Hi my dears. In about an hour I'm leaving for the airport to go to Nebraska, where I'm spending the rest of my break. The reason is that I'm going is to visit my grandparents, and if you think that I'd be happy to see them after going two years without it, you'd be wrong. By way of a vague explanation, my grandparents and I disagree on almost everything. But I guess that's how it should work, seeing that I've grown up in the middle of the U.S.'s most diverse city and they've spent their whole lives in a town in the middle of nowhere with a population of 1200. I always start these trips trying to avoid any drama, but forget it after they insult my views enough. They just have this idea of the way it's "supposed to be" and get really pissed off at me when I act like an "elite northerner" (yeah they've actually used those words). And I just learned that my dad told them a couple of things about my past that I didn't want him to.. it's not like I was pregnant or in jail or anything, but it's things that I didn't want told to my grandparents who don't really care about me and are definitely going to change the atmosphere of my whole visit. So I know it's going to be a horrible trip, I'm just trying to figure out ways to keep it from getting even worse.

I doubt I'll be able to post in NE, and if I am I doubt I'll have anything to post about. But then again I could be totally wrong, my grandparents could let me blog and be totally supportive and understanding of me and this trip could be the best ever! Pigs could fly or whatever. I still am not setting my expectations too high though.

Hope you're all enjoying your winter breaks! I really really appreciate all the new comments and will be commenting back as soon as I have time.

the day after

Afternoon dears, hope you all had spectacular Christmases. I definitely did! It was nice to see everyone in my family so happy. Even my cat shared the looove by sitting on my lap, for the first time ever!
Also, my father is a dork who enjoys wearing Christmas light necklaces.

After opening presents we basically just cooked all morning and afternoon until dinner was ready. Lots of baked squash and gingerbread cake were eaten. Then we got to play with our presents! I didn't get that many this year because I didn't ask for that many, which is fine by me. But a few of my favorites are:

Wii Fit!
It's so fun and addicting, even if it's a bit rude sometimes. It said my fitness age was 36, not nice!

Sealing wax.
Am I the only person who thinks that this is the coolest thing ever? So antique and nostalgic. I'm bringing back the art of letter writing.

This skirt!
As I said before, I couldn't really think of much I wanted this year, so I just gave my mom the link to my Etsy favorites page. She picked out this skirt and another necklace, excellent choices. The color combination on the skirt is sooo perfect, she knows me well!

Now I'm left with that sinking feeling I get every year after Christmas is over, so I'm trying to stay distracted. If any of you want to tell me how your Christmases went that would be great, I'd love to read them!

advent calendar adventures!

Hi blog land, merry Christmas eve! Today's post is going to be about the advent calendar that my sister and I share. Each part of it was handmade by my grandfather, down to the tiny little ornaments and shingles. He gave it to us about eight years ago, I think, back when he didn't have arthritic hands and wasn't as.. up tight, as he is now. I shouldn't have waited until the 24th for this post, since this advent calendar is one of my favorite parts of Christmas and has a lot of memories behind it.

Most of the time my mom fills the drawers with your typical Christmas chocolates and mints, but on some days she puts little notes in them that give clues as to where our treats are hiding. Today I got a note which said, "Could Ponce de Leon have been right? Let's go see..." So that left me thinking, What? Who? Who is Ponce de Leon? But then I remembered that a couple years ago when we went to Florida, we learned that de Leon was this Spanish guy who founded Florida while looking for The Fountain of Youth. My mom and I refused to buy a bottle of water that was supposedly from the fountain at the gift shop; instead we were rebels and bottled our own directly from the fountain. And under the bottle is where I found...

My next clue! It said, "It's a little too squishy under here. I think I'll go check out the radiant horologe instead. Look down to find me." This meant I actually had to get out a dictionary to find out that a horologe is a time keeping device. Which led me to this atrocious sun clock left over from when my dad was in college.

Underneath the clock is where I found my last clue, which said, "You know, I'm really in the mood for some tubers. Let me check out their usual stoarage area. I'll be lurking in the dark, waiting for you." And I knew that tubers = root vegetables, so look what was waiting for me in the sweet potatoes!
Haha. I love my mumma.

I seriously doubt that I'll be posting tomorrow, I want to spend the day with my family and not the computer. Wishing you all very merry Christmases, hope Santa gives you lots of surprises!

WOWW #3

Yeahhh you guys, it's that time again! That time being Wednesday. Meaning that this post is Word of the Week on Wednesday. This week's word is...

TINTINNABULATION- tin·tin·nab·u·la·tion. n.
1. the ringing or sound of bells
2. a jingling or tinkling sound as if of bells

I don't even know where I heard/read this word, it's just been floating around in my head for the longest time and I love it! It's so fun to say and fits perfectly in the whole Christmas theme. As in, "The tintinnabulation of the keys in my pocket reminds me of the bells on Santa's sleigh that will be flying over my house in only two days!"

So yay. Hope you've all been feeling the Christmas spirit and eating lots of gingerbread!

do hedgehogs hibernate?

Hello hello, today I had a snow day since we got about two and a half feet of snow on Saturday, yipee! And yes, a snow day was actually necessary because unlike everyone else in the WORLD, I don't get to start my Christmas break until the 24th. Yeah.

I had a soopa cozy weekend, consisting mostly of playing Christmas carol cello-flute duets with my mom, baking, reading, and otherwise being lazy. For my friends' presents, I made toasted almond and cherry chocolate bark and caramel popcorn balls.

I made this hedgehog hair clip too! LOVE hedgies.

Aaaand I have a tumblr now. Here! I'm not sure how much I'll use it; it's just that sometimes there are things that I want to share without many words that I would feel weird about posting on blogger. But anyway, if any of you have tumblrs, follow me pleaseee.

Happy almost-Christmas.

let it snow let it snow

Bonjour. Sorry for extreme lack of posting/commenting lately. This past week was really draining school-wise and I just wasn't feeling too creative. But! Today I'm in a really good mood because, as I'm writing this in my bed, it's a snowin outside! Snows days are preferable on weekdays, yes, but they're still so cozy on weekends too. My parents don't like to drive when there's snow on the roads, so I'm going to stay home all weekend. My to do list:

1. have a baking extravaganza with my mom and sister to make yummy gifts
2. make a tumblr
3. study for AP government test (hahahahahahahahaha)
4. craft some new hair clips
5. build a snowman
6. drink hot cocoa with a candy cane straw
7. listen to Christmas carols nonstop
8. practice my origami

We might get up to two feet and it's supposed to "thunder snow" later today. Very curious to see what that's like.

The one with Odysseus and stuff

So in my English class, we're reading the Odyssey (which I actually don't hate!) and were assigned to make a visual representation of one of the books. My friends and I chose to make a movie out of Book 22, Slaughter in the Hall. We actually planned for it to turn out really professionally, but we didn't take into account how hard it is to memorize a script and play thirty characters with five actors. And film everything within four hours. And not leave out any really important scenes. And not die from laughter in the middle of filming.

Now that I've set your expectations so high, enjoy! Oh and just something to keep in mind to help keep characters straight: Most of the time, the suitors have black beards/staches and Odysseus's side has brown. Except for Odysseus, who always has black. Yeah.

Hahaha I swear I don't sound like that normally. I am such a horrible actress! But at least we did a good job on those outtakes!