Christmas: Musselwhite style

because every family (I'm sure) has their wild and fun traditions, I thought I would share a couple of ours:

Christmas eve eve cookie baking: snickerdoodles + double-chocolate sugar cookies (my personal favorite). Maybe one year I'll relinquish the recipe for these heavenly treats, but, honestly speaking, I'm just not ready for that yet.

hiding + finding the Christmas pickle ornament - it's supposedly an old German tradition, and the winner of the competition gets a little extra cash. I've been the Christmas pickle champion for the past two years in a row, but, unfortunately, my brother found it this year. In 363 days... it's on. again.

on Christmas eve, we get together for dinner with my mom's side of the family, then we go home, watch White Christmas, and hang our stockings on our bedroom doors for Santa (I think we hang them on our doors and not our fireplace because when we first moved to Bham, we lived in an apartment for a year and didn't have a fireplace to hang them on. Once we moved into an actual house, we kept the tradition). On Christmas day, we make Belgian waffles for breakfast and open presents, go to a movie together, and eat Christmas dinner together.

we're definitely a tradition-driven family, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

p.s. yes, I got a steamer for Christmas, and yes, I'm pretty freaking excited about it. I'M AN ADULT.

oh, happy day

I have just found the most wonderful website of any that I can possibly think of at the moment. talk about eye candy.

http://jcrewing.tumblr.com/

enjoy.

eight days until christmas, twenty one days until I turn twenty one.

Christmas break thus far:
-freezing, freezing, FREEZING in Dawsonville, GA, yet taking advantage of the MOST INCREDIBLE SALES EVER at the J.Crew, Banana Republic, Kate Spade, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma outlets. 50% off sweaters? and an additional 20% off of everything in the store? Sprinkles cupcake mixes for $4.99!? don't mind if I do.
-SNOW!
-work. and more work. at both the office I worked at this summer and a couple of hours here and there at the store I worked at in high school. the office job is surprisingly wonderful this time - no more stressing over my public speaking class, or counting down an intimidatingly high number of days until I move back to Auburn. It's pretty relaxing, actually.
-and tomorrow, my family is going to visit family in Georgia for the weekend. our family trips are usually either cut-throat or hilarious. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for hilarity... I have pretty high hopes.

It should also be noted that today is my best friend Katherine's negative 1st anniversary. One year from today, she will be getting married and having the time of her life while I and most of the rest of her bridesmaids shed tears of pure joy and nostalgia; and have so SO much fun because she is the first one of us to get married, and it will be a very new and exciting experience. I can't wait.

Also, the current inter-cubicle discussion is about pillow pets, and which ones we like the best. Never a dull moment in the office.

I just need to point this out

I was looking over my blog archives a couple of minutes ago (since it's almost been a year since I created this thing - you know me, all nostalgic), and noticed this:

who the heck was I in February?? 15 POSTS? that's practically one life update every other day. what in the world. maybe that's why I escaped last spring with the grades I had by the skin of my teeth.

edit: In my defense, a lot did happen that month. I had complaining about valentine's day / dappeling in vegetarianism to do, and it snowed. but sheesh. #bloghappy*

*as the months progress, I feel an increasing need to use hashtags outside of twitter. sometimes I even hashtag moments of everyday life in my head as they occur. good grief, WHO AM I?

a treat for finals week

DM Stith was Sufjan Steven's opener when I saw him live in November - definitely one of the more incredible opening acts I've seen. I mean - he records his voice and harmonizes with himself. live. totes impressed.