My Biggest Passion

I am in an awesome small group with a bunch of beautiful girls that love Jesus. Tonight we shared with each other about the things we are most passionate about...things we could talk for hours about. And I talked about my family. And it inspired me to write a post about them...because they are the greatest and I love them a lot. And I really could write thousands of blog posts about them (and probably will write many more), but here's this for now.

My dad is the bomb. We call him Disney Dad because he always wants to treat us to something...a vacation, dinner out, ice cream, or extra junk food at the store. I love being a daughter that will watch football with him and be weird with him. Sometimes we'll play the latest hip hop song and he'll dance along (his favorite will always be "Low" aka "Boots with the Furr"..."Everybody was lookin' at herrrr"). And he has got some moves. Other favorite memories of my dad are of us swing dancing together at wedding receptions...I'm pretty pumped for our father-daughter dance someday.

 

My mom and I are so much alike. We both love being with people but need our alone time to rejuvenate. We both grew up as pretty innocent teenagers. We both have a hard time saying "no" when people ask us to commit to something...but we're learning and getting better at that. My mom is so intentional in her relationships and loves people so well. She is incredibly selfless when it comes to making sure her kids and her husband and her parents are happy. She puts up with a goofy husband and crazy kids, and is getting funnier and more hip every day.

Cathy is nine years older than me, but it doesn't feel like it. People tell me we look alike and it always makes me proud. Over the last couple years, we have grown much closer and, even though we drive each other nuts sometimes, we have so much fun together. During my sophomore year in high school, I spent a week visiting her in Massachusetts during my Spring Break, and then another week with her in Spain. I was kind of young and awkward, but she was nice enough to hang out with me anyway. She wrote me several of the greatest letters last year while I was in Spokane and listened to me vent about my tough year. She and I share excitement about family holidays and about awesome, fun pop/dance music...and I can usually count on her to dance around the kitchen to Mariah Carey's Christmas album with me.

I have always admired Martin...my whole life. He has always been a great example of faith and loving kindness for me. When I was in junior high, Martin and I became rock climbing buddies. We would buy a month pass when he was home and would go several times a week and belay each other. I felt pretty cool hanging out with my college-aged brother. He is a little more quiet and reserved than Cathy or Matthew, but he is hilarious and crazy. He has great taste in music and is the cool teacher that shops at Zumiez. I wish I could see him in action as a teacher, because I know he is awesome at it.

Marielle was the first new addition to our family and she fits perfectly. Martin totes loved her right away. The first time I met Marielle was at the condo in Carbondale, and she was wearing a Napoleon Dynamite shirt, so I immediately knew that I would love her too. She is hilarious and brings so much laughter to our family. She also does some great black girl and Indian accents, which I love. I am amazed by her determination and motivation as she works hard to become a doctor. I LOVE the time that I get to spend with Martin and Marielle and I really wish it happened more often!

Matthew. If relationships got awards, like soccer team awards, I think our relationship would get "Most Improved." My childhood memories overflow with tales of Matthew's torture. I finally began liking him around the time he left for college. We are always overly affectionate to one another when the other one wants to be left alone. But we also have so much fun together! In the past year and a half, he and I grew much closer, and I always tell people that he was my best friend at Whitworth. I can't believe how much time he spent with me last year and I'm amazed at how well he took care of me. He'll never know how much it truly meant to me.

Alex became my second sister-in-law in August! Gosh, I love her. She and I share love for frozen yogurt, dance aerobics, the Sing-Off, Once Upon a Time, and Keith Urban, among other things. I was so blessed to be able to spend time with her the few times she came to visit in Spokane. We were great friends right away, and we've continued to spend lots of time together this year. She is sweet enough to include me in cooking nights with her mom, and doesn't complain when I stay the night at her house...almost every Friday. She and Marielle have been such awesome additions to our family...I love my sisters.

Olivia and I have always been the babies of the family, so I've spent more time with her than with anyone else. I am grateful to her because I don't think I would have liked being the youngest and I have LOVED being an older sister to her. When we were little, I think she thought I was really cool, but now she mostly just thinks I'm weird. I goof around with her and try to get her to love me, but she isn't a big fan of physical touch or any other form of affection. But once in awhile, on a good day, she'll be silly with me and it will make my day! She has been such a blessing to me and has probably been the most influential person in my life. I love her a lot.

It's official!

It's after Thanksgiving and tomorrow is December 1st. Therefore, we're officially allowed to play Christmas carols, decorate with red and green, and get pumped for the holiday. Even though I've been doing at least two of the three for weeks.

I visited Lucy today and she had her Christmas decorations up, so I was inspired to go home and decorate our tree, instead of writing the paper that's due tomorrow. And now I'm blogging about it instead of writing that paper...it's fine.

