Merry Christmas!

Tonight starts the real Christmas season for me. We have a Christmas party, then a weekend trip to Chicago, then Christmas Eve with my mom's side and Christmas Day with my husband's family. Then more family comes in on the 26th and we celebrate Christmas at my dad's house on the 27th. Then my husband and I are master and mistress of ceremonies for a wedding, so we have rehearsal on the 28th and the wedding on the 29th (also our 2-year anniversary).

So Merry Christmas in advance! If you don't hear from me until the 30th, you now know why. I'll leave you with my most favorite Christmas song from my most favorite Christmas movie.

Fun (and brainless) Post!

I feel like I've been pretty heavy lately, so I thought I'd cut and paste a survey I filled out into my blog. Some of the questions are fun, and it was just a cut and paste, so it's pretty brainless for me. :-)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? We have an artificial tree, but I grew up with a real tree and I miss it.

3. When do you put up the tree? The first weekend in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? Whenever we have time after New Year's.

5. Do you like egg nog? Gross; no.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Um... no clue.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, but it's somewhat incomplete (but Jesus is there, so that counts).

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad. Whenever he needs anything, he just buys it.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Maybe my sister-in-law. She always wants cute clothes or fun movies, so I like shopping for her.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, though I haven't sent them out yet. By Saturday, I swear. :-)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Again, no clue (just call me Strostra).

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas for sure (though Elf and Love Actually are really cute new Christmas movies that I like).

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Oh, yes. And Goodwill has probably received some of them.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas cookies.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear (though technically I suppose they are white).

17. Favorite Christmas song? White Christmas (classic), Silent Night (hymn), All I Want for Christmas is You (rock out, Mariah).

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Most of our family is in our hometown, so we don't really travel, but we're not actually at our house; we're at the families.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Not even gonna try.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Nothing! But I want to get a star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Shopping mania and busyness.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I don't think I have a favorite but I really like my Bob the tomato (of Veggie Tales fame).

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We always do fondue on Christmas Eve and brunch on Christmas day.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Real answer: fun time with my family. Totally worldly answer: I'd love a new, cute purse.

Untitled

Do you ever go somewhere and hope for something? But tell yourself not to hope for that thing? Because you are pretty darn sure you'll be disappointed.

But then you go. And you hope. And you're disappointed.

You're disappointed in that something that wasn't there. You're disappointed in the someone who really has no effect on the something, but seemingly should. You're disappointed in yourself for letting yourself get disappointed.

How do you bounce back?

Too Personal to Post?

Oddly enough, I haven't posted about this event that happened that is close to my heart because I worried it was too close to my heart. And yet it seems kinda ridiculous at the same time. My dad had to put his golden retriever, Cede, to sleep on Monday. Yes, that's right. My dad had two goldies and he had to put both of them to sleep within two months of each other.

Tasha was very old and had a stroke. Cede was also quite old and suffered from malignant tumors. When my dad told me, I was at work. It was so hard because I wanted to sob. I wanted to whine and cry and tell my dad all the things I hoped he needed to hear. But I had to sit there, biting my lip, pressing my knuckles against my eyes in hopes of stemming the flow of tears. And for the most part, I was silent.

I called my dad back the next day and told him more of the things I wish I could have said, but felt it was a little too late.

The Only Road North

I read this book a year ago and I don't think I'll ever forget it. It's not necessarily the writing (good, but not Pulitzer-prize-winning), it's not necessarily even the story (fabulous, and hard to put down). The memorable thing is the heart of the writer.

Why did I wait a year to post on the wonder of this book? An article was recently posted about the author, Erik Mirandette, on relevantmagazine.com. Honestly, I skimmed the article because I know Erik's story fairly well. But I did read what he said at the very end of the article. I'm going to quote directly because it is so powerful:

“The conclusion that I came to was either everything that I had believed in up until that point—everything that I had stood for, everything that I had lived for the last couple years, everything that my brother died for—either that was true, or my life and his death were completely in vain. I wasn’t willing to accept that. I have to believe that someday—I can’t imagine that it would be in this life—it’s all going to make sense, and it’s all going to be made right. Until then my responsibility, my job, my obligation is to do the good that I can do and to make the difference I can make.”

These words deeply touch my heart and communicate great truth. Erik has wisdom beyond his twenty-some years, and I think we can all benefit from his words. Until it all makes sense, until it's all made right...all I can do, all I must do, is to make the difference I can make.

Led by...the Spirit?

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with some friends. We talked about being led by the Spirit (and I'm talking the Holy Spirit, part of God, yet wholly itself). We talked about some people who feel the Spirit strongly in their decision making. We talked about those people who never truly felt the Spirit moving them to a decision.

I am the latter. I've made several important decisions in my life (what is the right college, is this the guy I want to marry, is this the place I'm supposed to work), but I have never felt like the Spirit has called me to any of them. After the fact, I often get affirmation that this was the right decision. But I've never felt 100% like this is what I'm supposed to do.

So what do you do? Do you pray harder, more often, differently? Do you seek the council of others who are more connected with the will of the Spirit? Do you just treat your decisions completely rationally, then pray for the Spirit to work with what you've got?

For serious. Let's hear some answers!

Do the Hustle

Now that you're all whistling the tune in your head... It's the holidays. And that means a lot of hustle and bustle. I fell prey to it last weekend. I had family in town and in an effort to spend as much time as possible with them, I think I overdid it. And then this week at work, I sorta fell apart.

Sure, I did my job well. But I didn't do it extremely well. And I know I'm too hard on myself, but when I don't meet my own expectations, I feel bad.

Oh, and I yelled at my husband today. It was partly him, but not enough for me to yell at him. So then I had to feel miserable for being mean and miserable as I apologized.

So I am really, really looking forward to this weekend. I'm hoping to recharge my batteries a little and catch up on a little sleep. So here's to the holiday season, twinkle lights on trees, and down comforters!

Happy Friday

Snow


After my last blog post, curious readers (okay, only one) wanted to know why I was in a ditch. This is why:

See that white stuff? Snow. It's not that it's rare around here. It's even a little late in the year for it to start. But Monday morning was the first day when drivers had to deal with slick roads.

For the record, I was not the one who drove into the ditch. I carpool with a very nice woman who was not at fault either. She was driving under the speed limit, with about 4 car lengths between us and the car in front of us. However, braking happens. And when my carpooler tried to brake, the car decided to slide.

And we ended up in the median ditch. For 45 minutes. Waiting for a tow truck. Because everybody and their brother was sliding off the road that day.

We were lucky. No one was hurt and the damage to the car was minimal (just a little adjustment to the alignment after its graceful plunge into snow, mud, and the skeletons of cattails.

Tagged

My friend Aletha tagged me and I'm good enough to do the post, but probably not good enough to tag anyone else. :-)

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. (see above link)
2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here goes nothing....

1. This morning, I spent 45 minutes in a ditch (in a car in a ditch).

2. My first name is Sarah and it means "princess". I'm pretty sure my parents didn't care. And I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with how I turned out. Lol.

3. I planned my entire wedding in 4 months. We were engaged in September and were married end of December.

4. I grew up, went to college, got married, and still live in the same town. I lived in Boston for one year because my dad had a job there, but even counting that time gone, I've lived here for 23 years.

5. I technically met my husband when I was 2. Our family went to the church where his dad was a pastor. We've known each other for 22 years, have been together for 6, and married for 2.

6. I am running low on interesting things about myself.

7. Last night I decorated our Christmas tree.

See? I did it, but I'm not going to tag anyone. I know I am a party pooper.