Christmas: Only marred by Classic Crime and snowplows

All in all, a very good Christmas.
Except for arriving home and finding the snow plows had FINALLY cleared the snow off our streets.
And then pushed it all in front of our driveway.
No joke.
Every other driveway in the cul-de-sac was clear...except for ours.
Right. Thanks, guys. Merry Christmas!
Morons.
Maybe it was someone we know...but who did we tick off?
Boycott love...detox just to retox.
Heheh, I actually got stuff I wanted, and some surprises that were welcomed.
"ACROSS THE UNIVERSE" SOUNDTRACK!!
I hate the Beatles...but I love their music.
Does that make sense?
Ugh, Classic Crime.
The Silver Cord sucks. Albatross was pretty cool, not exactly new or hardhitting, but a nice semi-indie band with a great frontman. And hey, they were from Seattle! Kudos!
And then people (possibly over-excited Christian music fans who would gobble up anything with clean lyrics and possible Christian members, and/or Tooth and Nail execs) started telling this band how much they loved them, how cool they were, and how "edgy" and "hardcore" their music was.
And then the Classic Crime took all these comments super seriously and spent a couple years writing songs for their new album.
And these songs seem like the writers were trying REALLY hard to be "edgy", "hardcore", and "obscure".
Sadly, ALL THE SONGS SOUND THE SAME!!
Fall Out Boy's new album was a little weird at first listening, but at least every track had something different.
Listening to "The Silver Cord" was like slogging through an hour's worth of pain, misery, and angst.
The only exception was "5805", which was quirky and pretty unique, up until the chorus.
The melody of "5805" and "Salt in the Snow" are identical.
I no longer support you, Matt McDonald.

White-coated ninja stalks at night

It's 35 degrees outside, which is supposedly WARMER than the past few days, but the weathermen neglected to tell us all about the wind chill factor.
So, in actuality, it's 5 degrees outside.
Is it really that weird to be able to drink a milkshake in snowy weather? Hot cocoa just isn't the same.
Francesca Lia Block keeps blowing me away. "Necklace of Kisses" is somehow better than "Baby Be-Bop", the best of the Weetzie Bat books.
AND THEY'RE MAKING A MOVIE!
We got at least 3 more inches of snow, and it's been snowing off and on (but it's also been raining and sleeting, so the chances of us getting any more snow today are low).
Church has been cancelled - again.
That's twice this week. GET BEHIND ME, SATAN! I have Jesus on my side!!
And Meg and Jack White, but they don't count nearly as much.
It doesn't seem like Christmas Eve, but it most definitely is. We couldn't wait till this evening, so the 5 of us got up early and opened our presents.
Aha, I have cellphone!! Finally!!
And it's green.
Someone made a book of some of the best lolcatz. It's pretty funny.
Halp! I'm in ur cupz...soaking up your teaz.
I also got "Folie a Deux" and "The Silver Cord" - at last.
"Folie a Deux" is pretty good. Yes, that's the extent of my musical commentary. Because saying, "Oh my gosh, Patrick has SUCH an amazing voice and Joe is SOOOO good at guitar and that one song was AWESOME!" seems to carry just about as much meaning.
I'm pretty musically retarded.
Or at least musically close-minded.
Or close-minded in general. Hey, Republican.

Ninjas strike back

AAAAAAAAAH we're allowed to open our Christmas presents TOMORROW!!! I can't WAIT!
Even though I KNOW I'm getting a cellphone, but I didn't pick it out or anything, so who knows?
Emma got one, too, and it's already being put to good use.
8 days, 6 h, 18m, and 29s till the New Year!
Chinese food and family time...yay...some things never change.
Hopefully a certain cousin won't get to pick all of the food this time.
We want sweet and sour pork!!

You Spread Some Holiday Cheer

You do your best to give time, money, and joy during the holidays. You don't always spread cheer to everyone, but you do the best. Unlike most people, you actually spend time reflecting on the meaning of the holidays. And you worry more about doing the right thing than getting the right presents.

Do You Spread Holiday Cheer?

