Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

It's here! It's here! And if you're anything like my family, you probably feel like you just took down Christmas lights and finally got rid of those cinnamon spice candles. Nevertheless, pull those boxes out of the attic, dust off the Christmas CDs and get on board because it'll be over before you know it. That bitter cold that I love so much is back, too, which, aside from the harsh, biting wind is very well received on my end. I don't know about you but there's nothing that brings love to the air quite like the coziness of having to bundle up on this holiday! And of course, listening to 104.1 as they bring me the best of the Christmas Hits. For those of you who I haven't told (which is few), my very favorite Christmas song is, as I titled this blog post, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. How can you not be festive after falling asleep to that?

Before I get ahead of myself: Thanksgiving. Ours was lovely. We went to Wellston and I must say, without fear of family reading this as they don't read my blog, the food was sort of a letdown this year. Maybe it's just that I talked it up to this unattainable climax or maybe it was just like any other year, but I wasn't even tempted to overeat. I guess I should consider this a blessing? About halfway through my mashed potatoes, my baby 10-year-old cousin said, "Oh, by the way, Grandma used the liver, gallbladder and heart of the turkey to make your gravy." (Courtney gags.) All of you moms are out there laughing because "everyone knows you recycle the organs." Ha-Ha-Ha. I might be a vegetarian now. Not to say that it was awful and don't judge me too harshly -- it's just that all of the sudden I noticed that there was unidentifiable floating matter all over the one side dish that I had dared to put on my plate! 

Other than that, the company was nice. We don't do a very good job of getting together regularly so it's usually birthdays, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I guess you could say that it gives us more to talk about when we get together. I was assigned the "kid's table" because as you probably already know, you don't graduate from the kid's table until you've had 2 kids -- it's not enough to just be married! All jokes aside, I hung out with my cousins, Steph and Ash, and Chloe. We never let one family meeting go by without playing Croquet together so it wasn't long before we pulled out the mallets:

 

Aren't we cute?

I hope you spent your Thanksgiving loving on your family and eating tons of delicious turkey and mildly appealing gravy!

As for the rest of my oh-so-short Thanksgiving break, I spent it doing:

1) LOTS of this:

2) Piling into the front of the pick-up to find a tree:

3) This:

4) Working (No picture needed/wanted)

5) And lastly, getting into the spirit of the season with our festive skirts:

Whatever It Is

Ohhh boy. It's back. What's "it," you may ask? Dried out hands; dark bags under my eyes; the permanent smell of foccacia and mop water; and the ever-attractive hat hair. That's right, I have, yet again, sold my soul to Panera Bread. Before you judge me harshly because of the awful mood I was always in last year, you should know that my time away has at least helped me to maintain a better attitude when I work. This morning was my first shift back and fortunately, all the soup worshipers took the day off and decided to go everywhere else -- I.AM.RUSTY. I kept getting things mixed up and wrong and people laughed. A lot of embarrassment. I felt new all over again. Plus, they were telling embarrassing stories -- "Hey Courtney, haha, remember that time, haha, that you slipped and fell on your butt in the back of the house, haha?? So funny, haha." "You must be talking about someone else...." "No, haha, that was totally you." 

Represent. But I also didn't realize how many Panera kids I considered friends. I was beaming all day because I got to see all of them. I suppose I kind of missed them, maybe?

This weekend is drowning me. I have a lot of homework which, of course, is why I'm blogging. But really, I've told the same person I can't see them about 4 times in the last two weeks. I think she's giving up on me! I just told myself last May that I was going to do better this semester -- that I was going to get a 4.0 at all costs. I'm almost there -- only a few more weeks! I guess I just don't know what went wrong. I was in high school, loving it, always busy, surrounded by friends and distractions, and still never had below an "A." I know what you're thinking: "Courtney. You went to Choctaw High School. How hard is it to get an A?" Well, still, it's not like I never challenged myself. I took ... reasonably difficult subjects... Okay, so they were pretty easy. But I'd like to think that the real reason I've performed on a mediocre level in college is because I really don't loooove what I'm learning. What would YOU do if you could do it all over again? 

Other than all the busyness, I'm happy, or at least, the absence of sad. How do you define happiness, anyway? We talked about that the other day in class and I just thought it was funny. I mean, when someone just asks you blankly, "Are you happy?," isn't your answer always, "Well, I mean, I'm not NOT happy..."? I think a general sense of happiness -- that is -- happiness in its most consistent form is lost when someone loses their innocence -- when the world gives them a good spanking. I was fortunate that this period came pretty late for me -- when I was 18 and I realized that I had to be grown-up and that only I could answer for my choices and friends and future. I think in America, at least, these realizations force us to a crossroads where we get so serious and lose our uniqueness and spontaneity. I'm not trying to sound morbid or depressing -- I love laughing and playing and being alive. I just think too many people confuse optimism for happiness. They say, "Happiness is a choice." I would argue, optimism's a choice. Happiness is sometimes, I stress, sometimes in the cards you're dealt. It has nothing to do with money or success or love. It has to do with finding what your soul desires and making sure you get it. That could be service, missions, leadership, commerce, philanthropy, you name it! But whatever it is, every person was built to add their facet to a larger whole. And when they find that ticket, they are fulfilled, and consequently, happy. Their soul wants for nothing more.

Am I happy? I'm definitely optimistic! I have no doubt that I will find whatever "it" is. I've found pieces of it. But I'm waiting, wherever you are!

Look at the gorgeous picture of the Sorrento Ruins I found! Must go there! Italia: 63 Days!

"Plenty of people never miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."

99 Bottles of Beer On the Wall

ROAD TRIP!!! Well, kinda. Aubrey and I headed down to Thackerville last night for the Celtic Thunder (CT) concert, which was precious. It's really embarrassing when the only people who share an interest in the things you enjoy are all over the age of 60. It's fine. No shame, right? The first act was pretty traditional; but our jaws were dropping when it only lasted 45 minutes. We got kind of worried, thinking that we were being ripped off and only getting an hour and a half WITH an intermission.

No, no, no. The party really got started in the second half. CT usually sings some American songs in their concerts when they tour the U.S. and ended up choosing some pretty, uh, "regional" songs. After they finished "Friends in Low Places," we were starting to wonder about the reputation of our fair state! And these kids are from Ireland. How in the WORLD do they know about Friends in Low Places???

The rest of the evening was lovely. They sang some funny "pub" songs and some of the music from previous CDs. My favorite of the entire evening is when they completely surprised me by singing "Galway Girl," which if you didn't know, is one of my FAVORITE songs (if not my most favorite) ever created. Honestly. In case you've never heard that song, which would be criminal by the way, click on the button and you can hear Steve Earle, the original artist, singing it.


So after the concert, we huddled over by the curtains in hopes that the oh-so-popular CT would make a fan appearance to the 50 people that had stayed to wait for them to come out. They didn't. It didn't matter how many times I winked at the fat bouncer, he wasn't budging. I asked him if there was a back door, wink wink. He laughed and said, "Ma'am, there isn't any back door." Lies. So what did Aubrey and I do? We circled the casino for about 20 minutes looking for the charter bus or even the semis full of stage equipment. When we finally found them hidden behind a security hut, we disgustedly headed to our hotel. I think it's safe to say that I'll be writing a strongly-worded fan letter to Keith Harkin, professing my love and disappoint at not getting to meet him. I might slip in that I plan to visit Ireland over Spring Break -- "maybe I'll see you there??"