Merry Christmas & My Kind of Humor

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Jopseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

Matthew 1:20-21

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Yesterday morning {Christmas morning} i was reminded of where in the world i get my humor from and why i love it so much. it most definitely runs in my family.

example 1:

After opening presents and while my brother was putting some things away in his room, first he asks me if i need a first aid kit for my house in Amherst (he must get this from my father.) Apparently everytime he goes over to one of his friend's house, the kid's dad always gives him a kit. So i tell him no, that we have a lot of stuff at our house, and then he hands me a pair of safety goggles. He tells me to put them on and go walking around the house til mom or dad notices. So I put them on and go walking into the kitchen, John following behind me, and my mom notices but my dad is looking straight at my face and then looking to the others because he knew something was up but couldn't quite put his finger on it. boy is he oblivious haha

I did it because 1) it's funny. and 2) because it's something i'd do w/o his prompting anyways.

example: Just this month while helping Kait with her thesis one night, me, jenn and Kait went down to the wood shop. While they were out of the shop for a minute or not paying attention, i see a pair of safety goggles, put them on, and go on my regular business until one of them bursts into laughter. and then i burst into laughter. my kind of humor.

example 2:

One of my favorite gifts that i received this year for Christmas was from my brother. He got me a sweet life jacket for one of our favorite summer activities-- jet skiing. He said something like "I got you a bunch of things so you'll know we want you around for the summer. Even though we don't really." Him being his sweet self but not being able to do it w/o being sarcastic and jerkish. but i know he means it cuz of the smirk he wears when he says it. i really do love him.

But anyways, he says to me a little later "you know what you should do when you get home to Amherst?"


And i say, [my mind already right where his is]
"What? Randomly blow the horn in the house?" -- he also got me a blow horn in case of an emergency on my kayak haha, a whistle, and an awesome yellow water proof/floating box to store your phone or keys in- incase they ever fall in while on the water.


So he says, [laughing] "oh, well that too. But put the life jacket on over your bathing suit and just walk into the living room one day."

Perfect idea John! thank you very much. This is something I definitely would have thought of on my own if he hadn't said it first.
And then i began to tell him about the time i walked downstairs with just a pair of nude colored underwear, a nude colored strapless bra and my APRON. hilarious.

so you see where i get my humor from? apparently it runs in the family :) and i love it.

it's the best kind of humor. so unexpected.

and i'm so glad that my roomies have caught on with me and my humor and that we all love it.

we are constantly doing something like this in our house just to make the other bust into laughter.

i love the laughter in our home.

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Thank you Jesus for coming to this world to be born - to create new and beautiful things from our ridiculous messes.

Thank you for coming so that you could save us from our sins each and every day.

Thank you for life, for forgiveness, for family and love, for friends, for big dogs, and for humor.

Fort Building & Home Alone

My house at 351 has a Seasonal List of things [[to do]] so that we intentionally try to make each season wonderful.
it's hung on the side of our fridge.
somehow it started with Chels, who i don't even live with, writing a list for a "fabulous summer," or something more creative than that, way before i even graduated and before summer had arrived. on that list included things like:
going on a whale watch in Gloucester, going to Rockport, strawberry picking, visiting Chels in Newport, hiking Mt. Sugarloaf, going for walks on the bike trail, eating summery foods, puffers pond...and so on. when i moved in with Kait we added more to that list, like making lemonade and drinking it on the front porch and making smoothies. that's about all i can remember right now but there were a whole lot of things!
and then what we also created was a list of things we had actually followed through with.
this may sounds kind of silly because we actually cross off the things on our original list, but then we go ahead and write things down again on the "done" list, acknowledging that we did them. and this is where we also write anything fun that we did that wasn't on our original list, but kind of just extra.
get it?

well, it's served us well. we look forward to taking down the list each season and writing a new list, all together, as roomies. oh, how i love my roomies.
we did this for fall. and then we did this for winter.

