That One Time We Went Ice Skating

So now that the holidays are over...I can blog about the holidays.

Cause (clearly) I don't manage my time well enough to blog about the holidays while the holidays are happening. 

So let me tell you about that one time my family and I went ice skating.

I know what you're thinking. You're probably like, 

"this girl lives in Arizona, there's no ice skating there."

And to that I say nay.

There is.

Don't ask me how they do it, but believe in magic you muggles, cause it happened.

For a few years now, Downtown Phoenix shuts down central avenue from December through January and plops an ice skating rink right smack in the middle of it. I learned this the hard way earlier this month when I went to make my left turn onto Central to go to school and got denied. So after I got done being irritated that I've been re-routed, I thought, what a fun holiday outing!

It was fun because we got to ice skate, make fun of my dad trying to ice skate, listen to Christmas music, and hang out.

It was not fun when the little boys who play hockey were swerving in and out and between everyone, cutting everyone (namely me) off.

Scary.

It was also not fun when the little girls in their little figure skating costumes give you the stink-eye cause you're 25 and they're better than you.

Whatevs.

Kids these days.

But besides the judgmental youth, it was definitely a fun holiday outing. 

None of us hit the ground either. Dad had to be towed in once or twice via Nathan, but he never hit the ground.

Kudos to us Arizonans getting all winter-y and not falling while we try to ice skate.

Kudos.

My mom however, didn't try the ice skating. She didn't want to fall and get hurt. Which is understandable. But maybe not as much kudos to her.

But she was the designated photographer since she wasn't skating, so maybe kudos to her after all. 

After we got done ice skating and eating dinner we put on our spontaneous hats and decided to go bowling.

Which is a little less holiday-ish, but it was past 10pm and my parents (and Nate for that matter) were still out...which means we were in full on party mode.

We strapped on our bowling shoes, picked out our neon cosmic bowling balls, and started knocking down pins.

Well, they did mostly. 

Not really me.

I'm pretty really bad.

I bowled for Nate one round while he was in the restroom and he was pretty pissed about it. Like the kinda pissed that when we got back home he reminded me to never bowl for him again.

Whatevs.

Better to be pissed off than pissed on right?

Staying out late, bowling, ice skating...the holidays make my family do crazy things.

Next up: Christmas lights and snow play!

  

Merry Christmas

Love, 

The Townsends

Christmas Ornament Swap

This holiday season I decided to participate in an ornament swap...cause I'm never one to miss a blog swap. Or Christmas-y things. Or the chance to use the word "swap" twice in one sentence. I was paired with the lovely Lauren from For it is by Grace. Check her out here! Lauren is a die-hard Ole Miss fan and if it weren't so hard to find Ole Miss Christmas ornaments in ARIZONA, I probably would've gone that route. And if I weren't such a procrastinator I probably would've been on top of things and found one online and ordered it ahead of time. But that didn't happen. But hopefully she likes her ornaments anyway! I must say, Lauren was totally on point with the ornaments she sent me: Adorable multi-colored Christmas tree:

And my most favorite, a monogrammed T...cause T is for Townsend =)

They both look pretty dang good on my tree, if I do say so myself!

I had so much fun swapping ornaments with Lauren, thank you so much! 

And I'm so glad our lovely hosts Julie and Megan decided to put this on!

Merry Christmas!

How to...

...decorate your Christmas tree when you have dogs with high powered tails, in an effort to minimize the number of Christmas ornament casualties.

Something I myself, learned the hard way. 

Your tree must be divided into three different sections:

1.) low risk

2.) moderate risk

3.) and high risk

The low risk section of your tree means it has the least amount of likelihood that your dogs' tail can take out an ornament in just one swing and have it shatter all over the ground. This risk-area will typically be more towards the top of your tree. In your low risk section of your Christmas tree, you want to hang fragile ornaments, ornaments that have potential to break easily, or ornaments you'd rather not have to kill your dog over, for breaking it.

Example:

The moderate risk-area of your tree has potential to have ornaments knocked off its branches with a few swipes of your fur-child's tail. There's not as high a likelihood as the high risk-area, yet increased likelihood from the low risk-area. You will usually find your moderate risk-area around the mid-sections of your Christmas tree. Here, you can hang ornaments that are durable, cheap, or replaceable in order to cause the least amount of heartache in the event of a high powered wagging tail.

Example:

See? Nice and plastic.

Lastly, the high risk section of your Christmas tree (per process of elimination) is the lowermost parts of your tree. Here, your ornaments are likely to get knocked off your tannenbaum frequently and at high speeds. You may want to hang either your unbreakable ornaments or nothing at all in this risk-area. I suggest soft, stuffed ornaments, similar to that of a pillow.

