Happy Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve all! I'm out here in Arkansas, celebrating the 2nd Annual Barlow Sisters Christmas Festival, under the guise of Frandsen Family Christmas, with Special Guest Single Aunt Kate - who throws a mean dance party most nights.

I flew out last night, arriving in Little Rock, AR, around 11:30pm - Abby picked me up, then rehearsed her crazy shopping escapades on the Eve of the Eve of Christmas, which worked as a precursor to our decision to check out her local Walmart (working 24 hours during this festive family holiday time) to find something that the Little Rock Walmart was not stocked in. I was working on a week with very restless sleeps, and I was also coming from an hour ahead, so when we got to Walmart around 1am, it was really 2am. I'm not sure how I made it through that store without totally collapsing, but I do know that I felt very welcomed by my air mattress in my "bedroom" when we finally made it home.

And that 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night was much needed. So was a lot more, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Christmas Eve has been full of family and children and tiredness - so about the normal Eve for me. The real festivities started in the evening, which they usually do, when we had fondue for a dinner - a Frandsen Family tradition. It was delicious, and as an improvement from last year, Abby was didn't over-season the meat. Way to go, Abs, I knew you could do it!

Then we made graham cracker shacks - which turned into wide open snowscapes for most of us. The icing, bless its heart, would not harden, so Abby's first attempt at a standing residence fell flat - pun totally and completely intended! - so we decided to shoot for an open field of snow to decorate. I started working on a nice scene, my story all coming together in my mind. Then little nephew Will liked what he was seeing and joined in. Suddenly I was making up all sorts of implausible stories for the various additions, and I had more mini gummy bears and sour patch kids than I planned and the populating of the little village I had resigned to him starting got way out of hand.

I was getting ready to go all China on my scene and disallow sour patch families more than one mini gummy child, when Will got distracted and moved to something a little more profitable to himself:

But all in all, the snowscape looked pretty good:

A bit chaotic perhaps, but good.

Niece Ellee did a pretty good job on her scape as well (she and I shared a "grinch" theme in one corner of both of our scenes), and Abby created a cute little "love shack" for her and Devn:

Then we finished up the night with the kids watching "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" while Abby and Devn got the Christmas Eve present ready. Then we opened the Eve present, which was Christmas jammies - Ellee got cute silkies, Will was a dinosaur, and Greg was almost a reindeer, but his head was too big for the matching cap. Don't worry, we forced it on that large noggin anyway. But the best part? The matchy-matchy of it, and I'm not talking about the kids. The best part is that at this very moment, 3 adults are walking around the same house in matching gray shirts and blue scrub pants. And the kids are nowhere near matching. Sweet, huh? No? Awkward, you say? In a slightly fun and uncomfortable, giggle-inducing way, yes it is indeed a little awkward...

The kids are all asleep now, having enjoyed a hand/foot puppet version of the Nativity, where we remember why Christmas is even something to celebrate. Devn did a good job of explaining to Ellee that Christmas is important because we celebrate the baby Jesus and what His life - and death - was for. It would seem her reasoning that we like getting presents wasn't an acceptable answer to why we celebrate Christmas. And it all ended with a sweet prayer by Ellee, blessing Santa Claus and his grandma, that they can make it around the world to all the children safely. It was maybe one of the sweetest prayers requesting pagan wishes that I've ever heard.

But now, I'm off to help, um, Santa, yes him, to get some gifts ready for the children. He's got a busy night, so I thought I'd offer whatever help I can give. This is, after all, the best time of year to give service.

So Merry Christmas Eve, all! Enjoy your Christmas - I'm certainly intending to!

My Apologies

I'm so sorry I've made you read such stupid, random posts. I've been a little busy lately, full of activities that I was in the middle of, so writing about them didn't sound super exciting. And when I finally got opportunities to write, my brain was mostly shut off, so nothing of actual interest or import was recognized as good topics to write about.

Let me tell you what I've been up to:
Heading up a Sub-for-Santa project in our ward - our awesome ward raised almost $9,000 at our service auction (what?!). I was 1/3 in charge of setting up the spending of the money, and then we followed it up with a ward wrapping party, and we had to figure out how to get the presents to the 46 families we were helping. Really, really cool project. Really, really complex and difficult to plan. I'm impressed it went off as well as it did...

Crazy week of Congress. Read the news. Read a small part of one of my last posts. It's been kind of crazy. And it's not done yet - Congress is in session Tuesday. Hopefully that'll be the last day for this 111th session of Congress.

Various Christmas Festivities - we had our ward's Christmas program last Sunday, a stake Christmas fireside last Sunday night, and another Choir Christmas Concert on Tuesday, which my roommate was in. My audience participation took a lot of time out of my week. Totally worth it. I LOVE Christmas!

I spoke in Church today. That basically destroyed my brain the whole week. I won't lie, this was the hardest talk I've ever had to give. Usually I can get some semblance of confidence in my talks by Saturday night, so I send it to my parents to read and tell me what a good and eloquent writer I am and how spiritual I can be. Apparently I was not supposed to feel good about the talk or about myself beforehand. So I experienced a first today - I winged it for 1/2 of my talk. I hope I never have to do that again...thanks everyone in my ward for being so sweet to me after. You built me back up after my intense humbling and multiple freakouts. You rock!