wanna hear the title of our winter list?
"the list for the most wonderful wintah"

and our [DONE] list is even better:
"what we weathered when we wished winter would woo weverywun waesome"

i think it's great.

the point of those things is that one of the MANY things on our winter list was to Build a Fort and cuddle in it. and watch Home Alone. so we combined the two this past Saturday night and i don't wanna forget about it. because it was pretty dang memorable.

so that's why i'm writing. because...
1) how many times can i say i have built a fort? after the age of like 7?
only once so far!
i shouldn't say i built it because basically i was too busy eating my chicken, broccoli, ziti alfredo that i had made minutes before and was too hungry/impressed with my cooking skills to put it down. i'm still amazed at how it came out because i have found that i am pretty dang too impatient to cook. or to find a real recipe and follow through with it. and have it be a success. but this time! oh this time, i was impressed and so glad. gonna make it for my fam when i'm home for Christmas. so ya, Kait and Jenn really built it. they were the ones to grab all the sheets and use all our curtains and put stools on top of chairs. and grab all of the clips in the house to hold the fabric together.
2) how many times can i witness a GINORMOUS knitting needle, yes knitting needle, topple over and hit my friend in the head. prob only once in my lifetime. because i don't know how many pairs of ginormous knitting needles there are in this world. BUT, it was pretty funny. Sorry, Kait. i know not so much for you and your headache. but i'm picturing it in my head right now-- you SCREAMINGG as something begins to fall and all of a sudden i hear a bonk and complete silence. you had nothing to scream about anymore. oh my gosh too funny. both Jenn and i watched it happen in slow motion almost but i just kind of froze.
3) the coziness of the fort. the snugness of friend. snuggling. and then sleeping in it like we are kids. what a fun way to end 2010 all together before we all go our separate ways for a bit.
4) again, how many times can i say i have been a part of any kind of fort building past my childhood days of building forts under my brother's bunk bed. when we would split it down the middle and we'd each have our own little room. and i'd go grab everything i could to fit in there. oh, those were the days :)

so ya, Virginia. you built a fort. and watched a Christmas movie. and it was really fun and special :)

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer

Is Singing Loud for All to Hear!

{{ohh, Elf}}

Highlights from my [last] weekend:

Navs Christmas Party

Celebrating Laura and Ben's marriage with a bridal shower.
It was a success! it was fun. there were great pictures taken.
i'm pretty sure Laura enjoyed it! which is all that matters.
and then a lovely dinner in Cambridge with some pizza, yummy hot chocolate, and a stroll through the city with great friends.
being there made me miss home so much. and the ocean. it just feels like home.
i really hope that living somewhere near Boston/Revere next year is as great as i'm hoping it will be.

and best of all, because i was not expecting it in the slightest--
walking down the street and looking up to see ANTHROPOLOGIE right before my eyes, sign lit up n all.
i almost died of excitement. i screamed. i pointed. i smiled so huge. i grabbed and squeezed Jenn. i excitedly asked to go in! and then i didn't shut up talking about it for almost the rest of the night.
goodness is it just so beautiful inside! i plan on going back over Christmas break and browsing for a while and hitting up the Border Cafe as well. (ahh such good food and soda! they ahve the best soda. so perfectly bubbly!) and it's so easy to find! get right off the T in Harvard Square.

4th annual ELF NIGHT!
Tara cooked us such a delicious stew, it was amazing.
Me, Jenn, Kait, Tara, Chels and Kate sat around to a cozy dinner.
and then we did the typical Elf Night traditions which included:
hot chocolate, marshmallows, smores poptarts, fudge, gum drops, sugar, sugar & more sugar.

we got cozy on couches and watched and laughed together.
it was lovely, as usual.
what a sweet tradition is has been to look forward to each year.
it truly is so special.

and now we have been quoting the movie ever since. well even before then actually. it's just so dang funny!

i'll leave with this:

"SANTAAAA!!!!!! I KNOW HIMMM!!!!!!!!"