William's probably going to hate his presents.
My dad and I have to go on a shopping mission after dinner. He hasn't gotten anything for my mom yet.
He calls our neighbors "The Tony's" because he doesn't want to ask their last name.
But he gave them all of our cheese bread. Now he's finished with holiday baking.
Dang. Those were good macaroons.

Please just get it over with!!

My dad has gone crazy and must be stopped.
Ever since I made sugar cookies on Friday, he's been whipping up all sorts of holiday treats.
Yesterday, after I refused to make them, he made chocolate TRUFFLES.
He made TRUFFLES.
Then, today, while listening to Medved, he made macaroons, without chocolate, unfortunately.
And then (we thought he was kidding) I found him in the kitchen cubing cheese for cheese bread! It's in the oven now and it looks like a puffy, sauceless pizza.
And he usually hates when we eat carbs.

I HATE MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ!!! He's such a jerk in "Princess In Training", and SO CONTROLLING!
And people are like, "Oh, when he says, 'You WILL be mine,' I almost MELTED. It was SOOOO romantic."
Yeah. Maybe for someone with low-self esteem and a death wish.
BUt I have a sneaking suspicion that Mia will end up with Michael.
Because he's "changed" and they're "soulmates".
Ugh. If someone pressured you for sex and threatened to DUMP you if you didn't put out, why would you stay with him? I'd drop him immediately.
And they say he was only "joking", because he said, "I'm not going to wait forever," in a joking tone of voice.
But that is NOT something you joke about. You have NO idea how INCENSED this makes me.
Actually, you probably do, seeing as I've been yelling about it off and on since 2007.
Ugh.
Perin and Ling Su are definitely together.
I've been thinking about this, and some people agree with me, but there's a chance that Mia won't choose either boy; Michael OR JP. That would probably be the best ending, showing how much she's grown and how "self-actualized" she is.
This is terrible. I'm getting emotionally entangled with a YA series about a nonexistent principality (soon to become a democracy).

False!!

You Are Biscotti

You are a very direct, honest person. You don't have time for dramatics or emotional pleas. You feel most comfortable in the intellectual realm, especially with science and technology. You are good at understanding difficult subjects. Understanding people? Not so much.

What Holiday Cookie Are You?

"Intellectual" is probably one of that last words people would use to describe me.
Without really meaning to, I've become extremely excited about the upcoming "Sims 3". It doesn't even come out till February.
What would you most like for Christmas?
Twelve drummers drumming.
No, really.
That would be amazing.
We now have 9 and a half inches of snow, the most we've seen in this area for...9 years?? Ha. Alexis and I went sledding yesterday, then made a not-so-successful snow fort out of sleds, packed snow, and manpower.
2 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS EVE! 3 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!!

You are Multicolored Lights

Your holidays are a time for cheer and excitement. You love so much about the holidays, and everyone perks up a little from your happiness. You try to be grateful for what you have this time of the year. Even if things have been tough, you can't help but be joyful.

What Color Christmas Lights Are You?

Even if school is cancelled, they'll still have 0 Hour.

Huh. It's snowing. Rather hard, actually. We have at least 4 inches.
It looks like Matt was right. After I made fun of his predictions all yesterday.
My apologies, Matt.
But it's snowing, and it's all beautiful and magical and Christmas-y. Eeeeee...
I love snow. Especially during December.
Does anyone else feel like Christmas is coming rather fast? Alvin and the Chipmunks don't seem to think so, but since that annoying animated film, they can't exactly be trusted.
Just seems weird.
Hopefully school isn't cancelled tomorrow.
It was GREAT that it was cancelled today, no lie, but I was really looking forward to seeing my friends tomorrow.
Yeah, we're going to hang out over break, but tomorrow is technically the last day I'll see them.
:(
Sugar cookies!
And the best cup of hot chocolate EVER.

Your Christmas is Classic

Your wish for the New Year is more happiness. For you, Christmas is a spiritual holiday. You can't separate it from your beliefs. You are patient when it comes to Christmas. You don't celebrate too early, and you don't like seeing holiday decorations in October. You like to have an authentic, traditional Christmas. Doing it the old fashioned way is important to you. You have some preferred ways of celebrating Christmas, but you're open to compromise. You are too busy to really get into Christmas, but you try to do a little to celebrate. You give a big during the holidays but nowhere near as much as you'd like to.

