Birthdays, Haircuts, and Christmas

I mentioned in my last post that I got an awesome new camera for my birthday, but didn't mention any other events related to it, so here are some details. On Monday night, Andy couldn't hold it anymore and gave me my present early. On Wednesday, my actual birthday, Drew, being the precious child that she is, talked to my class and got them to sing to me in the cafeteria. So, my whole class of 23 kids sang loudly in the lunchroom, and when 23 kids sing in unison, people tend to look, so for 45 seconds, all eyes were on me in the cafeteria. While I love attention from one or two people at a time, that much attention causes weird sensations in my stomach and I generally break out in hives, but I kept my cool and thought it was precious. Today, we went to lunch at my mom and dad's house with the whole family, and it was such a nice day. They got me a really cute cake and gave me some great gifts, including money, which my dad was so kind to watch the kids while my mom and I went to spend it. I also got my hair cut pretty short this weekend, which I was super nervous about, but really love. This picture is purely for vanity reasons, although my face looks goofy because I was swallowing. But, it's another angle of my hair, which I know you're all dying to further check out. At mom's we ate delicious grilled steaks and baked potatoes and a big salad and yummy bread, and then just sat around and did a lot of talking and laughing while everyone played with the kids, and they adore the attention (Erin is torturing Evan with tickling in this picture). And, also in my last post I think I mentioned putting up the Christmas tree, so here's a picture of that and the stockings that I made several years ago when my life was so completely different than it is now. I can't imagine doing something like that right now (sigh....).