chicago recap

Today is Wednesday.  For this week and next week, I've rescheduled all my students to be in two days instead of coming each night.  That means lessons on and off all day.  It's not as hectic as I expected because some people have forgotten- well, not shown up, so I assume they forgot.  I wrote the time they signed up for on the lesson papers the week before Christmas & told the parents & posted it on my website & sent an email reminder.  Maybe I should call?  I really need them to show up next week so I can get paid.

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We just got back from Chicago - spent about 9 days there.  It was lovely.
i saw most of my favorite friends.
ben and i had dinner with a couple we love.
we had 2 family christmas parties.
christmas morning with my folks & my brother.
relaxing.
sleeping in.
celebrated ben's birthday... twice.
exercised...once
almost finished a puzzle.
watched some burn notice... our new favorite guilty pleasure show... bad acting. purely entertainment
watched It's a Wonderful Life
saw the new Sherlock Holmes
ate christmas cookies
wrapped presents
went to church

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we've been going to my aunt's house on christmas every year since i can remember.  there are just 4 of us cousins (5 now that I got married to an awesome guy) and usually, just the kids get gifts. well, now we're not really kids & my aunt has invited neighbors and friends to join us. so we decided to try something different with the gifts this year.  we played white elephant [$10 cap; we ended up having the right proportion of cool & silly gifts, which made it fun!] & asked people to contribute anonymously to a gift for World Vision.  World Vision sends out a Christmas Catalog - check out the online version here!  You can do things like buy a goat or contribute towards a fresh water well for a village.  People contributed cash through the night, then we decided at the end of the night what to give.  Twas more meaningful than a new sweater & it enabled everyone to give rather than some people to just get  :)  It seemed to go over really well!!! woohoo!! praise God!!

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christmas eve church service was awesome. beyond awesome. i know a lot of people go to church on christmas eve, but you should probably watch this one anyway. at least for the good music ;) oh ya, and an awesome message about making christmas personal!! here it is on video.


Christmas Weekend Service at Harvest Bible Chapel (entire service) from Harvest Bible Chapel on Vimeo.

merry christmas!

family christmas party (L to R - aunt leora, cousin rebecca, rebecca's boyfriend Nic)

went to the Ram Brewery/sports bar for part of ben's 24th birthday hoorah!

fuzzy picture, but those are makeshift stockings.  haha

my christmas wrapping this year. (CHEAP!!!!!)

a dancing/ice-skating reindeer ornament impersonation

brian and dad got mom a bose ipod deck.  the wrapped the remote only, covered up the bose, and told her to press play. it started playing the hallelujah chorus! she was shocked. and excited. and conducting/ lip singing....

post-christmas-morning-gift-opening... playing with their toys (aka: computer programming stuff)

2nd christmas married!!!!