Joyeux Noel! :)

"In our world, too, a stable once held something that was bigger than our whole world."

-from The Last Battle by C.S Lewis

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS! :)

Making Christmas, Part Two

Now for the Nativity scene! We made the figurines and stable about 10 or 11 years ago, and I love setting it all up every year.

And can you find Ratty?

There he is!

My mom had the awesome idea of putting this big mirror (which we found on the curb) on top of a dresser (which we found in the basement) in the corner of the living room. I think it looks quite nice!

Making Christmas...

...making Christmas, making Christmas!

That, in case you don't know, is a line from one of the most insanely hilarious songs from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, and that is what we have been up to lately! Behold some photographic evidence of our work!

Ratty trying to be helper kitty (and epicly failing, poor thing)

My beautiful green bird!

Some ornaments my mom made...I like to call them the Five Freaky Friends




One of my very favorite ornaments!





Another favorite...I've had it since I was 5 years old. We used to have a nightlight with that picture, too, but sadly it broke a few years ago. :(





My very first ornament, made by my dad 17 Christmases ago.





The mice looking at Cinderella's coach



And there's the entire tree!

You know, Blogger seriously needs to re-do their photo uploading tool, because all of the pictures end up at the top of the page and it's extremely time-consuming to move them where I want them. Not to mention that now I can't cut and paste in my blogger posts...anyone know how to fix that?

So stay tuned for Part Two!

Snow

We finally have some snow! It snowed a lot just before Thanksgiving weekend, and Thanksgiving day and the friday after were both bright, beautiful, blue and white days. Being able to look out the window at work and see sunlight and snow and rolling hills and black branches etched against the blue, blue sky made working for 9 hours on Thanksgiving much more bearable! That, and the fact that I earned twice as much in tips as usual, not to mention I worked about 2 hours longer than I normally do - the specter of Christendom College always dances before my eyes, encouraging me!

For the first time ever, my mom, sister, and I went shopping on Black Friday. I actually had a lot of fun! Just two words of advice: 1. Don't go in a big city, if you can help it (in our town of 30,000, pretty much everyone we saw just looked like they were having fun...none of the crazed shoppers one always hears about...but I hear that in large cities in can be a bit different), and 2. 6: 30 am is just about the perfect time to go! It's early enough that you can have all the fun of getting up while it's still dark out (well, I find that fun, at least! ;)), it's well after the first mad rush, but it's not so late that people have started getting cranky. It was so weird to arrive at the mall at 6:30 am and find it as full as a busy Saturday afternoon! And everyone looked wide awake...that was the funny part! We didn't get anything terribly exciting, but the sales were excellent. When you're a poor student trying to save money for college, saving a few extra dollars is always a priority!

POTO (Phantom of the Opera) rehearsals started this week...my sister and I have been at one of the local high schools every evening from 4:00 to 5:00. It's not been terribly interesting so far, as we've only worked on blocking (which for me means lots of standing around!), but I can already tell it's going to be amazing. I'm really looking forward to starting to work on choreography next week! Oooh, and we also got scripts which we'll get to keep! I just highlighted and sticky-noted mine last night, and it already has copious notes...fun fun...official official! The scenes I'll be in in Act 1 are:
Scene 1: Rehearsal of Hannibal;
Scenes 2 and 3: After the Gala, Angel of Music, Through the Mirror (the ballet girls are in the background stretching, practicing, etc. the entire time);
Scene 5a: The Magic Lasso; and
Scene 7: Il Muto (one of the operas).
In Act 2, I'll be in Scene 1: Masquerade;
possibly Scenes 6 and 7: Don Juan (another of the operas);
and Scene 8: Track Down This Murderer (although I'll just be singing off-stage in that one).
I'm very happy with my part! It's fun because I'm actually a member of the opera company, and there will be tons of stage time!

Well, I really need to go study, write, and stop procrastinating! But before I go, I'll leave you with this beautiful song: Snow, by Loreena McKennitt. Nothing says "winter" to me more than this song.

The words are equally lovely and come from this poem, which is definitely one of my favorite pieces of poetry:

Snow

by Archibald Lampman

White are the far-off plains, and white

The fading forests grow;

The wind dies out along the height,

And denser still the snow,

A gathering weight on roof and tree

Falls down scarce audibly.

The road before me smooths and fills

Apace, and all about

The fences dwindle, and all the hills

Are blotted slowly out;

The naked trees loom spectrally

Into the dim white sky.

The meadows and far-sheeted streams

Lie still without a sound;

Like some soft minister of dreams

The snow fall hoods me round;

In wood and water, earth and air,

A silence everywhere.

Save when at lonely intervals

A farmer's sleigh, urged on,

With rustling runners and sharp bells

Swings by me and is gone;

Or from the empty waste I hear

A sound remote and clear;

The barking of a dog, or call

To cattle, sharply pealed,

Borne echoing from some wayside stall

Or barnyard far afield;

Then all is silent, and the snow

Falls, settling soft and slow.

The evening deepens, and the gray

Folds closer earth and sky;

The world seems shrouded far away,

Its noises sleep, and I,

As secret as yon buried stream

Plod dumbly on, and dream.

...til you drown in the light, in the sound.

I can't believe I haven't shared my exciting news yet! I got into Phantom of the Opera!!! I'm in the ballet corps and the ensemble, which means a lot of stage time. :) I'm extremely excited! The performance is going to be absolutely incredible...it always is with this group!

