Christmas in California, Part 2

These are just some pictures Christine and I took while she was here.

We were the only ones at the Christmas tree lot and got to take a picture with Santa.

A cool sandcastle that was on the beach  next to the ice rink in San Diego

Disneyland!

California Adventure! Yes, my eyes are open.

This is the ride we waited two hours for.

Lit up Christmas tree in Disneyland.

Looking our best for The Nutcracker. :)

Christmas in California

Most of you know that I haven't posted a blog in a couple of weeks because one of my college roommates was here visiting me and my family. We did a lot and it was super fun having here her. She was here for about 10 full days and 2 half days. (December 13-24) and I was pretty sad to see her go.

Day 1 Evening: Christine got to my house on the evening of Thursday, December 13 and we had a very typical Mexican dinner at home. After some catching up, we ended the night with some Grey's Anatomy.

Day 2: We out to the local mall to meet up with our friend Caitlin, a fellow SMC chick, for lunch at the Yard House and some shopping. I think the weather that day influenced our purchases because we all ended up buying some species of sweater. After shopping we went home and helped my mom with baking fruitcakes. We tried to watch The Polar Express, but ended up pausing the movie 17 minutes in before going to sleep.

Day 3: We spent the morning getting at the dedication mass for my new church. We got lucky and ended up sitting next to the choir during mass thanks to extra seats. The Mass was quite long, about 2.5 hours, but it was a pretty cool thing to experience. Once home, we finished The Polar Express, took showers, and made delicious chocolate chip cookies. We ended the day by going to get the Christmas tree, decorating it, and watching Elf.

Day 4: We all went to San Diego for the day to go ice skating. One of the hotels down there sets up an ice skating rink where the pool would be during the summer. It's pretty cool because the beach is about 5 steps away from the ice rink. We skated for well over an hour and ended up playing a fun game of tag. After skating we had dinner, dessert, and got some things from the gift shop before heading home.

Day 5: We had a bit of a slow start since we had stayed up late the previous night watching a Christmas movie. Our adventure for the day was going to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I had never been there before and Christine volunteers at The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, so she wanted to see it. We were able to see the whole aquarium in under 2 hours and were able to see lots of sea life, watched a seal and sea lion show, and got a backstage tour of some of the aquarium. Upon coming home, we made a delicious pasta and salad dinner. We ended the night with some ice cream, girl talk and the claymation Christmas classic, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Day 6: Today's plans got a little warped due to some misinformation. Long story short, we were supposed to go see the Hobbit but we ended up at the wrong theater so we then walked across the street to do a little more shopping. It ended up being for the best because we were able to help my brother pick up stuff for my mom's birthday celebration. To celebrate her birthday, we went to daily mass, went out to dinner for Chinese food, and then went home for cake and wine.

Day 7: This was our Disneyland day. We spent a good 13 hours at both Disneyland and California Adventure. We saw the Christmas Fantasy Parade, fast-passed a few rides, and stood in line for almost two hours to ride Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land California Adventure. Let it be said the wait is worth it. Radiator Springs Racers is much like Test Track in Disney World. We didn't leave Disneyland until we had finished shopping on Main Street for some souvenirs.

Day 8:  Day 8 was extremely enjoyable. I was supposed to babysit, but they cancelled last minute. It was a bit of a relief for me since I was still pretty tired from Disneyland. Christine decided to go on a run after breakfast while I stayed at home to chill. After she came back, we laid out in the grass for a good half hour enjoying the sunny 66 degree day. Later, we went down to Balboa Island to walk around and had to have some frozen chocolate-dipped bananas. Once we got home, we got all prettied up to go see The Nutcracker with the family. This was the first time I had seen a full Nutcracker performance, and I loved it.

Day 9: Day 9 was what you could call a lazy day. We spent the early part of the afternoon driving around looking for ugly Christmas sweaters to wear to a Christmas party we had been invited to. Well, we didn't find ugly sweaters and ended up not going to the party. Instead of going to the party, we drank wine and watched half of The Nightmare Before Christmas. We also had nap/rest time in the later half of the afternoon.

Day 10: We had another slow start to the morning and decided to do some more baking in the afternoon. We made two batches of almond cookies to both give away and keep for ourselves. It took us about two hours to finish, ate lunch, and went wine tasting. We tried to see some of the Balboa Island boat parade but parking was near impossible and we ended up seeing about 10 minutes of it. Then it was time for more shopping, home, and another claymation Christmas classic.

