Mishmash moments: Christmas wrap.

Here is the Christmas wrap up from our household!

The Mish: 

The long weekend started with my lovely friends. We went to Peacock Lane and it was awesomely old school.

Driving down Peacock Lane. 

I have always wanted a tacky light up nativity scene. I am so jealous of these people!

The Mash: 

This Christmas was so surprising! I feel unbelievably spoiled. Yes, I received a Clarisonic! Woohoo! Get ready for good skin. Once the Clarisonic was opened I was ready for breakfast and figured Christmas was about done. Boy was I wrong. My parents threw a major curve ball and surprised us with iPads! I was seriously speechless. It was such an incredibly unexpected gift. I feel like I don’t deserve such a nice gift. Seeing how excited my dad was to set it up with me and the fun we had trying to figure it out was awesome. I understand why they do these things; it is just hard for me to accept sometimes. It has only been a few days and I am already wondering how I lived without it. Haha! Thanks Mom and Dad! 

Clearly I have quickly become obsessed with my iPad. Did you know that if you subscribe to a magazine, you automatically have access to the tablet version? I did not. I am rapidly filling all my iPad storage space with downloaded magazines. Since I started this blog, I was carting my giant laptop everywhere. The iPad will make things so much easier. I will obviously still mostly write on my Laptop, but posting and reading etc. will be so much easier now! Not to mention books. I currently have 2 books and a journal in my purse. Talk about shoulder relief! I am so excited to join the tablet reader community.

Major technology overload:

Macbook pro, iPad, iPhone, iPod. Ridiculous. Apparently I'm a Mac...

The Moments:

This Christmas was a little different. It was the first Christmas without a very beloved grandparent and my sister and brother-in-law out of town spending Christmas with his family (we did our Christmas morning a day early). My mom worked really hard to get all of our traditions in. I kept thanking my parents for such a special Christmas, because it really was. As my parents read this, I hope you know how fantastic it was!

Yet, there was a void. My Grandma Sue had a huge personality and she was greatly missed. Plus, we were down two more on the day of (without Lindsey and Brandon). I know that the holidays will keep changing; it was just extra weird to have two big changes in one year.

Regardless of the changes this year, we had an amazing Christmas weekend. I got to spend some great quality time with family and friends, the food was awesome and most importantly, we remembered the reason for the season... Happy Birthday to Jesus! 

It was a very love filled holiday at our house!

Crab dinner

Sorry for the crap iPhone photos. I resolve to use my real camera in 2012. I hope you had fab celebrations too!

Leavenworth or bust!

This past weekend I traveled north to Seattle to meet up with a few of my fav ladies and we went over to Leavenworth, WA. It was a Bavarian wonderland!

You may be wondering the same things I was: Why is it called Bavarian? It looks pretty dang German to me! What the H is Bavaria?

Well, let me tell you! It is a region of southeastern Germany. But from what I observed in Leavenworth’s version, there is also a little bit of Scandinavian tradition hanging around. I don’t know if my family is confused or if the Bavarian village is confused. Really, I just think the shops carry inventory to appeal to all travelers.

We had a delightful time. Gluwein, brats, fudge and lots of laughter, how can you go wrong!? Plus we were all bundled in our coziest winter attire.

Here are some photos of us being Bavarian this past weekend:

Such a cute little town! 

Father Christmas is not the same as Santa... and quite possibly cooler! He wears a wreath and has a satchel.  Pretty cool! 

Our poor friends. We are probably embarrassing to be with!

Have a great weekend everyone. Merry Christmas!!

Obligatory blog wish list.

Or should I say oBLOGatory!? TaHa!

Apparently in the blog world we are supposed to do a Christmas wish list. I am still pretty new to this blog thing, so my apologies for not being on my A game with the Christmas posts.

I don’t have a real wish list this year. Both things I want (numbers 1 and 2) are practical items that are simply out of my budget range. 

Here is my super cool Christmas wish list:

 1.) A Clarisonic!! Apparently this hot ticket item is skins new best friend. I thought moisturizer was skins BFF4L (best friend for life). But apparently there is a new popular kid in school, and that kid is the Clarisonic. I do believe that moisturizer is that life long friend, but I think the Clarisonic is going to be that friend who comes in and helps you grow for the better. Ridiculous that I just described skin products in terms of friendships…

2.) Make up brushes. I am just in need of some new ones. My collection is pretty good… but they are getting old and gross. I can honestly say that the last time I purchased a makeup brush was probably 4ish years ago. I clean them and stuff… but I have never actually bought a brush kit. It is all just a mish-mash of brushes collected over the years. I assume it is a crazy bacteria-fest.

3.) Starbucks card. For the caffeine consumption that occurs in my life.

Now for the ridiculous items:

4.) Cartier Love bracelet. I have been coveting this bracelet for many years. I like the traditional gold one. I don’t actually want it now. But I do have a hope that someday a super-fly guy (who loves me) will give me one. That is all. So I thought it could still go on the wish list. Okay, maybe the wish is for a super-fly guy.

5.) Harry Potter Snuggie!!!! This is a no brainer. Who doesn’t want a HP Snuggie that looks just like Griffindor robes?

Final wish (warning: this one is cheesy): 

Spending some good quality time with my hilarious family! 

Go tell it on the mountain! 