What Does Your Christmas Say About You?

This article is pure genius and basically summarizes the entire Twilight series.

Christmas time is here!!

You Are Milk

Your holiday personality is innocent. The holidays make you feel like a kid all over again. You love every part of the holidays, and you anticipate Christmas morning. You enjoy getting presents as much as you did when you were young!

What Holiday Drink Are You?

You Can Say "Merry Christmas" in 13 Languages

You can say "Merry Christmas" in: English Spanish Japanese French Arabic German Italian Swedish Portuguese Greek Hawaiian Korean Esperanto

How Many Languages Can You Say "Merry Christmas" In?

I want to wash my hair in snow

Shampoo works better, but that's okay.
I woke up this morning to a beautiful snowy neighborhood. The view out my window looked like a Thomas Kinkaid painting.
Did anyone else have a psycho 4th grade teacher who LOVED Thomas Kinkaid and forced her students to copy his paintings?
Wasn't it so lame that if you didn't make your painting look EXACTLY like his, you got a low grade?
Sorry SOME of us aren't as artistically talented as others.
And this man has been painting forever. It's not like a couple 4th graders are going to do a perfect job of copying his paintings.
"I've only seen paintings of this painting!"
So yeah, I'm not bitter or anything.
But anyway, as sinful as it sounds, I really DID NOT want to go to church today, and was convinced that the snow meant there would BE no church.
But no. There was church. The snow was just a ruse.
Sigh.
Then we were at a family Christmas party up on Fox Island and it started snowing really heavily and William and I were so PUMPED. NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!! WOOOO!!!
And then we got home and found all of OUR snow melted and gone.
The Suicide Hotline didn't answer my frantic phone call. How depressing.
Tie loved the snow, unlike Oggy, who detested it. She was frolicking around in the backyard, licking up mouthfuls and writing her name in colorful excrement.
I'm writing my English essay on the focus on male relationships in both "Night" and "Swing Kids". I hope Mr. Rosendale doesn't think I'm referring to homoerotic overtones scholars are so convinced they've found in other examples of literature, such as "Romeo and Juliet" (also titled "Romeo and Mercutio").
At least no one else will have done this topic.
But I might be surprised.
The family Christmas party wasn't so bad. Everyone spent a lot of time gazing adorably at baby Riley and there was a lot of good food.
I always feel out of place in our family, though. I'm thinking it's because of the dark hair. Almost everyone in my extended family (on my mom's side, anyway) has blonde hair and blue eyes, except for a few people only related by marriage. But they're all so perfect-Aryan and Scandinavian that I feel like hiding with my dark-haired father and siblings in a corner.
I feel like I've tainted the gene pool.
Actually, it's my dad who's tainted the gene pool.
And my relatives aren't pyscho Nazis, but I feel OUT OF PLACE. People can't tell I'm related to my mom, or my grandparents, or my cousins.
THEY'RE TRYING TO SET ME UP WITH MY SECOND COUSIN! At least I think he's my second cousin. Something like that.
I really hope they don't believe in arranged marriage.
Aaagh.
But if I did marry him, we probably shouldn't have kids.
They'll taint the gene pool.

The 12 Days Till Christmas

I was just thinking about it. A full set of Barbie movies would, sadly, be the best Christmas present ever.
"The Princess and the Pauper" brings back so many memories.
Tie's wearing her sweater. It's pretty cute.
Just not her color.
My grandparents took us to see the church's Christmas play last night, and it was really good. The scene about childhood toys was really sad, though. Who knew Brian could sing? And "Glitter" was cute. "THERE'S CHRISTMAS IN THE BATHROOM!"

Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you in the next few months. You don't really like to work, unless work feels like play. You only are successful when you are doing what you love. You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing. Your biggest worry in your life is your financial security. You think about money a lot. When it comes time to relax, you have no problem letting go. You are already pretty relaxed as is!

The Snow Test

WOOHOO we beat Australia!! Take that, Aussies!
Kris spent 10 minutes talking to them with a fake Australian accent.
And they thought it was real.
Ugh, stupid weathermen. They've been predicting snow for days, but it's been getting warmer, not colder.
And now it's actually snowing, but they're only BABY flakes. Tiny, miniscule little flakes that wouldn't pose a threat to an ANT.
So much for that.
Pullman has more than a FOOT. So jealous.

