The Life of Bon: December 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 in Review, Oh my!

The cool thing to do in bloggy land is review the year.  You know me, I always like to hop on what is cool!  But seriously, way before I blogged I used to write down my highlights from the year and a couple of lowlights.  It is absolutely amazing to look back at everything that has happened in just a year.  Whenever I look back and review the year I realize how incredibly blessed I am, how good God is, and much joy is in my life.

January



What I did: Became a womanpublicly declared my hatred toward pinterest, was accused of being a witch, and felt guilty for not having babies yet.

What I saw:  My good friend, Akasha.  She lived in Pittsburgh but spent extended time in Utah in January.  So great to catch up!

What I wrote:  "I am so grateful for family, for strong bonds that connect us even after death, and for a loving God who has given us knowledge of the afterlife.  So grateful for the big things." January 26, 2012, The Big Things

What I learned:  Don't paint walls lime green.  When you get tired of lime green walls, don't paint them royal blue.  Keep it simple.

FEBRUARY




What I did: Celebrated our first married Valentine's Day, stole underwear from a mannequin at Victoria's Secret, was nostalgic for teaching, realized I am filthy rich, and chopped off my long brown hair.

What I saw: A student start his essay on women's rights with "We all know women are crazy."

What I wrote: "I came to a stark realization this afternoon.  A realization that I have had time and time again.  I am not poor.  Not in any sense of the word.  I am wealthy beyond reason, beyond imagination.  Everytime I've learned this lesson in the past it was because I was visiting a third world country.  Today I didn't have to travel so far, only open the door of my coat closet.  And the lesson was just as powerful." February 22, 2012

What I learned: Having short hair is always better than having long hair.  Always.

MARCH




What I did: Celebrated one year of marriage with Hubs in Las Vegas, waited patiently for Spring to arrive, got riled up about sex education in Utah, sponsored my first ever blog (Living in Yellow), went to my first blogging meet up, and turned into my mom.

What I saw:  A pantless student.  It wasn't pretty.

What I wrote:  (About marriage advice) "You're not always right.  It was a weird day when I realized that I believed something 100% and Hubs believed something else 100% and neither of us were right or wrong, we just believed differently.  The ever present urge to insist that you are right about a certain subject is poison to a marriage.  POISON, I TELL YOU!"  March 11, 2011 (How to not kill each other the first year)

What I learned: Sluffing work for a couple of days to enjoy some alone time with Hubs is always a good idea.

APRIL



What I did: Spring Breaked Sans Hubs with my sister in Monterey, felt bad for my students when they lost elections, tried to figure out my feelings about God and gays, started accepting sponsorship on my blog, and watched the Jazz make it to the playoffs!

What I saw:  John Steinbeck's house.  An English teacher's wildest dream!

What I wrote: "Tennis is more fun than I have thought my previous 25 years. Thanks to a patient brother, Reed, and a few quick tips, I felt a lot more confident with a racket in my hand. Here's a tip I'll share with you because I'm that kind of gal: You can't just hit it as hard as you feel like.  It's not baseball." April 7, 2012

What I learned:  I miss my Hubs too much when I leave for 5 days.  No more vay-cays without him.

MAY




What I did: Camped in Moab with Hubs and his friends, played a lot of volleyball, thought school would never end, spent a week without Hubs while he went to Cali, had long serious debates about how I liked my hair best, and got in lots of discussions about breastfeeding!

What I saw: My preggers friend, Amy in a swimsuit.  Twas glorious.

What I wrote:  "There is no limit to the breastfeeding bananza down south.   Women in Argentina feed their children whenever their children want it.  There's no routine, no schedule.  It's like a water fountain.  The kid runs up for a quick drink, and then runs off to continue his playtime, like it ain't no thang.  And you can forget blankets or waiting rooms or trying in any way to be modest.  It is absolutely unheard of, just whip that thing out!" May 10, 2012

What I learned:  When you teach high school for a living, May is the longest, cruelest month of the year.

JUNE




What I did: got mad at other bloggers for not inviting me to a get together that Jef Holm was at, went to St. George with Hubs and friends and got royally sunburned, watched my husband become a man, officially started the worst job ever, went fishing, celebrated turning 26 and decided on my top five favorite books ever.  Oh.  And I got in big big big big trouble for this post on handicapped parking.

