Life with Gling

After over a week of Christmas vacation from work…we have to go back in less than 2 days…blah.  I’ll be ready to get back to work…but just not quite yet.  We had an amazing Christmas break this year…and I always hate to see it end.  It all started last weekend with my birthday…or shall I say my sick day.  After church (which had an amazing turn-out) we headed home for a quick nap and then got ready for me turning the big 2-6.  I got my funkiest clothes on and we headed to Delmar Street in St. Louis.  We got some amazing pizza at a local pizzaria down there and then headed to Starbucks for a yummy treat there as well.  Unfortunately, despite lots of meds over the few days before, I was still sick….and in no shape to make our 7:00 movie at the Tivoli (amazing theatre).  So…we headed back home and got our jammies on and watched Christmas Vacation in the comfort of our home.  Christmas Eve came early and Jared and I exchanged our gifts and packed up the car to head back to Emden.  Christmas Eve service was wonderful and our annual Olive Garden supper was extra-yummy.  On Christmas we exchanged gifts with my oldest brother and his wife and kids…as they’re in the midst of moving and didn’t have a tree set up.  So Santa made a special visit to my parent’s house this year.  It was so much fun watching them tear into their gifts!  We headed up to Marseilles after that…for lunch and visiting at Grandma and Grandpa Spark’s house…yummy and wonderful.  Supper at Jared’s brother’s house followed (he and his wife just bought a new house)…where we ate way too much food and played the Wii with the family.  The day after Christmas…Jared helped paint at my brother’s house and mom and I went to Bloomington to tackle the mall and other shops.  I’m  now ready for Christmas next year!  (If only Christmas lasted more than a month…that would be awesome…I hate taking down my decorations!)  The days following included much sleeping in and even more food…scattered about with some movies and shopping.  Mom and I went to see P.S. I Love You…which was a wonderful chick flick…and will make you cry.  For those reasons…all women should go see it.  A trip to IKEA was planned…but quickly cancelled no thanks to the large amounts of snow in Chicago.  Mom and I plan to reschedule that asap.  Saturday was our last Christmas…at my Grandma Cox’s house.  More food and fun with the family….and LOTS of homemade caramels.  We packed up after that…and headed back to Greenville….which is always hard to do.  It was nice to get home though…and sleep in our own bed and relax a bit more.  We had church yesterday…with another big crowd there…which is always uplifting.  It’s a joy to know that our new church is really starting to impact lives!  Anywho…that brings us to now.  We slept in until 10:00…and I need to get moving and get everything together for the New Year’s party we’re going to tonight.  It’s hard to believe that 2007 is nearly over!  So off I go to make appetizers and get our things together.  Adios!

….for Christmas to be here.  The presents are all wrapped and the tree is looking quite festive and full at this point.  The cookies are all baked and packed up for friends and family (and a few for our bellies as well).  There’s a chill in the air (even though it was accompanied by yucky rain in Greenville today).  Either way…we’ve been snuggled up inside most of the day.  I seem to have caught a cold somewhere in the middle of finishing everything up at work and staying up way too late at night baking and wrapping.  I think it’s working it’s way out of my system though…at least I hope it is.  I’m coping with the fact that I’ll be sniffling and blowing my nose on my birthday….but hopefully it’ll be gone by Christmas.  (So I can really enjoy all of that yummy food!)  Speaking of my birthday…it’s tomorrow…doesn’t feel like it should be here already.  26 years…not too shabby.  Anyway…I’m gonna get to bed soon…and get some sleep….so that (a.) we don’t oversleep for church and (b.) my birthday gets here faster (even though technically it begins in less than an hour).  Adios!

Christmas is quickly approaching…and I actually think I’m almost ready for it at this point.  All but like 2 presents are bought…and hopefully the rest will be wrapped by the end of tonight.  I’ve made 10 different types of cookies…with over 30 dozen total.  Yeah…I know…I’m nuts.  I can’t help it though…I LOVE to bake!  I’m happy that I got my mom’s baking skills!  All I have to do is finish frosting the sugar cookies tonight…and they’ll be ready to package up for friends and family.  I also found out today that I got another A for one of my grad. classes.  My professor told me that I write well and could write in a way that could easily “get the attention of upper management.”  I’ll take that as a good thing…and one more class is done and out of the way.  Tomorrow’s our last day at work until the new year.  We even get out of work early…and our deparments are both going to the movie theatre in town to watch National Treasure 2…with free soda and popcorn.  I’m excited to see it…so it should be a great afternoon!  Anyway…back to frosting and wrapping!

