture has that in it already (xanthum gum is a nessecity in GF baking.  Without it your dessert will be a pile of crumbs or gummy and unedible, the gum binds everything together and allows the air pockets to form and the cake to rise).  Anyway, for my first go at GF baking I'd say it turned out quite well.  My dad didn't even realize it was gluten free and I'd told him before I dished him up a piece that it was gluten free.  I guess his old age is affecting his memory (that and I'm not sure he totally grasps the whole GF thing yet).  Of course we had to top it with cream cheese frosting, what's carrot cake without cream cheese frosting!?  Anyway, it was delicious and I sent 1/2 the leftover home me padre and the other half with my sis (she doesn't get many sweets that her or my nephew can eat due to the cost of ingredients needed, so she was ecstatic).  

Gluten free deliciousness!

Oh, so this wasn't a pinterest pin but it was a craft that I did this past week.  I was feeling especially crafty and accomplished. =)

Our sunday school group was having a masquerade Christmas party.  I know, not quite what you'd expect for a Christmas party theme but it was still fun.  My guy wasn't too thrilled with the thought of wearing a mask all night, or at all for that matter.  But after a some debating and a little begging we came to the agreement: If it was a superhero mask (he requested Spiderman) he would wear it for 15 minutes at the party.

We were even Christmas colors together! That was totally just a coincidence. haha

One with the sissy

one with the roomie

It was fun seeing what people came up with. Apparently there are a lot of creative people in our Sunday school group! 

Other happenings this week?  I managed to get all the Christmas presents I've purchase up to this point wrapped and under our tree.  I only have a couple left to get then I should be good to go and ready for Christmas weekend!


Oh, funny story (it really happened my sister but it kinda involves me as well)

back story: So my guys 6 yr old nephew always says hi to me when he sees me in the halls at church.  It's really cute, last Wednesday night he was all the way on the other side of the hall and I hear this "HEY ALICIA!", I look up to see the little blondie waving with all his might to get my attention, melts my heart!

So this morning my older sister runs into him in the halls after Sunday school and he's all like Hi Alicia!  She chuckles a little and informs him that she actually is not Alicia but my sister.  Apparently he gave a look like, ya... right... nice try. haha

As if confusing one of his nephews isn't enough...

Tonight during the kids Christmas concert me, my guy and his sis and family were sitting three rows ahead of my family.  His 3 yr old nephew looked back and saw my sis sitting with my family. So he starts smiling at her over his dad's shoulder and flirtin like any 3 yr old would.  Then he looked down the bench and saw me sitting just a couple people over.  I guess he kept looking back and forth between the two of us like, what is going on?

ok we look like sisters but I can tell us apart, right?

Oh well, it's another fun story to add to the many we have about people mixing us up.  I actually answer to both our names which probably doesn't help matters any.  I know we aren't twins but at times I have a pretty good inkling on what it feels like to be a twin, aside from the being the same age thing.   Maybe at some point I'll share more of our mix-up stories, there are some good ones. =)

So that was my week in a nutshell.  This next week we have no AWANA or Bible study or much of anything for church activities so things should be pretty laid back.  The forecast keeps going back and forth as to if we'll get snow or not this next week.  As much of a pain as the roads are I'm hoping we get a white Christmas!

Hope you all have a very

A lesson learned

So my blog of late has been ramblings of mine from recent life events. Family, football, furry creatures and so on.This is entertaining (at least for me) and more fun/easy to write about, usually. I'll be the first to admit that I don't always have the best filter on my mouth.  I have a tendency to spew words without realizing how they may come across.  My mind is a jumble of thoughts that make sense to me but once they escape my lips they often sound much less eloquent then I intend. Words written out here, despite the lols, hahas and smiley faces are sometimes hard to understand.  You can't see my face, you can't here the influx in my voice and if you don't know me well enough my sarcasm may not come across the way I intended. (side note: I grew up in an insanely sarcastic family, it drove my dad nuts).  Words are powerful and need to be used carefully and with thought, which sadly, I do not always do. and it got me thinking...

**Lafue I'm afraid I've been thinking... a dangerous past time... I know...** (movie anyone)

Are these things what you really need to know about me?  Does it matter that I caught 4 mice in one month in my house? Does it matter who won the football game?  Or what color of shirt I'm wearing today?

These things do not affect eternity.  These things are not the core of who I am.

The about me section on the side bar starts: 

"First and foremost I am a child of the King..."

If He is first and foremost in my life shouldn't that be reflected in my posts?  First and foremost, shouldn't I be encouraging and loving and covering this blog with what God is teaching me and how He's blessing me? I was put here to glorify Him and encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ.  While the occasional funny story is entertaining to read and fun to write I need to be aware of what I am putting out here for anyone to read.

If a stranger stumbles upon my blog will they see a funny and crazy girl who talks only about herself and the drama of her life? Or will they see one of Gods children, on fire for Him and shining for the everyone to see?

I pray it's the latter...

Months ago my sister and I started a study on humility.  I knew a number of girls who had gone through the study before me and warned me to be ready, cause no matter how mature you think you are in your walk you will be convicted!  I was reminded that there's a lot more to humility than just putting others above yourself.  Anyway, life got busy and we only made it through the first chapter (the first very convicting and thought provoking chapter).  I've been wanting to pick it back up again but just haven't made it a priority.  I think it was God tugging at my heart strings because even though I haven't started it yet God has taught me some lessons I apparently needed to learn.  Lets just say I that word spewing problem I have surfaced and as a result I learned a lesson on humility and grace.  I guess when God wants you to learn something He'll teach it to you, ready or not.

Now I'm not saying I'll never post any more mundane daily happenings.  I'll still send the occasional shout out to my beloved Cornhuskers, I'll still let you know if any more furry intruders decide to once again take up residence in my kitchen cabinets.  I may even post about some random event and/or small things I find hilarious throughout my day.  Those things are still part of who I am and effect my daily life BUT they are not All of who I am.

~I am a child of the King saved from the grips of sin and for that I am eternally grateful!~