What I saw:  A man fall down a rock and hang upside down while rock climbing.  It was so very terrifying!

What I wrote:  "I would just offer this one piece to advice to anyone who leaves a comment on any blog/facebook/ media outlet: Don't say anything on the internet that you wouldn't say to someone face to face.  Be gentle with your criticism.  You can state your opinion without being blatantly rude.  Behind every blog there is a real person.  And words can hurt." June 15, 2012

What I learned:  If you write anything that other people disagree with, get ready for some serious backlash!

JULY




What I did: celebrated Hubs 24th birthday, took a bunch of kids rafting in a thunderstorm, officially quit the worst job ever, cried out happiness when Jef Holm won bachelorette, wrote my most popular post ever about Mormons, took tennis lessons, and wrote the most profound post ever on how to catch a husband.

What I saw:  NOT Jef Holms.  Still mad at bloggy friends.

What I wrote:  "I knew I wanted to stay married forever and ever after an argument when he came into the bedroom and said, "I know we're upset.  But you have to make me one promise.  No matter what, we never ever ever entertain the idea of divorce."  And I said, "I promise."  July 15, 2012

What I learned:  I am not cut out for manual labor.  No more painting summer jobs for me!

AUGUST



What I did: Tried to pretend like I would never have to go back to school, spent lots of time at the water park, got kicked out of an apartment 24 hours before we were supposed to move in, crashed my mom's basement, got in trouble by the blog world for admitting I don't always put shopping carts back, endured stress city, started school again.

What I saw:  My best friend became a mom and named the baby after me!!!  Crazy stuff.

What I wrote:  "This morning involved a humble call to my mom.  When I originally told her about the apartment debacle she immediately offered up her basement.  "You can always stay here until you find a place!"  And so I asked, "Mom?  Can Greg and I stay with you until we find an apartment?"  To which she replied, "Of course you can.  I already have the basement ready for you.  I can be over to help you move at 3:00."  To which I was overwhelmed at her goodness." August 8, 2012

What I learned:  Sometimes God has our lives figured out much better than we do and we just need to let Him take over.

SEPTEMBER




What I did:  sympathized with my students who have it rough, went to Hubs' zombie movie premiere, wrote my favorite post ever about Risky Writing, figured out a way to trick Hubs into letting me have uber short hair, went to my bestie's wedding in New Mexico, decided to stay living with my mom for the next year, and sat down and wrote out a few key things that I believe in.

What I saw:  One of my favorite college roomies tie the knot.  Oh, and Hubs in eyeliner.  Oh la la!

What I wrote:  "You have to be willing to lose followers in order to really produce original, thought provoking writing.  You can't be afraid of the internet trolls, the mean commenters, the people who are going to disagree with everything you say.  You just have to realize that those people aren't who you're writing for and let them go find a nice blog where weekend recaps and Oh, so Pinteresting posts abound."  September 26, 2012

What I learned:  As much as I love summer and freedom and no schedules, it feels oh so good to get back to work.  I guess I like my job?  Oh and my girlfriends are so important to me- always worth the effort to get together for a girls weekend!

OCTOBER




What I did:  Decided October is my favorite month of the year, cruised Mexico with my family, dressed up like the wicked witch of the west for Halloween, mourned the break up of Jef and Emily,  hit 1000 followers on the blog and celebrated with Hubs' first ever guest post, and compared Blogging to High School.

What I saw:  A hurricane while on a cruise ship.  All at once the most terrifying and fantastic experience of my life.

What I wrote:  "I get real sick of hearing my 16 year old students go on and on about how fabulous their boyfriends are.  I also get sick of bloggers talking about how great their husbands are.  Before you all jump all over me I will say that I have also been guilty of doing this.  Heck, I love Hubs as much as the next woman loves her husband.  I guess what starts to bother me is when I feel like bloggers are being competitive in their love for their husbands, almost as if they are saying, "I love my husband more than you love your husband."  Can we all just admit that yes, our husbands are great, but they can also be real stinkers sometimes!" October 2, 2012

What I learned:  I am now too old for roller coasters. BOO!

NOVEMBER




What I did:  I tried once again to figure out my feelings about God and gays, celebrated Thanksgiving with games movies and more games, thought a lot about arguments in marriage, marked the three year anniversary of my dad's death, gave out lots and lots of advice to other bloggers, and did my first what we did in class post.

