Christmas in July

A couple days ago I randomly started listening to a few Christmas songs while I was on Skype with my boyfriend. We shared some of our favorites.

Tonight, I was reading and wanted to listen to some music and after browsing for a while decided to play my Christmas list. So, I'm listening to that music thinking about my favorite time of the year. I can almost smell eggnog, tea, cookies and chocolate. I can almost taste butter cookies, gingerbread, marzipan and cinnamon. I can almost see the lights and candles, the Christmas tree standing tall decorated with all the ornaments, my parents and brothers dressed up.

I picture my mother in the kitchen preparing Christmas Eve dinner. I'm setting the table with our nicest dishes, glasses, tableware and napkins. One of my brothers is walking around with the camera taking pictures. Daddy is bringing in wood and lighting a fire in the fireplace. My other brothers are helping Mama in the kitchen, opening the wine bottles, fetching the chilled drinks from the downstairs fridge. Soon everything is ready and we gather around the table, say grace and enjoy dinner. Afterward we clear the dishes, put away the leftovers, and then gather in the living room to hear the Christmas Story. I recite it from memory and then we start opening presents. They are handed out one at a time so everyone can see what each gift is and to make the present opening last longer. After the presents Mama makes tea and we sit around drinking tea, eating cookies and other sweets. We might watch a movie that someone got as a gift then go to bed after midnight. Or we might stay up building legos, playing with toys, reading, etc.

I love Christmas. Some of my happiest memories are during the Christmas season. Mama always makes it special and I want to continue this tradition when I have my own family some day.

Coughing

I've been sick with a cough for the past few days. It's sorta annoying to go from hectic busy schedule to now spending the whole day at home. But I still manage to keep myself occupied. My computer keeps me busy chatting with my boyfriend, watching Hulu, blogging and facebook. I cooked dinner last night which wiped me out and then I went to bed early.

Coughing is annoying because it makes your lungs hurt, your ribs and back ache and gives you a headache and a sore throat. But you all know that because you have had coughs before. I guess I'm just being impatient today. I want to be over this sickness. I'm tired of all this.

Tomato and Beef Pasta Sauce

I enjoy cooking. I don't cook very often for my family but I like to once a week. Tonight I was tired and a little sick but everyone else was busy so I browned the ground meat for dinner and threw in a few more ingredients to make this pasta sauce.



Recipe:

2 pounds ground beef
a few shakes of italian seasoning
some salt
grind some pepper over the top
1/2 red onion
~1 cup sliced mushrooms
a few splashes of red wine vinegar
a few splashes of Bragg's Liquid Aminos
1 can of tomato sauce
half a cup frozen spinach

Brown ground meat and remove fat. Add spices, onion and mushroom. Cook until onions are soft. Add red wine vinegar and Bragg's Liquid Aminos. Then add tomato sauce and spinach. Let simmer for a while. Taste and then make any modifications. Serve over any pasta you want to.

Internship

Yesterday, I registered for classes for next semester. I don't have an internship for next semester so I couldn't register for the internship class that I need in order to graduate. So my plan is to finish this semester and then return home to intern in the dojo next year. I will have to make a few trips down to school for my internship class during the spring semester. But this will be nice and give me an excuse to visit all my friends down there. I think this way my "last" semester is going to be less stressful. I'm already looking forward to school.

Another thing that I'm thinking about is getting a job for this fall. It would be helpful to make some money to cover car expenses and such. So, I'm thinking of places and working on applications.