But I also got to do some fun, no-stress activities as well, which saved me from spontaneously combusting at any moment:
Capitol Tour - I finally got a tour of the Capitol, where I work...yikes, I'm ashamed it took so long! Actually, I'm not really in the Capitol building, but it's connected with the cool underground tunnels, so I still should've been able to explore it earlier than I did. Props to co-worker J and Mike the Intern for tag-teaming the tour I party-crashed. Between the two of you, I'm pretty sure I know all the facts and rumors about the history and interior of the Capitol!
White House Holiday Tour - I also got to go to the White House for a tour yesterday, and I brought my 2 roommates along as well. It was pretty awesome, I tell you what. We got to take our cameras, which usually aren't allowed, but because they had all the holiday decorations and Christmas trees up, they let us take pictures. And a girl in my ward ended up behind us in line, so we enjoyed our wait to get in with her and her sister, and some random girl we befriended as well. To satiate friend Berkley's picture needs, enjoy:

 Roommate Melissa's and my attempt at pretending to be touring Europeans. The peace sign is still big over there, I've noticed from actual European tourists around here.

 Bo the dog. He's gotta be represented. Didn't see any 3-D re-creations of the family, but of the dog, yes.

 There were between 1-6 trees in every room. They were gorgeous. I truly enjoyed the trees everywhere.

 The cool yule tunes of the White House Choir. When I get a really big house to live in, I think I will also have a room for a choir to reside in so they can serenade my visitors at any moment as well. Classy touch.

 The stairs to the family living quarters. It's weird to think a family actually lives here...

The White House is a pretty good-looking place, particularly at night. I was glad I got the opportunity to check the East Wing out, and during Christmas especially. It was a fun night going through there, and then walking outside to a lit up downtown DC. And, the WH security guys are probably the best-looking security in the city. I'm going to have to get more connected with this place, methinks...

So was that enough of an event dump for you? It was for me, phew. Re-hashing the week in summary form made me more tired than I already was from living it the 1st time. But I fly to Abby's for Christmas on Thursday, so I'm living for the mid-week at this point.

I hope your holiday plans are as fun as I'm expecting mine to be! All I want for Christmas is for Chicago to not get any snow until I've flown in and out on my way to Holiday Happiness - I hope Santa gets it for me!

Croutons with a salad on the side

I've been eating salads lately for lunch - it's kind of a new thing for me. I haven't generally been much of a salad person, but lately salad bars and complimentary side salads have really been hitting the spot.

The cafeteria at work has a pretty good salad bar, and, due to my lack of decisiveness, I find myself going to it more and more despite having a rather extensive choice of other delicious options. One unforeseen side effect of this: I feel like I'm so strong-willed and wise everyday when I bypass the chicken fingers and the pizza bar.

The fun part about a salad bar is all the options. Now our bar is pretty good, but not amazing - if it were, there would be all sorts of crazy and interesting choices, like pineapple or apples or craisins (how can something like craisins not be crazy - just look at that name. Craisins. Craaaaisins. Yeah, that's a good word). But I've still been enjoying what we do have.

For instance, I've come to realize I really like peas in my salad. I also take 1 or 2 cherry tomatoes, just because they're kinda fun to pop in your mouth and eat whole. I particularly like getting one really big one, and seeing if I could actually eat it whole. Turns out, my mouth really is as big as I've always given it credit for, because I have a 100% success rate with all the tomatoes I've gotten. Usually, it's the tomato juice squirting that you have to be mindful of...otherwise that can allow for some awkward moments when your desk is in the front office like mine is...

Needless to say, I've become a bit of a salad-making proficient these days. And I feel so healthy, to boot!

...that is, until I reach the end of the counter, and I nod hello to my friend the crouton bowl, and I dish in an embarrassing amount of croutons on the top of my salad. Honestly, it's almost shameful - I spend more time shoveling croutons on my salad than I spend making the rest of it.

Red-faced, I grab two more croutons, stuff them in the corners of my bowl, slam the lid closed and walk off, trying to cover the clear container with as much of my hands as I can.

All in all, I still feel rather healthy - better to eat a salad with a slightly disproportionate number of delicious, garlic-y croutons than to eat a giant piece of pizza or a greasy hamburger with over-salted fries.

So I pull my head up a little, still feeling good about my food choice and the healthy decision I made.

And then I throw a bag of peanut m&m's on top, destroying whatever respect I was barely maintaining...

Second best thing (behind those succulent croutons) about my new salad cravings? The fact that you just read a whole blog post about it...honestly, I agree - why don't I write about something a little more exciting and interesting than wasting my 5 stalker readers' time with my salad stories?

Because this is as exciting and interesting as I get, baby! I know, your mind was just blown. Sorry to break it to you.

Christmas Lights

Best part about the Christmas season?

Christmas lights, hands down.

