An Online Christmas?

New rhythms

I feel wildly out of sync this season. My internal clock is thrown off and I can't believe Christmas is this week!

I'm so used to the rhythm of school - coming home with weeks to spare - plenty of time to shop for gifts and prepare for Christmas day! But this year - I am working! Working until almost Christmas Eve and when I finally get home it will be Christmas!

Therefore, I am behind and probably won't get ahead this season. I'm trying to just accept that and find any sort of peace, but I feel pressure to have it all together and present each person with the perfect gift. The gifts that I did buy are still sitting on my bedroom floor...not mailed. New Year gifts, anyone??

Things have slipped through the cracks which I find terribly ironic. My life calms down and I shed the stress and fast pace of school and end up getting less done than when I was running full speed ahead! How does this happen?

It's nice to relax and come home to lounge, but I'm afraid it's becoming a bad habit. I'm becoming too accustomed to having a clear schedule and nothing to do because when there are things that could be done I forget all about them.

Things will be different this year and the years following. There's an uncertain anxiety about the changes of rhythm and perhaps being so out of sync this year is just what is needed to forge a new tradition, a new way.

However, something I have accomplished this season is really being present in Advent. Reading reflections that continually challenge and broaden the depth of my understanding of my Savior's birth, of what it means to wait, anticipate, look anxiously to heaven. Our office walked alongside my boss as she waited for a new grand-baby to arrive...each day we'd eagerly wait for news...wait for this child to be born. Brings new meaning to the anticipation felt ~2,000 years ago and our anticipation now as we again wait for Christ and His return.

Sugary Success

This past Saturday my friend, Amy, and I went on an adventure in West Seattle on the hunt for Macaroons which I'd fretted about earlier. We braved the rain (record-setting rain, that is) and found Bakery Nouveau which was nestled downtown, and inside smells and dazzling treats awaited.

Everything looked amazingly delicious and of the things we tried, they tasted even better than I imagined they would!

We, of course, had to try the macaroons since that prompted the whole adventure and Amy got a feta and spinach pie and I got a doughnut-ish pastry...sadly I can't remember the name! But it was a rich doughnut with hints of lemon zest covered in cinnamon-sugar. Amy got the pistachio and coffee macaroons and I got strawberry, raspberry and we both enjoyed lavender. The raspberry was by far my favorite which encased silky raspberry chocolate. We rolled out of there on a sugar high to say the least.

Macaroon hunt successful (and delicious). Hope to make it back there someday soon!

10 on 10 2010!

Last one of the year (and I'm thinking the only one I got to...) And it's still not posted on the tenth...but these were taken on the tenth so it'll work. Had a little mishap of misplacing my usb cord for the camera and couldn't upload them until today - such is the pace of December!

A Window In...

So once upon a time in PA Training...we learned about the Johari Window and I was a bit fascinated by the concept. It's a tool to highlight how you see yourself, how others see you and what it all means! To learn more go here.

But, I stumbled across an interactive web Johari Window from my dear friend Therese...

Therefore, you should participate! Click on HERE to view mine and follow the directions...then create your own!

feeling bookish...

Just finished The Memory Keeper's Daughter...

The weight of decisions made and how they unfold the future are woven in the lives of Nora, Henry in Caroline in this story. It gripped me with themes of grief, sorrow and the complexity of human relationships, yet - simple joy. Interesting read to say the least.

Next on the list: The Help by Kathryn Stockett as highly recommended to me by Kelley!

lol

These had me laughing for quite awhile... there's a whole site dedicated to the mishaps of autocorrect on the iPhone...

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day.

The heartbreak, pain, suffering, sickness and stigma are still consuming so many around the world and here, in our backyard. Yet - there is also hope. Hope that action, education, fundraising will make a difference.

Spread hope.

Learn more about World AIDS Day and the AIDS epidemic here.