I am my own Destiny...

So Thursday was a great day all around. First and foremost...it was my day off, so I was able to sleep in, even if it was for only two more hours than usual. On top of that, I spent the day with mom. It was a lot of fun. We went over to Fredericksburg to the Dress Barn in Central Park, on a mission to find clothes for my brother Steve and Anna's wedding. We figured now would be the best time to shop, as it is just after the holidays so we had a better chance of finding sales, as well as the fact that the wedding may be in March, but it's in Pittsburgh! So, but looking now, we'd probably find warmer clothes! In the end, even though I found this really cute dress, I bought a nice pair of black slacks (as I desperately needed a pair and they fit me wonderfully!) and mom left with a nice flowered and beaded top. From there, we went back to Culpeper for some flea market shopping. I was hoping to find some chairs for our kitchen table, not caring if they matched too much. Of course, Mike wanted to know why we needed chairs for the table as we never eat at the table...well, yeah! Because we have no chairs!!!
The first place we went was more of a knick-knack shop, not a whole bunch of furniture. The next place, however, is the best place to find furniture. My brother Jimmy and his fiancee found a coffee table and two end tables there in very good shape for an equally good price. Over the last couple of years I, myself have found little things here and there that are now incorporated into our home.
From the moment we stepped through the door, mom and I were on a mission, though. To find two decent chairs that weren't too bad with the kitchen table. I would worry about trying to match the entire set at a later time. Peaking in here and there, we found some really great stuff, as usual. Then, as I looked into one little alcove, I noticed it was full of wooden chairs...perfect! Immediately my eyes were drawn to two stacked, armed chairs crafted out of a dark wood. They were a little dusty and worn, but they were exactly what I was looking for. Then mom, from behind me, said, "You could get all four and have the two armed chairs at each end of the table." All four? I looked beside my chairs and saw two more armless stacked chairs of what looked like the same make. Sweet! But then I thought of the price. Last time I found chairs I liked in this place, they were $40 apiece. I flipped over the price tags, and Eric's Anna, you're gonna love this...
The two chairs with arms were $6 apiece and the ones without were $5 apiece. With tax, four chairs in very good shape came to a whopping $23.10! And what's cool about it (besides the price) is that the chairs look almost identical to the chairs mom and dad used to have when they had the table! Funny how things work out.
So I went back to mom's to drop her off, then after a phone call, went off to have my hair cut. It was getting REALLY long and heavy. Normally I get it cut short once a year at the beginning of summer (yes, I said once a year) and let it grow out the rest of the year. Well, this year, I only had it trimmed because I wanted to be sure it would be long for the wedding. So, way over a year since I had it last cut, it was very long, very heavy, and very hot (even in winter)! Before it was cut, it nearly covered my breasts. Now that it's cut and layered, it reaches my collarbone...almost six inches off! It feels so much better!
Moving on from my haircut, I went home and unloaded my treasures. The chairs were perfect! Then, since Mike was off from work, we decided to have a movie night, which is a little tradition we're trying to do together on nights he has off...it's some time we have together since we don't usually get to see each other very much with me working during the day and him at night. The movie finished before 8:00pm, and we were wondering what to do next. Just then, I got a text from my brother Jimmy..."Coming to karaoke tonight?" Heck, yes, we are! So Mike and I got ready to head down to Baja Bean Company (Baja) for some karaoke.
Now, I'd never done karaoke before. My friend and I had wanted to in high school, but we were either too young for most of the places or couldn't work out a time to go. I was nervous about getting up in front of a lot of people. Thankfully, Jimmy suggested we do a duet to help ease me into it. So, "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley and Alison Kraus it was. I really sucked! What I portrayed the pitch my voice was in was not what came through the mic! But I made it through the stage fright of being up there in front of a roomful of strangers. To rewind a bit, when Jimmy had me go up to sign us up, he told me to put down "Jimmy Choo" for the karaoke singer. Long story short, this is what I called his "stage name." You'll have to ask me how that came to be. I wanted a stage name, too. First, it was Sam Choo (since we are brother and sister). By the end of the night, however, I became...Destiny! The two of us were Destiny Choo. Again, you'll have to ask for to full explanation another time. Jimmy and I ended the night with Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars." I did SOOOO much better the second time around. With such a goofy, fun song, it was hard not to be more relaxed. That, and the great Jimmy Choo gave me some pointers!

