Sunday, December 10, 2006

You Look Interesting.

Had a girls night with my Mom and sister last night. We went to Starbucks and then to see The Holiday. It was really cute. Predictable of course but very sweet and lots of funny moments. A good light-hearted film. I think Cameron Diaz films are starting to be our holiday tradition since last Christmas season we all went out to see In Her Shoes.

Kyla says "Santa" all the time now. And she says "tay ta" (thank you) at all the right times. Little Miss Manners. : )

Kyla loves to listen to my ipod with me. I'll hold her and hold the ear bud to her ear. She'll hold onto my arm and rests her forehead against my forehead and we listen to a good 2 or so songs together that way. I love it. <3 <3 <3

McKenna had dance class yesterday and she got the rest of her costume for her recital. Wanna see what she's gonna be wearing? It's so cute!

A pink velvet leotard, a white dance skirt, pink tights, a silver and white feather tiara. Her hair needs to be pinned off her face and she has to wear stage makeup. I asked Miss Valerie how much makeup and she said "I like a lot." LOL! So I'm going to have the tricky task of applying enough makeup so that she doesn't look washed out in the stage lights but doesn't look overdone. Stage makeup on adults is scary enough but on a 3-year old it can be downright horrifying. So maybe we'll practice beforehand.

Don't be offended if you're ever hanging out with McKenna and she says one of the following:

"You look old!" (she thinks that's a compliment.)
"Ew, that's nasty!" (she thinks everything is nasty. Like Christmas lights.)
"Your butt is BIG!" (compared to hers, everyone has a big butt.)
"You look interesting!" (this is always said with a snobby look on her face yet she seems to mean it as a compliment??)

I love Archer Farms Chocolate Drizzle at Target. It's a party mix drizzled with white and semi-sweet chocolate but the party mix has worcestershire and cayenne pepper. I would NEVER have purchased it if I'd read the ingredients first but it is REALLY good. I always, always grab a bag of it when I go to Target and it never lasts long.

I got my highlights fixed. So now you can see my hair, all flat-ironed:





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Susan (pachimac) tagged me for a Christmas tag.

I tag - Julie, Laura, Jenn, Melissa and Maegan.


1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Every year I try a glass of egg nog to see if I like it yet and so far the verdict is still NO. I prefer hot chocolate with way too many marshmallows.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Santa wraps them. Otherwise, Christmas morning would be a very short and anticlimactic experience. : )

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? On the tree is MUST be colored. On or around the house, colored or white. Right now I have one window that is colored with a light-up Santa and red garland. The other window is white lights with a light-up snowman and white garland.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Usually but I haven't bought any yet this year.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually within a few days of Thanksgiving. My sister and I hit the Black Friday sales so I'm too tired the day after Thanksgiving. But within a couple of days you can expect to see our tree and decorations up.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? My Mom's sweet potatoes or Broccoli-Cheese-Ritz casserole.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child. You'll have to read the December issue of the DST Insider to hear that story again. ; )

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I think I was 8 or 9 and the toothfairy was very negligent once. Night after night she kept forgetting to leave my stinkin' dollar for me. So I asked my parents a few times and my Mom finally decided to break the news to me that the toothfairy wasn't real and I just figured out that Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't either.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? I'm not sure if we did every year? I know some years we spent Christmas eve with family and we'd open gifts then.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Colored lights, burgundy and gold ribbons and bows, an angel in a gold spun dress and tons of ornaments, 90% of which have some sort of special meaning.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? To get snow, I need to drive to the mountains. While I love playing in snow, I wouldn't want to live with it. I like having it accessible enough to play in or even to spend a weekend in if we wanted. But I'm grateful that I don't have to shovel it or sludge through it all the time.


12. Can you ice skate?
LOL no. I did once but couldn't pull it off. I couldn't pull off inline skates either. Give me an old fashioned four-wheel roller skate any day.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? One year, Erick gave me a really nice Bible. Usually when someone gives you a Bible they engrave your name on it. He didn't and he said that was because he intended to change my name soon (by marrying me). On the inside, he inscribed it to Shannon Renee (no last name) and he wrote the most beautiful message:

To my dearest Shannon -
You can't imagine what joy it brings me to give you a gift as precious as this. It has been my finest privilege to be able to watch you grow and become the woman of God that you are today. But it is the greatest honor to continually grow with you for the rest of our lives.

As broken as I am, I am whole with you. May God's face shine upon you as it did with me through the gift of you.

Yours, always and forever,
Erick
12/23/98

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Jesus is important to me all year round. So the most important thing for me is to take that magical feeling from Christmas Eve and allow it to change and renew my heart for the coming year. Christmas Eve always feels very sweet, vulnerable, precious, and sometimes sad as we remember family and friends who we've lost, time lost, people who are in need or alone, etc. So I try to just take all of that in and pray that I become a more sensitive and compassionate person in the new year.

And the second most important thing is making each Christmas a wonderful memory that my children will always have to hold on to.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I'd have to say the pie I made for Thanksgiving will become a holiday favorite. Maple Cream Apple Pie.


16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Getting up really early and sitting with a cup of coffee or cocoa and looking at the tree all lit up.

17. What tops your tree? An angel with a gold-spun dress and white feathery wings.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Erick and I were just talking about this. These days, if we need something for ourselves, we get it. So the whole "What do you want for Christmas" question always seems silly. So definitely giving is the most fun. Especially when you find that perfect gift for someone and you just know they'll love it!

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas sung by Judy Garland.


20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
Bleck. I hate peppermint.

Tag you're it! (Copy, paste and share on your blog) Leave me a comment with a link to your blog so I can check out your answers to!

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Ok, off to bed I go. It's only 8pm but I only got 4 hours sleep last night. Tomorrow McKenna has school so I'm hoping to catch up on emails and PMs at DST while she's there. Good night!

7 comments:

Lena Brandenburg said...

Awww, I love the "your favorite gift" story...so sweet. Your new 'do is fab :)

Jen said...

love your hair :)

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see McKenna in that adorable outfit! And your hair looks fab! You are so making me want to run out and buy a flat iron!

Melissa Ives said...

Is it too late to ask Santa for a flat iron?

And thanks for tagging me...My poor neglected blog has cob webs on it...:)

Anonymous said...

Happy holidays, Shannon. I love the costume McKenna is going to be wearing.

LadyHAHA said...

You HATE peppermint!?!?....okay, I'm going to overlook that since you're my friend and hey, at least you don't hate chocolate. AND WHY DO I now have to go purchase a flat iron (your hair is so cute) AND that Chocolate Drizzle madness you be talkin' bout'?!!?

Anonymous said...

Your hair is so cute! The flat ironing looks great!

Thanks for the tag. I just finished answering all the questions. :)