18 days till Christmas!

Nat King Cole is playing, it's freezing outside, and people are consuming candy canes like heroin.
So pumped.
Emma hates it, which is understandable, but still.
She actually likes Washington weather, something I readily complain about.
Not like you all didn't know that.
PRINCESS DIARIES IS COMING OUT IN A MONTH!!!
Please stop talking bad about J.P., avid Michael-fans. You're making some very good points and I don't want to end up on your side.
Really, J.P. is a nice guy, and he's great for Mia.
Stop trying to make him the bad guy, Meg Cabot!!
And Michael, it seems, has matured a bit. Or a lot.
He's not pressuring Mia anymore.
And he was TOTALLY pressuring her, Michael-fans; don't you insist he wasn't. Even if he was partially "joking", he essentially told me that if she wouldn't put out, he wasn't going to stay with her FOREVER.
What a terrible thing to say.
PlEEEEASE let him stay with his Japanese girlfriend.
Please let Mia break up with J.P. if she has to.
Maybe she'll end up single. That wouldn't be too bad.
SHE WILL NOT END UP WITH BORIS!! I don't know what everyone's talking about.
So now, only a month until we find out.

The 10 worst Christmas songs of all time

My family helped me compose this list. You have to admit, these songs are annoying.

10. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
I'm not even sure that's correct grammar. And it's not cute. It's obnoxious.

9. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Not only is hard to sing, but the piercing high notes hurt my ear drums.

8. This Christmas
Every year, my dad pulls out this ancient "Jazzy Wonderland" CD with this song on it. Sort of makes me want to barf.

7. Christmas in the Northwest
There's no such thing as Christmas in the Northwest, sweetie.

6. My Grown-Up Christmas List
This song has been redone a billion times, too, to "My Grown-Up Christmas Prayer" and "My Prayer For All the World".
World peace? That's a pretty tall order for the man in Red.

5. Christmas Time Is Here
It was bad enough when the Peanuts did it in their annoying falsetto voices. And then Leigh Nash had to ruin it with her terrible wannabe-country voice. And it's creepy.

4. The Christmas Shoes
The little boy wants to buy some shoes for his momma! She's sick and he wants her to look pretty when she meets Jesus in heaven.
It sounds like one of those forwarded stories on the internet. Why oh why would I want to sing this in church?

3. What Child is This?
It's was originally called "Greensleeves" and had nothing to do with the baby Jesus until someone changed the lyrics.

2. Mary, Did You Know?
OF COURSE SHE KNEW!! What a stupid question. Not even Clay Aiken can save this one.

And now, the worst Christmas song of all time....
.....
.....
.....
.....
1. The Little Drummer Boy
It's not touching, it's annoying. Make it stop. Parump-pa-pa-pum.

Top 10 Best Christmas Songs: A matter of opinion

These just happen to be my favorites.

1. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

2. Jingle Bells

3. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

4. I'll Be Home for Christmas

5. Sleigh Ride

6. Jingle Bell Rock

7. Baby It's Cold Outside

8. Santa Baby

9. White Christmas

10. Last Christmas

And of course there are so many more that could've (and should've) been added, but I can't think of any of them.

You don't understand...I'm Jewish!

"Magic Attic Club" is the best series ever!!
I remember reading it when I was 5 and 6.
And we had this catologue with all the dolls in them, and they were SO SWEET!!
I never got one, but I spent hours looking at that catologue.
My mom finally threw it away in 3rd grade.
But Heather doesn't want to attend the Christmas party...because she's Jewish?
"I don't know any Christmas songs."
And her friends don't care, and she's all, "I'm sorry, it's just so HARD being different."
And, of course, Keisha, the black girl, celebrates Kwanzaa, so Heather feels much better.
Who ACTUALLY celebrates Kwanzaa, though?
Megan used to be my favorite, but they never described her as having "red hair". It was always either "strawberry blonde" or "reddish-blonde".
Alison was the bomb. But she only ever did sporty things. She never got to be a princess.
I forgot when Rose came in. I knew that they didn't like her at first. But then they got trapped in the mirror or something, which sort of sucks.
And they always wore their favorite colors. Like Heather always wore pink, and Alison always wore blue, etc.
I think Rose wore green. Because she was Hawaiian or something.
Wtf? WHO IS JANE??
There are 38 books.
1 down, 37 to go.

