The biggest things I’ve learned from the run up to Christmas this year (in no particular order!):-

• You can never start your shopping early enough!! Even if you do all of your shopping online early, you still have to wait in for deliveries and run the risk of things not turning up in time – or worst of all getting lost. I’ve yet to go through the trauma of getting a refund.
• It feels like the 12th December for weeks, then Christmas Day creeps up on you like a flash all of a sudden.
• That it really doesn’t matter about the small stuff – laugh off the things you screwed up on or burned (my butter roasted sprouts were a little under-done) and when a cheap gift breaks after twenty minutes … it’s not worth being annoyed about, because that’s what you get for rushing around, buying toot and tat for their Christmas stockings!!
• Just smile! If you plaster a smile on your face when you are out and about … it infects people and makes them smile. Every single person you smile at, will go on to infect another complete stranger … who will infect another etc etc ad infinatum LOL Not only that, but it makes you feel all warm and squishy inside … and that is what this festive season is about!!

But you know what? After all the hectic build up at work, getting the orders out in time and then my Christmas Eve nightmare… it’s been a thoroughly chilled and relaxed day after all! Lunch went off without a hitch (other than my under-done sprouts!) the kids behaved really well – no fighting or arguing and lots of us all sat together on the sofa snuggled up watching movies.

This is my second Christmas as a one parent family, single-handedly producing a roast turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, and keeping the children entertained all day! Sometimes I surprise myself at my inner strength – almost as if I’d forgotten that it was in there all along, but it is — and it’s really got me through the last couple of weeks.

I am truly exhausted though and feel like I could sleep for a week now!!

Today, as we celebrate the culmination of Advent, may our hearts echo the proclamation of generations. “Joy to the world for the lord has come! Let Earth receive her king!” We celebrate the undeniable truth that Love wrapped itself in skin and continued a promise stretched across history – that God’s Kingdom could reign on earth. We sing out with great and triumphant joy of the miraculous birth upon which all history hinges.

May we truly identify with the shepherds that night in Bethlehem – eyewitnesses of glory and mouthpieces of majesty. May today be a day when we are confronted with the incarnation in a new way. May the truth of Christ dwell in our hearts richly and may Christ come and be our Joy. Even in the midst of cheap, commercial imitations, personal tragedies and the chaos that swirls all around us, in the midst of carol singing and tree lighting and chestnuts roasting – may we be reminded that Christ is the only Joy.

We do so emphatically proclaim “Joy to world for the lord has come” and we pray that the Earth would properly receive her King. May every heart prepare Him room as Heaven and Nature sing.

Our kids are home, the gifts are mostly wrapped, and the weather is blustery and cold. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We are cooking in a few days, delaying our meal until some others are here to help us celebrate. Having some tamales tonight as is our ritual.

Gold and Violet forever

So this is the time
it’s all so sublime…
Can you see here?
it’s all so clear.

Your time it is now..
Can you see how?
The switch has occurred
Reality quite blurred.

This time,,,
We are One
Not alone
We are done.

Living lives
Sans strife
The Violet One
A Golden Life.

Remember trials
Memories played?
This new life
Our souls do bade.

A spectrum of colors
Midnight through White
Our life unfolding
From Dark unto Light,

Remember your vision,
That’s what they’d say
Newly minted we see
This most momentous day,

Of millions of dollars
Given away
Our freedom intact
This glorious way!

Everyone revels
In this reality
Our hearts, our hopes
Are given wings.

And those who have none
Will be given some
And all is divine
At this juncture of time.

When I was in college, I discovered what I feel to be the best Christmas album of all time. It contains no stories of shopping or snow and only has two traditional hymns, but it tells the story the way I feel it should be told. Starting with the idea of deliverance and the heritage that we entered into – Andrew Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb of God” traces the story from Egypt to Bethlehem and beyond. He implores us to “gather round and listen to the old, old story about the power of death undone and the infant born of glory”. From there, we listen to the pleas that the judgement would passover us – whether by lamb’s blood on a doorframe or a prayer of dedicated redemption. Upon announcing the birth, he pauses to remind us that Mary’s night was neither silent nor pleasant and that the Savior of a communal world was born in almost utter isolation. He even throws in a musical version of Matthew’s geneology.

