Rock Band of Brothers

This is all my brothers have done this Christmas break. There is also a continual stream of their friends coming over to join in with the rock band awesomeness. All I know is late at night after I've gone to bed I hear the clicking of the drums and the "incredible" guitar solos. Apparently I just don't understand.

Merry Christmas from the Pritz family

Well, it was a wonderful Christmas. We don't have any family near us so our Christmas traditions have always consisted of just my parents, my brothers, and I. Which really works out just fine. On Christmas Eve we always dress up and go out to a fancy restaurant and go see a movie or do something else afterwards, but this year, as my brothers have continually reminded me, I ruined Christmas....by getting bronchitis. Bummer, but I'm on antibiotics and getting better rapidly. Christmas Eve, however, I felt just awful and I wasn't getting dressed up nice much less going out in the cold and going out on the town. This made my mom sad and she didn't want to go with out me so we compromised and got Chinese take out (a family favorite) and watched football in our pajamas. We actually really enjoyed ourselves in the end and my dad was pleased with how much cheaper the Chinese take out was in comparison to what a nice restaurant would have cost.

Christmas morning was fun as usual, my brothers were ridiculous, my parents funny, and our cats loved all of the paper and boxes to play in. We had our traditional lasagna dinner that evening and really just had a easy going, fun, enjoyable day. I am thankful for the birth of our Lord and the gift of my family.

Teddy is so happy about my present.

Teddy got a Digeridoo. Oh my.

This was Scott and Mom's reaction to Teddy's digeridoo playing....

Dallas Roadtrip

A week ago Wednesday I drove through icy roads and fog to visit the Okada family home in Mesquite, TX. There I found my dearest friends Kristen Olson and David Okada who were home for Christmas from Mexico, where they teach English. I also got to spend some wonderful time with the lovely Ruth Okada and her baby to be. It is always great to be at the Okadas and see the whole fam. Our friend from JBU, Robbie, also got to come and visit that Friday for a little family party. I love these friends more than I can say and as I only get to see them a few times a year now instead of everyday like when we were in school together, I savor these times I get to spend with them. There is never a dull moment when we are together, that is for sure.

Youth Girls Christmas Craft/Bake Fest

I made another go at being a youth leader--a job I don't necessarily feel equipped for, but I am available so I'm trying my best--and hosted a Christmas party. We didn't do a bible study this time just pure Christmas bonding time. We made puppy chow, chocolate covered dried apricots, chocolate covered ritz peanut butter sandwiches, chocolate covered pretzels (see a theme? we had a chocolate fountain and pretty much anything covered in chocolate is a good thing), white chocolate peppermint candy, hot chocolate, and wassail. We also had a craft time where we made christmas cards. The girls were great and plentiful and there was lots of giggly girl talk as well as fun and laughter along with Christmas songs in the background. A success.

A Sapulpa Christmas, Oh my.

To end my Christmas Saturday I met up with friends at the Sapulpa Christmas parade. Very fun. Adrian's dad drove her Grandpa's old school fire engine in the parade. I saw lots of old friends as well as many of my students in the parade. After the game we all headed to my house to watch the Big 12 Championship (OU won as they should) and eat pizza. Good times.

Festivus

Saturday was the wonderful day of the year when Christmas fun feels like it has finally started. The day began with Darby and Jessi arriving to help my mom and I decorate our house and enjoy many different hot drinks (followed by yummy Taco Bueno). I will post more pics of our handy decorating once it is officially done. We didn't get the tree completed because our pre-lit tree decided that its lights in the center section weren't gonna work. So...until we get that figured out it looks pretty lame. But it was a pretty fun day minus the disfunctional tree!

Sidenote:

I am very thankful for my Grammi Hazel. She may be my adopted grandmother but she is more a grandmother to me than a real one would be. From all the hours she spent with me as a little girl teaching me to sew and cook to going out to coffee and basketball games with me as a teenager and young adult. She's the best and she made me this beautiful homemade chocolate macadamian pie as a continued get well present. I appreciate all of her thought and concern for me as I've been healing.

