Dear family, friends, acquaintances & other,
Hi!
It's starting to delight the socks off of me (wait! I never wear socks. anyways...), as I find out how many readers I have. For the longest time it was just me typing out some words about some stuff and my 10 year old sister would read it and laugh a little. Now I'm quite confident that I'm up to at least 9 readers.
According to my blog analytics, which are hilarious by the way, I can see what people are googling to find my blog (my favorite is "is Topo Chico better than Perrier", haha! I did write that, perhaps Topo Chico would like to sponsor me and send me on a tropical vacation?), I digress. But it is fun to be able to see the clicks that come in everyday and I do love it when friends mention that they've read my blog.
I began journaling when I was about 17 and didn't miss a day for years (my future grandchildren will read this and die of boredom), it was a lot of nothing, but I did start to develop a voice and found that I loved to write. I'm a thinker, my brain is always going 100 miles a minute and writing slows me down and brings some clarity. My sister @BrookeAlline keeps telling me that I should stop thinking so many thoughts, my brain might blow up. If she only knew.
So I blog. To keep the brain from exploding. Or something like that. It's a public record of what I want people to know about my life. Honest, but not too personal, sometimes funny, mostly boring. Most importantly, it keeps me writing.
November has been quite eventful, but I feel like its the calm before the storm leading up to December. I took a break from social media, deleting my apps (I discovered that if I'm bored, muscle memory takes over and I'm tapping without even realizing it. Deleting the app = problem solved). Deactivated my Facebook, and haven't missed it once. Pinterest on the other hand, well... Next time I'll include that in my list of things to avoid. But I'm planning a bunch of things right now and its my favorite party planning helper. -ish...
We hosted Thanksgiving on Thursday (of course), with a slightly smaller crowd than last year. Slightly. It was a good one. I settled on the thing that I'm most grateful for this year. That through many "dangers, toils & snare, I have already come, 'tis Grace that brought me safe this far and Grace will lead me home". I've tried to make a conscious effort to thank God for the hard things in life and realized that He has brought me through many trials and will continue to. As Christians we are not called to a life without suffering and hardship, but we are able to endure because God is with us.
And there you have it.
Speaking of parties, our first Christmas party is tonight. Mom swapped the house out for Christmas decor yesterday and we trimmed the tree last night. I'm curled up in the parlor looking at it now. We went for a classy mix of metallic as well as red and green. And just a touch of tinsel. Haha!
It's our 4th annual Ugly Sweater party. I'd just like to say that we were on the early cusp of this trend. Our first year, sweaters were everywhere and like $1. This year, certain members of my family, who shall remain nameless, spent $20. On ONE sweater. At the GOODWILL. Its highway robbery I tell you. Brooke and I were not about to let the corporates over at Goodwill dictate our Christmas traditions, we went to the grungiest thrift stores around and picked up some tremendous little duds. Mine cost $1.99 plus the $4.99 for the vintage plaid wool skirt that I'm wearing with it. Instant Christmas cheer!
We've got about 30 friends coming, the largest party we've hosted yet in our little rental. It should be fun though. All the major party planning books tell you to over-invite anyway, it makes for a snappy time. That, and all the food. Good food makes for the snappiest of parties.
I've got to get back to my lists for the party. Food to make, things to set up, games still left to figure out, prizes & scoring system, food to make, frosting!, shovel the front yard, er, sidewalk, more food... You get it.
Be back in December!