Looking Forward

As one year comes to a close, it opens the door to a whole new one with possibilities galore. Here’s a little recap of last year…

1) Mike and I began renting our first place next door to where I work.
2) We “adopted” our goofy, ungraceful, sweet, loving German Shepherd/Australian Shepherd mix puppy, Lady. Then we adopted our little pewter furball, Calypso (Cali).
3) Three people I love got engaged, obviously not all at once...and even more obvious not to each other! Congrats Jimmy, Steve, and Beccas! (I love their fiancé(es) too, of course)
4) I had a mental breakdown at work.
5) My niece, Emily, turned the big 0-1!
6) I got a raise at work.
7) Emily learned to walk at the beach and wreaked havoc on the northern Millers’ lives…:-)
8) Mike and I got MARRIED!!!!
9) Mike and I were approved for a home loan and began the process of buying a home.
10) I thought I was pregnant, but it was a false alarm.
11) Mike and I celebrated our first Christmas.
12) My Russian Dwarf hamster, Chewbacca (Chewy), died.

There are things for the year to come that I hope will happen and/or look forward to…

1) My friend from high school who moved to Texas, got married, and had a baby is now moving back to Madison County. YAY!!!!!
2) Mike and I get a house.
3) I will be more social and try to get out more…Mike and I will hold get-togethers and just do things with friends and family.
4) I will get pregnant…?
5) I will get a new job…or at least look for one.
6) We will start new traditions.

These are not resolutions…simply hopes and things to look forward to. I never was one for resolutions. Resolutions require a conviction that I always lack (which is why my diets don’t work). I’ll start things, but either tire of them or I don’t get the desired immediate feedback. So…here’s to the new year!

Our First Christmas

Of all the holidays, I believe Christmas is my absolute favorite. Thanksgiving comes second, because both holidays involve my family. But Christmas seems more magical due to the lights and the trees and the traditions and the added bonus from this year...snow! Yes, this year we had a white Christmas. It was so great! It stopped soon enough for all of my family to make it, but it was heavy enough that it stuck around for a while. From previous posts we know that my dog Lady loves the snow. Well, two feet of it is even more fun, in her opinion. Sprite, not so much. She's so small that when she tried to run out in it the first time, she sank in and got stuck! Lady, on the other hand, is a regular snow dog.

Emily, my niece, was a little unsure of the snow at first. It was a little hard for her to walk in it...her feet would slide under the top crust that had frozen overnight and they would get stuck. It took her a little while, but she warmed up to it.

Christmas itself was great. We had gone to see Mike's family the week before, as they were traveling down to southwestern Virginia to see Mammaw and Pappaw. On Christmas Eve, my second oldest brother Steve and his fiancee were leaving to go up to see her family in Pittsburg, so we decided to have a brunch. Chris and Danielle did the most of the cooking, it seemed, because they had chocolate chip scones, blueberry scones, and a sausage and egg cassarole that was to die for! Steve made bacon and Katie had brought her wonderful sweet potato muffins. Unfortunately, dad couldn't make it due to him still having a work day.

Emily was so funny for Christmas. She made out like a little bandit this year...it must be great having so many aunts and uncles! She got a lot of books...Dr. Seuss, mainly. She now has her own little library! Then, as though she didn't have enough presents, she decided to take her mommy and daddy's presents and make them her own.

Of all the presents I received, there were two that stood out the most. One, I got a KitchenAid stand mixer from Mike. You may laugh, but no words could express the excitement I felt when I tore open the paper. I've wanted one of these for a while. I'm thankful that I had a hand mixer prior to this, but it's a little difficult to make four or five batches of cookies with a small, low-powered hand mixer. The other gift was from mom, though I guess technically you could say it was from Grandma Stauffer. My grandmother passed away a couple years ago, but she's still with us. My gift from her was a small porcelain bell ornament, daintily decorated with a small print and a date...1986. This was the year I was born. The bell was one of hers. She used to have a large collection of all sorts of hand bells...glass ones, porcelain and China ones, ones with little figures sitting on top of them, ones with beautiful paintings on them. When I asked her why she had so many, she had told me they were her symbol, her trademark.

All in all, this Christmas was a wonderful one, even more so than some of the most recent years. Mike's and my first Christmas.

Coming Out of the Closet

Aside from my holiday baking and doing laundry at mom's while on my day off, I have also had to clean my room. Yes, I know I don't live at my parents' house anymore, but I still have to clean my room. (*sigh*) Mom's been begging me to clean out my room since I moved out. My closet, especially. Yeah, the clothes are already gone, obviously. She was more concerned with the BOTTOM of my closet. Poor dad isn't getting any younger, and that ladder to the attic isn't getting any stronger, so my parents didn't want to have to go to the attic to get down decorations every year. Therefore, my closet is now storage for Christmas decorations.

