Now that everyone has officially recovered from a weekend of thanksgiving feasting, the Christmas season is upon us. We even had the tiniest little bit of snow last night! –but it’s melted away already, of course. One of my new favorite Christmas heralds is the annual airing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I’d never seen it till I came to the States! Besides the fact that it has cute little kids doing the voices for the animated characters and really great music, my favorite part every year is when it faithfully tells the good news. Little Linus takes the stage, and then, “out of the mouth of babes” comes my favorite moment on tv all year:

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
“And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
“‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
“‘And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God, and saying,

“‘Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.’

“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

I can’t help it; it gives me goosebumps every time, and sometimes I even tear up a little. But it’s a good grief.

Christmastime is here, and guess what I’m watching tonight!?

Molly and I were hostesses this weekend! Yesterday we threw our own little Thanksgiving dinner for a few friends, complete with homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and of course, a turkey.
Neither of us having ever prepared a turkey before, and especially not without the supervision of our mothers, we delved into research. (My sketchbook became a home to recipies dictated by my mom)

Molly bathed and rinsed our baby bird in the sink, and then we stuffed it. Here I am with my hands under the skin of the turkey. This is the girl who's afraid enough of chicken germs that she doesn't really cook meat for herself. Aren't you proud of me?!

I have a smile on my face too! The completely stuffed raw turkey. Pretty, eh?

After we got the turkey nicely tucked away in the oven, Molly prepared some celebratory drinks.

And there's the finished product.

Leftovers, anyone?

I had some errands to run today . . . so I did just that. Well, almost. I walked. Even though I have a car at my disposal this year and the weather was rainy, I decided to resolutely brave the elements in the hope of (a) saving gas and all those other good things like burning calories and (b) acclimatizing to move to a place where I might not have the luxury/convenience of an automobile. Besides, I love walking. It’s a good time to think.

But it was definitely raining. Halfway through my journey my jeans were wet through not quite up to my knees, my recently acquired waterproof jacket was a full shade darker, and my perfectly straightened hair was now curling out from beneath the confines of my hood.

And then, as I was walking to the grocery store, I saw another young Eugeneian student who was more obviously in the spirit of this great Northwest than I was: besides only wearing a sweatshirt to protect himself from the rain (okay, I’ll grant him the fact that it was a hoodie), he was wearing birks and socks.

Crazy hippie town.

Michael shared this quote with me and I really liked it, so I'm passing it on to you, my gentle readers.

"I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, of which I have not since seen reason to be satisfied, that had it taken place in season and circumstance just as I proposed, it would, humanly speaking, have proved my ruin; or at least it would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had designed for me. We judge of things by their present appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences, if we could do so likewise we should be perfectly of His mind; but as we cannot, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is spoken of as one of his heaviest judgments, when He gives any person or people up to the way of their own hearts, and to walk after their own counsels." -John Newton

The weather has been toying with our emotions around here. Hot then cold, dry and then showering us with watery affection.
It was amazingly sunny yesterday morning for about 3 hours. And then the torrential downpour began. Molly was very excited and then very sad and a little mad.

Is it possible to be homesick for being away from home?
I printed a bunch of my photos from the trip this past weekend (500 of them. Oi!) and looking through them just makes me antsy. I want to get moving! I’ve looked into things a little more though, and I want to get my dual citizenship figured out. That means I’m sticking around the States at least for a while; hopefully it’s as speedy as some of the estimates which put the naturalization process at around 6 months. And then it’s the BIG MOVE to a place yet to be determined.
I keep looking ahead to that, while in the meantime school and everything else is moving along. The design proposals are still very much in the process stage. Not quite clicking together at that feverish pace but simmering slowly. Here I am, basking in the glow of my laptop screen . . . if my eyes look glazed over it’s because the thesis writing was getting to me.

Anyways, I should get back to researching. The only thing is, I’m really just itching to design something. Anything. I want to draw and to doodle! But I want a project, not just something aimless. So I’ve been playing around with graphics for different things. I got unusually excited about creating the title block and background for my presentation on Tuesday, even more so than the content.

Itching to get back to the drawing board!
(Speaking of drawing boards, quick pet peeve. Architecture is one of those pseudo-glamorous kinds of jobs that is over-represented in the movies. Saw "Click" last night. Adam Sandler's character works for a huge corporate architecture office and he's drafting up ginormous projects with a pencil! Argh! So unrealistic. Welcome to the 21st century, people! There was some good/iconic furniture in the movie but the sets could have been much cooler. I'm picky. But you probably knew that!)