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| Such cute decorations to keep us guessing whether it's a boy or girl |
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| Excited parents! What will it be?!?! |
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| The proud grandparents are also anxious to know! |
It's
.
.
.
.
.
a
.
.
.
.
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| GIRL!!!!! |
I'm so excited for them to be parents of a precious little baby girl! Can't wait to meet her!
My other celebrations have been a mix of traditional holidays and random holidays. That same day was also St. Patrick's Day. I was glad that someone sent me a link to the story of St. Patrick to remind me why the day is celebrated aside from all things green. Here's the story in case you would also like a reminder of the origin of the day: http://networkedblogs.com/Jlh9C
It also meant that I ran in the St. Pat's 5k downtown and followed up with a green smoothie.
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| I've missed the running community of Colorado Springs |
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| Kale is a great addition to any smoothie and guarantees that it will be quite green |
The other traditional holiday was of course Easter. The best celebration of the year! I recently made some new friends who got me connected with an organization here called The Springs Rescue Mission. Every year they do an Easter event which I got to be part of this year. It opened my eyes to the great work God is doing through them. It was a great experience of the redemption and transformation of life that Easter is all about. I was also thankful for the relationships I have here that make it a little easier to be away from family during holidays. The two years I lived here before, I always had an Easter picnic/feast with Meredith and Scott. We decided this year would be no different and were excited to get to do it again.
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| We know how to do quite the random, delicious Easter feast - Build-your-own spring rolls, deviled eggs, brisket (smoked by Scott), rolls, and finished off with chocolate fondue |
The rolls were no ordinary rolls. As I was looking up ideas for things to make I stumbled across Resurrection Rolls. Since I had recently made a fresh batch of homemade marshmallows, I knew this would be a great use for them. They were quite messy, but symbolic and tasty.
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| Start with a marshmallow (body of Christ) |
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| Cover with butter & cinnamon (anointed with oil & perfume) |
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| Cover with a crescent (wrapped in cloths) |
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| Bake in the oven (placed in the tomb) |
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| Open it up to eat and it's empty (Resurrection!!!!) |
All in all the whole weekend was just a great time of fellowship and celebrating the life that we've been given.
As for the random holidays, there have been many. What I like about random holidays is that it gives me direction on what to make or do for different events. I have a really hard time making decisions when given endless options. But when I'm going to a game night, for example, and I know that it's caramel popcorn day, decision made! I don't have to think through millions of other options. No, I don't try to celebrate every single day, but when they work out it's a lot of fun and saves me a lot of decision making time. Here's what I've celebrated recently.
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| Ravioli Day |
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| Pickle Day Yep I made my own and they were great! |
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| Oatmeal Cookie Day I forgot to take a picture before and this is all I came home with. I guess they were good! |
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| Cinnamon Croissant Day Another big hit at work |
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| Peanut Butter & Jelly Day This day made me realize what a great breakfast a PB&J with a glass of milk makes |
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| Coffee Cake Day Easy decision on what to take to the church brunch |
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| Caramel Popcorn Day Yes, I really made this for a game night |
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| Pecan Day |
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| Licorice & Grilled Cheese Day at girls' night |
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| Grilled cheese and mom's homemade tomato soup - winning combination! |
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| I just had to include her because she's precious and I found it hilarious that she opted for ramen instead of the grilled cheese. It brought back fond memories of Pohnpei, but she wansn't keen on the idea of adding any kool-aid ;) |
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| Peach Cobbler Day (and Scrabble Day so we played Speed Scrabble right after eating our peach cobbler) |
I greatly appreciate all the friends, family and co-workers who humor me and go along with all of these silly ideas. They may think I'm crazy or quirky, but deep down I think they all have fun with it too.
Unrelated to random holidays...
Not too long ago I had a friend over for dinner. She moved here from Iraq just 6 months ago. I decided to go with my staple introductions to American things - pizza and s'mores. She had never even had a marshmallow. So imagine trying to explain a marshmallow and that we are going to put in in the fire and then eat it. It was priceless!
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| Learning how to evenly toast the marshmallow |
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| And enjoying the gooey messiness of a good s'more |
I'm also decidedly the queen of cheesy gifts. To appreciate all of the people who have been working so hard on state testing to get it back to me on time, I made some little gift bags. Cheesy, simple, but they let people know they're appreciated.
So if you ever need a little appreciation gift, I'm your girl. :)
I'm still waiting for spring to actually arrive. I long for the warmth of the island. Instead we keep getting days like this...
But I'm not going to complain about getting a day off for school closures :)