What I saw:  A huge spike in blog readership.  Praise the heavens!

What I wrote:  "Funniest moment:  An Italian exchange student was trying to tell us that he thought the book was very mild compared to what he had been required to read in Italy.  He said that they had been required to read a book where a nun has sexual relations with a man.  Only because of his accent we all thought he said the nun had sexual relations with a nun.  Oh, how we laughed." November 12, 2012

What I learned:  If you work hard enough smart enough long enough at something you will see results.

DECEMBER




What I did: had my annual Christmas break down, spent lots of time with friends and family, played games all night Christmas Eve, got my own dot com, tried to figure out if I am a feminist, thought about how much I hated being engaged, and tried to make sense of one man killing a bunch of little kids.

What I saw:  Lots of Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and cute little gingerbread men.  Also lots of snow and a much colder winter than years past.

What I wrote:  "I don't know what the answers are, but I do know that the Lord is over all.  I know they He will "repay" that which He has "taken away."  I believe in justice and I believe in mercy.  I believe in hope and love and charity and kindness- even in the midst of such tragedy.  I believe in a day when tears are past." December 17, 2012

What I learned:  God is good, life is rich, and we are all so so so blessed.  We live in complete abundance.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!  
May 2013 be every bit as awesome as 2012!










Sunday, December 30, 2012

J. Crew and Forever 21 and who's the smartest shopper ever?!?

Hold on to your seats girls because today we are talking about SKIRTS!

Skirts skirts skirts.  Can life get any more exciting than this?  I submit that it cannot!

This Christmas I really wanted a brightly colored skirt.  I'm getting real sick of my drab black and gray skirts at school.  I needed something to liven up the next three months of drear I'm looking at!  (January, February and March, I will always hate you.) I really wanted this skirt to be from J. Crew. I have never owned anything from that store and I recently became obsessed with it after I started following this blog.  Everything she wears is from J. Crew and she looks fabulous all the time.  Basically I see Crew to the J. as the beautiful, rich store that I can not afford.  But I was determined this Christmas.  Even if it meant I only got one thing for Christmas- it would be from J. Crew!

Lucky for me, J. Crew opened up an outlet store close to where I live.  So I skipped on down one Saturday with mi madre in tow and found immediately what I was looking for.  Bright coral skirt,  pencil, absolutely gorg!  So I said, "Hey mom!  I want this $50 skirt!  Even if it's my only gift for Christmas- I want this skirt!"

And she said okay but I think it's over priced and get ready to spend money on a dry cleaner.

And that was it.  My Christmas from my mom would be one fabulous dry clean only coral skirt.

THEN.

A week or so later I was casually strolling the aisles of my favorite cheap clothes go to, Forever 21, when what did appear? Didst my eyes deceive me?!?  It was an almost identical skirt as the J. Crew skirt only this one was only $17.50!  I tried it on.  Fit perfectly.  Coral.  Pencil.  Fabulous.  And this one WASN'T dry clean only.

Win.  Win.

I spent a bit more time at Forever 21 and found for the same $50 spent at J. Crew the following:
-the practically identical skirt ($17)
-a bright yellow sweater ($10)
-a pair of jeans ($10)
- a turquoise skirt ($7)
- a long gold necklace ($5)

Who's the smartest shopper in the world now?!?

I admit I was sad to have to give up my one and only J. Crew purchase, but I just decided I will never be a J. Crew kind of girl.  Why spend $50 when you can spend $17 and that's just the way the cookie crumbles in my book. Or something like that.

Now.  Let's play a little game.

Here are the two skirts.  Can you guess which one is from J. Crew and which one is from Forever 21?


Please disregard my pasty white legs.  It's winter.  You understand.


And the answer is....

SKIRT A is the $17.50 skirt.
SKIRT B is the $50 skirt (FYI:  That was $50 on sale at the outlet... original was $89)


Who would have thought my love affair with J. Crew would end before it ever began?  But I guess when it comes down to it there are only two types of girls in the world- those who can stand to spend $50 on skirts and those who can't.

Looks like I'm sticking in the can't category!

(But let the records show that if I am ever filthy 
I will buy myself $50 skirts, dang it!)

Saturday, December 29, 2012

DOT COM, SUCKERS!