Example:

Should you decorate your tree in accordance to the aforementioned risk assessment, you will save

both you and your pooch(es) the heartache (or punishment) of suffering from broken and shattered

Christmas tree ornaments.
Nor will you be forced to chop off your dogs’ tail.
Cause let’s face it, nobody wants that.
It’d be pretty messy.

School's out for...Winter

Stick a fork in it.

I've turned in my last paper and this semester of school is officially over!!

...it's actually been over since last Tuesday, but I get tired of always starting out my posts with how late I am on blogging things.

If this were Instagram, or Twitter or something, I'd be like: [hashtag]fail.

Since school is over now, I am in full holiday mode. I have two nights of the week back in my possession to do whatever I please with them. 

I plan to spend my Thursday nights watching new episodes of the Big Bang Theory instead of sitting in a classroom until 9 o'clock at night talking about public works, municipal services, and how local government needs to get more creative in their service delivery.

I intend to spend my Tuesday nights watching the Phoenix Suns play basketball instead of getting the game updates on my phone because I'm sitting in a classroom talking about civic engagement, public decision making, and the city of Phoenix in all its 1980s glory.

I'll spend my Tuesday afternoons at my job actually doing work instead of writing my reading response (that I haven't done the reading for) due at 6pm before class.

I can now leave work and not have to think twice about what day of the week it is, and therefore, what route I need to take to either go home or go to campus for class.

Any writing that I do will be for this here blog, not a midterm paper, or a final paper, or a city council communications memo - and it certainly will not be in APA Style with any sort of footnotes or reference page. 

I plan to read my Better Homes and Gardens magazines to get quick and easy holiday tips, instead of reading academic journals or peer reviewed articles researching the importance of festivals and celebrations to a community... or any myriad of other issues for that matter.

And lastly, instead of counting down the days until the semester is over, 

the countdown 'til Christmas is now in full effect!

  

Thanksgiving 2012

We interrupt this broadcast Christmas season to bring you a word from our sponsors Thanksgiving.

I realize everyone is in Christmas mode right now (rightfully so), but I'd like to take a few steps back so I can post about my Thanksgiving.
Cause I haven't yet.
Cause I'm always on top of my blogging like that.

Anyway, another year, another Thanksgiving.

Another week of Facebook "I'm-thankful-for" status updates behind us.

Another day of pure and uninhibited gluttony under our belts (quite literally).

My Thanksgiving this year was fabulous, as usual. We even had extra family in from out of town which made it even more fabulous.

After everyone was done eating, per the usual...the boys went outside and threw things at each other.
No really.
Last year my husband, my sister's fiancee, and my two cousins went outside to play cornhole. Except by the end of the game they were throwing the bean bags at each other instead of into the cornhole (cornhole?).
(See last years' events here)
So since the cornhole game is broken (per last years' events), the boys had to find something else to throw at each other.
So that's what they did.
They ran around the backyard throwing balls at each other in some version of a dodgeball-like game.

After that we all sat outside on the patio talking about what we're thankful for conspiracy theories.
Mermaids, chem-trails, big foot, you name it, we discussed it.

After that we took some family pictures.
Which started out nice and normal:

And ended, well... pretty normal: 

Food, dodgeball, conspiracy theories, and cuh-ray-zee family photos make for a pretty dang good Thanksgiving.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming Christmas season

   

H54F

It's been a while since I've done my favorite weekly link-up, and since I've managed to run out of time for the last like, 5 Fridays, I made sure to make time for a post this week!

So without further ado, I give you...my high five for Friday.

1.) Last weekend I had a couple of my favorite ladies Sarahita and Stephanie over to my house for dinner. I cooked (I know, it probably won't happen again for another 6 months), we ate, we drank, we discussed the important issues of the day (i.e. why Halle Berry has man problems, Mariah Carey's biracial-ness, and my lack of gay-dar), we introduced Stephanie to Nutella (she liked it), and as always, we laughed.

2.) We decorated the office for Christmas this week

 

Considering all we had to go on was an 8 year old artificial tree, a hodge podge of old bulbs, and a handful of candy canes, I'd say we did pretty good.

The bow on top is my own personal touch...if I do say so myself.

3.) The dogs got their Christmas collars from grammy this week, so they're looking extra festive

Although, they're always looking festive, with cute faces like these.

4.) Thursday was the conclusion of one out of two classes remaining this semester.

Halle-freakin-lujah.

One research paper and power point presentation to go, and come Tuesday I can wash my hands of another semester of grad school.

And then the countdown to graduation begins!!

5.) And last but not least...I daresay I left the best for last.

Drum roll please...

The Duck Dynasty Christmas Special!!!

Hil-freakin-larious.

And there's really nothing else to say.

Besides I love Si.

And I really love him as an elf.

Happy Friday Jack!