It's Christmastime, Charlie Brown!

I love Christmastime. It's a beautiful time physically- all the decorations and lights, I just love it! But it's also a beautiful time spiritually, as we celebrate our savior's birth.

I've been having a wonderful time this season hanging out with friends and family. December 5 was the holiday party for our singles group at Church. We had a blast. Phil was a kind and gracious host in opening his home to us. I arrived a few hours early to help Phil, Kayte, and Jason prep a lot of the food. Jenn Payton arrived a little later to help as well. All went well, with the exception that we accidently clogged Phil's sink. And he has a garbage disposal, which makes things more difficult, so in trying to use a plunger to unclog the drain, we backed up all the water into the dishwasher, which then started leaking all over the floor...... poor Phil! Luckily this happened before the party, so we could adequately clean everything up and put a nice "DO NOT USE" sign on the sink so no further problems were caused. We had a great turnout, and it was a fabulous time of food, fun, and fellowship. My favorite part of the night was when Dave started playing the guitar and we made up our own song... Dave started and then had everyone else "sing" what their worst Christmas present was. It was hilarious. :) We did sing some real Christmas carols as well though.

Earlier that morning was also an important event for me as well- after taking the 10 week membership course at Church, I met with Brian (one of the pastors) and officially became a member of the Church! :) I was very excited, and it was nice how everyone was excited for me. :)

This weekend, I had a lovely day with my mom and Britt as we went Christmas shopping... I'm happy to say that I finished my shopping! We also went out to On the Border for lunch, to celebrate my mom's birthday. Later that evening, we made Christmas cookies (Snickers Surprise and Heath Crunch cookies, yummy!!) and I also finished wrapping all my presents. Because there was an small ice storm on Sunday, I ended up staying at home instead of heading back to Philly like I'd planned, and it was so nice. My dad made us homemade pizza, and we watched Christmas movies and just had a great time. It was a wonderful weekend.

This weekend should be fabulous too, because Becky will be home!!! She's currently on her way here now, she should arrive in Dulles around 6:30 am tomorrow morning. I'm so excited to see her! Even though I saw her a little more than a month ago, I'm still anxious to see her again. So I took a half day on Friday (yay!) to have a little more time with her. Saturday night, we're going to the singles Christmas party at Church, so she'll get to meet all my friends there. I can't wait!

So that's a little bit of what I've been up to lately.... I hope to write more, but I have been incredibly busy with work (I won't get much time off for Christmas, which is a real bummer) and with all the other Christmas events going on, I don't know if I'll have much time to update during December. So if I'm not on again for a bit, Merry Christmas Everyone! :)

Sabrina Ann

I love Sabrina Ann.

No, Sabrina Ann is not a person, Sabrina Ann is in fact a store. A store which is my guilty pleasure. Every morning, coming home from the gym, I face the store before turning onto Ardmore Ave, and as my headlights illuminate the store window, I gaze at the display with what I would imagine could only be described as naked longing in my eyes.

I have to be content to just gazing at the dresses on display from afar for now, because Sabrina Ann is a wedding dress shop. And not just any wedding dress shop- a consignment store! It's a once worn-never worn store, a lot of what they have are actually floor model dresses from other stores. And really, what can be better than thousands of beautiful wedding dresses on display? CHEAP wedding dresses on display! I don't know who is the window dresser for Sabrina Ann, but whomever they are, they should be paid well, because they do a fabulous job. Hence my staring obsession with the window every morning. :P Some of the dresses are just so beautiful.

I'm not even close to being married- I'm single with no prospects in sight, but I really don't fantasize about a wedding day very much. Really, I kind of hate weddings anymore, because I think that the value and meaning has been sucked out of what a wedding should be. Not everyone does this of course, but the world in general has perverted what a wedding is. Really, while the wedding day is a special day of course, it marks the first day of two people's lives joining together to walk as one, and people are there to celebrate that, it's just. ONE. DAY. ONE DAY. That's it. The wedding doesn't matter, it's your life together that matters. The MARRIAGE is what matters. And the world has forgotten this. Now, weddings are just one more excuse to spend tons of money on useless, frivolous things, get drunk, dress up, and one-up other people (men don't do that so much as women. Do you know how many women I've heard gossiping about different weddings, with this being better than that, and she was too cheap on this, and that should have been done differently, blah blah blah... it's disgusting.) It saddens me. It saddens me to go to lavish weddings only to find out that a couple of years later, the couple is divorcing. (Not that people who have cheap weddings last any longer.... after all, vegas weddings are cheap and most of them never last.) I'm not trying to begrudge people a beautiful wedding, or a "special day," I just want people to remember that while it is a special day, they need to remember that it's not the main point. If I ever get married, I want to remember throughout the whole day that in the grand scheme of things that is my life, this is just another day. I pray that all people would work as hard on their marriage and their lives together as they do on making their wedding day "perfect." The world would be a much better place if we did.

Back to my original point... should the day ever come (and I do hope and pray that it does one day come) that I get married, I hope to be able to finally step into Sabrina Ann and try on some of the beautiful dresses that grace the store, and yes, find one that makes me feel like a princess. :) I'm not against everything about weddings!


But don't get me started on engagement rings. :P