I’ve had the chance to see the concert event in person and can say that it is a truly holy experience. In the spirit of communal incarnation, Andrew gathers some of his closest musical friends to help him tell the story. They speak of the birth event, but also sing songs of their faith and their wrestlings – all in the understanding that the Incarnation is not an isolated event. We pause at this season to remember and commemorate, but the reality of love wrapped in skin should affect each and every moment of our life.

Seeing Christmas through the lens of the metanarrative has made it difficult for me to not be deeply annoyed at commercialism this Christmas. I have not purchased gifts for anyone – instead choosing to purchase cattle from Heifer or scholarships through Oxfam. Each of my friends will recieve a card that explains that I chose something close to their hearts to donate to in their honor. I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate the idea that the Incarnation is a participatory event. And instead of exchanging gifts with each other, my family and I are taking a vacation together – understanding that time spent over food and fun is holier than boxes wrapped with ribbon. In our own ways, we are attempting to love each other better and time spent together is one of the best ways to do that.

As I’ve said before, I think that the one thing that the life and personhood of Christ does not afford is to be ignored. Each person must deal with the claims made by the carpenter from Nazareth and chose their reaction. My reaction to the baby who became the man is to behold him and attempt to live life the way he described. I respond by placing my faith and shaping my life around him. I am, however, not simply responding to the baby in the manger. At Christmas, I think it is easy for us to loose the rest of the story. Our response and celebration tonight and tomorrow cannot be only around the birth narrative – but in response to the events begun in Genesis and whose affects are still being wrestled with.

So, on this Christmas Eve, may you truly behold the Lamb of God who wrapped skin on his holiness and dwelt among us. May you wrestle with the entire story and your role in it and may you come to understand that love came down at Christmas. May your day be merry and bright and may all of your Christmases be holy.

Hi, guys. Yeah, the Christmas is tomorrow.<3 And I can`t wait t see the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I wonder what will brig the Secrect Santa. I hope that you will receive the thing you want and you will have the most beautiful Christmas ever!

I won`t be able to post something tomorrow, `cause in 15 minutes I`m leaving. Where? At the country side, to my grandparents house. I am ging to spend the Christmas day with them.

I wish you a merry Christmas, all the love in the world from your beloved persons.

See you on Sutarday!

Love,

Alexa.

1. A smile on a child`s face.

Isn`t she a sweetie ? <3

2. Listening to music.

It calms me when I`m nervous and makes me happy when I`m sad… :”>

3.  Photos and cameras.

Yeah, polaroids especially. <3

4. Summer.

5.  Fluffy toys. <3

6. Kittnes. <3

7. Sweet winter memories…

8.  Crazy hair.

9. The presents from The Secret Santa.

10. Friends.

Love,

Alexa.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? This is a tough one because I like them both, but I have to say that hot chocolate wins.  Eggnog is just so heavy sometimes.  Plus I am a chocoholic!

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Our Santa presents were always unwrapped with bows and name tags on them.   That’s how we knew they were the Santa presents.  Plus a lot of times they were bigger objects or weirdly shaped, and wrapping them just wasn’t an option.

Colored lights on a tree or white? We always had colored when I was a kid, but now my parents have switched to plain white.  Mine and T’s tree has colored lights – I just love them so much!

Do you hang mistletoe? No, I didn’t.  I really should.  I think I just forgot.  Next year though…

When do you put your decorations up? We put ours up after Thanksgiving/in early December.  I like the way the house feels when it’s all festive.  It adds a whole new level of coziness!  I also like to leave it up as long as possible.  Who doesn’t like coming home to a twinkly tree?

What is your favorite holiday dish? Oh jeez, that’s hard.  We never eat the same thing on Christmas because it’s Little S’s birthday too, so she always gets to pick.  I guess I would have to say the German Christmas cookies my mom makes.  American cookies ain’t got nothing on them!

