Twas the Day Before Christmas

First of all, thank you for the prayers and well wishes; they worked! The show went off without a hitch AND it was pleasant to boot!

When I say "without a hitch", though, I'm pretty much lying to your face. The major contributors to my overexcited stress levels may have been caused by: a)the fact that four kids didn't show up for the performance (2 ended up coming just as we started, though.) b) in the first dance of the recital I totally blanked on the end of the dance and pretty much free styled Irish style to center stage to bow, or c) when, in our last dance, I accidentally started the beat way too fast (but that *did* pan out because the audience loved the tempo.) But, in spite of all that (and maybe because of it!) it was a brilliant performance, if I do say so myself.

Now for a drastic change of subject.

CHRISTMAS IS TOMORROW PEOPLES! I can't believe it! I'm waiting with both a childish wonder (insert creepy "North" face from Guardians) and a more mature horror. The former because, well, DUH, it's CHRISTMAS! The later because I in my possession every single gift for the holidays and not one of them is wrapped. So, in addition to all my family's baking (which we conveniently left till Christmas eve to do) I get to spend hours on end on the floor trying to make the presents look nice. No sweat.

Our family's main Christmas tradition is our lack thereof. I've tried (with various degrees of success) to institute my friends' cool traditions in our own family, but they never pan out. Our own traditions don't even pan out. For example, for four years running the movie Elf has been our standby Christmas movie. This year, however, we've all been reluctant to watch it because, as the years go by, it has become gradually less and less entertaining. Also, for years on end we've had variations of the same Christmas tree fiasco tradition.

It was a dark and stormy night. Not. We live in California, peoples. Well, it started three years ago, when, in our trademark spontaneousness, we rushed to the Christmas tree farm on the night of December 24th. The moral of the story is that it takes more than half an hour to decorate a tree. Fast-fore-ward a year. This time we're looking ahead, and we plan out the week of Christmas. You know how the holiday seasons are: BUSY. Fortunately, we saw this way ahead of time and were able to make the conscious choice to buy our tree on the 24th, and we planned accordingly. There we go, all bundled upto dear old Mupu Christmas tree Farms, when low and behold! there's a silly little scribbled sign on the closed gate saying that the owner was at a Christmas party (of all places!). Luckily, it had his cell phone number scrawled at the bottom, which we proceeded to dial and tell him our sad tale. I'm not sure how much of it he actually heard (my dad said it sounded like a pretty fun party in the background) but eventually he offered to give us the tree now, and pay him for it later. Last year we arrived late in the season, late at night, but, to everyone's chagrin, THIS year we purchased the tree over a week ago. Even the owners noticed and asked if we were coming a little too early.

So, that's all I have to say. I can almost guarantee that I *won't* post on Christmas, and even if I do, I hope you wouldn't tear yourself away from your new toys and families to read the post, so don't bother. Have a Merry Christmas!!

Wish Me Luck!

I don't have time for a full-fledged post right now, but I'm about to perform in my Irish dance recital. Not sure how we'll do, but some prayers would be much appreciated.

I promise to say more later. I have a lot to talk about!

That Moment When...

That moment when you sing off key IN YOUR MIND. Or maybe that's just my moment. All I can say is that last night, while imagining blaring out "Let it go" from Frozen, probably my least favorite song from the whole movie, I suddenly realized that my air guitar wasn't playing the notes I was singing.

I haven't been posting my writing on here for the sad reason that I haven't been writing. Ever since Thanksgiving break school has been consuming my every waking moment and I haven't been able to get a word in edgewise. But there is hope. For the next three weeks I'll have a ridiculous amount of time on my hands, so I'm sure I'll be able to scribble something out.

I honestly did have a subject for this post ten minutes ago. OH YES. Now I remember.

Last night I watched The Desolation of Smaug. It was...exciting. Sure, the effects weren't perfect, and some of the dialog wasn't great (read, "I AM FIRE. I AM DEATH.") but the big picture was impressive. And intense. Well, maybe that was just me. I get way too into movies, and throughout the whole show I was huddled up on the movie seat whispering silently to the characters. "No. No! Don't go in there!" "You're not supposed to die yet!" "AHH! That's Benedict Cumberbatch's voice!" I think my friend and I pretty much lost circulation in our hands because we were squeezing each other pretty much whenever Kili came onto the screen. And sometimes for Thorin. And whenever Smaug spoke. Yeah.

Okay, now for something more legible. Christmas is coming! And what's more, it feels like Christmas is coming. Usually a few days before the big day it kind of hits me and I start belting out Christmas carols around the house, but it's more than a week till and I'm already in the mood! It probably has something to do with the unCalifornian weather we've been experiencing, or maybe it's because we're getting our tree on Sunday, but it's here none the less.

Outta time and outta money, as my tennis coach used to say, so so long, farewell, avida say, and goodbye.