Am I off my blogging schedule or what?  Writing on a Saturday morning?  Who DOES that?  I guess that is how I know it is vacation.  No schedule.  I'm just doing what I want.  When I want.

Unless you count trying to get my car registered and failing the safety and emissions test and then having to buy new tires and new windshield washer reservoir and a new windshield pump.  That wasn't exactly what I wanted this Christmas break.  But moving on!

I have something pretty freaking exciting to announce over here and that is that I am the official owner of a dot com.  BOO YAH!  If you are still at the old blog address- bonnielouisa.blogspot.com well then it is time for you to get with the times and join us with the new address!

www.thelifeofbon.com

Isn't it beautiful?!?

Traffic from the old url is supposed to be directing to the new url but what do I know?  I'm just some chick sitting in my pajamas eating a bowl of Honeycomb on a Saturday morning.

I am quite stoked about the new dot com.  To tell you the truth, it wasn't my first choice of address.  My first choice was without the "the".  But it was already taken.  I checked out the blog, too.  Some lady in Canada who is obsessed with cats.  She took my desired URL!

Luckily, google had some really great suggestions for me once we discovered that one was already taken:



My personal favorites were Period of Bon (because I'm sure you all want to know about my menstrual cycle) Existence of Good (how did they get that from Life of Bon?) and lastly, Death of Bon.  

Seriously, google?  Seriously?  Death of Bon?!?!  What kind of a morbid blog name is that?  And more importantly, does google know something I don't?  

Also, I'm sure one of you snarky little readers is going to point out how poor the quality is in that picture above.  It is a picture of my computer taken by my phone and no, I don't know how to do screen shots.  We all good now?

If you have my blog address saved somewhere under bonnielouisa.blogspot.com I suggest you change it to thelifeofbon.com.  I don't know how long that old address will be around.  You can't trust google.  They'll flip you on your head without thinking twice about it.

The last thing I am going to say here before I force myself to suffer at the gym (Hubs noticed I haven't been for over 2 weeks and called me out on it.  Oh, gym!  Why are you such misery?!?!) is that if you think you are going to be blogging semi long term you should get a dot com address.  It was ridiculously easy.  I had no idea.  I have been putting it off for so long and once I realized how easy it was I wish I would have done it a year ago.  Seriously.  It would have been so much more convenient if I would have gotten my dot com address when I had 100 followers. Now I'm afraid that at this point, changing my blog address will lose some readers.  But what can you do?  WARN OTHERS!  Get a dot com address right now!  It's so easy.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO GET A DOT COM ADDRESS VIA BLOGGER
SORRY WORDPRESS PEOPLE.  I CAN DO NOTHING FOR YOU.

Step 1: Go to settings.
Step 2:  Under settings, go to basic.
Step 3:  Under PUBLISHING you will see your blog address as it currently is.  Under that in blue it says +Add a Custom Domain.  Click that.


Step 4:  Try the address you want.  It might already be taken.  In which case google will have several fantastic suggestions of site names that aren't taken.  Choose one.
Step 5:  Continue to registration.  Fill out your contact information and all that crap.
Step 6:  Pay.  It costs $10 a year for a dot com address that is hosted on blogger.  This is far and away the cheapest way to do your blog (Godaddy charges closer to $60 for the year for a dot com)
Step 7:  You're done!  According to google it takes up to 24 hours to get the site up and running.  Mine took an hour is all.  They say it takes up to 48 hours for your old site to completely redirect to your new site, so I am still patiently waiting for that to happen.  The only thing that is messed up with my old url now is that the followers widget is all out of whack.  I'm hoping that will fix itself.

There you go, ladies.  Do yourselves a favor this new year and spend $10 for your own dot com address.  I promise, it is super easy and worth the hassle- especially worth it to do it early on!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

To serve a mission.

(Last chance for Medium or Small Ads for January.  Speak now or forever hold your peace!  Check here for the details and email me at lifeofbon@gmail.com)

Four years ago today I came home from my 18 month mission in Argentina.

There's so much I could say about that time in Argentina,  about what I learned, how I grew, and the person I became.  There are so many stories to tell.

But tonight I will just say this.