It's not "Shining Star", but it's a start.

Happy Christmas, Harry! Happy Christmas, Ron!
Speaking of Harry Potter, I watched the 5th movie recently and it sucked, but I really liked Luna Lovegood and Ron was a hottie.
Still working on my 2007 playlist. There's this one Barlowgirl song I need to add. Also, I'm definitely replacing the Tobymac opening track with a Hannah Montana one. Unfortunately, I did not receive a Hannah CD for Christmas. Darn.
I DID get High School Musical 2: Extended Edition, though. Yeaaaah. We watched it last night and it's pretty much the best movie I've ever seen. That one part with Sharpay STILL makes me cry. Sooo sad. I hate Vanessa Hudgens.
Soooo I'm LOVING my bass. It's all black and beautiful and shiny and there's a small dent in it, but it works GREAT. My amp is bigger than William's, though. He's better at guitar than I am at bass, though. :P I managed to somewhat master sixteenth notes. Its been fun. Maybe by next year I can play in pep band!!
Uh oh, scandalous pajamas!! Comfy, though. I already ate all my Christmas candy.
SWEET, thanks to my dad's diligent help with my quarter collecting over the years and the $10 my grandma gave me for Christmas, I might just go out and BUY that Hannah Montana CD.
So Christmas was good and William is having a semi-fabulous birthday. Actually, Chuck E. Cheese was kind of lame because his friend was being stupid.
But he always has Mario.
Heh, yesterday we were being dumb and singing along to Metallica with our best James Hetfield impressions. Ironically, today is Lars Ulrich's birthday. Hm.

Santa is depressed...and he's a pig?

Yeah, I just went to my church's Christmas Eve service, which was pretty cool, because the whole theme was Jesus' birthday, so there were balloons everywhere and pictures of cake on the bulletins and we gave him "gifts" and sang songs. The only bad part was the puppet show. I will forever have nightmares of not-funny puppets with stage fright.
Yeah, I've sort of been online a lot today. It's all good. After all, it's Christmas Eve.
Kind of feel bad that I just had a sermon on not focusing on gifts and on God, but now I'm bugging my mom to let me open presents. I don't even know if we'll do it because William has the flu and wanted to sleep in my mom's room, so she didn't get to wrap them. Like I want wrapped presents. Okay, yeah, I do want wrapped presents.
Aaargh, I just read "Falcondance", sequel to "Snakecharm", and it, too, was a letdown. I thought it started off good, though, and had me pretty hooked, but then it fizzled and got really confusing. Nicias is a cool kid.
Hopefully "Wolfcry" will be better, as it has Oliza, Zane and Danica's kid, as the narrator, but the last book is sure to suck.
Foom foom foom. Mmm, rodeo cheeseburgers.
Merry Christmas. No happy holidays for you.

"This is one of my fantasies...only it's not cherry pie...and you're not in it."

I don't try to think about his exact meaning.
Yay I love the Sims, don't you?
So my family is all, "Since you didn't get to open your presents until the day after Christmas last year, why don't we open them on Christmas Eve?" All right, that's cool. Only I'm only getting one present this year. Man. How depressing. AND I know what it is. At least it's cool. My grandpa told me to bring my bass to his house once I get it and play for him. Yeah right, like I can play.
Aaargh, I was going to play trombone for the worship team, but then my dad brought home the music and it was SOOOO freaking hard. I mean, it was the hardest piece of music I've ever played, and I haven't been playing very challenging trombone music as of late. But this was like, *high* D D G F# E D C natural, really fast, and then go to a high A, like a Chicago horn line. Aaargh. So I was really mad that I couldn't play it and my dad thought I was mad at him and was all, "Awww, don't feel bad, it's all right." Argh, felt like a failure. I'm mostly worried about how it'll sound when my dad goes to the worship team people and is all, "Oh yeah, it was way too hard for my daughter, can she play some other time?" Cuz they probably won't let me. It figures we had to choose a church with a really good worship team.
Do do do do do do.
Hannah Montana.
Yay, annual Christmas party last night. Okay, this is two years in a row that we haven't had Nancy's delicious coconut bonbon-y things. Those are my favorite and she STOPPED MAKING THEM. >:P Haate. The littlest cousins were pretty cute, though. Cooper wreaked havoc on Christine's magazines, Brooke and Lachlan took on the other twins (and won), and Gage and Taylor ran around screaming and trying to get upstairs to look at presents.
OMG, Braeden got the HSM 2: Extended Edition and we were watching it!!! I only got to watch half, though, then I had to go. Ew, there was this weird scene that had not been in the movie (read: extended edition) where Sharpay and Ryan perform "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" for Troy and Sharpay names Troy the fish prince and Ryan throws a temper tantrum. It was SOOOOOOOOO disturbing.

