Christmas this year was great, in a new way. Usually I don’t like new, but since Mike and I have been married, I have started to appreciate new. Starting a new family has been great, and we’ve been able to retain some of the old that makes our new possible.

This year we celebrated “Christmas Eve-ning” with my family on December 18th before Gregory and Molly left for Pennsylvania. We drew names, but it worked out that Gregory and I had each other, Mike and Marsha had each other, and Graham and Molly had each other. Weird, but cool. And also we spoiled the parents, and they spoiled us. That was cool. It was really fun to celebrate in this new way, and to intentionally make Christmas a different experience. I think if we hadn’t done this, I would have been disappointed on Christmas morning when I wasn’t with my side of the family.

As it turned out, I had a fantastic time on Christmas Day. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Nagels. We had such a great time, and I would have hated to miss the fun because I was sad about not being with my family. It was really great to experience yet another new Christmas, as I had never spent Christmas with the Nagels before. Santa came on Christmas Eve, I mean the real Santa. I saw him with my own eyes. He brought presents and everything! We woke up Christmas morning to papa Nagel making omelets, then we opened presents, played with our new toys, and went to see Avatar in 3D. Top cool guys, top cool. I’ve heard some people say “the effects were great, but the story was lame.” Not true, friends. The entire movie experience captivated me for the whole 3.5 hours. Yeah, it was a long one, but it didn’t feel long. It was more like “movie’s over…whoa, and it’s been 4 hours (including previews).”

So, all in all, I had a wonderful Christmas experience. Kind of like the Jimi Hendrix Experience, only not really at all.

Peace.

I got a MacBook Pro. Merry Christmas to me from ME!!!! It’s changed my life!!!!

My boss blocked all social networking, chat, Instant Messaging, news, internet radio/TV, job searching, and streaming media websites. We can still check our e-mail, so I thought my clever igoogle would be immune. Not so. I can check e-mail, but my youtube and facebook gadgets are now broken. My chat feature is permanently shut off as well.

Luckily my blog access somehow survived the fire wall. So here it is, my only access to the outside world for eight hours a day, and no one else blogs anymore. Oh well, I can write to keep myself entertained.

This should be fun…

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/12/08/uganda.anti.gay.bill/index.html

Read the above article first.

I get that the goverment is trying to make a stand against something they think is wrong and all, but I personally don’t think that sexual orientation confirms or denies an individual’s humanity.

And who says that only homosexuals get HIV and AIDS?

Slightly preposterous if you ask me.

Thoughts, please, if you have any insight.

Fear of long words

I have been reading this book by an author from North London. She says all kinds of cool things like “that’s so brill,” and the girls tell each other that they are top friends. From the sound of this book, I think I would really enjoy living in North London.

The girls in the book explore all sorts of religions and views really openly. I wish I lived in an area that was more open to different things. I don’t understand people of any view point who see zero merit in a religion apart from their own.

Average – typical as compared to a group

I live in an average house in an average town with my average family. I am of average height and build for a girl of thirteen. I have average brown hair to match my other average features. I wear average clothes – my average mother doesn’t believe in brand name clothing – to my average school, at which I have an average amount of friends and maintain average grades. I wear average glasses for the same reason as the clothing. There are, however, two things about me that are decidedly not average. Two things I cling to while life in this average town drones on.

For starters, in a town called Boring, Oregon, I assure you, I am the only Adélaïde Noëlle Moreaux.  My father’s distant ancestors were French, but our surname is the only properly French thing about him. As for my creative given names, I’ve often speculated whether my notably American mother was going through a French romance phase, or if it was simply that she found some sort of sick joy in giving me names that couldn’t be typed on a North American keyboard. Given the average qualities of my life in general, saying that my mother’s name choice proved a little more than torturous is an understatement. Despite the continual questioning, explanations, and misunderstanding my name creates, however, I secretly love it. I revel in the uniqueness I pretend that it brings to my dull average life.

My average glasses almost perfectly shield my other non average feature: my eyes. I have begged my mom for contacts, but she maintains that I’m too young and thus too irresponsible. Every morning when I get ready for school I remove my glasses and lean in close to the mirror, close enough for my breath to fog the glass due to my extreme nearsightedness, just to look at them. Vain as this may sound, it is more out of frustration and an occasional thrill of fear and excitement that I care to gaze into my own eyes. For, you see, when my eyes turn from their usual nondescript blue-grey to sharp violet, I know danger is near. Crazy, I know, but it is true. Most days nothing but blue-grey stares back completing my average reflection. These are the frustrating days. Although I’ve lived in this average town all of my life, or perhaps because I’ve lived in this average town all of my life, I pine for adventure.

As there was nothing out of the ordinary on this particular morning, I replaced my glasses and bounded down the stairs to our average kitchen to fight my average brothers off the last of the average freezer waffles my mom had toasted. Sam, my oldest brother, passed me the syrup right as I looked up to ask. Sometimes I wondered if Sam could read my mind, but I knew nothing that exciting could happen in a town called Boring. Our town isn’t really even a town. It is a suburb of a suburb of Portland. As I pontificated over this pointless thought, Charlie, my other brother stole a bite from one of my waffles. Seriously, having two older brothers is like living with starved lions. Only some days lions would seem more tame.

  ¹³ “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.

   “But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?’

   ¹⁴ “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? ¹⁵ From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’”

But here’s the thing: sometimes I don’t have the energy to make the right decision.

I aspire to be that person who is happy no matter what, who makes other people feel better just by showing up, and who can be patient with all kinds of people.

Yesterday I had several opportunities to do those things, opportunities to choose patience, love, kindness, and understanding.

I robustly ignored all of them.

But today, today I have decided to have the right attitude.

Today I’m bringing my A-game.