Here are some of Lucy's decorations:

So after dinner, I put on Christmas Pandora and made my whole family gather in the family room to put our ornaments on the tree. Cathy mostly shared my enthusiasm, my mom was grateful for the help decorating, my dad kind of shook his head at my Christmas spirit, and Olivia just thinks I'm a crazy person...what's new?

 Ok, she did get into it a little bit

The finished product!

Listen

I've developed a small obsession with blogs in the last couple months. I love reading about what's important to other people, but I also love sharing my own thoughts. I think that's a human thing...we want to be heard and understood.

(Ok, so this song doesn't have anything to do with the rest of my post, except for the title. But it's a good one and Beyonce has an ok voice, I guess.)

When I transferred to CSU, I also changed my major to Social Work. Which I like sometimes and am not a huge fan of other times. But I'm in a class called Communication Skills and we learn a lot about listening to people. I wouldn't say that I'm learning a ton of new or radical information, but it serves as a reminder that listening actually is important.

I have had a couple experiences this semester in which people that I didn't know very well told me some crazy parts of their life stories. And I'll be honest...at the time, I was thinking, "This is the first conversation we've ever had...why the beep do you want to tell me all of this???" But it made me realize that people just want to be heard. And many of us are blessed with people that we can tell the important things to...mentors or best friends or family members that feel like best friends. However, not everyone has a person like that in their life...but that doesn't take away their desire and need to share their lives with someone. So I would encourage you to remember to listen. You don't need to take a class on it (trust me...). You just need to be aware of and loving towards the people that want to be heard.

Ellen is a cool lady.

No, I'm not talking about myself. Though I'm flattered you think I'm cool. But I am actually referring to Ellen DeGeneres. I've been reading her new book, Seriously...I'm Kidding,  just a tiny bit at a time and I love it. The chapters range from 1 sentence to maybe 8 pages in length, and the book really isn't about anything at all, but she is hilarious! And she has a really positive attitude about life, which we can all learn from. So I would recommend it to you. Maybe not to buy at full price...because it really is just a quick, entertaining read. But maybe you should check it out from a library or buy it from Amazon for cheap or borrow it from a friend, like I did. Even if you just read the back cover or the front flap or the intro, I think you'll already be laughing and want to read more...I speak from experience.

McDermott Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving festivities started yesterday at 4:00 am...far too early. It feels like it was a week ago. We woke up early and headed down to Denver because we were scheduled to volunteer at the Denver Rescue Mission starting at 5:45. Instead of sleeping a little extra in the car, I decided to bump some Christmas music...my dad and Olivia were annoyed, to say the least. While the others worked in the kitchen, I got to serve the meal. It was super cool to serve in this tiny way on a day when we often get caught up in our own celebration. Afterwards, we had a gourmet meal at IHOP...one of the few quality establishments open on Thanksgiving.

Last night, we began the usual McDermott traditions, starting with family photos. This is always an adventure and always makes me increasingly aware of our guests. Jake, Drew, Marshall, and Vicky were probably scarred by our loud and out of control family, but Jake was brave (or foolish) enough to be the photographer. Since we still use a film camera for these pictures (no one knows why), we have to take dozens, to ensure no one is blinking or looking fat. After much laughter and many impatient comments, we finally finished and headed to Dave and Dana's for dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner is the best. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, croissants, brussel sprouts, green bean salad, cranberry sauce...I'm sure I'm forgetting something. We eat too much and drink too much, and then eat some more when the pies come out. In the last few years, we've added a game of Catch Phrase to our traditional activities, which is always hilarious.

We spent today watching football and not really doing much else. Though we did eat leftover deliciousness (according to spell-check, that is a word) and played Spoons. Tonight, we ate dinner and played games with the Hardings. It was much less awkward than last year, when we were all meeting for the first time (knowing that Matthew had just discussed marriage with the parents).

The thought of break ending in a couple days and having to actually do something productive is awful. However, Christmas break really is SO soon, and that thought alone will get me through the next three weeks.

Crafting

 Finished product with quote

2nd crayon project!

Sundance Fundance!

Just dressed up in my best country outfit and went to Sundance with Amanda. Some of our friends were there so we had some country swing partners and it was the greatest. Some of the guys are awesome dancers and that makes it so much fun. We also got some good line dancing in, which is my favorite. Basically, I wish I was a cowgirl. Because, let's be real, I was born to country line dance.

The best part of the night was when I turned around and saw our best friend, Taryn!! Her flight from Texas got in tonight and she joined us late for some dancing. SO GREAT! I have the best friends in the world, in case you didn't already know. I love my life.