So, here I was, digging out all of my stuff from the closet and I found quite a few things! One, there were all my stuffed animals (which are staying in there for a while). Two, I found a sweatshirt that I was going to give mom for Christmas a couple years back. It was still in good condition, so I gave it to her as an early Christmas present this year! Three, there were a whole bunch of little things here and there that I'd forgotten I had, or thought I had lost. I had mom chuckling every now and then with my random, "Oh, there it is!" And, of course, in the mix of all of this, ladybugs are everywhere!

Back to the stuffed animals...My brother Eric and his wife Anna usually stay in my old room at mom and dad's. They have a gorgeous Rottweiler named Ellen. I can't wait to get a chance to go out there and see her (and them, of course!). Anyway, I know that Anna especially gets a little homesick of Oklahoma and misses Ellen when she sees my parents' dog Caffeine, so I grabbed all my Rotti stuffed animals and threw them to mom to put on the bed. Once the room was put back in order, we turned to see Caffeine laying at the foot of the bed. I decided to take a picture...This one's for you, Eric and Anna!

I can't wait to see everyone in a week!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Mike and I now are proud owners of a 6-foot-something tree. We went out to a nearby tree farm a coworker told me about and, after walking around with the owner's daughter for a bit, found and cut down our tree. We took it home, set it up, and while listening to old Christmas records borrowed from my dad, decorated our very first Christmas tree the next night.

Before we decorated our tree, I wanted to have a tree topper. So we went to the store to see what they had. I really wanted an angel, but I'd keep an open mind. Target had no tree toppers whatsoever. Walmart had beautiful stars, but the stands, or whatever you call them, looked really weird. And the only angels they had were fiber optic, and not really all that pretty. So rather than going to any more stores, I decided to do what my mother did over 30 years ago...I made my own angel. Now, I didn't have any scraps from my wedding dress like she did, nor did I want to cut up my gown, but I used some ribbon and lace and satin for a dress. A styrofoam ball for the head. Silver pipe cleaners for the wings. And yellow yarn for hair topped with a golden pipe cleaner halo. She is not as nice as mom's, but she is my very own and therefore beautiful. Mike had the honor of placing her atop our tree.

And so, we, the newest Kestner family, are ready to celebrate Christmas!

Mama, What's All That White Stuff?

I love snow. Especially the first good snow of winter. I know, it's not technically winter yet, but close enough. I don't know what it is about the blanket of white, but it's something so simple that turns the dirty, grungy world into one that's so pretty and clean. There's woods behind our house, and I love seeing snow on the trees. It makes it look so...magical. I guess I'm just a big kid.

The animals love it, too. Jasper likes sitting in his perch and looking out at the clumps coming down past the window.

Lady is funny. She's never really seen snow before. When I let her out yesterday morning into the front yard, she was a little wary at first, not knowing what all the "unnatural" white was that was covering her previously naturally green lawn! She went out and sniffed at the snow on the ground, moving to the gate where it lay on the handles and other hardware. She tried eating it. At this point, it was snowing in huge clumps. One caught the corner of her eye, then she tried to catch them as they fell! It was really funny to watch.

Where Are You, Christmas?

There are mixed feelings when this time of year come around. First and foremost, this time of year makes me a kid again! The lights, the presents, the music...the excitement is almost overwhelming. I love driving at night and passing by houses that have their lights lit. Even if it's as simple as seeing a tree through the front window, I just get this warm fuzzy feeling. I always try to find the station on the radio that plays Christmas music 24/7. I can't wait to wrap presents and see them all under the tree, waiting for my loved ones to open them and I get to see the expressions on their faces. This time of year just makes me...happy.
Another feeling I get occasionally is, I guess you'd call it pity. I feel sorry for the people who don't see Christmas as I see it. They dread the upcoming family gatherings, knowing so-and-so is so obnoxious and so-and-so likes to gossip. They go Christmas gift shopping like it's a chore, and usually buy a lame gift card instead of putting love and thoughtfulness and creativity into getting a gift. People in stores are worried about getting in and out quickly, everything's rushed, and people are just in general disgruntled. That's not what Christmas is about.
Christmas is joy. It's laughter. It's family. It's peace on Earth. It's not about how much a person can get, or how much a person can spend on a gift. It's about receiving one Gift. One very IMPORTANT gift, and that would be Jesus. Now, I'm not one to spout on and on about religion. I believe in God and Jesus and the mighty works they both have done and do every day. But I never feel the need to go out and preach to every person I meet. I know that may be wrong, and that's how I should be. But Christmas brings out something in me. After all, that's what, or should I say WHO Christmas is about. God loved us so much that he sent Jesus. Even though the world is cruel and disgusting and full of sin, He still loved it enough to do that.
THAT is Christmas, people. It's not about the latest video games or computer systems. It's not about getting the latest purse or fashion accessory. It's about love...especially God's love, for a world that doesn't deserve it.