December recap

Christmas was wonderful.

So very, very, wonderful.  I got some awesome gifts (some of which were: new boots, LOTS of Hello Kitty things, and money), as well as some not-so awesome gifts that may or may not end up being re-gifted or swapped.

The best gift however, came in the form of a white Christmas.  I shit you not my friends, on Christmas night it snowed in my east Texas town.  It was wonderful.

Don't be fooled by the scale of that snowman.  It was only a foot tall.  Of course, all the snow is gone now, but I heard that it should snow sometime in the next few weeks around JB's birthday.  

Anyway, I've been taking advantage of the fact that some of my friends are home for Winter break and I've been spending time with a few of them.

I've also been writing letters, drinking lots of warm tea and peppermint coffee, and watching the entire Glee series with my stepmom and sister.

I didn't make any resolutions last year (that I can remember) and I probably won't make any this year.  I always get disappointed when I don't fulfill them all.  Does it count if I'm getting rid of a lot of my stuff?  When I leave for basic I will also be fully moved out of my parents house.  I've already started packing up stuff into boxes, giving stuff away (hooray for Blogger Family swaps!), and just in general minimalizing all of my belongings that aren't clothes.  Is that sort of a resolution? To move/minimalize?

Ah, well I hope everyone has a safe, happy New Year!

Just a side note

Do you ever get these unbelievable lows?

Like a feeling of infinite sadness that comes out of nowhere?

From talking to most of my friends, it seems to be pretty normal.  I don't know if I find this fact comforting, or alarming. Is it all the hormone riddled food we were given as children?  Or perhaps as a generation we're more open about our feelings...

But yeah. Just wondering.

I actually liked the Hobbit

So, I finally saw the Hobbit on my birthday, and I have to say, for the first installment, it was really good.

It lived up to my expectations.  I viewed it in 2D, so that might have had something to do with it as well.  I thought the story-line was on-point, I liked most of the special effects (I wasn't too impressed with Azog), and the acting of course, was superb.  I know that some people were unimpressed by the "un-dwarven" looks of Thorin, Fili, and Kili, but it honestly didn't bother me.  In fact, to those disgruntled fans, read this post. I'm excited for the next two installments, especially the second movie because we get to hear the lovely Benedict Cumberbatch's voice!

I've been enjoying all of the Hobbit merchandise as well.  I mean, look, it's a wittle Gandalf! How adorable!

Rebekka, being the awesome friend that she is, even got me a Bilbo magnet as one of my birthday gifts!

In fact, Rebekka got me quite possibly the best gifts ever.  She gave me a mug shaped like the TARDIS, the Bilbo magnet, dark chocolates, a little penguin cup, and a copy of Feminist Ryan Gosling which has kept me quite entertained.  ALSO, THE CARD.

pretty much all of my fave menz

After receiving that gift, I sort of freaked out that my Christmas gift to her was inferior, so I made an emergency trip to Target to get her a different gift.  I think we're exchanging presents sometime later this week... I will cry a thousand tears if she doesn't like her gift.

Anyway, I've been a bit... apprehensive about making holiday plans with JB because of my parents.  I think it might be a little different if it weren't my *last* holiday living at home.  I know he wants to see a movie on Christmas night, and while this wouldn't interfere with family time (if we go after dinner) my parents would still be upset if I went.  So instead of fighting with them about it, I think I'll just stay in.  The same goes for New Years.

As much as I like JB, I really don't want to upset my parents.

So yes.  That's that.

Just in case I don't blog between now and Christmas: Happy Holidays! I hope you enjoy all the food!

Tomorrow is my birthday

And if you guys would like, you can write me a haiku as a gift, but of course, you don't have to if you don't want to.

I'm usually not into poetry, but I've always had an affinity for haikus.  I think it's more challenging to work withing pre-set parameters than it is to "free style", but that might just be me.

I've worked out most of my family plans in terms of the holidays, and my birthday has been simplified down to "I'm not working around your schedule on MY birthday" so those plans were pretty easy to make once I decided that.

I will be 19.  Freaky.  It's the last of my teens, and I just realized that probably this time next year I will be at a vastly different place in life.  Both physically and mentally.  Once I complete basic training and tech school, the Air Force could put me anywhere.  And I'd be stupid to think that my mindset isn't going to change as well.

Here's hoping that I won't be such a socially inept ball of awkwardness! Or at least, someone with less inhibitions.  I always find myself holding back because of what my family might think, or because I just don't know how to handle situations, but hopefully if I'm in an environment where I can exist without the fear of knowing anyone it'll be a little different.

I wish I was a bit more like the character Jess from New Girl, which I know is a silly thing to say because she's completely fictionalized, but I admire how wacky she is, and how fearless she can be.  I mean, I can only aspire to be that open with people.

Wise words, Jess.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll have a birthday lunch spectacular with my family, I'll get to wear the boots that I bought for myself (that my sister is giving me for my birthday/Christmas), and I'm going to go see the Hobbit with JB.

Sounds like a pretty swell day.

I don't want to make plans

It's a good thing no one can hear my thoughts, because inside my mind I sound like a whiny little 5 year old.  I love the holidays.  I love my birthday.  Let me just say that now.

But I do not like all the headache inducing planning that I have to do for both of them.

Like, lets start with Christmas.  I have four Christmas family get-togethers every year.  This year might be the last one that I'll be able to attend all four for quite some time, so you can imagine my disappointment when my uncle's awful fiance decides to screw everything up and push our Christmas day plans with my dad's family to the 22nd.

She refuses to compromise on plans, and is making us work around HER schedule.  WTF. She's not even an official part of our family yet.  And if her past dating history with my uncle is taken into account, they might not even get married.  What makes it even worse is the fact that my grandma is going to be all alone with just her dog on Christmas day.  Not cool.

And now since we're rearranging everything, we have to contact other family members to let them know what's going on, and it ends up being a big mess.

For my birthday I'm trying to juggle when I'll be celebrating my birthday with my mom's family, my dad's family, and JB (we're going to go see The Hobbit!).

If everyone got along, I would LOVE to have just one big dinner and call it a night, but alas, they don't.  So I'm stuck here, making phone calls, seeing when it's convenient to celebrate MY birthday on Saturday.

I'm tired of planning.  I just want to DO and be happy.

Anyway, enough of my complaining, here's a picture of a Christmas tree butter sculpture they're selling at Walmart:

Nothing says "American Christmas" like commercialized art/food.

December!

My birthday is on the 15th!
The Hobbit premieres on the 14th!
Christmas!
New Year's!

I really need to start doing some holiday shopping soon.

I've already bought presents for my sisters, but I still need to find things for everyone else.

Especially JB. Any ideas?