The Gingerbread House

The house is decorated for Christmas, and for the record, I had nothing to do with this - it was all Michelle and her boyfriend Nick who went out and got and strung the lights, and it's surprising to me how much I like it. I never really cared about holiday decorations in the past, but that probably has something to do with the fact that I can never afford them and would never think of spending a dime on them.

It's strange, but it seems that literally everyone else on our end of the road has gone all out decorating their houses for Christmas - there are lights and bows and wreaths as far as the eye can see. When Michelle and Nick were out putting these up, she said our neighbor came outside and laughed at them "Feeling the pressure?"

Why yes, don't the holidays always bring on a certain kind of pressure to perform the happy charade and one-up everyone else on gift giving? (It's the thing I hate about Christmas, one of the only things.)

Elise was thrilled with the lights and decorations, and I tried to get a good picture of her in front of the house with my phone, but for some reason she got evil red eye in each picture, as you can see here. I thought about editing out the red-eye, but it's just too funny not to keep. She's not evil. She's been a dear lately, and I love her so much sometimes it hurts to look at her.

Grace in Small Things # 1

Let's face it: We're all waging our own battles against embitterment, right? 

Schmutzie, a blogger I adore, started this social network, Grace In Small Things, so that people would remember the positive things in life that often go overlooked. 

It's sad to say, I need this. I mean, yes, it's a nice thing to do, write a list of the postive things in life, things you've noticed throughout the days that make you happy, the things that you are grateful for. But when I started to write this post and started thinking, What will I put on my list?, I realized how hard it was - for me to just sit down and gather a few positive thoughts. So I need this, as often as possible, don't I?

Here are some of the things that have made me exceptionally happy lately - I am grateful for all of them:

1.) Addie's first birthday party is tomorrow, and it will also be the occasion of Elise's first sleepover at Alisha's house - she's never spent the night anywhere besides home and grandparent's house's, so this will be fun, and interesting.

2.) Digging up an old story that I haven't worked on in years and realizing it is a lot better than I thought it was and seriously considering diving into it again.

3.) The surprise dinner provided by the roomie tonight: a delicious grilled cheeseburger and some cheesy mashed potatos.

4.) Reading all of these: BlogHer Community Keynote: Voices of the Year.

5.) Getting a date for next Wednesday night. Yeah. That happened.