Youth Girls Night

Since moving home I've been personally challenged to try and lead a group of junior high and high school girls in a bible study/youth group from my home church. Our church is a very small but wonderful place. In high school I went to another bigger church in our town for youth group because there wasn't one at my home church. At the time there was only 2 youth age individuals and I was one of them. Now the youth group is much bigger and I felt like I could help out being home and being young. This is a great group of girls all with very different family situations and backgrounds. They are very mature and I was ministered to alot by them in our time together on Sunday. I tried my best to recreate chocolate ice cream sodas from my fun summer job and we also read from John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life. Then we made a word and picture collage answering a question Piper posed to the reader. I will post the collage I made for myself (*Rose--I think the pic of the laughing girl on my collage looks alot like your Emmaline!*). It's a great book because it challenges me as much at 24 as it does some of these girls at 13 or 17.

Re-Nash...best 4 days ever.

Ok, so I finally found my camera cord, which means I can finally upload and post these pictures!

Nashville reunion with my beloved housemates was as wonderful as it was expected to be. We really just revelled in spending time together. I loved to reobserve how we are 6 incredibly different and strong women but we so love eachother and love to hear eachothers thoughts and hearts. And we're pretty dang fun too.

Highlights of the weekend:

1. A very long walk all over Vanderbilt and Hillsborough Village where so many great conversations were had.

2. Cooking and meals together.

3. Trader Joe's in basically our pajamas.

4. Christmas morning.

5. Laying around covered in blankets for hours watching friends.

6. Pangeae...a store I would like to move in to.

7. Amazing sushi with the girls and Melissa, then going to Nat's friends' house.

8. Hearing all about Leslye's new friend and marriage stories from Jill.

9. When walking off the plane and seeing my housemates from a distance and then hearing Linda scream.

10. Telling Les she was very "thall" and other ridiculous but memorable moments like that that never stopped coming!

Sarah's Recital

My dear JBU friend and one of my summer roommates in Lake City recently had her senior piano recital. It was incredible. She looked gorgeous and played beautifully. I continue to be in awe of so many of my friends' musical gifts and their dedication to perfect them. I was honored to co-host Sarah's recital reception along with my wonderful Teeny. Teen and I cooked until 1 am the night before and had a blast preparing for this reception. We were incredibly determined to make it the most impressive reception of all time. Nothing but the best. I made my favorite chocolate cookies (masses of them), 3 loaves of cranberry orange bread, spinach artichoke dip, and fruit dip. Teeny made beautiful trays of vegetables and fruit as well as super yummy punch and cider. It was a fun and crazy weekend and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is also always great to be back in Siloam and hang out with the best friends around.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have had a wonderful day with family and friends. My mother and I cooked all morning and enjoyed our tradition of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on a TV in our kitchen. My dad and brothers enjoyed their epic tradition of the Sapulpa Turkey Bowl. The Turkey Bowl is a football game at the high school field in town that a bunch of guys in their late twenties started playing over twenty years ago. Over the years their sons started coming and their friends. My dad was one of the original founders and my brothers have been able to go since about age 10. They love it. Mom and I excitedly wait for them to come home and before they even get up the stairs to the kitchen they are usually heralding their win or accomplishments in the game and commonly (as they did today) chanting about being men. My dad has been known to break ribs in this game the last couple years and Mom and I were pretty nervous about some injury occuring as he is about to turn 60 years old. But he prevailed on the winning team with no injuries this year though I did end up rubbing my older brother's back for a good 30 minutes after they got back due to a strained muscle, but all in all not very many injuries this year.