Wow…what a wondrous, snow-filled weekend.  Friday night we headed up to El Paso after work…to spend a fun-filled night with my brother, his wife, and our way-too-cute niece.  It was her 1st birthday…and we hadn’t seen her in awhile…so we were super pumped to see all of them!  Another reason why it’s so hard to live away from family.  Anyway…we stayed up way too late talking with my brother…and got up (somewhat) early to play with Aubrey before we had to leave.  Next stop was Tolan family Christmas (Jared’s mom’s immediate family).  The food was delicious and the company was great.  The only problem was the crazy amount of snow that was rapidly falling as we feasted and fellowshipped inside.  We decided (and probably a little too late) to leave around 4:30.  Nearly 5 hours later…we arrived safe and sound back in Greenville.  It was the craziest car trip of my life…I’m pretty sure.  Lots of ice…blowing snow…falling snow…and cars in the ditch every few miles or so.  I’ve never been so happy to be back in Greenville!  I quickly went to bed….as we had to rise extra early on Sunday morning to get to church in time to set up.  Church was good…not a lot of people in attendance though…because of the weather.  I had another solo though…and it went pretty well.  It’s getting easier to sing in front of everyone.  I worked on a paper for class most of the afternoon…and finally finished it around 6:00.  Then I got wrapped my white-elephant gift for today’s office party and made a yummy strawberry desert.  Now I’m just waiting for party time….and the delicious food that goes along with it.  Adios!

….until I’m closer to 30 than I am to 20….and I’m ok with that!  Aside from that, it’s been a pretty good week thus far.  The weekend was amazing…and lived up to it’s full potential.  Monday I had my student workers over for a Christmas party at our house.  I made yummy Italian meal with different types of pasta and sauces.  For desert…I made a cheesecake…which was pretty much amazing.  (I may not be the best cook in the world…but I do cheesecake well…really well.)  Anywho…we had a fun time eating and opening presents.  I got them really cool t-shirts this year…cause I’m a cool boss.  It was also a good reason to get the house cleaned up.  It’s super tidy right now…all the floors have been mopped…the furniture dusted…etc. etc.  Yesterday, after making a yummy pork roast, I finally got started on Christmas shopping.  I’ve been dragging my feet…but at least I can say I’ve got a few things purchased now.  Still quite a bit to go…but we’ll get there!  Tonight (fingers crossed) I’m going to start on my Christmas cookies.  I have big plans for lots and lots of cookies…so hopefully I can get 3-4 kinds made tonight.  We’ll see!  For now….back to work I must go. 

Work’s almost over…and I’m getting myself prepped for looks to be a pretty rockin’ weekend.  (Well it should be…as long as a crazy ice storm doesn’t hit.)  Tonight Jared and I are off to a Greenville alumni party in St. Louis to mingle with other alumni from the area.  After that (depending on the weather) we’re going to hang out in the city for a bit…maybe catch a movie.  We’ll see.  Tomorrow we’re going to sleep in…which I haven’t done in some time.  I’m pretty pumped about that.  Tomorrow night we’re going to hang out with the Cox’s (Steve and Nicole) and head over to St. Charles, MO to attend a Bethlehem Walk…which is supposed to be wonderful.  then we’ll catch some supper with them as well. 

 Should be good stuff!

…Is my two front teeth…or at least some teeth that weren’t prone to cavities.  Jared and I had a hot date to the dentist yesterday…to get some fillings.  Ok…so maybe it wasn’t the best date ever…but Jared did buy me a caramel milkshake when it was all over!  (His mouth was so numb…that he didn’t want one.)  I haven’t had a cavity in quite awhile…so I wasn’t very excited about getting a filling again…but it wasn’t bad at all.  Our dentist is also our small group leader from church…so it was nice to actually have a friendly face there.  Other than that, it’s been a pretty low key week.  Just getting things ready for the end of the semester at work…and the end of another class for my master’s degree.  Two good things.  We have a busy weekend ahead of us…so I’ve been trying to get things done around the house before the entire month of December slips away.  Last night I made pumpkin pies…3 of them actually.  I really want to eat all of them…but I put 2 in the freezer for a rainy day.  Anyway…back to work!

Well the Smith household is completed decked out in Christmas goodness…and ready to go for the holidays!  Seriously…it looks like Christmas has thrown up all over our house…and I love it!  One of the best parts of decorating is finding all of the goodies you bought on sale after the last year…and totally forgot about.  Our weekend was good.  Friday night was spent lounging around…eating pizza…watching movies at home.  Which is always a nice treat.  Saturday I worked on a paper for school…which I finished in record time…providing us with enough time to catch a movie here in town.  He was nice enough to treat me to a night out to see “Enchanted.”  Which if you haven’t heard of it…is the new Disney movie…with a twist.  It was lovely…and I think he even enjoyed it!  We followed that with a cup of cocoa…and went to bed early.  Sunday came early…as always these days…and we headed off to help set up for church.  I was up to sing this week…and I’m pretty sure I rocked my solo…finally!  We treated ourselves to Pizza Hut…and came home for a nap…which was much needed by this time.  We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up around the house…and getting it back to normal. 

 All in all…a great weekend!