Day 11: This was Christine's last full day in California so we spent the day doing laundry, packing, and going to mass in between the two. Packing was a struggle since she bought lots of gifts and clothes during her stay. But, thanks to my small yet spacious carry-on and the superior packing skills I have developed over the years, we were able to get everything to fit perfectly. It was a relief when everything was packed away, but that meant we had to go to sleep, which we didn't want to do.

Day 12 Early morning: We had a rather early wake-up yesterday because of when Christine's flight left. We were awake at 7am and it was time to say good-bye an hour later. I was planning on going to the airport with her and my dad, but he had to go to work.

Thinking about the good-bye gets me choked up simply because she is one of my best friends and I miss her even though I know I'll see her on Skype soon. All in all, it was so good to have her here for Christmas and I hope that someday I will be able to visit her around Christmas and/or have our families come together for a Christmas-time visit.

DIY Ribbon Bow

Before Thanksgiving, I decided that I wanted to make a Christmas decoration for my room. I decided to make a bow out of thick wired ribbon. It was relatively simple to make and only took about fifteen minutes. Here is how I made it. I will also include the video that I used to make the bow.

1. Gather supplies:

• Thick wired ribbon (the one I used was 2.5 inches wide)
• Scissors

2. Measure a length of ribbon that is about 8-12 inches long. The larger the length, the fuller it will be.
3. Bring the end of the ribbon halfway across the length and fold.
4. Take the length you measured in step 2 and fold the ribbon on itself however many time you would like. I think I did 10-12 folds.
5. Finish the fold by taking another length of ribbon that is half the length of your Step 2 length over your last fold.
6. Adjust your ribbon so that the two half-length pieces line up in the middle
7. Take your scissors and cut a slit about 1/3 of the way down the width of the ribbon. You want to leave at least a 1/2 inch uncut.
8. Measure out another length of ribbon as long as you would like. Mine was 4 feet long.
9. Find the center of the ribbon and tie it around the folded ribbon.
10. Start separating and fluffing out the folds until you are happy with how your bow looks.

This is what my ribbon bow looked like in the end:

 

 

To get it to hang on the door, I simply took a smaller piece of ribbon and tied it around the thumbtack that I put on the door. I used the knot from the ribbon in Step 8 to anchor this third piece of ribbon.

Christmas time is here!

Hello, again, fellow readers! After being MIA for almost two weeks, I have returned. No, I have not forgotten that my blog exists. I have just been pretty busy between my hospital work, nannying, and getting ready for Christmas.

There are various things I have been doing to prepare for Christmas, some are typical and some not so typical.

The most obvious is putting up Christmas decorations and buying gifts. In my room, I have put up a ribbon bow that I made, a ornamental tree from Target, and a mini Nativity scene. A blog about how I made the ribbon bow might be up soon. My older brother, his girlfriend, and I will be putting up decorations around the house and outdoor Christmas lights.

As usual, I have been working at the local hospital for my internship. I love working at the hospital. Yes, it is tiring and hard on the body, but it is so incredibly rewarding. This rotation, I seem to be doing only minor things such as changing sheets, fetching items for patients, talking to patients, and and helping the nurses with minor procedures. Last week, I helped an older woman get EEG glue out of her hair. Every single time I do these seemingly mundane tasks, the patient I am with always seems to be a little bit happier than they were before I had done the task. I guess in a hospital setting, it truly is the little things that matter the most. The patients love having someone change their sheets.  I will be going in for a shift on Christmas day and I am interested to see if the energy on the floor will be any different than it is on a daily basis. I've found volunteering to be a great thing to be doing at Christmas time because it is a humbling experience and I get to bring my service and joy to others.

Another way I was able to serve and bring joy to others this seasons was at a Christmas party over the weekend. The youth ministry team at my church and an organization called Stand Up for Kids put together a Christmas party for homeless teens and families. The whole idea of the party was to give them a Christmas since they are not able to have a Christmas of their own. We had over 70 kids and teens at the Christmas party and they were all smiles. The one thing that I found most interesting was that the phrase "Homelessness does not have a face" could not have been more true. Every child and teen at the party had a sponsor who gave them gifts and more often than not, a teen that I thought was just another volunteer with youth ministry or Stand Up for Kids was in fact homeless. The Christmas party was a great way to spread Christmas cheer and I also got to know some of the youth ministry teens better.

In a few short days, I will have one of my best friends from Chicago come visit me until the 24th. I suspect my posts will be less frequent, but I will do my best to put up at least one post while she is here.

That is all for now. Christmas blessings to all!