hello!! untechnically (haha. if that is a word i may use) i'm not late with my Christmas greeting because i haven't went to sleep yet - so it still feels like the 25th to me... ;P

hope that your Christmases were super fun and spent with those that you love - for these people are better than any material thing you could ever give or receive...however, the BEST present has to be (and always will be) a tiny baby boy, born to a virgin teenage mother and carpenter, wrapped up in cloth, lying in a manger, born over 2000 years ago.

little Jesus Christ - little did Mary and Joseph know that the baby they held in their arms would grow up to conquer evil, capture hearts and reconcile mankind to Our Heavenly Father. Joy to the World...if only everyone knew how powerful and truthful these words really are.

Merry Christmas. :)

this is what i want to be doing right now, but...

1. there is hardly any snow outside
2. the snow that is outside is gross and brown
3. i have an exam tomorrow... :O

oh goodness. exam tomorrow. must study...wish i was a little kid again. *sigh*

here's the summary of the episode that was on at 11am.

"Meredith's Struggle
Meredith Arnold is a very lucky girl considering her circumstances. She was born cocaine addicted and with a severe facial cleft. She became a ward of the state until being taken into custody by Michael and Camille Geraldi, two physicians who operate a home for children with severe physical disabilities. Meredith has undergone several surgeries to repair her face, and now hopes to look "pretty" by removing the facial scar tissue."

at first, when the episode started there was something that made me want to change the channel. it was my vanity. my shallowness. this little girl had a story to tell, and i wasn't going to watch it because she wasn't enjoyable to look at? i felt really shameful, because i knew the reason why i didn't want to watch. so i just continued to watch, slowly being drawn into the program - until eventually, i didn't want to watch anything else except Meredith on TV, and i felt my heart break.

probably 5 minutes into the program i started to really tear up, and that pretty much continued for the next half hour. at first, i cried for her because her birth mother had just left her there when she was born due to her birth defects. i cried because when she was born she was addicted to crack - meaning when she was in her mom's tummy her mom did crack throughout her pregnancy. i cried for her adoptive parents, because they loved her so much that it hurt them to see her in so much pain. i cried for her, because of the pain she had to endure from all her reconstructive surgery - she was after all, only 9 years old. i cried because of the world's view of beauty, and how this little girl desperately wanted to meet those standards. there was a shot of her parents tucking her into bed the night before her surgery (that was shown on the episode) and by her bed there was a whole collage of magazine cut outs of models. this is what she saw every single day before she went to bed. but after the surgery i cried because i was so happy for her. throughout the show, as the audience was given more insight into Meredith and her lifestyle (and just her in general) i started to see her in the way that God saw her. a beautiful child, even with all the complications in her physical appearance. finally, after her surgery (and after 9 years of her life), she got to be "beautiful" outside as well as in. she wasn't beautiful by the standards of the world, but she was in the eyes of her parents, and of herself. she physically saw herself in the way that God saw her all the her life.

i was shameful because at first i didn't even want to watch the show - because i had only the world's view of beauty in my mind. i didn't want to watch the show because she wasn't the greatest to look at. i never thought of myself as being vain before - but today i realized that honestly, it's an area that i need to fix, because obviously i am more vain than i thought. God has taught me something today, and it's only around noon. :)

what did He teach me? i learned today through watching Meredith's story that i need to look at the world, and see not what the world sees, but see things from a different perspective. i need to look at the world and see things at a deeper level. God doesn't look at people and separate the beautiful from the ugly. in fact, through God's perspective, no one is ugly. God made each and everyone one of us. He created our "inmost being". He created ALL of us to be "wonderfully and beautifully made", but sometimes, i'm so wrapped up in the ways of this world that i forget that.

