Today is a perfect day for celebrating God and the Gift He gave us so long ago. Last night, on Christmas Eve, our family watched the movie The Nativity Story and we are still talking about it today. As church kids we have heard this story a million times. In the re-telling it sometimes loses its power. This movie, however, put a fresh spin on the ancient tale.

Mary was a real young woman with a typical everyday life. She heard directions from God but questioned her own ability to hear. She found herself in an unimaginable situation and found out that her girlhood faith could sustain her in the middle of her grown-up world. This is the testimony of a Rare Rock.

Merry Christmas! And may you find the same strength for your life today that Mary found for hers on the first Christmas.

This story is hilarious! Here is my favorite ornament (for this game today anyway – I actually have a tree full of paper gingerbread men and popsicle-stick Christmas trees from my kids this year and those HAVE to be my real favorites):

Since I can’t seem to get that image to flip, it says: “First Born (Mom’s Favorite).” AND, my mom gave it to me so you KNOW it is true. Here’s the funny part: my little sister Charity has one that says “Youngest (Mom’s Favorite).” Of course, there was a “Middle Child (Mom’s Favorite)” that my mom tried to order for Serenity, but, guess what? It was BACK-ORDERED indefinitely! True story.

I am NOT doing a good job of posting right now. But I have a good reason: I am in Music Montage mode. I get this term from my sister. The idea is to imagine your life as a movie. And you know how in the movies there is always that image section where the lead character is shown in short clips doing whatever really hard work it is that they have to do to win whatever it is they are trying to win in the end of the movie? Example: Rocky. In the music montage section Rocky is seen punching raw meat, running the big steps, etc. and all the while “Eye of the Tiger” is playing in the background.

So that is me right now: Music Montage mode! Only my clips are of me at my computer, pouring over books and articles, holding a red pen in my hand and wiping my hair out of my face. I will be ABSOLUTELY finished with my semester on Monday at 9 p.m. I wonder, what should my theme song be for the next few days? Any suggestions?

Well, Good Girls, I LOVE shoes! So this was a difficult pick for me. I was going to say that these are my favorite shoes….

but those are actually my husband’s – I just think he looks so cute in them!

Then I was going to take a picture of my whole closet floor because it is home to way too many pairs of shoes. But, if I had to choose just one pair of favorites, it would be these…

They were half-price specials at Payless. The qualifying factor for these shoes as my favorite right now is that I feel cute and trendy when I wear them. Simple but with a little something extra…that’s me. (And for a good laugh, compare my favorites with my sister’s!)