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My family usually opened one on Christmas Eve, especially if we knew someone received a board game.  Since we do Christmas early with my family because we go to NY to see T’s family, we open our presents the weekend before Christmas.  In NY, we wait to open the presents until Christmas morning.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We have a few strands of colorful lights, a variety of ball ornaments in blues, gold, silver, purples, greens, some special shaped ornaments – little Santas, stars, a UGA football player, and cat friendly ones – aka non-breakable for the bottom of the tree.  We finish everything off with a thin red garland and a silver (I think it’s silver – all of a sudden I can only picture the one we had growing up that was purple) baubley tree topper.

Snow: love it or hate it? I heart snow, especially around Christmas.  It makes everything feel so magical and wintery.  Unfortunately it doesn’t snow in Georgia.  When I lived in NY it snowed one Christmas Eve, which was awesome.  Fingers crossed we get some while we are there this year.

Can you ice skate? Yes, but I’m not amazing.  I can skate around and not fall, but that’s about the extent of my skills.  T used to play hockey, so his favorite thing to do to me is skate at top speed backwards while dragging me around.  It’s fun but scares the crap out of me.  I tend to injure ankles easily…

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Anything chocolate.  In reality, I’m not picky!

What is your favorite holiday tradition? When it was just the 4 of us (mom, dad, Little S and me) we’d always make sauerkraut for Christmas Eve dinner, then play board games.  After that, we’d watch A Christmas Story a few times, then head to bed.  Until I got married and started spending Christmas in New York, Little S and I would always sleep in the same room so we could get up together and go see the presents.  We started doing this as kids, and it still stuck into our 20s.  I’m still figuring out the new traditions with T and his family, since last year was my first Christmas with them (except when we all lived there).

Candy canes: yum or yuck? I like them, and they are fun to eat.  The fruity ones are good too!

Favorite Christmas show? I don’t really have a favorite Christmas show, so I’m going with movies.  These are my top ones in no particular order – Home Alone, Prancer, A Christmas Carol (with George C. Scott), A Christmas Story, Elf…I’m sure there are more but I’m drawing a blank at the moment.

So all of you married or serious daters, how to you do Christmas when you have families in different states (or cities)?  Do you alternate each year?  Or always go to the family you see less often?

So, T and I are heading to NY to good old Po-town to spend 6 days with the family tomorrow after work.  Fingers crossed that all of the airport drama from this weekend’s storm is sorted out by then.  I don’t know how much I will be posting up there, but I want to wish all of you lovelies a Merry Christmas and safe and happy travels!

Until then adieu!

“If you never have, you should. These things are fun and fun is good.” – Dr. Seuss

When we were children we would constantly play but then the day came when it was time for us to get serious, buckle down and study and then go off to work every day. Time to be only responsible. Apparently without any time for play. For silliness. For things that make you smile. I don’t believe that we should give that part of us up entirely.

Over the last month, it seems like a little more public outrage than usual has been happening. And while people don’t need an excuse to be outraged (even when it has nothing to do with their personal well-being), it seems like some people have forgotten how nice it can be to not live such an unhappy life.

Case in point: Dana Hanna got married late last month and while he stood at the altar he updated his Facebook relationship status and sent out this tweet:

People he didn’t know started to give him flack. My first thought was Why? Clearly Dana is a guy who believes in being happy and having fun. He does stuff that his close family and friends would find joy in it and those close to him would not really care he took a moment from his own wedding to enjoy it in a way he felt he should.

A few days ago Will Ferrell made a cameo in the Wedding section of The New York Times for Jessie Fuller and Buck Rodgers – the bridegroom works on the set of Ferrell’s movie, The Others. Big deal. It was different and I thought it was fun. And I personally would just like to give mad props to Jessie for meeting this guy in March and becoming his wife by December.

Anyway, people started to cry out loud about the sanctity of marriage being destroyed. And the Wedding section bending rules. I feel like those people need a reality check. Its not a wedding or the wedding announcement that matters. That’s right I said it. That’s a reminder I never thought I’d have to say. The number of tiers you have for your wedding cake or the reception location doesn’t matter one bit. You can get married in a public garden, exchange Gummi Saver rings and later dine on Twinkies and have a long lasting happy marriage.

These are wonderful examples of people who are not afraid to be themselves. To show their personality. I feel like sometimes we need a reminder to smile. And to do other things to show your happiness. It will make you feel wonderful. And the world around you will appreciate it. When you are comfortable in truly being yourself, the people around you will be comfortable and life will be grand.

