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All right, friends. I will be on vacay until Jan. 7th. I hope you all had a great Christmas and happy 2008!

Dec. 25th, 2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SARAH AND HER FAMILY!!!

12 Days of Christmas correspondence

December 14th

Dearest John:

I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn't have been more surprised.

With dearest love and affection,
Agnes


December 15th

Dearest John:

Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtledoves. I’m just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable.

All my love,
Agnes


December 16th

Dear John:

Oh, aren't you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don't deserve such generosity. Three French hens. They are just darling but I must insist.... you're just too kind.

Love,
Agnes


December 17th

Dear John:

Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don't you think enough is enough? You’re being too romantic.

Affectionately,
Agnes


December 18th

Dearest John:

What a surprise! Today the postman delivered five golden rings. One for each finger. You're just impossible, but I love it. Frankly, John, all those squawking birds were beginning to get on my nerves.

All my love,
Agnes


December 19th

Dear John:

When I opened the door there were actually six geese a-laying on my front steps. So you're back to the birds again, huh? Those geese are huge. Where will I ever keep them? The neighbors are complaining and I can't sleep through the racket. PLEASE STOP!

Cordially,
Agnes


December 20th

John:

What's with you and those birds? Seven swans a-swimming. What kind of joke is this? There's bird crap all over the house and they never stop the racket. I'm a nervous wreck and I can't sleep all night. IT'S NOT FUNNY. So stop with the birds.

Sincerely,
Agnes


December 21st

OK Buster:

I think I prefer the birds. What the heck am I going to do with eight maids-a-milking? It's not enough with all those birds and eight maids-a-milking, but they had to bring their own cows. There is cow poop all over the lawn and I can’t move in my own house. Just lay off me.

Ag


December 22nd

Hey Butthead:

What are you, some kind of sadist?! Now there's nine pipers piping. When they're not driving me crazy with their incessant piping, they're chasing those milk maids all over the house. The cows are upset and are stepping all over those screeching birds. No wonder they screech. What am I going to do? The neighbors have started a petition to evict me.

You'll get yours,
Ag


December 23rd

You Big Jerk:

Now there's ten ladies dancing - I don't know why I call those women "ladies". They've been with those nine pipers all night long. Now the cows can't sleep and they've got diarrhea. My living room is a river of cow dung. The commissioner of buildings has subpoenaed me to give cause why the building shouldn't be condemned. I'm sic'ing the police on you. They know where you are.

One who means it,
Ag


December 24th

WHAT THE CRAP!?!

What's with the eleven lords-a-leaping on those maids and aforementioned "ladies"? Some of those broads will never walk again.

All 23 of the birds are dead. They have been trampled to death. I hope you're satisfied, you rotten swine.

Your sworn enemy,
Miss Agnes McCallister


December 25th

From the law offices of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe -

This is to acknowledge your latest gift of twelve drummers drumming, which you have seen fit to inflict on our client, Miss Agnes McCallister. The destruction, of course, was total. All correspondence should come to our attention. If you should attempt to reach Miss McCallister at Happy-Dale Sanitarium, the attendants have instructions to shoot you on sight. With this letter, please find attached a warrant for your arrest.

Dewey, Cheatem and Howe
Attorneys at Law

yeah for a good week!

This week has been FAB. After last Wednesday's Christmas Banquet, we don't have college group until January 9! That means three full weeks of catch-up and vacation!

It has been so nice to come into work every day and feel so productive. I'm not running around trying to get everything ready for Wednesday night. I have been able to get caught up on projects I kept putting off. I have been able to cross many things off my To-Do list. I've even had the opportunity to get ahead! Woo! Thanks goodness for breaks.

* Reading - just started Judges in my quiet time (I'm trying to read through the whole OT....who knew I'd like it so much?) and The Secret Life of Bees for personal reading. So good! Lily is my hero.

* Listening to - Josh Groban's "Noel" and Ciara's "Like A Boy" (it's the song my hip-hop dance is to, so I listen to it all the time and practice the dance in my office (with the door closed, of course).

* Watched - the dumbest movie last night. My co-worker Christian told me I HAD to watch Hot Rod. I would think it was the best, most hilarious movie EVER, etc. So he gave me his copy and after a week of putting it off, I finally sat down and watched it. Oh my word. I can never get those 87 minutes back. Dumb! I came to work today and told Christian that I was going to make him watch Anne of Green Gables as payback.

* favorite video on YouTube lately (thanks sister for showing it to me!): a 10-men-accapella group singing the 12 Days of Christmas. Very fun. Check it out here.

* I'm getting a massage after work today. Yeah for me!

* 4 more days until vacation!!!

The Hobbit!!

If you could see me now, I have a huge grin on my face and I want to step away from my computer and do a little dance of joy!!! I just read some amazing news on yahoo.com:

"After months of bitter legal wrangling, Peter Jackson, New Line Cinema, and MGM Studios Inc. have agreed to make two movies based on the book 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien.

In a statement Tuesday, the companies said Jackson, the director of the smash hit 'Lord of the Rings' movies, and producer Fran Walsh will executive produce both a 'Hobbit' movie and a sequel, but Jackson was not named as the director. 'We don't have a director yet,' said a New Line spokeswoman.

The movies will be made simultaneously starting in 2009, and a tentative release date has been set for 2010 for the first film and 2011 for the second."

