A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

My mind is scattered, so I can’t be held responsible for what I write today. Thanksgiving was really good. My parents and sister came to visit, which is always nice. Thanksgiving in Texas means a giant meal with 50 people, followed by driving for an hour, followed by another giant meal with 50 people. You come home stuffed and exhausted. In the last two years that my parents have been coming to Nashville to visit, I’ve learned what a relaxing holiday is supposed to be like. Who knew you could actually spend time with your family in between mouthfuls? Chelsea and I saw Harry Potter together, which was fabulous as she has been obsessed with HP for years and we finally got to share that. I still really liked it. I’m curious as to how the movies are if you haven’t read the books, though… so much of the backstory is missing, I wonder if it even makes sense some of the time. Anytime you try to pare down a 700-page movie to a 2-1/2 hour script, things will be missing, but overall I was pleased with what they chose to shoot. I was, however, a little disappointed with Voldemort. I read a review that said he is much more frightening unknown than he is known, and I completely agree. I just didn’t get the creepy vibe from the movie that I did from the book… skinny, bald, pale Voldemort just wasn’t very scary. Monday night was a tough one in the Manes house: we ruined our undefeated volleyball season on the last night. And it was ugly, folks. We just could not get it together. It’s really hard for me sometimes to keep my competitive nature in check. Volleyball is something I am pretty good at, and when things like Monday night happen, I get really frustrated. So we go into the tournament in second place, with the first round next week and the final two the week following. I am nervous. Someone please remind me that this is church league! And now for the good news… tonight is Christmas decoration night! Woo-hoo! We usually put our tree up Thanksgiving weekend, but we just plain ran out of time. So tonight it is. I am so stinking excited. We’ll listen to Brenda Lee, put up the tree, wear some socks pulled to our knees. (Maybe not that last part.) Aaron will play along and pretend like he loves Christmas music. Because we leave for Texas on the 16th, we’ll take everything down a good 10 days before Christmas. Sometimes it seems silly to go to all this trouble to just turn around and take it down, but I can’t imagine not having a tree in our house. It doesn’t feel like the holidays without it. I’ve been listening to Behold the Lamb of God, both to get in the holiday spirit and in preparation of the big show next weekend. This is by far my favorite holiday album, so much so that I don’t even consider it Christmas music. I listen to it all year. This will be our fourth year attending the concert (and my fourth Christmas in Nashville!), and it is such a nice tradition. Nice is such a lame word sometimes, but it’s the perfect description for this. Nice. Is it wrong that my mom started a new job on Monday, and the thing I was most worried about was what she wore and whether she got any compliments on the fabulous purse I picked out for her? (She did, by the way, all positive. Good thing she’s got me to be her style consultant.)