As a family we always have dinner at our friend's the Plinsky's house in Jenks, OK. Tim and Karen are my parents' closest friends from their years at JBU and have stayed such over the years. Their daughter and son-in-law (also JBU grads) and their three kids are always there. Their nephew and neice (also JBU grads--notice a trend?) and their two baby girls were there again this year and I loved to reconnect with them and try to establish that I do have more young friends around this area than I realize. They food was amazing and 4 year old Mia took me on a run, literally, around the neighborhood afterward so I enjoyed 2 pieces of pie because of my effort. It was a great day with family and friends that are our family as well. I'm very thankful for these times in my life!

Break from Check-Ups

I got back from Nashville late last night, multiple posts on that after I find my camera cord, and I woke up late this morning to my mother asking what time my appointment was. I forgot all about it--thank goodness for mothers. I went to see quirky Dr. Ray again and the appointment went awesome. He literally gave me a pat on the back for flossing and clapped because my incisions were healing so well. I am starting to be a pro at chewing again and am very carefully biting into things babying my still tender front sets of teeth--I know it sounds very basic but when you haven't been able to for over 2 months, it is very exciting. Dr. Ray was excited with how everything looked externally as well. To be honest I am not exactly sure what he is looking for but he stands in about 5 different points in the examination room and looks directly at my jaw and chin and today thought things were coming right along. I haven't posted a post surgery pic of myself yet but that's mostly because I've been swollen or bruised so pics will come soon with the Nashville posts--you get to see my new jaw very soon....

Recovery Update

Today I got my stitches out! I was sooo ready to get this done. They have been very uncomfortable and awkward and stressful to take care of. The appointment went well except for the actual stitch removal. The stitches were in there really tight which is good because they were holding everything up and together but they cut some of my gums getting them out which was painful and frustrating because it seemed to defeat the purpose.

Today I also ate more normal food than I have in the past two weeks. I am starting to feel the renew of energy they told me I would feel. They said after getting the terrible abscess out I would feel like a "new woman" and it would highly effect my health and I am starting to see that already so that is super exciting for me!

Pray for my continued healing and pain. I will still have checkups once a week for awhile. I also have stopped taking the heavy pain medication because it really over affects me and I have a hard time functioning on it. But because of this I am still kind of in pain all the time. It's an interesting thing and for me a really mental battle to overcome. My friend Billy gave me this quote from C.S. Lewis that God whispers through our pleasure and shouts through our pain, that's an awesome thought and I have definitely been experiencing that love!

BreakOff...movies & photoshoots....

Oh my, I just took the most lovely walk down memory lane.

I am redecorating my bedroom and trying to redo my bathroom, meanwhile I borrowed a lot of old movies and musicals from one of my friends. One of these is my very favorite--Singin' in the Rain. What a classic. I love and know all the songs and have a massive crush on Gene Kelly. I realized that I watch this film with a happy and contented grin on my face.

This film also makes me think of a fantastic and only JBUish possible memory that some friends and I created my senior year at JBU (the first one!). JBU has a fall retreat put on by the student ministries deparment called BreakAway. Well my friends KWood, Pammie, Alex, Luke and I decided we did not want to breakaway, we wanted to do our own retreat to KWood's apartment for the weekend with our own outlined schedule of events and fun calling it BreakOff. It was a brilliant idea, one of the more creative and ridiculous ideas I've been apart of. I would have to write alot more to explain all of the "events" we had together that weekend but two predominantly stick out in my memory.

First, watching Singin' in the Rain multiple times, even a couple times in a row. Imparticular rewatching and rewinding one of the first scenes in order to learn the "Coconut Grove" dance and learn it we did. Pam, KWood, and I may have performed it many other times including private performances in local coffee houses.

Second, planning on taking a "metropolitan walk" through Siloam Springs---dressing as unconventionally fashionably as we could and parading around downtown. This idea then turned into Alex conducting a photoshoot and eventually using us as a photography project. These pictures deserve to be immortalized even years later. Look with caution--my reaction ranges from "Alex is so creative" "Arkansas was very humid" and bursts of laughter at the ridiculousness and excess of self-confidence captured in these photos. Enjoy.