Music for the season...

As usual, music helps me get into the mood for anything, especially to celebrate Christmas.  Aside from my perma-love of the Vince Guaraldi Trio's Charlie Brown's Christmas music, I have found a few great tunes for this season.

The first one is a work of love.  The World of Color Honor Choir was created this year to be a part of the Winter Dreams show in Disney's California Adventure Park.  This show has been around since 2010 but after seeing the work Eric Whitacre has done with his virtual choirs, they decided to bring that performance to their show.  So this past September, a call went out for singers to submit video for this choir.  The videos had to be submitted by early October and I'm proud to say I made the cut!  Out of the over 1,400 singers who submitted video, 703 singers were chosen.  As you look at the video, I have no idea where my image is amid all the snowflakes but I'm there!  It's just such an amazing piece of music, really just gets you into the holiday mood.  Here's the official video.  And here's what it looks like in the official show:

So cool.

And finally, one of my favorite songs that really snaps you back to the meaning of this holiday season is Francesca Battistelli's "You're Here".  What beautiful lyrics, and what a great message.  This is a video someone put together but it so perfectly shows the emotions captured in that first night.

Happy Holidays!

Getting there...

This month, heck, this year has been difficult.  Amid good things like getting through the quarter at school (with acceptable grades yay!) and an adoptiversary, it's still been difficult to do things like get into the holiday spirit... but we're getting there!  A little recap of the highs and lows...

Sink-gate 2013

This past week hit an all time low when our kitchen sink started to leak... and then after being "fixed" wouldn't drain.  To confess, I have a bit of OCD so to deal with three days of dishes and not being able to use your kitchen sink and all the clutter, it was very difficult.  And of course, my slumlord landlord doesn't care or in all honesty, know that I have this problem.  I mean, it's extremely emotionally upsetting and stressful.  Luckily, things are doing pretty well now as it's fixed with only minor draining issues and last night we actually made dinner... and I actually cleaned the kitchen.  While the crap is still all over the floor as they are coming back to patch up the hole, it's better than no sink.

Amidst all the difficulties of the quarter, I had to get my root canal redone... an ongoing saga that never should have happened.  While that was an incredibly money-bleeding and awful experience, let's pause to do a public service announcement here.

Dear dentists everywhere,

When you have things in your patients' mouths, please don't ask us questions that can't be answered with a grunt or shake of the head.  It's really just cruel!

We got to foster quite a few dogs and recently adopted out our last one for the year, Phayth.  We had some trying times, even having two dogs at a time for a bit which is very stressful, but it is all worth it when you 1) realize you're saving lives and 2) get a chance to see them like this:

Phayth visiting with Santa

What an angel.

And amid all the hemorrhaging of money as my car and teeth received much-needed repairs as well as the dogs, I think I did pretty well in my first drafting class...

This is my final project and I'm very proud.  To go from not knowing how to do any of this to creating a semblance of a planting plan, to be able to create this from my head, it is awesome.

And finally, we celebrated another milestone.  My little man Milo celebrated his four-year adoptiversary!  Aside from some tasty treats he received as well as a new sweater, he just received lots of love.  I can't believe it's been four years that we've had this little guy.  Although it can be difficult dealing with a senior dog... or two... as I know this day or year could always be his last, I cherish every moment with him.

Milo... trying to hide the fact that he's terrified of Santa

I'll write a little more later about getting into the Christmas spirit.  For now I'm looking forward to getting away for a little vacation as we head south to the mountains for Christmas.  I can't wait to see the snow and hang with the fam... Good times.