Day 248

Last Sunday, April 17th, my mom called me and said that she was putting my Easter stuff in a box and sending it out first thing Monday morning.  Then, Monday, she told me FedEx said it would get to me on Thursday.  I knew I wouldn't be there, but would instead be at home in NC, but she didn't know that and I couldn't tell her.

So today I opened my Easter box.

Of course there's some candy but my mom and dad also send some very pretty "eggs," a pen and notepad that's already living in my purse so I don't have to write on receipts, a bunny that poops candy, a smoothie recipe book (it also has punches, we'll be enjoying this a lot this summer), some sunscreen (which I was pleasantly surprised was 15 SPF, not 85 SPF which wouldn't have surprised me at all), and a $25 gift card to Home Depot!  Not to mention what all of this came in: a pottery pot  my mom found at Seagrove, NC!

I love my parents!

Day 130

Merry Christmas!

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:9-12

Day 107

Today was the Boston Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in the Boston Commons.  My friend Valerie, who is from San Francisco and is here doing the same exchange program that I'm doing, and I went to see what it was all about.  So here's some pictures from it.

Kids from an inner-city program that using chorus to keep kids out of trouble.  They were so good!  And cute, too.

The Rockettes!

Katharine McPhee

Me and Valerie in front of the tree.

Me on a Boston PD's motorcycle. 

Day 100

Well it's Day 100 and it's Thanksgiving!  Happy Thanksgiving, y'all.  I hope you are with people you love and have lots of things in your life to be thankful about.

I'm here in Cape Cod with the Petercuskie grandparents and Gary, and it is wonderful.  It's a pretty day outside and I definitely have plenty to be thankful for.  Here's just a few things that I am thankful for.

1: My parents.  They have been married for 29 years and are the picture of what a great marriage is.  They are also great parents, and great people.  Without them, I don't know what I would do.  I love you.

2: John.  We've been together for more than 3 years.  And they haven't always been perfect.  We've gone through a lot together but he's my best friend.  He's always there.  I love you.

3: My friends and family.  I know this is generic and everyone says this but I have some friends and family, and some friends that I consider to be family, that are always there for me and I do my absolute best to be there for them.  Without you guys, life wouldn't be bearable.  I love you.

4: My dog.  I love her so much.  She's perfect.  And adorable.  And yes I have spoiled her rotten, but she deserves it.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Day 96

Today was my last day at home.  I'm sad, but it was a great day filled with people very close to our family.  Mom, Dad, and I went to church this morning and then came back home, I packed, and we had a delicious lunch.

Yum.  Baked flounder, grilled shrimp with Old Bay, homemade coleslaw, and Jackie's sourdough rolls.  Ah-mazing.
But in the afternoon we went back to church for the church Thanksgiving Meal.  It was potluck style, and being a Lutheran church, there was more than plenty of food to go around.  There was a huge turn out, I think around 60 folks!  It's so great to see people gathering in fellowship.  Afterwords we had a bonfire with hot cider and, of course, s'mores!

The fire was super hot.  A true boy scout made it :)  What a wonderful last day in NC.

Day 80

Be ready, this post is going to be very picture heavy.

Every year on the weekend after Thanksgiving, my mom and I go to the Craftsmans' Christmas Classic (CCC) in Greensboro, NC.  It is perfect.  It's a day for Mom and I to spend just the two of us.  We get up early in the morning so that we can be there right when it opens.  There's hundreds of vendors with things from cream cheese dips to pottery to hand-carved and hand-crafted everything!  Unfortunately, I won't be home for Thanksgiving, which means no CCC for me :'( for the first time in I don't even know how many years.  But don't worry.  There is good news.  There is a similar thing up here in Boston and it's called the Boston Christmas Festival.  The downside: it's before Thanksgiving.  So I went to it today, in search of that perfect Christmas present that I always find at the CCC.  There was also a gingerbread house contest going on.  So here's some pictures of some crazy awesome gingerbread houses:

 I didn't find the perfect Christmas present for anyone and CCC is much better than the Boston Christmas Festival, but I did come away with one good, and oh-so-adorable purchase for me.

