most wonderful time of the year!

So...it's the most wonderful time of the year!!!  

This Christmas season our church had the amazing opportunity to decorate the home of a sweet family who are getting back on their feet again. They have four kids, but only the two youngest were home while we decorated. Both are girls - they are precious and made the afternoon so much fun! One of them kept singing a Christmas song that went: "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, to Santa, to Santa!" it was pretty catchy! She would insert different things and people's names where Santa went, anything from frosty to deer to everyone working. Anyway, below are a few pictures from the afternoon: 

side view of the finished product:

front view of finished product:

group shot of everyone who was able to help out!

On a completely unrelated topic, I love buying and wrapping gifts for people. Wrapping is almost half of the fun. Below are some pics of my choice for wrapping goods. The black and white is the Christmas paper I used last year, I used matte red tulle for the ribbon and white sparkly snowflakes for the tags. The red paper is what I chose for this year, I am using sparkly green tulle for the ribbon and gold stars for the tags.

there is white sheer ribbon on this gift because it 

was for a December wedding shower the other day

example of this year's wrapping:

And the last unrelated topic of the night, I love the holidays because I get to spend time with my family! I've been blessed with a family that I actually enjoy spending time with, rather than dreading! We all get along great and know how to have fun together.

These are my two adorable cousins Jones and Laynie...

now that they've moved, hopefully I'll be able to see them a little more!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Don't forget the reason for the season!!! - Luke 2:1-20

leahmarie.

Well, well...

Well, well little blog, it's been a while. The little brother has been updating lately and has inspired me to do the same. It's only been about 9 months...no big deal. Plus, RJ let me know that there was at least one person on earth who reads this! This post will basically be a brief (and probably boring) informational update on life since my last post - March 2009:

April '09: turned 25, half way to 50...

May '09: finished my 1st year of teaching

Summer '09: (perk of teaching-I now have a summer!...sort of)

Went to the beach with the fam

Went to Georgia with Krystal

Halloween '09:

I was the Morton Salt girl. I made my dress, yay for hand sewing! (no machine at home)

(photo by: GrantLHarrison)

I also attempted to decorate my first cake - the smiling skull

Razorback Football '09: Here are my friend Jess and I's GO HOGS! shoes: 

Thanksgiving '09: SO great. I love family. friends. food. yum.

Now, we're getting so close to Christmas!! I love it. 

I am, and have been, so truly blessed. I have so much to be thankful for that I don't even recognize half of the time. The moments when I do realize this, I am so filled with joy that I could burst and I wonder why I don't feel this way all the time and why I let so many trivial things determine my mood, attitude and outlook. 

In light of this previous Advent Sunday...I HOPE...not an earthly hope, but an eternal hope. I pray that I can show compassion and live out this hope so others may see.

That's all. loves. 

leah.marie

hoopla

So, I'm a few months into my internship and I am already WAAAAYYYY behind. It's bad too, because I'm so busy that I'm not worried about it. I need to be worried about it!! This is a class with tons of papers, observations, etc...and it counts for 6 hours of credit! I'll be mad at myself if I blow my 4 point in grad school just because I was busy and tired of school.

- Anyway, tomorrow we start cooking again. This time it's with my spring semester students. There are a few that I'm a liiiittle worried about...but that's just between me and you.
- The week after cooking lab is the week of cheer tryouts. I'm excited about this because last year all of this happened before I was hired.
- The week after tryouts is the week of spring break! whoohoooo!!! I have no plans but I am still completely excited! I'll probably just spend the week getting caught up (and hopefully ahead) with my aforementioned internship work...maybe get a hair cut...who knows - I'm living on the edge.

OH! Side note - I'm glad Quest Crew won America's Best Dance Crew, but I'm sad Beat Freaks lost...both groups were awesome! This show makes me wish there was some dance studio who had hip-hop classes for adults - just for exercise and fun - no need for recitals and all that hoopla.

My student quote for this post is the answer that was given on a test:

Q: When is a time you may feel more than one emotion? Explain.
A: All I can say is, every rose has it's thorn.

That's all for now. Goodnight.