I absolutely LOVE Christmas lights! I've spent at least 20 minutes every night during the last week just sitting in my front room of our house, with all the normal lights off, basking in the glowing Christmas tree lights and the lights in our windows. It's the ultimate stress-reliever, I do believe.

Last night, I decided I wanted to go look at Christmas lights around my neighborhood, so I recruited a friend to go for a walk and check out the surrounding homes. She one-upped me and suggested we drive around town and get more lights in a warmer environment. I was quickly persuaded to her way of thinking.

We scoured the streets for potential jackpots, anticipating greatness from some of the particularly grand and enormous manors interpersed around the neighborhoods. Surprisingly, those houses were usually the lamest ones, with little to no lights. It would seem that there aren't many companies out here that put up people's lights, though it is a growing field of industry in the West.

Instead, most of these great estates had the candles in each of the windows. Though disappointed by the lack of lighting curb appeal, the candles seemed really fitting for old, oversized homes. The time period look was the way to go. The houses looked how they might've when they were first built - no electricity, and no light but for solitary candles to light one's way. It was kind of gothic romantic in a way, so I tempered some of my disappointment with historical appreciation.

But we did see some great lightwork among the other homes we passed. There were a lot of lit up penguins, deer, and snowmen; quite a few blow-up Santas waving at us as we passed; and a few trains and sleighs. A few places had the festive one string of lights hung randomly over a bush or doorstep out of necessity. More and more places went retro with the giant lightbulb strings, which I rather liked for their quirkiness.

The best one, though, was a house we stopped at to fully appreciate. It had a nativity lit up in the yard (because it was actually made with lights - it wasn't just hit with a spotlight or something simple). And directly above it was a giant, shining star, with strands of racing lights moving down from the star to the people. So basically, Mary and Joseph, and the baby Jesus, were all being sprayed with starbeams that were constant, quick, and energetic. It was a wonderful sight.

Sadly, there was nothing super over-the-top or outrageous, but we'll go looking for them again next week. There's got to be some kooky lights somewhere. But last night was still so fun, the lights were still great. And then we went back to my friend's house, made hot chocolate and popped some popcorn (popcorn makers may very well be the best thing in the world) and settled in to watch A Muppet Christmas Carol - best rendition of Dickens's classic Holiday story, I'm convinced of it.

Saturday Shopping = Never Again

First off, I would like to take care of a little bit of business. My friend Jillian recently linked my blog to hers in her post of the Brandon Flowers concert we enjoyed on Monday. I will attest to the fact that she did indeed freak out Brandon started singing her favorite song, and she was bouncing all over the place. I am a witness. Thanks again, Jillian, that was a blast!

Secondly, I had a great day today, and I just wanted you to know that. I didn't know until tonight that it was a great day - it could've swung either way, but the end was great, which made the day totally worth it. One of my roommates, Melissa, and I braved the crazy Saturday Target shoppers and loaded ourselves with fun, festive holiday cheer. Then we went back tonight, when it was not so crazy (I will never go to Target at noon on a Saturday weeks before a major holiday ever again. Saturday holiday shoppers=CRAZY!), to get finishing touches and tools we didn't realize we needed until we started to decorate.

We also had a fun guest with us on our second trip - honorary Barlow and dedicated car dancer Lauren Major. She came to town this weekend to check out the DC scene and see how many people could talk her into moving out here...quickly. Turns out, quite a few people were willing to do that - whether they had known her before or not.

She came over and checked out my digs this evening, and I showed her the neighborhood, highlighting a few decent places she could definitely move into. Then she came with Melissa and me to Target: Take 2. We got some good stuff and I was bummed that we had to send Lauren to another friend's house without her seeing the finished product. But it was so fun to see her and catch up, and I really, really hope she moves here!

AND, after a lot of hard work, some of Melissa's blood, and an hour of sweet Christmas music, the place looks great :). I'm giddy with excitement and accomplishment. Pictures to come...when I take them.

Seacrest out.

Do You Know Where Your Teeth Are?

I was on the Metro Friday morning, on my way into work. I was standing near the door so I could pop out quickly once we got to my stop, and I look up at the advertisements that are posted for Metro riders, and one in particular catches my eye:

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR TEETH ARE?
It's quite surprising what people forget to take with them when they get off the Metro. So before you leave, make sure you have everything you brought on. Even your teeth.

With it's accompanying picture of dentures, this may be my favorite Metro ad I've seen yet. Even better than the one that asked people to continue keeping the Metro clean so we could keep child-sized rats out of our railway systems.

Do you know where your teeth are? Because if you don't, I just might...

Pop-Tarts

Apparently Pop-tarts aren't the most common breakfast in Congressional offices.

I'm pretty sure everyone who came to my desk this morning commented on my Pop-tarts. No one usually comments on my choice of breakfast; this sudden notice of what I was eating was slightly uncomfortable.

But not much more was said beyond, "Pop-tarts for breakfast, huh?"

Or, "Enjoy your Pop-tarts..."

Maybe people just like to say the word Pop-tarts.



Pop-tarts.