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!