Christmas Activities.

My Christmas shopping is done and the presents are wrapped! I LOVE to shop for gits and I also enjoy the wrapping of them. I went a little over my budget... :-/ but it makes me too happy to know I covered everyone on my list with something they'll enjoy to care. I'm getting one more paycheck this year (and it'll be over $100) so that will make up for it. On Sunday Ryan and I hit Arundel Mills. It was VERY crowded, but somehow we got a decent parking spot and were in and out in under two hours. It helped that I had a list of who I was shopping for and what I was getting them! I'm so efficient (when I want to be!). [Side note; that Chinese food we had for lunch, not a marvelous idea, but whatev. haha] While walking through the mall I saw several things I really wanted to stop and look at for myself. I resisted however and did not look at or try on a single thing.

When the shopping was done we had a holiday gathering at his aunt's to go to...typical fun with his family involving taco salad, karoke, and much laughter. I love it. :) Then Shannon picked me up and we picked up John and enjoyed some catching up and looking at Christmas lights in Catonsville. We stopped at Starbucks, which was the one place I treated myself to something that day. Yummy Peppermint Mocha Twist! Plus it was just before closing time, so we scored free pastry! (I ate my cinnamon roll for breakfast.) I spent the night with Shannon housesitting/dogsitting. That was interesting...the dogs were restless and kept us up. I ended up cuddling in bed with one of the dogs (and Shannon) because they would not calm down until we petted them and stayed perfectly still. I felt like I was sitting up with a fussy infant!! I don't even like dogs. *sigh* Plus, we got scared out of our minds when the wind made the back screen door move and sounded like somone trying to break in! Geez. Needless to say, I was tired today, but I had to head to work at AMF this morning.

I was paging through the December issue of Better Homes and Gardens this evening, and it made me wish for the day I have my own place to decorate. There were so many cool ideas in there! I want to paint rooms and hang pictures and host parties and in general be a domestic diva. It's pretty much a life goal, haha. Every year when I wrap presents I have the same idea of something I want to host one day- a gift wrapping party with my girlfriends! I'll bake cookies and invite friends over to spend a fun afternoon wrapping gifts and enjoying girl time. I told Ryan about it, and he said he'll go out with the guys and I can have the house to myself and wrap as much as I want, haha- he hates shopping and gift wrapping!

On Saturday I went to the Christmas play at Trinity Assembly of God, my parent's church. The production there is always lavish, amazing, and touching. They have flying "angels" for goodness sake! I enjoy it not just for the fancy sets and beautiful music, but for the truly wonderful worship that exudes out of it. Sometimes I have trouble singing Christmas songs with anything more than a sense of tradition. When I heard and sang the songs there, like "Joy To The World" or "Come All Ye Faithful" the words felt truly alive and the impact of Jesus' birth hit me all over again. :)