And the drums and the drums and the drums

Above, is a picture of me right before my school's annual Labyrinth Festival. I am holding the lantern that was made for me to walk through the labyrinth with. All the kids made their own (much smaller) lanterns and we walked through the labyrinth under a full moon and sang songs, most of which I had not learned because I missed the rehearsal due to my trip to Chicago. I leaned over to one of the kids during the performance and said, "I don't know the words, I'm just following you because you seem to know them." She said, "Oh, no problem. The next song we are singing is Simple Gifts and it goes like this: Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free, tis a gift to turn round where we ought to be.. and then it goes..." I was unsuccessful in an attempt to interrupt her to say, "Oh, I know THAT song." Anyway. The whole performance was pretty cool. I work with a bunch of hippies and I mean that in the kindest, coolest, way. To illustrate, our school's music teacher is on a European tour with his band at the moment. How's that for street cred?

James and I had been told that we HAD to go to the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park, so on the 23rd, we did.
Walking through the tunnel was definitely the coolest part, though I didn't manage it without a bit of vertigo, and neither, apparently, did several of the dogs walking through it.

While overall, I give the Trail of Lights 3 out of 5 stars (the average rating is mostly due to the shameless product and character placement, but I suppose SOMEONE has to pay for the Trail of Lights, right?), there were some exhibits worth mentioning.
That one's for Rebecca.
Here you have ELF Scott Fitzgerald, ELFred Einstein, etc.
Austin's the only place I know with a cupcake stand, by the way. The cupcake is highly celebrated here.
And you always wondered how Santa reached all those houses in one night. He takes a space ship. Obviously.


Also, Texas may be the only place where even the armadillos get excited about the holidays. This display definitely made me laugh. Here we have armadillos in sombreros dancing in front of a trailor with a cow skull on it.

And this, well, there's so much to say about this! First, Mary. What is she doing with her hands? Directing traffic? Reciting the Girl Scout Pledge? Secondly, I know Jesus was the Son of God and all, but I had no idea he was such a large infant! Seeing baby Jesus this size, makes Mary seem awesome. Of course, she's not exactly small-boned, herself, according to this artist's rendering.

So, Christmas. We were spoiled, gift-wise. I have roughly 14 new books to read due to gifts and gift cards. I can now listen to my ipod again because I got new headphones for it. I have new shoes and piles of new tights. Gretchen sent me Fawlty Towers on DVD, and Rebecca remembered that roughly 3 years ago, I had seen a book in a bookstore I liked, and she sent that. (I miss my girls). My sister got me a blanket that I love. It's the kind of blanket that would be at the bed you sleep in at your grandma's house. The kind you would eat chicken noodle soup under if you weren't vegan.

On Christmas morning, we made cookies. Gingerbread cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate chip cookies. We had to eat them for about a month because I forgot that the reason most people bake Christmas cookies is to give them away to friends. Since we don't really HAVE that many friends here, we had to give them away to ourselves, which took much longer to achieve, but was just as delicious, perhaps moreso.

Roughly a month after my mom mailed it, we received The Missing Box from her. Originally sent FedEx, it arrived with a UPS label on it. Upon closer inspection, it was obvious that the box had been opened re-taped, and some of the gifts inside had been opened, too. But nothing was missing! James's theory is that it was delivered to the wrong place, some kid was home alone, opened the box and started going through it, and was caught by his parents, who said, "What are you doing?! That's not for you!! You wrap those things back up RIGHT now and tape that box back up! You do not open things that don't belong to you!"Anyway, it arrived! It was like having Christmas twice! And, there was a hand vac in the package designed specifically for picking up pet hair, which would prove to be very important.