No other time has more rapidly blessed my life.  No other time in my life was so challenging, and yet so rewarding.  My mission affects everything in my life.  The lessons I learned and the work habits I picked up influence the way I work and the way I teach, the way I treat my students, the way I act in the world around me.  My time with companions- both the difficult ones and the beloved ones- has taught me valuable lessons about communication and how to have healthy relationships.  Those lessons have helped my marriage. I see the effects of my mission every single day in my life.  It influences everything I do, everything I think, everything I am.  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who allowed me that time in my life to grow up, to see the world outside of just me, and to feel the unabashed love of so many grateful Argentines, companions, my family at home, and Heavenly Father himself.  At no other time in my life have I felt so much love given to me so unconditionally.  I will spend the rest of my life thanking God for my time in Argentina and praying to find ways to give back to him.

















If you want more about my experience coming home from my mission go here.  It involves a break down at Burger King.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

You think it's a Christmas post, but then it's not!

You want a Christmas post, don't you?  Too bad.  I'm Christmas-ed out.  

Instead you are going to get a dog post.  Or something like that.  It's going to be weird.  Especially because it is coming from someone who is a self proclaimed dog hater.


This is Hubs.  You are about to hear a story about how crazy he is.  Put your seat belts on and hold on tight!

Before we go any further you need to know one of the main differences in me and Hubs.  Hubs is a dog person.  I am not.  I blame my fierce hatred of dogs to the fact that I spent 18 months in Argentina being hassled/chased/harassed by every diseased dog in the country.  There is no such thing as dog control in that country- spaying and neutering is way too expensive for most of the folk down there.  To say that stray dogs are in abundance in the country would be an understatement.  They are everywhere.  They are diseased.  They are violent.  They procreate in the streets.

And they smell.

Thus.  I hate dogs.

Hubs was born into a family of avid dog lovers.  They treat their dogs better than I plan to treat my own children.  They adore them, they protect them, they lavish attention on them.  It took me the first year of marriage to even pet the family dog.  This caused some tension, I'm sure you can imagine.

I would like to believe that I've come a long way in the whole dog field.  To start with, my mom got a dog and since we are currently camping out in her basement I spend a bit of time with this dog, Buddy.  He has even kind of grown on me.  He's a 3 pound toy poodle- what's not to love?  I let him hang out with me as long as he doesn't touch me and I even take him outside to go to the bathroom every six hours.  Best dog owner award over here!

Last night, on the eve of Christmas Day, we left my family gatherings and headed up to Hubs' home town to chill with his fam.  Hubs begged to take Buddy with us.  He adores Buddy.  And he wanted Buddy to meet his parents' dog- Norman.  This is probably the eighth time Hubs has asked to take Buddy up to meet Norm, so I finally relented.  You can only say no so many times, people.

And so we were off.

Whoever knew that getting dogs to meet each other was such drama?  First Buddy ran around in circles then  Norman started going ape shiz all over Buddy then they both darted outside then Norman growled and chased Buddy and Buddy tried to hide.  We had to separate them by a fence and there was a lot more growling and sniffing and whining and sheesh dogs are a lot of work!  

I tried to get Hubs to come and open some presents but he kept yelling, "Bonnie!  Someone's gotta take care of the dogs!  If I don't take care of them they are going to kill each other!"
"Greg!  Your dad is opening his present from us.  Just come in here!"
"Bon I can't!  Can't you see I'm stressed and busy?"
"Who cares?  They're just dogs.  Leave them alone.  They'll be fine!"
"You don't understand!"

No.  No I don't understand.  Not one little bit.

And thus it went.  To my dismay the dogs actually started to like each other, once they got used to each other's "smell" as my pop in law says.  Jeez, dogs are weird aren't they?  And gross.

After the mutts were high on each other's smells they spent the next four hours pouncing, wrestling, sniffing, licking and chasing one another.  You know.  Dog stuff.

Hubs decided that Buddy would need to sleep in our room downstairs because he would surely be missing my mom and would need to be close to someone he knows.  Now I wasn't too keen on sharing my room with a dog.  Just seemed too... animalistic?... to me?  Who knows.  I just didn't want to.  But I also didn't want a whining dog half the night so I said whatevs.  The dog got in his kennel, I was drifiting off and everything was perfect in our little puppy world.

