life uncommon

i'm totally into jewel right now. that's so weird... like i'm listening to jewel - spirit which came out like... i dunno like 6 or 7 years ago. its funny how things sometimes become re-relivant to your life again after a long period of time. but this time its different. its like i'm seeing things with a different perspective than i did originally. so i appologize in advance for all the jewel quotes.

ok, so i had a really great christmas with my clan. i have a very unique family, and i totally recognize that. i was thinking it would probably take over 2 hours of straight talking to explain my family situation. i love 'em. on christmas eve, joy, tim, me, mom and carol (tim's mom) sat up talking until 1:30. it was really nice. it was a deep conversation, one of those conversations that can't be planned and can't be contrived. it hit me that not all families talk like that. deep intimate conversations. i'm glad we do. my mom has always confided in us, and i realize that's not always good. and there were times where playing that role was very difficult. but i'm good now. and i'm happy that inspite the fact that i'm only 26 i have hordes of life experience under my belt. it better equips me for my life ahead. i'm not the kind of person that learns from other peoples experiences, only from my own.

christmas day was great. i got some nice gifts, but it was really fun seeing the pleasure my gifts gave my family. i got tim "cities and knights" and he was so shocked and excited that he got all chocked up and started crying. awwww. it was soo cute. poor tim, he was soo embarrassed. he kept saying "les, this is too much, we'll give you some money", but it was ok. it WAS too expensive, but its worth making him so happy. i managed to balance my books. i also got him a marilyn monroe calander which we all got a real kick out of. hahahaha. its so unlike tim. they were alittle confused why i had given it to him, but they caught on to the irony. besides, i told them, marilyn monroe was a size 14! joy once again gave me an iq puzzle (can i call it or what!), but this one was really hard. i sat it down for a little while and when i got back to it everything just fell into place. i gave joelle her hula-hoop and demonstrated for her so she'd know what it was for. then everyone had a go, it was so funny. when it was joy's turn joelle was yelling "go mommy go! go mommy go!!" it was amazing, she's becoming a real little kid and not a baby anymore. i slept in the spare bed in her room and i joked that it was the kid room just like when we were camping this summer we were in the kid room then too. i was like "ok joelle, but no peeing the bed this time" but that's a whole 'nother story. on christmas morning there were stockings at the foot of both of our beds. hahahaha. it was so funny because mom and joy and decided over 10 years ago that we weren't going to have stockings anymore and that had really ticked me off. i felt ripped off, so joy said to tim "i've got to make one for les too". hahaha. ah, good times.

my dad came for dinner and stayed for the entire evening. it was nice the 4 of us sitting watching a movie together. teasing each other, enjoying each others company. it was nice.

God, won't you please hold me, release me,
show me the meaning of mercy
let me loose, let me fly,
i won't be held down
i won't be held back
i will lead with my faith