I felt like a six year old, with a new play kitchen. I wanted to stand there and pretend to chop something. I wanted to open and close all the drawers, and doors, and oh my!

In my shock, I called Jonathan who answered, "Happy Birthday, Birthday, & Christmas!" and somewhere during the conversation & in the midst of my gushing he asked, "was it worth the wait?"

For now, I need to get to bed. I'll be dreaming of actually cooking things, chopping somewhere other than the stove-top, & beautifully preparing my bento! Pictures surely to come soon.

Thank you. Seriously, thank you! (and, for once, you were able to pull off a genuine surprise for me!)

back in februray we had a formal among a few friends for valentine's. I, being all hallmark-ish, wanted to give out actual valentine's to friends and such... especially those few participating in the fun fancy-ness. Instead I got creative and opted to make a nice mixtape/cd of lovey-dovey songs, perfect for "the season". So when christmas card exchanging time came around I decided it'd be tight to do the same... only kicking it up a notch with an actually original song included/buried deep in the mix!

Since we've all been tossing around the thoughts & ideas of writing and possibly recording our own stuff, I wanted to at least go through the exercise and push something into existence... for practice more than anything. As I was contemplating and praying about it one sunday in church, I got the majority of the lyrics, jotted 'em down... and then approached Torsten.

A week or so later, we met at Sage's for the day... and plugged away at it. Sans thumbs, we had to use some loops/sound bites available to us through GarageBand... at least to hold us over to actual recording and get an idea in our heads of a melody. A good week, and some more, of recording and discussing, and mixing, and musing... and such later, and we've got ourselves a winner!

Then I had to take it, and fit it into a mixtape/cd that's presentable to the masses, makes sense, portrays the expanse of music that I'm famed for... the feeling of the season, that I long for... and much more. *wiping sweaty brow* sheesh! It was quite the adventure.

then began the process of mass delivery... wowie zowie!
you see, I've recently pulled away from "my church" and began congregating elsewhere... God had been poking, pulling, and prodding me since late august, but social expectations, fear, and a mass of other junk was keeping me lingering. meanwhile, of course, there are loads of people I love and care about greatly who really don't have any sort of communication with me outside of the church. [background: "friends" who gripe at you that you never get together, yet never really call to invite or advise of actual gatherings...] so I'm stuck in this "who all should be included in this monkey muzik release?"
anywho, long story shortened a scootch, I made some stops and handed out cds... flagged people down in parking lots at a wedding... and did some sneaky "while you were out" drop offs. All of which left me feeling greatly relieved, and sort of 'in your face' accomplished [noting that still to this date there has been little to no feedback or even return xmas carding from said group of peoples] *shrug* maybe I'm just still sort of middle-school petty-esque and need to get over it!?

moving on: so there's this cd, right... and this song, right!?
yeah... good stuffs!

It's been wonderful to hear people's reactions... all across the board: from my physical therapist to my best friend, my dumb-founded dad to a keen-eared elizabeth, and even my best friend & my boss! All giving good reports and generally showering with compliments.

So, to sum it up a bit, sorry it came out so late/sobre la hora, but I'm glad everyone has enjoyed what they can... and let's have christmas again in june so we can enjoy it all over again! deal?!

I'm a huge christmas music fan... can't wait to get my ipod all stocked up on christmasy goodness, and crank it all around with me as soon as my birthday passes!

ooo, and Shawn McDonald (whom I've actually met... way before he was signed with Sparrow) has O Holy Night

and last, but never least, we've got The Katinas offering up an entire album called Family Christmas