a very harry christmas!

I've been getting into the spirit lately ... you know that, "Where the heck is the snow? It's Christmas-time!" kind of spirit. Does anyone else get extremely irritated when it's -7°C/18°F, yet there's no snow on the ground? I expect some sort of compensation for freezing my bum-oley off. I want to go sledding, have snowball fights, make snowmen and the like! (I know a lot of others have gotten some snowfall - not here, sadly.) But this post is about a lot more than frostbite without the white stuff, trust me.

A few days ago I painted my nails a festive green (which The Boy says, "Is different and cool ... like a goblin!") and we've finally put up our Christmas tree! Me and my mom sang the Christmas classics ("My Only Wish (This Year)" hehe) while we decorated our tree and I think it looks b-e-a-utiful. And though I had to fight to put my Harry Potter ornament up, it looks like it'll be a very Harry Christmas after all!

Yep, I am cool with my Potter-on-a-broom ornament.

Then, just a couple of days ago me and my close friends had our annual Christmas party -- this time it was just with us girls, and it was so nice being able to catch up after months of ... life ... just getting in the way. We had a potluck dinner so I made some mashed potatoes and brownies (I burned my hand trying to get them out of the oven ... FAIL!), though we of course had to have our Secret Santa presents exchanged before we even ate, haha. My amazing friend replaced my Serendipity DVD (yay!) and got me two Utada Hikaru CDs, which helps feed into my Japanese-music obsession (again, I am cool).

We then ate some scrumptious dinner and I completely failed at making hot chocolate - I made the hostess one and it seemed warm enough so I made three more for my friends and they all stirred it and waited for the marshmellows to melt ... but I made it too cold. Whoopsies! At least the food was good? haha.

After busting out the Photobooth and watching numerous Youtube vids (I'd suggest listening to the voicemails of Dimitri the Stud ... guaranteed to provide lots of funny lines!), we decided to watch Paranormal Activity. Y'know, the most festive movie of the season (cough, cough). We all huddled together under one ginormous blanket and one friend ended up leaving half-way through, leaving the rest of us to sit there in suspense. I think it's the ending we got (since there's three or four, methinks) that left us going, "Huh, that wasn't as scary as we though it would be." But of course, we watched an episode of GLEE afterwards to ward off the heebie-jeebies. I think it's been five years since I used that phrase, wow.

The night winded down and there was just me and a friend left to leave ... but then, after a few questions about life (not just school/jobs), we ended up sitting on the hostess' couch and just ... talking, talking, talking. About our fears, our lives, the messes and the problems, the few things that make us smile, and how much we've grown yet not grown at the same time. We've all been friends since high school and now we've all gone through so much that is the polar opposite of a 'high school life', and I'm so glad that we do have these friendships.

I didn't get home until 4:30am, and to me that's a mark of a great Christmas potluck night the girls. I'm so thankful for that group of friends and how close we can still be and how normal (yet crazy) we can all be when we reunite. They are my simple smile of the week.

Since then I've spent some time with The Boy and, of course, watched Serendipity. I hope you're all ready for your holiday festivities and that you're having some good relaxing times, too. I'm definitely thankful for all you bloggers out there, too.

And would anyone like to send some snow my way?

It'd be an amazing Christmas present! Take care everyone :)