Happiness Is...

I'm putzing around my cozy little apartment, talking to my sister A most of the morning, unpacking Christmas decorations, cleaning the kitchen ... and this song popped into my head!  I couldn't honestly even remember what it was from or where I'd heard it, so I googled (I'm in love with google) and it's from the play You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!  The neat and nostalgic thing about THAT discovery is that my college theater group put on that show my junior year and they did an AMAZING job.  It brought back a lot of memories, which made an already good day even better :)

Spiced Orange

Possibly one of the most delicious smells in the world.

PS.  My Bath and Body Works soaps came today. FAST!!  And they're all wonderful -- my favorite is the "spiced orange" (aka, the title of this blog) and "winter candy apple."

It Was Not a Silent Night

This morning, a colleague of mine was in charge of chapel, and one of the songs he played was this one -- "Labor of Love," by Andrew Peterson.  The holiday season hasn't really begun, and already I can feel myself getting busier and busier, focusing on things and dates and deadlines and prices instead of quieting my heart and focusing on being thankful for what Christmas allows me to remember about my Savior...


There are a thousand Christmas songs, but this one touched my heart this morning.  I am attaching the youtube video, as well as the lyrics, so that you can hear the beautiful vocal talent of Jill Phillips, but I'm not a huge fan of the actual images in the video -- I don't know that they coalesce the way I'd like them to with the lyrics.  I suggest playing the video so you can HEAR, but I would read the lyrics while listening, rather than watching the video.  Enjoy the vulnerability and beauty of this song.

"Labor of Love" 
-- written by Andrew Peterson, sung by Jill Phillips

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

Being a Woman Who Loves to Talk

Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. 
~William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speech by something outside himself - like, for instance, he can't find any clean socks. 
~Jean Kerr

Soap and Cookies

One of the perks of being single is being able to splurge on the small luxuries that big families can't always afford.  For me, yummy-smelling soaps are the best kinds of little luxuries.  Bath and Body Works has some of the best scented soaps for the holiday season.  Check them out here...

 





And if you google "bath and body works shipping codes," you'll get hooked up with a code that allows you to have 20% of your entire order and save $3 on the usually $5.99 shipping cost.  So you can get the 6 soaps for $20 deal delivered to your front door for ... drumroll please ... only twelve cents more!!  My total yesterday was $20.12 and I'm excited to get my Christmas-y smell-y soap-y-wonderful-ness in a few days.  :)

The only thing better than a yummy-smelling soap is something yummy-smelling that is actually edible -- and my favorite website for holiday baking and Christmas cookie-making is the one and only:

 allrecipes.com!

The thing I love about allrecipes.com is that readers can rank recipes -- so I only ever use the ones that get five stars and lots of reviews -- and they also do a "cookie countdown" for the month of December.  Each day, they'll email you a new Christmas cookie recipe :)  I've found that allrecipes.com has WONDERFUL recipes that are very easy to follow.  I highly recommend!