all of us are creations of God - whether we realize it or not. funny how God can use a 9 year old's story on the TLC to remind me of such an important lesson. thanks Lord. :)

today was a great day of doing completely nothing. :) *sigh* it was great. what did i do today? i woke up, put on my slippers (yay! mommy got me new fuzzy slippers when shopping with lizzie in boston. they're so comfie. i loooooove them!), brushed me teeth, went downstairs and (ahahha...i'm such a geek) practiced piano for a little bit. oh well. i'm a music student...majoring in piano. :P hahaha. yah. i started to learn my new piece! i'm playing 'scherzo in e minor' by Mendelssohn. i play it super slow. (i just opened the book this morning) and it's not toooooo bad. not as bad as i thought. so yah. i'll manage. maybe i'll surprise my teacher and have it all learned by the time i go back to school. ahhahaha. that would be funny. she'd be like...what? maybe....probably not though. i don't practice enough. (today was the first time i played piano in quite some time). but anyway. i'm sure no one cares, so i'll continue with my day. then my mommy came home and we ate lunch together. then i downloaded gilmore girls 307 (the one that we didn't manage to download back at laurier), and yah! it was a good episode. can't wait till tomorrow. then it'll be a new episode. hopefully. unlike last weeks. 2 episodes of reruns. i was not impressed. not impressed at all. :P yah. then, i did some other stuff....but i don't really remember what. all i remember is watching trading spaces and while you were out. i love those shows. they're great. some of designers are really...uhhhhh....different. very exotic. maybe a little too out there for sharon. i like things classy with nice clean lines. yeeeeah. :)

anyway, so tomorrow i must get to studying for theory next tuesday. i let myself not do anything today beccause i figured i needed a break. i need to open my books and look over everything though. theory is definitely not my strength....i'm actually more scared for this one than my philosophy one. *argh* i dunno if i can bring myself to start studying though....doing absolutely nothing just seems so much more appealing... :)

ladidida... :)

guess who has a final on monday...meeeee! hhahaha. oh crazy philosophy. i've read everything over once, and i've gone over 5 essays (works....whatever you call them) in detail. outta like...the 20 000 there are. oh goodness. where does all my time go? oh. blogging. and icq. the two things that i'm doing right now! hahaha. i'm great! i'm so screwed. *sobs* oh well. have u ever wondered why philosophers always talk for so long? and use such ridiculously long words. (www.dictionary.com has certainly been my best friend over the past few days). oh well. too bad they don't realize that they babble. unlike me of course. *babble babble* i never babble. *babble babble* nope! not me! *babble babble* so maybe i do. *babble* just a bit? *babble* teehee. sorry. i'm a big dork. :P

anyway. i have a new thing. i sit on my desk and look out the window. it's great. it's really relaxing. i really like doing it now. lets me calm down from the rest of the day and spend some time with the Creator of the Universe. can u imagine that. HE - the Creator - wants to spend time with me. *sigh* and you too. :) isn't He wonderful? yep. He really, really is. it's really nice. having that time to just have a conversation. even if it's a silent conversation. i get stuff outta those too. just sitting there, enjoying the company of God. i really like it. i hope that it's not just a phase. or if it is a phase, i hope it lasts forever. :)

just got back from adrienne's place a good ten minutes ago, where me and will watched life is beautiful. for all y'all out there who haven't seen the movie, i totally recommend it. it's such a great movie. but get the original version (spoken in italian) with the subtitles rather than the one that's dubbed over in english. i've seen both, and the subtitled version is the better one outta the two. :) it got me thinking about how blessed i am. how many blessings God has graciously given me.

i thought about how much i complained before - about res life, about my dorm room being so small...but really, those things are so incredibly trivial and stupid. i saw today a depiction of how life was for the people in concentration camps (a depiction. so things were most likely ever rougher in reality) and we're so lucky. we're so lucky that we don't need to go through stuff like that at the moment. we're so lucky that we can have nice beds to sleep on, clothes to wear, food to eat, a place to stay...the list goes on. we're so lucky to be living in a time and country where we don't have to worry about half the things that the people of the past have had to deal with...we're so blessed. i'm so blessed.

...and i don't even realize it half the time. do you?

here's to: laughing, conversations, hashbrowns & bagels, burgers, crying, hugs, smiles, praying, movies, gilmore girls (haha. they ARE that witty. :P haha), smallville, wallace & gromit, instant noodles, chunky soups, kettles, hot chocolate, pinball...the list goes on. thanks for the good and the bad - i wouldn't have it any other way. i wouldn't want to be going through this stuff with anyone else.

so thanks you. :) here's to: three months (and a day) :P hahaha....ok. go study. calc tomorrow.

good luck with everyone else on their exams! study hard. and try not to play too much pinball. :)