Holly Jolly

It's officially Christmas time in the Christenson home!
I love this video so much still. This is the Killers single from last year and I'm pretty sure I posted it then too. A clip from my favorite Christmas movie plus Brandon's amazing bolo tie and then the touching story of the man down on his luck makes this one of the best music videos in history.
Check out their Christmas single for 2011 too, it's not as touching but it's fun.

When I first realized I would marry Ed I was kinda bored with the name Christenson because it's pretty common, but having been a Christenson for almost two and a half years now I have learned to take pride in it. I love our more unique spelling of having "on" at the end instead of the more typical "en". The greatest part about this way of spelling is that when I really look at the word, it says
"Christ the Son"
I will always appreciate having Christ's name in my own name. I hope that I can treat this Christmas as a celebration of Christ and not just as a happy holiday that makes me feel good. I want to really focus on the Savior and how to be more like Him. That's my goal this Christmas.

I also need to think of something really great to give Ed.

And put Kona's Christmas sweater on her as much as possible.

These next three weeks will be the worst. I'm doomed for sure, but I did it to myself. Procrastination has never been worse for me, but hey, for my last semester I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm literally trying not to care about school as much because I've always wanted to not care. By no means am I a perfectionist or an all A student, but I don't think I've ever just totally given up on any assignment. Gosh, for once I just want to not turn in an assignment or not take a final (oh wait, I did that last semester...dumbest moment of my life). Anyway, I have yet to write 2 research papers plus 9 additional papers on top of that. Not to mention two more grad school applications. Whatever, it will get done somehow. Just three more weeks and I will be a college graduate.

So I now teach a ballet class. Yay. They had their recital on Monday night and it was so fun to be there with them. It made me miss my performances in the Cobb Civic Center so much.

Ed and I are hooked on the Real Housewives again so I'm off to go catch up on about three episodes instead of doing school work. I love that my husband loves these shows just as much as me.

Prima Dreaming

     I am literally overwhelmed right now with the beauty of the classic prima ballerinas. It's Friday night and I have found myself glued to my computer screen on a website with hundreds of classic ballerina photos. These pictures make me want to jump off the couch, pointe my toes, and leap in the snow pouring down outside. These are amazing women, full of power and grace. As I look at these pictures and study their faces, I can literally feel their emotion. I like to put myself in their shoes for a minute and imagine bowing for thousands of people cheering and yelling "Bravo!" for me as I stand on the greatest stages in the most beautiful theaters in the world. I am wearing a gorgeous romantic tutu and holding my partner's hand, smiling for the whole world to see. People are throwing red rose bouquets on the stage in front of me and I am overcome with joy. I may even shed a tear on that stage. What could it have been like to be these women? Rehearsal every day, glamorous costumes, and ballets choreographed just for me. Dancing with the greats, classical training, my teachers screaming "feel the music! straighten that knee!" (in Russian or something depending on which prima I was). And I'm sweating in rehearsal and thinking about just quitting ballet for good, but then it's opening night and I'm at the curtain call with people screaming my name and it's all so worth it. This must have been how they felt. Well, it's how I like to imagine they felt. It reminds me of this quote from my all time favorite prima, Sylvie Guillem. This is taken from an interview: But does she ever think of stopping? "Mais, oui," she says, looking astonished. "All the time, and for many, many years. And sometimes you think, why do I do all of this? Because you feel a little bit lost, a bit tired. But then you wake up a bit more and you go and you are excited by what you do." She pauses to consider how to describe what drives her on. "It’s because when finally you achieve something, then you are alive and you did something that only you can do. And if you don’t do it, if you don’t push yourself to do it, and look for the best way to do it, then you don’t wake up". I love that quote. I love her with all my heart. What a spunky woman. I have to think that all the women in these picture had a bit of spunk in them. If I could pick any alternate life, I would have been one of Balanchine's favorites and danced with Baryshnikov for ABT and NYCB. And of course I would guested all around the world. In other words I guess I would have been Gelsey Kirkland. I love ballet because it puts me somewhere else. It's a magical world. It's not that I'm trying to escape this world or my life, but it was always nice to just get caught up in the music and feel nothing but the elation of dancing on stage. Lipstick, hairspray, headpieces, pointe shoes, pink tights, tutus, long legs, and perfect pirouettes. That's what I would wish for.

     But that's not my life. And I'm thankful for what my life really is. I'm thankful that I had the chance to live a much smaller version of this ballerina mania in my own small little company back in Marietta. We had small performances and got yelled at quite a lot. But we also felt the absolute joy of being on stage and bowing at the curtain call for that smallish theater. Our parents and a few friends. Those were good times. Well that's my escape for the night. I just wanted to tribute to these wonderful women in these pictures. They are absolutely gorgeous and they deserve a thank you.
(more pictures of these lovelies on my pinterest)

November Weekend

It's been a really good weekend. 

We started early with Ed's birthday on Thursday : he opened presents throughout the day, we went to our beloved Rice King for lunch with sister Cindy and talked about everything under the sun, suffered together through the worst class on earth (philosophy), ate some good mexican with friends and ordered "The Rock", I blindfolded Ed and kind of surprised him (I am not that skilled at surprises apparently), bowled the night away with our best friends wearing party hats, and came home late to eat the cheesecake I made together in bed while watching Modern Family. Wow. Happy 23rd Birthday, Ed! 

Then it was Friday. I had a super easy day at work which consisted of going to the driving range, hanging out at the park, eating an amazing thanksgiving style lunch, and clocking out after a "hard day's work". Then we test drove two cars, argued about it, and decided to just wait it out and chill on the new car thing. We are sick of these car dealers trying to screw us left and right. Then we ate at The Smoking Apple....oh thank goodness for that place. We stopped by the intramural game that Ed is a new member of and watched our friend Marc break his ankle and get rushed to the hospital. Came home and layed in bed watching Nomeo and Juliet on Netflix.

Saturday was next. The morning consisted of sleeping in, t.v., eating the Hickory Farms summer sausage I got Ed for his birthday, and trying to decide what to do with our lives that day. We ended up going to see Tower Heist and laughed out loud in the theater almost the entire movie. Then we walked around window shopping making sure to stop by Williams Sonoma to oodle and pretend like we're rich. Got some apple cider and carrot cake samples and stopped by in the toy store that was playing Christmas music to get in the spirit of the holidays. Then we headed home and Ed helped me make a cake for our friend Kelli's birthday. We celebrated her birthday at Outback and headed to her house to play games. We went to bed late knowing that we had an extra hour for daylight savings and slept in this morning.

I'm sorry if this was boring to read, but one day I will look back on this weekend and remember that all I need is my husband, my friends, some good food, and my kitty to be happy. Today we have been playing hand and foot together and laughing at Kona, watching football and cuddling in blankets. It's been nice. Now we have to start a new week and I know I will regret not doing any homework or graduate school applications but what the heck, I've enjoyed my life.

November does amazing things to me. It is one of my favorite months because to me, it's all about family. It's about being thankful and vamping up for the best holidays. It's about getting close to ending a semester and this year, ending my undergrad! It starts to get chilly and every day I hope to wake up and have no snow, but it's coming, I can feel it. I start to drink hot chocolate every night without fail and plan all the presents I will buy my favorite people. I will definitely miss my parents this year at Thanksgiving, but I'm excited to have another Christenson feast. Now I'm off to help finish off the cheesecake and eat as many yummy things as I can because tomorrow I'm back on the diet. 

Signing off, a very content Amanda.