And I’m not just saying this… I really believe in loving life. After all, I’m the girl who stopped for coffee for a friend on the way to my own wedding ceremony.

1) Early Christmas presents
2) Coming home to a warm house on a cold winter day
3) Blessings in disguise
4) Gingerbread houses
5) comfy socks

Have a happy Monday and a merry Christmas everyone!

Tink R. Bell recently contacted Rhona Harrington.

She appeared for no apparent reason in a flash of light and continues to telepathically communicate on a regular basis.

She’s as silly as can be and never stops fooling around which is why she and Rhona have so much fun!

Tink also likes to help her friend with channeled messages and poems and for this she is greatly appreciated.

She also keeps Rhona company and sometimes switches bodies with her dog, Rory, which Rhona finds quite odd but not at all unreasonable.

In any case, Tink has been Poet Laureate Elementalis at Rhona’s Drawingroom for about a month and she’s decided to showcase her “work” on this blog.

At times this channeled material might be extremely personal but we’ll deal with that later.

In the meantime, have at it and always remember…“think happy thoughts!“

sorry.
i’m too lazy to post an entry.
yeah that’s right.
fucking lazy.
what have i been up to?
stuff.

dinner with the girls, dinner with shane, work, meetings, and now organizing christmas shit with jared and our darling mother.

what to do.
no idea.

keeley’s thinking of holding a huge lunch/dinner thing at her place.
madz, lina, angelo, charlie, shane, me, jared and the rents.
kinda weird to have the rents amongst the friends right?

hmm.
maybe i’ll just do lunch with jared, shane, lina and mom.
then dinner with the others.

yeah… i’ll do that.
right now.
i’m going for a walk and a smoke.
and to call keeley and madz abt christmas dinner.

bye.

- love flo.

I read an article about Douglas Coupland, he was talking about art schools being the best place for troubled kids/people, it’s where you learn things about yourself.
I totally agree, and I’d like to add that I think that a couple of years in art school could be a great experience for just about anyone. What I like about that type of education is that you’ll always come out different from where you started out. Maybe you went there because of a bit of art interest or maybe you just liked to draw, but when you’re done you’ll be different.
The first years of art school you are stuck to two dimensional painting and drawing. That’s what you do, you picture things, and you study bodies and perspective and light. You work hard and while you work you think about other things. You think about yourself, who you are and everything why. Teachers are going to show you a lot of various art, and they will ask questions like; why is this art, and you’ll start out by saying; a five-year-old could have made that, and then realize that you slowly will change your opinion.
Sometimes it gets too much and you feel like you can’t take another day. But still you have to go on. Eventually you’ll notice that you see things differently. It’s something about your eyes.
Questions about right or wrong will open up, laying out the possibility that things can be both. That’s also a wonderful thing when you think about it; things being both, it’s just a matter of opinion or maybe timing.
Then comes the fun part, it’s when you really question everything. That’s when you’ll be by yourself in your studio just doing. The thinking part is important too, but doing that’s where it happens. I often tell my students that thinking is best done by doing. Just thinking is never enough. When you get stuck on something, often in the beginning of a process you tend to try to think all the way to the result. Now, that just isn’t possible.

You’ll also get the opportunity to tell someone about yourself, of your fears and hopes. There is never a better time to open up than in art school. You’ll be among friends, people similar to you. And being there in those moments is the most wonderful thing. I think that’s why I had to come back and be a teacher, I just couldn’t get enough of that.

The month has passed so swiftly and after a few weeks, i am able to blog again, sigh.. I woke up this morning feeling the same as the morning before and before and even before that. Life is like a tree stuck on its spot on the ground. No matter how i spread my roots i am not getting anywhere.  It’s awfully suffocating, limiting and distressing. Oh well, i think i would be spoiling the season if it goes on for more days.. so i think i am going for a haircut today to freshen myself up. I am hoping to have a more liquid perspective..I want to think of my life not as an immovable tree anymore but like a river freely flowing through its course. When the water bumps on the rocks, it splashes and finds another course…moving on constantly and forward..When everything around becomes easier, it grows calm, becoming more open, fuller and more generous…but most of all the river never stops running, never giving up..

