i just. got sick. of christmas cookies

!!!!!!!!
(i didn't know this was possible.)




in other news...i am officially done with all of my "regular" classes for grad school. ever. i waltzed out of class tongiht (in a veritable sugar coma) and it didnt occur to me till i was home that i don't have any more normal classes left--next semester is just an independent study, an online class, and internship supervision. unreal.

i had my final internship evaluation tonight, with both my school site supervisor and also my professor. it was a huge blessing. they were both so encouraging and positive--i can't adequately describe how "right" this feels. i am so glad to be pursuing a profession (education in general, not just school counseling) where i can work from my strengths rather than continually striving to be someone i'm not meant to be. where work is a joy. ahhh. life is good indeed.

i saw a new take on christmas attire today. a certain former classmate who shall remain nameless, came into my office in camo slippers (that's just a sidenote. not the main event) and...a cut-off christmas sweatshirt that said (in snowflake-and-palm tree-infused lettering) "christmas in california."

now. i think that these ugly christmas sweater parties, quite the rage these days, are overrated and overdone. however. i'm going to one on saturday, and i want to get my hands on that christmas sweatshirt and wear it this weekend. it will be a HIT. the crowd will ERUPT.

i also want to tell you all that i have a friend whose handwriting is so neat that it could be mistaken for a font. i wish i had a font.

this particular friend is gracious enough to open up her home every week for our bible study. and we were talking about philippians 4 last night. which, ironically happens to be about peace. seems like a coincidence since it's practially christmas, the season of peace (and, according to kate mcallister in home alone, also the season of perpetual hope...and i'll give you a dollar is if you can tell me where she says that in the movie. seriously. i will actually give you a dollar. because i like home alone that much...)
ANYWAY. peace: i love that peace is something that we tend to talk about in terms of stillness: peace. tranquility. calm.
and these things are true. peace brings a stillness to the soul. but peace is more about protection, evoking a sense of fortification and refuge. (God guards our hearts and minds...)

so...peace is about stillness, (which i get, i understand, because i'm so often making myself busy. literally inviting chaos into my life. as if my worth depended on it, as if it makes me important. lovely, right?), but it's also about SAFETY. (which i have heretofore failed to grasp because i've never really experienced the opposite: danger. my life has been very safe. and though i wouldn't trade it for anything, neither would i pretend to understand what it's like to live in fear). so. where does this leave me? honestly, in the same place. literally. im not in the "action" phase of learning. i'm not rushing out to tend to the poor and oppressed and endangered in our city. in fact, i am currently sitting, safely, warmly and oh-so-full (of christmas cookies, blechhhh! ) on my comfortable bed in my cozy house. i simply have a new way of looking at yet another term (like love) that i throw around without fully grasping the weight of the ideas that my words represent.

and on that note...home alone 2 is on. yay!