I was awakened at 2 am by a frantic Hubs, "Bonnie!  What are we going to do?"
"Hmmmm....."
"What are we going to do about Buddy?!?!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Buddy!  He's barking!"
"Oh... I didn't hear him."
"See!  He just barked!  He is whining too."
"I don't know, just put a pillow over your ears."
"Oh my gosh I haven't slept at all!  This dog is stressing me out."
"Why is he stressing you out?"
"Something's wrong!  He won't sleep!  We never should have brought him up."
"Babe.  It's fine.  Let's just put him in a separate room."
"No!  We can't do that!  Oh my gosh this was such a big mistake.  We have to take him back tomorrow!"
"Tomorrow?  We just got up here."
"I can't do this another night!  I'm not going to get any sleep!"
"Then let's take him upstairs!  It's stupid to sacrifice your sleep so that the dog is comfortable.  You come before the dog, Greg."
"I'll still worry about him!  I won't be able to sleep!"
"Greg you are stressing me out.  This isn't that big of a deal."
"Maybe he needs to go to the bathroom.  Should I take him out?"
"Sure."
"When are we going to take him home tomorrow?"
"We're not.  I'm not driving three hours to drop off some dumb dog.  We'll buy you some ear plugs and put him upstairs and you'll sleep fine tomorrow night."

The conversation went on like this.  Hubs took Buddy outside to go to the bathroom and when he came back in he fidgeted for a while, but eventually went back to sleep.

And so did Hubs.

In those few moments of drifiting back to sleep, with a frenzied Hubs by my side and a much relieved toy poodle at my feet I realized two things.

Number one:  I am married to a neurotic.

Number two:  I'm never letting that boy have kids.

Can you even imagine what a basketcase he would turn into?

If you were mercilessly bored by this long post and you think dogs are super lame, I will tell you now that I hate dogs and I totally agree with you.  And yet I just wrote an entire post about dogs.  

So maybe I don't agree with you?

Maybe I secretly love dogs?!?!?

Who's to say?



Monday, December 24, 2012

Happy and Grateful Hearts

I do believe this is my favorite time of year.  It even beats out summer!

The days leading up to and after Christmas are just so magical.  Holiday parties and shopping and family traditions and just so much love.  I guess that's my favorite thing about Christmas... the general outpouring of love.

I think it is so easy to focus on what we don't have.  But Christmas caters to focusing on what we do have.  We all find ourselves in such different situations but I think if we each sat down and really thought about everything we have been given we would agree that we are in abundance.  God gives so much.  Christmas is a time to focus on exactly that- all that we have been given.

My sister and her husband and kids are leaving early in the morning.  They'll be back for a couple of days before they take for Germany for good, but I am already missing them.  It's hard when your big sis lives a 10 hour plane ride away!  Because they will leave early in the morning, we gathered together tonight to say a prayer and I was especially struck by a line that my mom said, asking that we would each have "Happy and grateful hearts."

Isn't that a beautiful thing to pray for?

My wish for you this Christmas Eve and Christmas Holiday is the same- to have a happy and grateful heart.  We live in abundance.  God is good.

And now, a holiday dumping of photos.  Everything we have been up to the last week... Jazz games, Christmas parties, temple square, etc, etc, etc.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!








Emily conked out for the whole affair.  Too many blanket in a stroller will do that to you.






Look who was caught doing the dishes!  Ah, such a good Hubs.
And aren't those the most adorable tights you've ever seen on a little girl (and the most adorable bum too!)

 These are my two older sisters.  I couldn't resist.  They are making the exact same pose!

Only one accident from nieces and nephews opening all these presents- my 9 year old nephew Davy cut his finger open trying to open the plastic packaging.  He screamed a scream I have never heard from the tough little guy.  Adults rushed to help him and almost immediately it was determined that he would have to go to the hospital.  I got up to check it out and all I had to see was the blood on his bandage and I was down for the count- the color drained from me and I was woozy as could be.  I ain't got much of a stomach for that stuff.  Eight stitches later, Davy is alive and well and happily telling the tale.

My cousin Marissa is great with child.  She moved to Denver and I miss her every day.  I am not great with child, although the picture looks it.  Don't be deceived.


My Christmas gift to all of you this year is this totally random and crazy video of my entire extended family dancing to Gangam Style at our 10 am family Christmas party on Saturday.  It's how we roll people.  Can you spot:  a little girl bursting into tears, a grown up cousin dressed like a cholo, me trying to give Hubs a kiss, and a five year old boy wearing old man attire.  Enjoy!  And Merry Christmas!