That is all my friends. I hope all of your Christmas wishes come true!

Grace isn't just for dinner time.

I know you think this post is going to be about how we need to grant grace to one another. You are wrong. It actually is about table grace. Fooled ya! I just really liked that title for my post...even though it totally doesn't apply. Ha!

My family says the sweetest grace. I was curious the origin and decided that now was the time to start asking questions. My grandparents (on my mom’s side) have always said the same grace:

“Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.”

It is so beautiful and simple! When I was old enough to understand the meaning and finally stopped just mumbling along, I realized how truly succinct and significant the words really are.

My sister looked it up, and it turns out that this grace is a traditional Lutheran table prayer. Who knew!? It was first published in Germany in 1753 and has been passed down and used for generations! There are many adaptations of it, but it is especially common in the midwest. Note: My grandparents are both originally from Minnesota. 

Growing up, my immediate family didn’t always say grace. And when we did, it was an in the moment kind of grace. Specific prayers for the time, rather than a repeat prayer.

We lovingly call my grandparents grace, “Minnesota grace.” I think I want to carry the tradition of Minnesota grace to my future family. I love how melodic and meaningful the prayer is. 

Blooper Box: Where funny videos go to hang out.

The other day I got an interesting email. Subject: “came across your blog, have question.”

First of all, I was like, “He ran across my blog? How did that happen? Do people read my blog?... this is weird.”

Then I was like, “He is a killer. A deranged murderer. He says he is emailing me about my blog but he is totally an ax murderer. CRAP!”

Then I actually read his email and went to the Website.

He loves funny videos!? I love funny videos! People who like funny videos from the internet can’t possibly be murderers. Murderers only like Dexter and American Horror Story (Yeah, I’m on to you Marina. We all know you are a murderer).

SO, I emailed him back and asked if he was a murderer. He said no… and I decided he was telling the truth. I have a super legitimate screening process. Brad and his business partner, Phil, moved to Portland not to long ago to start BlooperBox.  I hesitated to write about it for a split second because I have never done a review like this before. BUT I saw that 1.) They are local and 2.) They are a start-up. Two awesome qualities!

Of course I will spread the good news about your hilarious website! Note: they are from St. Louis. I automatically think of Louise form St Louis (Jennifer Hudson in the SATC movie) and Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. (Pre extreme pill-popping)

Apparently Brad and Phil were co-workers back in St. Louis and one of their main procrastination activities was to find really obscure funny videos and send them to each other. It became a competition of sorts. Who was going to find the better video? And BlooperBox was born. They created a site that holds weekly competitions between 5 uploaded videos.

Click Here to see a sad back-handspring. 

This video was not a winner. And really, neither is this lady. I do feel sad that she couldn’t land her back-handspring. Next time she should call me and I can give her a spot.

I know, right!?

Megan from PIPM posted this video to her blog and I admit it! I am not at all innocent when it comes to many of the phrases highlighted.

My main offenses:

- "I know, right!?" 

- "Can you read this and see if it makes sense?"

Not listed: 

- "Did I leave my straightener on?" (Or curling iron depending on the day.)

You know you are guilty too. Just admit it! 

Forgive the title. It was too funny not to post. Enjoy! 

Can you hear me now? YES!

Today I went to get my oil changed, and while I was in the waiting room a middle-aged lady walked in. I was sitting there with my coffee in the pleasant waiting room reading my book with 5-7 of my nearest and dearest automobile appointment friends. Promptly after this lady sat down her phone rang. I knew we were in for it when her ringtone was a shockingly loud default tone that began with “Ver-I-Zon Wi-Er-less” and was followed by annoyingly swooping beeps and tones. She took FOREVER to answer and when she finally did she was shouting into her phone. Not just talking loudly, but shouting. I am not sure if she was on the phone with someone in a far away land, or if she really doesn’t trust cell phones yet.

It is easy for me to zone people out. I have been self-diagnosed with selective hearing. It is both a gift and a curse. Mostly a gift. Although, people in my life might disagree with that. So… gift for me… super annoying for others, since I am unintentionally ignoring them for long chunks of time.

I honestly just zoned this lady out. Then people kept glancing at my side of the room. I was thinking “did I laugh out loud at my book? Do I have a booger?” Then I realized they were all shooting dirty looks at Shouty McLouderson in the corner. Pretty hilarious. I then chose to listen for a moment. You guys, she is looking for a place to rent. She has a cat. Her son has a new girlfriend. Hmmm, I wonder if her son’s new girlfriend will go to this new cat friendly place for Christmas?

This lady was seriously on the phone for 45 minutes. After she hung up there was clear relief in the room. I am sure she didn’t notice, but how could you not notice an entire group mumbling thanks to the heavens simultaneously? It was quite hilarious. I felt like I had just observed a social experiment.

This is my citation to the cell phone lady

Anyway, the book I was reading had a section about how God hears our prayers and why we doubt the power of prayer. It was lovely and eloquently put. Unfortunately for the author, my instant sarcastic thought was, “How can God hear me when this lady is around. She is drowning me out with all her yelling!” I know that God hears me, and that I should never underestimate the power of prayer. Although, He probably doesn't appreciate my snarky comments… Who knows, maybe He thinks I am hilarious!! I’ll get back to you on that one.