a merry christmas eve to you!

Christmas Eve is one of my very favorite holidays, and I much prefer to it Christmas. I love it because of the hope and anticipation--something to look forward to! I also enjoy Christmas eve church services and just that most of the celebratory activities take place in the evening or late night. Things just seem cozy and warm in the nighttime.

My family has always opened presents on Christmas morning, leaving not much to do when evening comes around. But Christmas Eve has always been special.

To the left is our tree, very happy and looking well-loved with the pretty wrapped packages!

Updates since last post:

1. I got a job! :O

God is so faithful and has given me a wonderful full-time job. The job is at a college-prep school in San Marino, about three miles away. I work in Admissions as the "Admissions Office Administrator." The school is called Southwestern Academy and it has about 125 students grades 6-12 --half International students, and half American students.

I really feel like God just handed me this job, because I don't think they even interviewed anybody else for the position. Basically, I was getting sick of applying to Craigslist jobs where everyone and their moms were applying. So, I started emailing places that I thought looked interesting and asking about open positions and attaching my resume. I did this with Southwestern, and got a call the next day from the Headmaster asking about an interview. Within a week, I had the job--it was seamless. So after much prayer and as much trust as I could give, God brought me to where I am.

It's amazing to think that a year ago, in Indiana, I was getting up at 3am in the morning to drive a half hour away to work at Macy's, lugging around huge metal fixtures for a few hours, at minimum wage. Incredible. Now I'm getting almost triple that for less than half the work! But I guess that's just how office jobs are.

Before I got this job, I prayed asking God that, whatever job I get, please help me to be a good steward of my money. Please. I feel it is so easy with me and my generation to get carried away with having the most modern material things. I really view this job as a gift, so I feel like I need to give as much as possible in a godly way. It is so easy, once you have excess money, to spend it quickly. I think these last three months when we were pretty low on money really taught me to be super thrifty and get creative.

Speaking of creativity, lately, I've been feeling really crafty! I don't know what has gotten into me, but I want to do all kinds of artsy things! I want to try my hand at painting, sewing all kinds of things, making magnets, thumbtacks, embroidering stuff...We even rearranged our room so that I could have a special place for being creative--ha! I've been reading all these blogs and I'm getting super inspired! I will add some to my "Blogs I Read List." Beware, they can be addicting!

I'm even thinking about starting to write again... Here is a good article I read today: 8 Habits that Kill Creativity

Merry Christmas, friends!