The Holiday Dust is in the Air! And the Dishes... And on the Dog... And on Me... And in my Room... And Pretty Much Every Other Imaginable Place!

So after the post about Bacon, I decided to actually write a real post, since I think that a few people might actually read my blog now(which I am not trying to imply pity or anything, it's me who's not keeping up with it all that much). I will keep trying to experiment with indention and stuff, and if not, I will curse the blog silently and not do anything about it. Call me an activist. Guess what I noticed the other day? Let me describe the sensation. It was a smell, the smell of Christmas trees, of the holidays, of happy baking and family and presents, of food and fall and Thanksgiving, of hosting many many people and getting excited about the packages that arrive. It was the smell of happiness, of no school, of longing for snow, of not being able to go in mama and papa's room because of presents, the smell of pure waiting all year long. Have you guessed the smell? Okay, I'll tell you. It's DUST! Yeah, I live in a place where the smell of dust is what I associate with Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and my birthday. It's kind of sad, yet at the same time, maybe it explains why last year, when we were in the States, I felt like something was missing from Christmas. Maybe it was because I didn't wake up on Christmas eve with a nosebleed and have to peek at all the presents. I mean, don't get me wrong, Christmas last year was just as fun, balanced out, because I was with my family, and snow, and Starbuck's Mint Hot Chocolate... But the smell seemed to be missing. So I assume that everyone is pretty much as excited as I am. I was telling mama that this is probably the first year I actually wrote a Christmas list in time for everything to be ordered(September) and might get some of the stuff on there. Usually, everyone just chooses my presents for me. I almost felt sad, because maybe the fun in getting Christmas presents is not being able to pick every one up, shake it, and proudly declare the exact contents. I mean, I've pretty much forgotten everything on the list now, so that might not be the case, but I still think it's a little fun. I remember reading in books 'We opened our presents on Christmas morning. I got everything on my list...' and I thought about how strange that was. 'Everything on his list? Every single thing? Nothing more? That's what having allowance is for, getting everything you want to have.' You can see that my parents go all out on holidays because we don't actually get many presents much the rest of the year, which is okay. Buying your own stuff is part of preparing for college, when you can't buy anything. Also, my sister's birthday is on Thanksgiving, and we have to celebrate it tomorrow, otherwise it will be a Thanksgiving/Birthday mash-up and would be a little less Autumnal. I also got her a present this year that I actually put a lot of thought into. I mean, not that I never put thought into her present, but I completely forgot what I got her last year. Maybe I should put some more thought into remembering as well, but any who, I think she'll like this present. I would just go ahead and tell everyone what it is because I doubt that she'd read this and because even though she's sitting next to me right now... I still doubt she's look at it and know what I got her. I still can't believe she's turning twelve. It's even stranger to think that when we left on furlough, she was ten. And I was twelve. And now I'm almost fourteen, and it's been almost a year since we came back. And then it will be only a year until we go back, which is a scary feeling because that means I have to compile my new book list of what books I'm going to buy, and then work out their page numbers and weights so that I won't end up with 100 pounds of books like I did last time(I'm not kidding, I had 100 pounds). You know, a Blog, now that I think about it, is a strange thing. You read how people ramble on with their train of thought, and say if they're a boring person, with an average family, what's the fun in that? Some people do that though. And then there's the food blog thing, which everyone is doing. Although I will say that reading all about food is not a bad thing, just because you like to frown and mumble at the 'Cooking from Scratch' blogs that use cake mixes. I'd like to point out to all of you that to a missionary kid, cooking from scratch is not cake mix, it's making your own tortillas... Starting with taking the corn down to the mill to ground into millet. Not that we do that all the time, just when we can't find pre-ground millet. So now that I've spoken my piece about rambling on, and figuring I've been rambling on for quite a while now, I'll stop, and only say... MANAMANA!