In His Steps

It's Christmas!! Before Christmas morning. After! Before Christmas morning. After!! My love eagerly awaiting the morning. Spousal Unit doling out the presents. Douglas joining us opening his stocking. Spousal Unit's stocking! My stocking! Douglas' stocking! My sister also had a stocking, but I don't have a picture of the contents--she didn't join us until much later in the day due to work. So many presents! Piles of games! The following shots are what it looks like outside right now. Beautiful, pure white snow had fallen in the night. It was so perfect.

Spousal Unit does this thing where he likes to sneak into our room on Saturday mornings with flowers from the gardens around our duplex. It's adorable and super sweet. I just wanted to commemorate the beautiful flower he brought me. I love that man.

Hello! I've been swamped this last month, working multiple jobs at my workplace, interviewing for new positions, school, and then having begun knitting my first sock. The knitter's Right of Passage. Anyone can make a scarf. Socks, on the other hand... I recently interviewed for a renewal of my temple recommend and felt happy to be able to be worthy of it. These last few months have been plagued with temptations and doubts and I caved a few times to these bad thought processes. I am beginning to discover the problems in my own head that may plague me my entire life. I wish I could be more open, but that's all I'm willing to say about this situation. I think getting through it will make me stronger, and my Lord is with me, so why should I fear? I am singing in my ward talent show next week, doing an old favorite of mine. See the video. :D Also, I have another blog devoted solely to my crafting: Back to the Crafting Table . It occurred to me that all my crafting was ...

I know, I didn't post what really happened yet, so here it all is. I described the first half of my Christmas trip in my Christmas Eve post . The next day, my sister went to work, and my mother and brother and I went Christmas shopping. I had finished my gifts for everyone, so I thought I would just be along for the ride. Boy, was I mistaken. We started at Kohl's (amazing deals and pretty outfits) and suddenly I was trying on blouses and dresses and skirts and wow...My mother and I giggled about the gifts we were getting for my sister and our friends, and in general had a lovely time. So yes, I did know what I was getting from her, but this way we knew it fit and I liked it. Our Christmas tree this year had an angel theme. It was beautiful, but resisted attempts at pictures, so I waited for the faeries to play with the lights and then snapped this. My brother and sister behind him. So handsome and pretty. I'm so lucky to have them in my life. Christmas morning we all ...

I wasn't sure what to write until I read an article today entitled " I'm Christian, unless you're gay. " It got me thinking back on my life, and reflecting. Most of the time, I don't recall being outwardly hostile or hateful to those different than me. Cautious and uncomfortable, yes. Now, I could be wrong. When I look back on my life, particularly in the first twenty two years, I wonder how anyone was able to stomach my presence at all, much less still be friends with me today. I was whiny, selfish, and exploding my emotional fallout on everyone around me. Emotional fallout that I don't know that I deserved to have, much less inflict on others, frankly. But mostly, I was reminded of a dear friend of mine. He was one of my first guy friends, and my only one in high school for most of the time. I developed a code for us to write notes in (loosely based on Elder Futhark runes) and one day he handed me a two word note. The hilarious part is I misread it thr...