Christmas Eve "dress up" fun

After returning home from an evening of fun with our family, my sisters and I decided to gather every gown, shoe, hat, and accessory we could find to play a little dress up. Our main goal was to "look like a princess with a hint of humor and fun" - here are the results of our Christmas Eve creativity and fun. Who knows, maybe I'll sport the blonde wig in the New Year...probably not, but perhaps.

a yankee swap project...

Apparently the family is doing a "yankee swap" at our gathering tomorrow...I decided to get a little creative and make my contribution...here's my documentation of the project.







Yes, that's right...Hershey's Pot of Gold has become Zibby's Pot of Gold thanks to a little glue and magazine letters...also the contents have been changed. I hope my *creativity* is appreciated.

At one time the box was decorated with delicious caramels, chocolates, and turtles...but now is the home of : prunes, peanuts, apricots, walnuts, macadameas, peanut butter/white/chocolate chips, a few pieces of 'other' chocolate and the all famous cashews. I hope no one is too disappointed.

an 'indulging' weekend...

Indulging..
First of all this word makes me think of the film about Martin Luter and all the crazy priests who tried to convince people purchasing pieces of paper, and other various "religious" whatnot (indulgences) would somehow buy their way and others ways into Heaven. They were wrong...and this isn't a good idea.

Secondly...it reminds me of the word "hedonism" which someone drafted in my original support letter to Jamaica.( I know, I know, what were they thinking?) Trust me, this word just recently became part of my vocabulary. Seeing the word and realizing I had no idea what it meant my apartment mates and I looked it up to find it means "self-indulging"...so essentially, another not so good thing.

LASTLY...and my original purpose for this blog...the word "indulging" reminds me of last night...and a trip to the grocery store with my sister Sherri (we were attempting to find something extra delicious to mix up in honor of my return home after final exams). This is how our adventure went:

Christy and Sherri stand around in the baking aisle weighing up options.
"Brownie ala mode or cookie ala mode?"
"Browinie ala mode!"
Choosing of the icecream...
Wait for turn in check-out line.
(now this is where things get interesting)

The cashier rings us up and doesn't say two words to me, so I say "hello, how are you?" He looks into my eyes for a few seconds and a little distracted says, "Sorry, well. I'm doing well. I assume you're doing well as well. So you're having an indulging weekend I see?"

(a glimpse inside Christy's mind) "Pardon me...a what? what in the world is this guy...ooh he didn't...talking about???"

Of course I never voice my sarcastic thoughts so I politely said, "No actually, I just got home so we're making dinner and dessert." (Thinking of course "Like any other normal person buying brownies and icecream in line!!! Indulging? Really?"...since when do guys assume a woman is indulging herself because she purchases a little junk food?)

As soon as we left the store I voiced my thoughts to Sherri and she decided we were on the same page. Her comments at the time made me chuckle. We gave a unanimous vote that he should work at McDonalds and ask people if they are indulging themselves there. (I'm sure it'd be an interesting career move for him.) All I can say is I'm thankful I wasn't offended, otherwise, I probably couldn't see the humor in this. Also, for all you who are wondering, next time I decided to buy icecream and he's working...I'll try my best to go through his check-out line.

Christmas Banquet fun!

The Lady RAs on campus: Katey Merriman, Christy Zbylut, Karen Kay, Amy DeMings & Brittany Prime

My lovely roomate Sarah and friend Zach.

Evan and I

Testify courtesy of a little photo editing. :)

Caught being silly with the camera...I don't remember what we were laughing about but we laugh often about life, so I'm certain it was a good time.

The boys wanted us to pose creatively...so we crouched down in our puffy dresses and pretended like we were telling secrets - they always complain about girls telling secrets...so once again, this was fun.

Amy and I

Flowers...roses actually. (Yes, I finally got flowers, not a potted plant.Yippee) ahha The flowers are from two of my guy friends Anthony and Evan for Christmas banquet and helping coach soccer. Very sweet.

Testify (minus photo editing) singing "All That Thrills My Soul"

Mikey and I at the banquet table. (He commented that he likes this picture because our eyes match - I have to agree about that.)

Mikey is a superhero, EVEN at Christmas Banquet...Isn't that a sweet belt?

The gang or "team" as Sarah would say: Evan, Sarah, Zach and I.

Kathy Shanks and Joette (a.k.a- Hershey's Kisses - they worse size 72 pants together and 'hobbled' (I believe that would be an appropriate term) around at banquet.It allowed for some good hearty laughter.)

RA ladies with photo-editing.

Our group for the evening: Christy, Evan, Ally, Zach & my wonderful roomate Sarah

Roomate fun again...we decided to kick up our heels and have a little fun.

My amazing prayer partner Carly Kruse and I.

Me smelling the pretty flowers from Banquet.

Natalie Pendell from Randleman, North Carolina. It blesses me everytime I think of how God has brought her to Bethany. One year ago she was laying in a hosptial bed dying, of an unknown disease, untreatable to human knowledge and quite hopeless. We prayed for her on Chorale tour last year when we traveled down south and God healed her body. Bless the Lord for restoration power!

textbook insight

I was reading in one of my counseling textbooks today and I stumbled across a quote I found both interesting and in my opinion quite eye opening and truthful:

"Change is inevitable, growth is optional."

Do I hear an Amen?