In Which I Belatedly Form some New Year's Not-Resolutions,

So, I haven't blogged in a while, mostly due to lots of stuff happening in the family that I had to process, and didn't want to blog about- a family member died, which caused a sudden trip to South Texas to go through some family stuff, and a whirlwind trip to Corpus Christi, to check on the house, then back home. Got to see my grandmother Sawyer and my (great) aunt Dotty, as well as some extended Eppler family, so, awesome.

Also, I got a new (to me) car! Which I completely adore. I adore the AC. I adore the cupholders. I adore the internal compass. I adore the CD player. I adore the fact that when I find it in a parking lot I am always pleasantly shocked that this is my car. I adore my dad for financing it for me. It is awesome.

Then, Thanksgiving came, and I worked through it (literally, meaning worked, at work.), but thought, no big deal; I'll probably get a chance to rest up and catch up on blogging soon, and see my niece Aubrey and my sister Liz before they (visit? Move? I don't know) to that southern state of... can't remember. Georgia? Alabama? Mississippi? One of those.

Anyhow. BIG mistake. I forgot that I work retail. And the holidays hit, starting before Thanksgiving, like a sledgehammer on crack. So for me most of the months of November and December were like a runaway freight train decorated for Christmas and playing Christmas songs, with me clinging to the caboose for dear life... I ended up working Christmas Eve through two days after... it was a huge exhausting blur, but I did manage to get all my presents wrapped and all my Christmas cards mailed, and I got some amazing gifts as well, including purple microplush sheets, an MP3 player, and a digital frame for my 5 million photos!! Yay! 

I did get to take lots of pictures of Christmas lights, though, like this one: 

And, I did get my picture taken, not with Santa Claus, but with one of his employees: 

(I may or may not have been pretending that he was my new boyfriend. You will just have to wonder.)

I'll post some of the other pics from Christmas at the end of the blog. 

Anyhow, New Year's Eve finally descended upon me and I, as usual, defiantly refused to make any New Year resolutions because I think they are ridiculous and self-defeating. However, because I kept focusing on how I wasn't making any resolutions, it accidentally got my attention focused on resolutions and what I would resolve if I made any resolutions, which I don't. It's confusing, but stay with me, because, lo and behold, I realized there ARE some things I would like to improve on in the near future,  and here they are. They are NOT resolutions!

I would like to work on becoming more generous with my time, abilities, and money. I hadn't noticed it, but in the past couple of years especially, I've been so consumed with either working or recovering from working that I have almost blocked everything else out, and that is no way to live life. So, that's one non-resolution that I am going to work on, in baby steps. 

I would like to operate out of grace and mercy rather than judgment and condemnation. When I get stressed out in situations, more and more I've found myself falling into the blame-game, which I know is wrong! I've been given so, SO much incredible grace and mercy and forgiveness in so many areas in my life, not even counting the lavish grace and forgiveness my God has given me. It is inexcusable for me to then turn around and offer criticism and blame and condemnation to fellow human people when I get stressed out or I'm overwhelmed. So that's an area I'd like to see change. 

And to sum up, and make a long story short, because I'm tired of typing, most of all I would like to draw closer to Jesus personally. I've let my relationship with Him take second place for a while, and while I'm not going to make any resolutions such as, "this year I will get up at 3 am every day and pray for 1 hour, and read only the most boring parts of the bible for 2 hours, and then take a cold shower, and then do 500 sit-ups, and then run a marathon, and then get dressed and go to work," (because it seems almost a little arrogant to make resolutions like that, don't you think?) I'm definitely going to take steps to work on my relationship with Him. Spend more time with Him. Because I know that is where everything springs from. Everything.

Well, I haven't blogged in quite a while, so hopefully this will make up for it, for Mom and Lakendra. :-)

Here are the rest of my Christmas pics:  

Ha! Okay, I did get a picture with Santa. This was when my mom and I went to Grapevine & checked out the lights there. It was fun.