The House i Was Raised In

Not big. Not tiny. 

Humble. simple. no apparent beauty that would cause double takes to anyone passing by, but just the sight of this little wooden house on the bend makes my heart squeeze

I was born and raised in this place. between these fields, on this winding street in the best neighborhood of our little town.

I don't know if i'll ever live at home again. 

maybe for a few weeks here or there on holidays or to work for a month in between semesters.

One of the million reasons why i'm thankful that i stayed home from school the spring semester was that i got to have a few extra months in this little house of ours. I can't explain how thankful i am for the hours and seeming lifetimes of play and joy and love i had there. I don't really want to try, either. I'd only blunder its piety. 

Thank you, dad for building this place for us. 

Thank you, mom for filling it with love.

Christmas Adam

 For a long time we called the day before Christmas eve, "Christmas eve's eve"

Then my wonderful friend Gina told us that they called it "Christmas Adam"

cause you know...adam....came before...eve.

yeah, i know, she's clever, right?

So now, our Christmas Adam traditions consist of caroling to the neighbors, making gingerbread houses from graham crackers COVERED in delectable candies and watching a Christmas movie. our first choice was home alone. But we only had it on VHS and our VCR no longer functions..haha.

Jenae and her legit gingerbread temple

 Donny's wonderful girlfriend Christine joined us for the festivities.

My house is actually my heart. It's mostly gold and red. For Gryffyndor, obviously.but a tiny corner had two pieces of green candy...because a tiny corner of my heart is Slytherin. Slytheryn. slither-in. I have no idea how to spell that. anyway, the two green are only for Draco Malfoy, because he's beautiful...

Derek was his cool engineering self and made his own house without the milk carton helper underneath.

just look at that face...

My grandpa Hansen, bless his heart, is the cutest little old man ever to walk the face of the earth. One year, we watched Home Alone with him, and he cried from laughing so hard, and his whole body was shaking with laughter. I love his laugh, it makes everyone else laugh.

More and more lately, my Dad has slowly been transforming into his dad. My grandpa Hansen.

It's hilarious.

and cute.

last night my dad made it very obvious that Elf was the very last movie on his list of Christmas movies that he ever wanted to watch in his entire life.

We put it on anyway.

He sat back, and relaxed and died laughing the entire movie.

Oh, Dad.

It just makes me excited for Jonathan to come home!

40 more days, whaaaaa?...

Happy Christmas Adam! and Eve!

and Merry Christmas!