l.i.f.e.

nothing poetic...just a thought.

--i wanna live out this life in the nitty gritty. real, live, life. full of blood and sweat and dirt and clean, fresh air, and mud and grass. cause i want to break out of this old skin and fly with the seagulls in parking lots. i wanna float up in an air balloon and gaze upon the pure, solid earth and know that im alive. i wanna scratch up my knees falling off bicycles and playing in the sand. i wanna roll around in the dirty, messy, earthy mud and leaves and breath you in. breath it all in.

A Charlie Brown Christmas...Tree

Soooo, I know Christmas is over BUT, I figured, since this is supposed to be our resource file, I would document and share with you a story I heard the other day.

I was listening to the Delilah show on 97.1 the other day (gotta love Delilah, eh? ;) and this lady called in and shared a story. She said that one year, when she was a little girl, her father walked in the door on Christmas Eve with their Christmas tree, and (to their remorse) it was a really weak, wimpy looking tree....a.k.a a Charlie Brown tree. They gently expressed their slight disappointment and her father was very ashamed...SO! He walked right out of the house, into the garage and started clamoring around. They heard saws and drills and screw drivers and all sorts of racket and were all VERY curious as to what he was doing.

A couple hours later, her father appeared in the living room with a full, big, healthy, LOVELY looking tree and they were all very confused as to WHAT he had done....it appeared to be MAGIC.

When they asked for an explanation, he told them that he had sawed off ALL the branches and drilled holes in the trunk, and rearranged all the branches so that they were more closely bunched together, making the tree look beautiful and full. They found this EXTREMELY hilarious, as did Delilah and myself. ;)

THEN, Delilah commented how her father had OFTEN brought home Charlie Brown trees several Christmases and described his method of remedying the appearance of the tree(s). She said that HE drilled holes in between the branches, sawed of branches from NEARBY TREES and stuck them in the trunk of the one he bought. haha.

Sounds funny, right? Its amazing to what extremes some people will go. :P

Anyways, I thought this story was funny and wanted to share it with ya'll. I figured...I can probably reference this story in a speech sometime, right? Go figure.

-Michele

So this is Christmas....

It doesn't feel quite the same this year. I guess maybe its the weather? I'm not really sure, but it still doesn't feel like that time of the year yet.

Now, if you know me, you know I get SO psyched about Christmas! I go absolutely nuts, just to see all the Christmas decorations in the mall. I LOVE December, its my favorite month!!! Not only Christmas, but New Years' too. I love seeing family and opening gifts.

Anyways, as I said, I'm just not feeling it....yet.

Maybe if I shop a little bit more and drink even MORE hot chocolate (although I already have about 3 cups a day) and listen to EVEN MORE Christmas music, I'll get in the Christmas Spirit.... <-- which is what I will be speaking about in my Christmas speech next Thursday.

I hope you're feeling a little more Christmasy than I am right now

Oh, by the by, I WISH WITH ALL MY HEART THAT IT WOULD SNOW!.....pray for snow with me and maybe it'll come!!!