Happy Christmas! And a Merry New Year!

I love how in the Harry Potter movies they say Happy Christmas instead of Merry Christmas. I don't know why but I guess it's because it just fits with the British accent better. At any rate, I hope you had a Happy/Merry Christmas. :)
My Christmas was grand as it is every year. I love that it was on a Sunday. It just seemed fitting that on the day we celebrate the birth of Christ we should be at church, focusing our attention on and worshiping the God man that came to earth to be born to die for us. My wonderful sister and her lovely family got to be with us Christmas morning and we had a big yummy breakfast. We were supposed to have Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls...but...ummm...I kinda ruined them. They were pretty stupid....and I don't mean the good kind of stupid. I was supposed to half the recipe because the original recipe feeds 12,263 people (exaggeration). I halved everything but the milk so the dough was more like runny cake batter rather than dough that could be rolled. :/ It was too late in the game to start over so, alas, we settle for pecan squares at breakfast. Tragedy, I know. :P Any-hoo, after breakfast we opened stockings. I don't know why, but stocking have to be my favorite Christmas tradition...next to food that is. Stocking stuffers are just sooooo fun and stuff that I wouldn't buy myself but love to get. Mine was full of owl stuff along with a couple other things that weren't owly. :) I think I'm set for owl stuff for a while. I am by no means tired of them but my collection is growing fast. :P After stockings, we all donned our church apparel (fa la la fa la la la la la), and headed to church. It was fun seeing all of our church family on Christmas day. There was a fun festive feel in the air and all the kids were giddy with excitement and eager to tell all who would listen what presents they opened that morning. My cousin Olivia didn't even say hi to me. She just ran up to me screaming, "JESSIEEEEEE!!!! I GOT ROLLER SKATES!!!!!!" :) After church, we headed back home to don our comfy apparel (fa la la fa la la la la la), pack up the presents and food, and head to Aunt Cheryl's and Uncle Kirk's for the evening festivities. My ridiculously cool Aunt Cheryl had a hot cocoa bar along with the rest of the typical holiday finger food feast. Super fun! For some reason we ate before we opened presents, which I didn't mind much, but I think Ross was about to hyperventilate. We draw names at our house instead of each person buying a gift for each person. It's super fun to focus on one person to get a gift(s) for and waaaay cheaper than buying one for each person. I had my Sister's name. She's kinda hard to buy for but easy to please....don't ask me how she manages that. However the brilliance of wish lists helped me out :) My mother had my name and just wait till you hear what she gave me!!!! Actually, you probably already know since everyone this side of the equator heard me scream with glee. She got me the......wait for it....Owl City album Ocean Eyes on.......(drum roll please)......VINYL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As many of you know I am A) Obsessed with Owl City and B) obsessed with my record player/records. So needless to say this was THE BEST GIFT EVER!!! It's kinda cool how they still make vinyl. I even found a Michael Buble' album on Vinyl too. Mom also got me a new iPod docking station. Score! My old one was shot and this one is way cooler. My aunt pointed out how ironic those two gifts are together :P My awesome brother-in-law just happened to have his record player he just got in the car so he brought it in and we played my new record.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you how insufferable I was....singing every word and swaying back and forth to the music, with a stupid, giddy grin on my face.
The evening wore on and we ate till we said, "Ugh I'm never eating again" and played games that made us do embarrassing things we won't go into, and pretty much had the bestest, happiest, merriest Christmas ever! :) 

Overloaded with sugar,
JRae

Copy Cat Day

I'm christening today...Copy Cat Day. Where instead of using your own brain power to blog about an original thought, or recipe, or what you did for your date last night, you commandeer someone else's brilliance/ thoughfulness/ good thought of the day and post it on your own blog. Of course please, by all means, tell the blog world who you "stole" it from.
Today I shall commandeer from...wait for it...The Rabbit Room. To those of you who know me well, this is no surprise. I copy cat from these people quite often since they are so very brilliant/thoughtful/full of good thoughts. This post is about the true meaning of Christmas and how as Christians sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the presents and stress of the season that we forget to celebrate our Prince of Peace, our Emmanuel, our Jesus Christ. As I read the article I was struck by the thought that we humans are prone to this same mistake every day of the year...not just Christmas time. Each and every day is a battle to put away selfish desires, worries,and meaningless things and put Christ at the center. So read this article and rejoice in the birth of Christ today, and Christmas day, and Boxing Day, International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and St. Patrick's Day, and "OMG I have no energy" day. :)
Merry Christmas, Ya'll. :)

Give Away!

Re-posting this give-away so I can maybe win it. Never mind that I haven't had a legit blog post in a while.
Lazy,
JRae
O ya, here's the link.