Ahhhh!! As a huge fan of both the books and the movies, I am beyond stoked that they are going to make The Hobbit into a movie (actually it sounds like they will be making two movies). I'm a little bummed that Peter Jackson won't be directing, because he did such a great job with the LOTR trilogy, but hopefully whoever they get will be just as good.

This post might make me sound like a nerd, and yes, on one hand I might be. But don't fret...I'm not one of those fanatics that wears cloaks everywhere and has a LOTR lunch box. I just enjoy good literature and film. =)

Bring on The Hobbit!!

oh, the ol' white elephant gift exchange...

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you might remember two years ago when I opened a bag of cement during our house's white elephant gift exchange party, compliments of Mr. Mike M.

And then last year I was duped again by M-squared to open his gift...which turned out to be a nasty, smelly, stain-and-hair-covered chair (that STILL sits in our garage to this very day).

The tradition was broken, my friends. I think turning 30 made me smart. I did NOT choose Mike's gift, and indeed that was a very wise choice. It was a toilet. NICE! Mike, you can keep coming to our party as long as you point out your gift before we start, so I can avoid it at all costs. =)

Other highlights of the par-tay:

* I stole a plastic blue Dunder-Mifflin lunch box from someone and was so excited! Not that I would use it...but it had the Dunder-Mifflin logo on it and I am a HUGE fan of The Office, so I was stoked. However, it immediately got stolen from me. Sad. So then I got a new gift which included a Starbucks gift card. SWEET! Also stolen. What did I end up with? A Kojak record and book set, some random DVD with a He-Man type dude on the front called "Masters of the Universe", and a bottle of "fcuk" cologne which smelled like nasty boy swimming in slime. ewww....

* Scotty G decided to spray me and anyone else nearby with the aforementioned "fcuk" cologne and I reeked like slimy boy for the rest of the evening. (I apologized profusely to anyone who sat within 5 feel of me) Thanks, Scotty!

* Our friend Peter made a 12-month calendar called "The Gordon Girls" (our house is called the "Gordon House") where he took swimsuit models and put our faces in them!! One picture for every month, so we each got two shots of glory. Everyone was screaming and laughing and shrieking and I kept wondering what it was they were looking at. When I finally saw, I was dying! It was so funny! And yet at the same time, it made me want to put seven layers of clothes over myself because I felt so exposed.

* the Jesus figurine that spouted off bible verses when you pressed his back and the bobble head Jesus for your car dashboard were big hits.

* Cara-friend decided to put red and green antlers on her dog, Mr. Darcy. He was less then pleased. He'd be all hyper and letting us pet him, but as soon as those antlers went on...he would put his head down, not move, sulk, and look at us with his big, pleading eyes as if saying, "Give me back my dignity." It was hilarious! I love your dog, Macsies. =)

* Towards the end of the night, my roomate Jessica brought out her marshmellow launcher. One friend stood on the other side of the room with a plastic cup on his head. We tried to shoot it off with the mini-marshmellows. Who knew something so silly could be so fun?! Well, it was at 1:15 at night so I think we were all delirious with lack-of-sleep by that point.

Another fun Christmas party! Thanks to all who came! See you all next year. (P.S. please note the toilet that was left in our living room at the end of the night, plus all the styrofoam peanuts that were also left behind and ripped up. Good times.)

Christmas Banquet

'Tis the season for the college Christmas Banquet!

We always end the fall semester with a fancy schmancy banquet where all the students get dressed up and wear something other than jeans. It was two nights ago and it was a blast. Some of the evening activities included: eating, taking pictures, making gingerbread houses (there were some very interesting ones...), singing, hearing the Christmas story, watching a slideshow of the semester, dessert, and having a white elephant gift exchange.

It's fun to look back on the last three and a half months and see all that has happened. All the fun nights, all the teaching nights, the fall road trip, the service nights, the friendships, the relationships, the break-ups, the hard conversations, the tears, the laughter, the goofiness, the lovin'! Yup, it's been a full, rich semester.

And now...sleep is calling me...it's hibernation time...

oh no they DIDN'T!

I was in my office with my intern Jeff...we were brainstorming a teaching series we want to do in the spring on Jesus...we couldn't think of a good title for the series so we decided to google "Jesus" and see if any inspiration hit...and we came across this...we screamed and laughed so hard, all our co-workers came running...

OH NO THEY DIDN'T!!!

this week

- has been emotionally draining

- I watched the Prince Caspian trailer. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here

- I continued knitting my scarf

- we took the college students downtown to sing carols Wednesday night. It was amazing.

- I watched The Golden Compass. I think if I hadn't read the book, I would have found it a bit confusing. But I liked it.

- We had a bridal shower for our dear roomate, Jen!! She is getting married in January. It was so much dang fun.

17 days until Sarah's vacation....

favorite Christmas movies

Last night I was watching Elf and it got me thinking about all the fun holiday movies out there. So...INTERACTIVE BLOG. Share with us your favorite Christmas movie. It can be old-school (Rudolph or Frosty) or recent. Don't be shy. Let's all swim in the pool of nostaglia.

I'll start: mine is "It's a Wonderful Life". ("I wish I had a million dollars... HOT DOG!") It might not exactly be a Christmas movie, but it ends at Christmas-time and I always watched it around the holidays, so that is what I associate it with. A close second is "A Muppet Family Christmas". ("Careful of the icy patch!") That one came out when I was 10 and we taped it off T.V. and watched it all the time.

Ok, your turn...