It is officially Christmas time!!

After dinner yesterday, Starr jumped up from the table…well okay, she waddled away from the table and took a few minutes to sprawl on the floor groaning in agony…then she got up and said that I couldn’t start the dishes until she set something special up for us. Grabbing her laptop and hooking it up to the speakers she started playing her Christmas music!

It was time!

She has been really looking forward to Christmas music, but wasn’t ready until it was official. We cleaned up Thanksgiving singing along to the music and then dug out our decorations from storage and converted the house for the holidays! The tree is up and we are in the holiday groove. Fun.

Some of Starr’s friends have been seriously ga ga over the Twilight series books. Starr has been so busy that she hasn’t read any of them, but has been curious.

Well this weekend while out of town visiting a nearby college. Starr and friends went to see the recently released movie. Twice! They loved it both times. If she had stayed a third night, they would have gone again. She’s been brainwashed. Regarding the movie and actor Robert Pattinson: “He’s so gorgeous! You would love it. Mom, come watch these YouTube videos! See there he is on Ellen! So cute. He doesn’t brush his hair. Adorable.” It’s as if she reverted back to her thirteen year old self over the weekend!

I find it adorable!

Speaking of adorable, Starr and I stayed in last night and watched Bella. We really love this movie. And oh boy, that Eduardo Verástegui ….so gorgeous! Yeah. I have that thirteen year old inside me too!

I have been really absent lately, I’ve been under the weather. My cold has morphed into bronchitis and hasn’t been much fun. Blech. So this post is a little this-and-that.

Starr is home for the holiday break…although she decided to go out of town right away to visit some of her nearby high school–now college–friends who are still in classes through Tuesday, so I haven’t really seen much of her. Less than normal really. Which is good in many ways.

She has decided to quit her job at the Aveda salon, which she loved, but the commute…via me…wasn’t working and she was disengaging from her sorority experience and from college. She will now be able to work more hours at her professor’s assistant job and be more involved with school. Hopefully her grades will improve! The side effect of this is that she won’t need me to drive her back and forth anymore. Good for more reasons than are obvious and sad because I will miss her!

“No worries!” She says. “I will still have laundry on the weekends for you!”

Um, yeah, about that…..I have already started saving quarters for her! I just know that they have laundry facilities in the sorority house!

She received good news last week in that she was named Philanthropy Chair for her sorority. She is both excited and nervous about this. It is the position she wanted, but she doesn’t want to mess it up! I am sure that she will do a great job, as long as there is no laundry involved!

We have planned our Thanksgiving menu, which is the same as always. Starr is resistant to new dishes and has her favorites that she will not give up! Sometimes I wonder how her future husband and family will fit into her idea of how things work!? I think they will just have to conform!

We will be having: Grandmother and Mammaw’s chicken n’ cornbread dressing, homemade yeast rolls, mashed potatoes, Starr’s favorite Gulliver’s corn, Mammaw’s candied sweet potatoes (which are all mine, Starr won’t eat them!) apple pie and ice cream. Since it is just the two of us usually, we get to do what we want! It’s a carb-o-licious feast!

We wish that we lived closer to family, so that we could share the day with them, but we also enjoy spending the day together. Old movies, cooking, food, playing card and/or board games…a day to take a true break from “life” and just be…together.

I am thankful to have a daughter who loves me completely, who gets me, and who loves spending time with me. Thankful to have a good relationship with my brother who I love dearly, and to be Aunt to the most amazing 8 year old EVER! I am thankful for Starr’s siblings and their love. I am thankful for DJT and his friendship…I really don’t know what I would have done without it lately. My parents, for their patience and for everything that they have ever done for me.

I pray for Sunny and her family, during these emotional holidays, as well as each and every day. I send them my love and wish for continued healing. I know they miss her terribly. Which is a gross understatement, words are truly inadequate.

I am thankful to have been Sunny’s friend, to have known her, loved her and been loved by her.

We miss you!  …understatement…

I showed this video to Starr the other day thinking that it was kind of humorous. Well, now she can’t stop watching it and all the other Get Your War On videos. I might just have to stage an intervention. So I thought I would share it here.

Sunny’s passions included volunteering, especially if children were involved, music and being involved at school. Music was such a big part of her life that her family have put together a music scholarship program in conjunction with the high school as just one of the many things that they are doing to carry on Sunny’s spirit and ideals…making a difference. It is a very good thing.

Starr and Skye have taken on helping children as the focus of their charitable foundation. Their first 5k raised money for Children’s Safe Drinking Water, and MAPS Adoption and Humanitarian Aid. After the run, they started thinking about next years run and what changes they might want to make. First was the charity, not that there was anything wrong with the charities that they chose this year we all feel that they are valid and important causes (support them!), but they thought that in Sunny’s memory and to make the event more personal and meaningful, that choosing a cause that was tangible and real for the participants as well as relevant to Sunny’s ideals that a change might be appropriate. But what, who?

Starr called me late the other night, excited about an idea she had. War/Dance! They could find a school to adopt, with a focus on music. Children, music, school. What could be more perfect?! A place that they could concentrate on and follow the progress and struggles of year after year, a personal connection. Now that the idea has come, the girls need to find the match, find the place and the best way to share their gift with them.

It’s an exciting prospect. Possibly one that will take some time to pull together appropriately.

“Because without music, there would be no life” – Dominic, War Dance-The Movie.

I have finally succumbed to the cold that Starr has been suffering from for the past few weeks. Yippee! I truly thought that I might just escape it…I was wrong!

Here are two things that I found online recently:

The first is pretty darn cool:

A Wichita, Kansas preacher says he will not remove a message on his church sign that says President-Elect Barack Obama is a Muslim.

War Dance – The Movie

Thanks, again, to Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends for pointing me in the direction of something incredible!

Starr and I watched this yesterday and we loved it. The sadness, the hope. There were both tears and broad smiles.

Shine Global

Frustrated with the comment form in blogger, I thought I would try something different. I am conflicted, as I like new shiny things, but if it doesn’t work, then can I get back to where I was, and will I lose future comments if I do revert back to blogger? We’ll see.

I have decided to give Disqus a whirl and see how it goes.