Post-Christmas Lull

Sometimes to me the days after Christmas feel like the saddest days of the year. The weeks leading up to Christmas create such a euphoric high. And once you reach the pinnacle, well, it seems you can only go downhill from there.

Coming down from the high of the holidays is a task. What do you focus all your time and energy on? And don't get me started about having to stop playing the carols I love so much, taking down the tree and putting away all the decorations until next year.

Quick, somebody send me another beloved holiday to prepare for...

Crossroads

You ever feel like you're at a crossroads in your life? You've come to the intersection and the shiny green rectangle road signs are waiting for you to decide your route? Yeah, I'm definitely at the corner of confused and completely unsure.

The one thing I do know is that 2009 is going to be a pivotal year. Some years go by in a blur of same-ness. Others are life-changing and leave deep markings on the blueprints of your life. '09 is going to be one of those. I can feel it, change is a-comin'.

My 2008 Top Ten Lists

Favorite Songs:
Sugarland "Already There"
Matt Nathanson "Come on Get Higher"
Flo Rida "Low"
Taylor Swift "Love Story"
Daughtry "What About Now"
Jason Mraz "I'm Yours"
Britney Spears "Womanizer"
Katy Perry "Hot 'N Cold"
Beyonce "If I Were a Boy"
T.I. "Whatever You Want"

Favorite Movies:
"Twilight"
"Four Christmases"
"Sex and the City"
"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"
"Nights in Rodanthe"
"The Dark Knight"
"Iron Man"
"Eagle Eye"
"What Happens in Vegas"
"27 Dresses"

Celebrities I Couldn't Get Enough Of:
Britney Spears (fo sho)
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Nettles
Kenny Chesney (went to his summer tour kick-off concert in Columbia!)
Fall Out Boy
Tina Fey
Taylor Swift
Heath Ledger
John Krasinski
Barack Obama (He's a celebrity, right?)

Celebrities I'm Sick Of:
Lindsay Lohan
Brad Pitt
Tom Cruise
Kim Kardashian
Angelina Jolie
Paris Hilton
Madonna
Anyone from The Hills
Amy Winehouse
Disney stars

Stuff I Was Addicted to This Year:
Coffee
Jodi Picoult books
Converse shoes
Sweater dresses
My iPod
Scarves
Nine West
England
Manicures and Pedicures
Sales

Books I Read And Loved This Year:
"Atlas Shrugged"
"My Sister's Keeper"
"Twilight"
"New Moon"
"Eclipse"
"Breaking Dawn"
"Blue Like Jazz"
"Nineteen Minutes"
"Skipping Christmas"
"Sense and Sensibility"

Merry Christmas

Breakfast casserole and apple crisp. Candy canes and coffee. Mmmm. It's Christmas. Eat it up.

It's Beginning to Look at Lot Like Christmas

It's really not beginning to look like Christmas at all, but alas, Christmas is just around the corner. Hard to believe, isn't it? Though the events leading up to Christmas have been fantastic, for me the actual week of Christmas feels very little like Christmas. This Christmas is so strange, so different in so very many ways.

I keep trying to remind myself that different is okay and to find joy in all the places it's so abundant and not focus on the places it seems to be missing.

I have to work on Christmas Day and the day after, but I'm trying -- really I am -- to maintain my Christmas spirit.

Why is Christmas never like it appears in the movies? Perfect families, perfect romances, perfect time spent together...

The way

Show me the way, and I'll go.

I won't hesitate, I won't ask twice, I won't argue. I'll trust. Just show me the way.

Show me what you want me to be. What you expect of me. The person you want me to become.

Just show me the way.

La, la, la

I love butterflies, the ones painted by the brushstroke of nature in vibrant colors and the ones you get in your stomach when you're excited.

I love ice cream. Especially Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip. And Baskin Robbins' Baseball Nut. And almost anything from Brewsters, Cold Stone or Marble Slab. Who am I kidding? I just love ice cream.

I love coffee. When it's warm and flavored and wakes me up and makes me giddy.

I love when the right song comes on at the right moment.

I love snow. Why is it 70 degrees in December?

I love photographs, expressions and moments frozen in time.

I love possibility.