We've had two rehearsals so far - the first a general read-through and the second a vocal rehearsal of "Masquerade". I'm soooo excited about being in "Masquerade"! In case you've never seen or heard it, here is the movie version! That way you can see the amazing, incredible dancing, but I actually like the way the stage version sounds better. This is a dream come true...I've seen the movie so many times, and every time I would see "Masquerade" and think, "I would LOVE to be in that!" And here I am!

Our performances are the second week of February - we have 9 altogether! I've never been in a show that ran that long. Eeeep, I am sooo excited. :)

The ACT test date is fast approaching. I'd really appreciate prayers that I can stay on track with studying for it...I'm having difficulties with that. Thanks SO much! I've also been wading through website after website of scholarships... *starts to go crazy*

And Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Unfortunately I have to work, but hey, I need the money, and that way I'll have some extra money I can buy a few Christmas gifts without feeling guilty that I'm taking from my college fund. ;)

Oooh, one more thing...anyone else getting excited about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? I know I am! The plan is to get a group of friends together and go see it the afternoon of the 11th (after my ACT!), and then go tubing!

A painful post.

Perhaps some of you know this already, but I am incredibly klutzy. This comes as a surprise to some people who assume that since I dance I am naturally graceful at all times, but that, I am afraid, is not always the case! And it seems to be getting worse and worse as time goes on...

Case in point:

At swim class on Tuesday, I backstroked right into the wall and bashed my head against it, almost knocking myself out. At work on Friday, I ran into no less than three people while walking from one end of the resturant to the kitchen. And...drum roll please!...at dance on Saturday I was trying to do a jump I'd never attempted before. The first time I fell and caught myself painfully on my hand. I tried again and this time literally landed flat on my face, hitting my chin extremely hard.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to try that again!" I exclaimed, staggering to my feet a bit unsteadily.

"You're bleeding!" said my teacher.

"Really?" Sure enough, blood was dripping from my chin. "Wow...that's weird." She gave me an ice pack wrapped in a napkin and had me sit out for the rest of class. After class the other teacher looked at my chin and said that I should call my parents because it looked like it needed stitches.

Stitches? But all I'd done was fall on my face! Trust me to find a way to end up with stitches after that...

So my dad came and took me to the walk-in. The doctor told me I was going to need stitches or else end up with a possibility of infection and a gouged scar on my chin...that made me feel like a deflated balloon. Needles are my number one fear and stitches require a lot of them in all varieties! But I decided that it would be worth it to avoid the risk of infection, a bigger scar, and feeling like a wimp, and I went under the needle.

It wasn't sooo bad...I just concentrated on breathing very slowly and deeply (which also meant rather loudly, and I think was freaking out the doctor because he kept asking me if I was all right), and I only felt the first two shots. Dad said they gave me 5 or 6 - I'm so glad I didn't know that was how many I was getting beforehand! When I had lost all feeling in my chin he started sewing me up. It felt SO weird! I could feel the edges of my skin being pulled together...sorry, that's rather disgusting. He put in two little stitches and it seemed to take far too long, but at long last he was finished, and I sat up with many admonishments from the nurse to be careful because I'd be dizzy.

So yes, now I have a pretty wicked looking gash about an inch long with two black stitches on the underside of my chin. :P The stitches come out on Friday (yay! They itch terribly!), and I will have a scar - woohoo! I'm actually happy about that...I like scars. I had no idea you could actually get a gash from falling on a flat surface...ohhh, that's nasty when you think about it! Time to change the subject!

Let's see...I know! I'm getting all my oral surgery done in January - yay! Well, I'm actually totally dreading it, but it will be nice to get it over with, and it also means only a few months of braces after that! I'll be so very happy to have them gone. :D But before that happens I have to all four of my wisdom surgically removed, my one remaining baby tooth pulled, and the tooth that is coming in in the completely wrong place (namely, the roof of my mouth) dug out and have a bracket attached to it. *cringes* Not fun!!!

Wow, that wasn't much of a subject change, now was it? And I'm afraid the next thing I have to say is rather painful as well...

I'm taking the ACT on December 11! *tries not to nervously hyperventilate* I'm completely confident about the English and Reading sections (they actually look really easy), but the Science and Math sections...ohhhh dear. I haven't even learned a lot of it, so I'm planning to do a TON of studying between now and December! Tomorrow I will commence my intensive study schedule (which reminds me - I'd better write up my schedule tonight instead of tomorrow so I don't have it there undone in the morning, tempting me to procrastinate!). Please pray for me that I can stay on track and retain all this knowledge! Thanks SO much! :)

*re-reads post* Wow, this is rather dismal sounding! I hope I don't sound like I'm begging for sympathy...I'm not...these are just the most exciting things that have happened to me lately. lol

One last thing...could I please ask for your prayers for a very special intention? Thank you so much! You're all in my prayers!

Music

Music is a wonderful thing. You know how some songs just make you happy? Even if you've been having a terrible day, hearing a certain song can just make everything feel right (or at least like there's a chance it will again). It almost feels like your heart is breaking, but in a very, very good way.

So I'm going to share with you my current "happy songs"!

Love Story meets Viva la Vida by Jon Schmidt - Oh, this song! I love it! I'm so happy that guy wrote it...it's just brilliantly beautiful.

Don't Stop Believin' by Journey - This is one of my favorite songs ever! I'm really not sure exactly why...there's just something about it that I love. I'm even more attached to it now since we danced to it at the Halloween dance, and it will forevermore remind me of my visit to Christendom!

And I also love this version of it...

Don't Stop Believin' by Glee

So, there is the music that has been making me happy lately. I hope it does the same for you! :)