Well, thank you for letting me vent, and I truly hope each and every one a fabulous holiday season! Let us all greet each day with a smiling face full of HOPE!

I will be back with a shorter cut. God bless the hairstylist..Hope she won’t make me look like a tree top!

I’ve always wanted this as a wall in my house.
So dope.

Well kids, today was my official last day at Magnani. Four years and a few months and lots of fun times with fantastic people….and yeah I shed a tear on my way out (okay it was more like several tears, I’m a softie what can I say?). Seems odd to think I am not coming in on Monday; no more listening to Riles swear at his computer all day, non-smoking breaks with Pants, KU sports banter with Iowa, lunches with the girls, the magic drawer, or PICKLES GAMES (aww man)! If any of you guys are reading this, can you please forward me the Pickles game updates for next season?? Pretty please? Ok thanks.

Or as Heather would say: “Kthanksbye.”

I’ll miss you guys

Apologies for the old pic, but this one always makes me laugh!

A few weekends ago, I had a pretty fun-filled weekend.  It consisted of cookie making, movie watching, tacky Christmas sweaters, and Cavalia.  As the weeks have passed, I just realized I never updated you guys on all that fun that was had.

Let’s just say, our Christmas cookie baking and movie extravaganza turned out to be a little more like get hammered and have the worst hangover of your life on Saturday.  We did bake cookies, and some of us tried to watch movies, while the rest of us sat on the patio in 30 degree weather drinking and smoking like champs until 2 a.m.  We were frozen.

I’m sure the hangover wouldn’t have been so bad if I had not decided to try a new festive holiday cocktail – the poinsettia.  This lovely beverage is a mixture of equal parts cranberry juice, champagne, and vodka.  Let me tell you, adding vodka to champagne is a bad choice.  It seriously intensifies the normal champagne headache by about 10,000.  Don’t get me wrong, it was good…damn good.  But I was hurting the next day.

I finally did recover from the living hell I was in.  This was aided by copious amounts of Gatorade (red, the flavor of champs) and a KFC extravaganza that included the grilled and original recipe bucket (the grilled is super tasty), mac-n-cheese, coleslaw, green beans and biscuits.

After JD and I bounced back, we got to work on updating covering up the stains on our Christmas sweaters.  Since they are handmade and include an assortment of non-washable items – ornaments, gift bows, foam gingerbread people – they can’t be washed.  And they are white.  This means that stains are very visible.  And what do you do when you can’t remove a stain?  You cover it with more festive decorations.  After we updated them and covered ourselves in gold glitter hairspray, we were definitely the tackiest people at the party.  Gotta love it!

JD and me in all of our tacky glory.  I even went extra festive with red and green coordinating pieces.

That’s one thing about JD and me, we don’t do anything theme related half-assed.  Along with our sweatshirts, we also made shoes, bought socks with Santa faces on the back, yard candy canes as accessories, and holiday gift bags as purses.  Our earrings are also homemade – candy cane ornaments attached to earring backs!

Would it be weird to take my sweater to get dry cleaned?  I’m just saying….

That Sunday we went to Cavalia, which was really amazing.  Some of the acts included a woman commanding 10 white horses to move in a variety of synchronized moves.  They would all run around the stage, horse hug each other (one horse put his muzzle on the next horse’s back), they would run in concentric circles in opposite directions (I always worried they’d crash), and they’d all stand in a straight line and bow.  It was cool.  Other tricks included guys standing on 2 horses at a time as they ran full speed around the ring – one even jumped off the horses’ backs, over a pole and landed again.  One act featured 2 girls on white horses mirroring each other’s movements.  It was so in-sync, that in the beginning I didn’t realize that they weren’t performing in front of a mirror.  The show also included a lot of cool Cirque-esque acrobatics.  Trapeze work and ribbon and rope work.  If the show comes to you, I recommend that you go see it.  It was one of the coolest things I have witnessed performance wise between humans and animals.

I’m wishing all of you a wonderful weekend!  Got anything exciting planned?

I really wanted to use this one. It was a short clip, talking about fairytales of love. But, well, it just didn’t work.