Day 75

Happy Halloween!!

Being in Massachusetts for this Pagan holiday, some of my housemates, their friends, and I took the opportunity to go to one of the places in this state that would obviously make you think of Halloween: Salem.  I had high expectations.  Being from North Carolina, I had some pretty big Halloween parties to compare this to.  There's the first thing that comes to and North Carolinian when you think of Halloween: Franklin Street.  Total insanity.  Hopefully one day they'll change their minds about only letting UNC students and CH residents into the festivities.  The second thing that I think of from NC is the Haunted Hillsborough Hike.  While I haven't been able to totally participate in one before (after all it is a bar hike), I have gone and just skipped the drinking part.  It isn't Franklin Street but it can get pretty crazy. And pretty fun.

So here's some pictures of Salem, MA on Halloween:

This is just a quick shot of a concert going on and people.  Nothing crazy.

A dancing taco in the window.

Nice Grimm Reaper costume.

Salem Witch Museum.

The Lumberjacks of 46 Ashford got free cotton candy.

Two trees filled with more birdhouses than I think even my dad could handle.

The end.  Not quite as crazy as I thought it was going to be.  Then again there aren't all of the bars that there on on Franklin and Hillsborough. 



Day 73

My family decorates for holidays.  And I love it.  We have decorations for Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and not to mention, all of the different seasons.  Needless to say, I have acquired this love for decorating.  So today I went walking around with no intention of buying anything other than a brush from Sephora and a few votive candles from Yankee Candle (I had a coupon for $1 tarts and votives).  However, when I walked into Yankee Candle, I was presented with a section of Halloween decor that was on 50% off.  Now I don't know about you, but I was raised on 11 Commandments.  I think I've talked about this before but for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about I'll let you in on one of life's best secrets.  The 11th Commandment is "Thall shalt not pay retail price."  So true. 

So I have a soft spot in my heart for holiday decorations and man did I score.



On the left we have the haunted house :)  As you can see there are lights within.  It gets better, they change colors!!  Then there's the tree stump on the right that holds the tea light that warms the delicious spiced pumpkin tart that's in the black witch's pot (at least that's what I'm deciding it is.  Even better yet, you can flip a switch in the back and it does this evil laugh and eventually says, in the most evil way you can imagine, "Happy Halloween!  bwhahahahabwhaha"  I love it.

Then there's the guy on the right.  I didn't see him until a force unknown to science pulled me back to the section of 50% off Halloween things.  Then I saw him.  For obvious reasons, his name is John.  Heh.  Nothing's better than a skeleton playing golf with a leg (well, other than the awesome haunted house, of course.)

Day 71

I'm not a superstitious person.  At all.  I'll walk under a ladder, open umbrellas inside, spill salt and not through any over my shoulder.  Superstitions are crazy.  Well, I take that back.  I do a few superstitious things when the Wolfpack has a football game.  But that's different.  I swear.

As I was babysitting today, I looked out of the window and saw cats on the neighbor's roof.  Lots of cats.  But not just cats.  They were black cats.  At one point I counted 7 cats, 6 of "witch" (sorry I couldn't help it) were black.  I can hear the witches from Hokus Pokus singing now....."Come little children I'll take thee away into the garden of magic."  Wooooo it must be almost Halloween!!

Day 65

This is ridiculous absurd.  Look at all of this Christmas stuff at my grocery store!  Cookies, wrapping paper, bows, gingerbread houses!  Folks, come on.  When I was little, and even just a few years back, this didn't happen.  People focused on each individual holiday.  There was a clear distinction between Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Can we please have that back?  And to all of the stores out there, the second you start playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving is the second that you lose my business until after Thanksgiving.

Now I am no Scrooge.  I just like to celebrate each individual holiday and not to rush to the end of the year.  Plus, it would be nice if we could keep Christmas about what it's really about and not so much about the materialistic nature of our society.