50 Days of Pray: Delaware

Welcome to the 50 Days of Pray! I am representing the Small Wonder: Delaware!

Thanks so much to Mark Koopmans for this idea! It's really cool how many people signed up from around the country, and even some from around the world!

This has been a weird year for me with many ups and downs, so I want to end the year on a happy note and express the things I am happy for (for which I am happy lol).

I am thankful for my family, crazy though they may be.

I am thankful for my best friends and our friends with whom we've been hanging with for what feels like 30 days straight. The bond we have is strong, and it's good to know there are people you can be yourself around completely.

I'm thankful for health. This time last year I had laryngobronchitis and couldn't speak for about 10 days. That was emotionally painful. This year, I still have a bronchitis flare up, but I can talk! Don't know what you go til it's gone.

And I'm very grateful to the reason for this season, Jesus, who came down to Earth so that we all could live again. When things aren't exactly going how I would like them to, I try to remember to be grateful for at least that, because He didn't have to do it, but that's how much He loves us.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year, and I will see you guys in 2014. :)

Express Yourself: Books!

Good morrow!

Welcome back to Express Yourself, brought to us by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books!

As you can see, I'm doing this on a Monday, and that's because tomorrow is 50 Days of Pray! I'm one of those people who skips through blog posts when I'm looking for the bloghop theme of the day (sorry), so I didn't want to put the two together.

The question this week is: What books did you want to read this year but didn't get around to?

Well, I was supposed to read 20 books this year, and if I read through The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I will have "read" 19, but in actuality have had only finished 17. If a book doesn't engage me enough but I want to see how it ends, it will take me FOREVER to finish it. If it's a slow read and/or just a book I don't like, I won't finish it. But then there are the books I really really wanted to read but didn't have the time or money, so hopefully that will change in 2014. Those books are:

Mindy McGinnis Not A Drop to Drink The sample I read provided a lot of suspense, and I still can't wait to read it!

More Neil Gaiman! I read Anansi Boys this year, and it was my first Gaiman read. I've been missing out! So I hope to read more of his work in the new year, too.

What about you guys?

Express Yourself: Gourmet Edition

It's time to express ourselves again! Thanks to Dani and Jackie for a great year of international convo!

This week's question revolves around what we bring to the table, literally!

So for a moment I thought I wouldn't have anything to say about this, because I don't ever bring the food to the holiday parties in my family. lol BUT, I have dreams.

This year, I would like to host a small Christmas brunch and cook the dish I wanted to last year, but my mom ignored me when I was talking and made a stratta (moms). I'll unfortunately have to look through my tweets from 2012 to remember what it was, though! It was an egg omelette, but there was havarti cheese and some kind of herb involved. So hopefully that still happens. :)

Friday Freeday: Blah blah blah

Good morning, world, and all who inhabit it!

I've decided to stop complaining so much about my life and thanking God for it and seeing the brighter side of life, which helps a lot. It at least makes everyone around me seem less annoying.

Our church's first Christmas Party is this Saturday, and I saved $66 by remembering my sister was throwing out a homecoming dress she was never going to wear again. I will look so Oscar worthy, Oscar himself will lean over on his pedestal.

I'm going through another hair transition. Right now, it is braided up with someone else's hair glued to a cap on my head. I hurt. My Transformation Tuesday would look like a Brady Bunch cover.

I suck at my query. No matter what I do with it, no one connects to it. Whose idea were these?

One more week until our annual Christmas Cantata. I'm so done with singing. Cantata time is never fun. I'm gonna look fly with all this big hair on my head, though. lol

Scandal has one more time to make me want to throw up. Then, I'm doing nothing about it but complaining and possibly actually throwing up.

I'm hoping and praying for an awesome 2014. I'll say it again next week, but I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and all the other things. :D

Express Yourself: Events

Good morrow!

Welcome back to Express Yourself, brought to us by Dani @ Entertaining Interests and Jackie @ Bouquet of Books!

This week, they ask what events we look forward to this holiday season.

I actually don't look forward to much in this stage of my life. When I was a kid, of course it was getting up Christmas morning, me in my pajamas, my little sister getting dressed and making us all look like hobos, to open our presents. But since I don't have kids yet and don't have much money, I can probably stay in bed for a little longer and open my presents whenever my sister wakes up. lol

As mentioned in the last EYM, I love the Christmas movies and shows.

OOH! But I do look forward to egg nog! I almost forgot. I LOVE egg nog, and I don't even need any alcohol in it (though it's nice sometimes lol). Just like pumpkin, which I don't particularly care about, egg nog only comes around in the fall season down here. I remember seeing it in the Spring somewhere else, but I can't remember where.

And cranberry sauce. I love cranberry sauce. Canned or fresh. Plain, good ol' cranberry sauce. :D hehe