Hilary Swank makes me want to barf.

I thought "P.S. I Love You" looked cheesy but sort of interesting, but apparently it really sucks. Lol, A&E had a really funny movie review, though. "Tonight, we all dine in hell."
Soooo Winter Break has been fun so far. It's weird, though, because it doesn't really feel like Christmas. Maybe because last year was so weird...I don't know. But I went "Christmas shopping" with my mom and William (really, we just looked around and hinted about what we wanted) and seeing all the Santas in swimsuits and hideous reindeer sort of reminded me...oh, Christmas is in 4 days. Actually, Christmas Eve is in 3 days, and we've decided to open our presents then, soooo.... Dang, I know like everything that I'm getting, though. I think I should be more excited about getting a bass. I don't know. I'm scared that I'll suck at it, cuz all the bass players I know are really good and I'm not stellar at string instruments. I keep hearing that bass is different, but still.
I love blueberry muffins!
Yay for the Sims! So far my Avalon families are doing nicely and I'm trying to get Adriane and Zach to have 6 kids, hopefully twins, but I don't have "Open for Business", so some of the twin cheats are unavailable. Oh well. I just have a weird obsession with fulfilling all Sims' life goals. Kara's kids look black, but they have green skin. Marcus is so adorable, though. (It's sad, I had to name her second son after a guy she had a crush on in the series???) Yeah, I'm a nerd.
Ummmm...working on 2007 playlist. But not really. I was thinking "Start of Something New" as the first song, because my 14th birthday seemed so promising, but I don't know now. Maybe something birthday related??
Do do do do do do.
I have to go do some Honors Society stuff. Yay, watch little kids whilst eating candy and watching movies!!! Wonder what we're watching.
I love Anchorblue.

Texan collies galore!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH let me just say that I have pretty much the best white elephant gift ever. Okay, not the best, not by a long shot. It is, however, a lot better than the ones I thought up at the last minute from years past. This one required effort...but it was free, heh.
I love this hat. My grandma got it for me, and I kind of haven't worn it since then, but I'm wearing it now and it's really comfortable and not ugly.
What, I'm good at science now??
Brendan practically broke my hand.
Too much light! Too much light!!
Yeah. So I'm good at science now??
AND MATH??? It's kind of confusing/challenging, but at least I'm understanding it and learning. Quiz tomorrow.
:P I reread "The Road to Balinor" and I never liked that book to begin with, but I didn't think it could get any worse. Arianna = way annoying. And Chase is super narcissistic. The only characters I like are the "mean" ones, or the "rude" ones: Lori, Tobiano (lol, super obvious name), and Lincoln.
Sims 2 is pretty cool still. Now I'm down to 2 hours. Progress.... The Antoinettes have another baby, and the dad is the only one in prime physical condition. He's pretty ripped.
I'm actually supposed to be doing something else right now. But that's always the best time to go online.
I have to admit, Laurie Halse Anderson is a good writer. Well, duh, seeing as she won like a million awards for "Speak", but I never liked her books before, but now I kind of enjoy them. "Catalyst" is my favorite so far; "Prom" sucked.
I think "climax" is my least favorite word now. I've heard it used sexually too many times now. Oh well. This year is finally coming to a climax (thank you God), as are other events. As much as I love the Christmas, I'd rather it was over and done with.