Christmas Girls' Night, etc...

Okay, I was successful at getting my oil changed on Friday. I got Stefanie to follow me to this place that was recommended to me, so I could just drop off my car. The owner said he could have my car ready at 3:00. So I went back home and made the Mexican caviar for the girls' party (it's not really caviar, but I guess it looks kinda like caviar... although I don't really know because I don't think I've ever seen caviar). I packed up my stuff and packed the box I had to send to WA, and then got Stefanie to take me back to my car when it was time. Not surprisingly, my car was not ready. But the guy was very apologetic and asked me to give him 15 minutes. And he and 2 of his workers finished the oil change in 15 minutes while I sat inside. And while I was sitting there, one of the guy's young sons (probably about age 5), came over to me and said, "Are you waiting for the police?" Hahaha... Yeah, I'm thinking that is not a good sign. Anyway, based on eavesdropping (I'm really good at this), I think it had something to do with someone dropping off a stolen vehicle to be fixed. I'm not really sure. But I don't think it was anything for me to worry about. Oh, and they knocked off a few dollars, since they didn't have it done in time, and I only paid $17.42 for the oil change. I would go back again. It wasn't a bad experience, and I think they were sincerely sorry and had just had a hectic day (what with the whole police thing). And the owner tried to make it right by focusing on my car until the job was done and also cutting the price back.

So, after mailing my package to my family, I was on the road to Birmingham. Once I got close to the Galleria (this huge mall close to Birmingham), I really started seeing the traffic backing up. I guess people are doing their Christmas shopping full-force now. And then, as I continued to drive, I saw even more traffic backed up for merging onto I-65 South. And it didn't look any better from the other side, after I passed I-65. Traffic was lining up to merge from both directions!!! I just was super-glad that I wasn't going to be going to I-65 South. I made it to the Summit to buy the cheesecakes for our party. I could not believe the traffic trying to get back out of the Summit. But I braved it anyway, and bought two types of cheesecake. The Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple (I love this one), and the Tuxedo. And, even though it took a while to get back out of the Summit, it wasn't too terribly bad. And I made it to April's house about 3 minutes before she did, so it wasn't super horrible. Tons of traffic and me having to push myself into traffic in the middle of rush hour (of which I'm not very fond), but I made it.

I made my Mexican confetti pinwheels and got a shower while they cooked. And once all the food was cooked, I started taking pictures. Here's the spread, with Courtney anxiously waiting for dinner to be "served."
And here's my plate:
Okay, clockwise from the top is: Mexican confetti pinwheels, grilled cheese, frito chips, Mexican caviar, ruffles, french onion sour cream (April did not know this was sour cream until after we ate it, and we couldn't figure out why it was so runny!). Oh, and plus we had Dr. Pepper to wash it all down.

And finally, here we are enjoying our cheesecakes:
So, as we ate, we watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2. How much fun to watch Christmas movies from my childhood! It is even more entertaining to watch them from an adult perspective, because, as April said, "And why weren't they holding his hand in the airport in the second one, given that they left him at home the year before?" Also, watching it now, knowing about current airport security, we just laughed to know that there is no way these scenarios could occur these days. The Home Alone movies wouldn't even hold water in today's world. Because, quite frankly, you have to show your boarding pass like 5 times before you can board the stinkin' plane. And in both of these movies, the whole reason the mix-ups occur is because they end up boarding the plane without having to show their boarding passes to anyone!!! So, it was funny (and kind of sad) to see how different things are 20 years later. And we also watched Love Actually. I love that movie. I'm just sad that I will never own the original (this one we watched was the taped-off-the-TV-and-therefore-edited-for-content version). Oh, we also made mint chocolate brownies, which were good. But we never did make hot chocolate, because, quite frankly, I don't think any of us wanted anymore food by the end fo the night.

On Saturday, I got home around 3:15 and then decided to go to the library to check out a book and browse their movies. This is because April and I had a long conversation about reading and what types of books we like to read, and I have to tell you, whenever I do that and haven't been reading much for fun, I really feel deprived and I just want to voraciously read everything I've been wanting to read for forever. So, to cure my inner-hunger for reading popular fiction, I went to the library. They didn't have either book that I wanted. Arg. But there was a third book that I had on one of my lists that was on the shelf. So hopefully that one will be worth reading. And I also rented Ratatouille, which I was surprised was on the shelf. I still have not watched it though. I opted instead to watch The Goonies. Ah, The Goonies. I will say that it shocks me to hear all the swearing in the movie. But it will always be one of my favorite movies. Saturday was actually a really ugly day in the afternoon. It didn't rain much here (but the wind blew so hard I thought it was raining, from the sound). But my dad said they had torrential rain in Dothan. I was just worried about the tornado possibility.

Sunday was church and that was great. We had 22 children in nursery! Wow, that's a lot! Of course, after the first of the year, about 10 of them will move up to Primary, since they are 3. I love the kids. They really are neat and so much fun. I really do love being the Nusery Leader here. I spent the remainder of my Sunday mostly reading and talking on the phone... to my mom, to Christina, and to Julie. Oh and Desiree is such a little darling!!! Christina was looking at my blog and reading about my trip and so everytime there was a picture of my mom on the screen, Desiree would run over to the computer, point, and say, "That's Mecca." Okay, I don't know why she calls my mom that, but she does. And she's consistent. She's been calling my mom that for about a year now. Too cute. And so Christina would point to me and say, "Who's that?" And you know what??? Desiree knew!!! She would say, "An' 'Ila". Oh my sweet baby... She's growing up. And she knows who I am :)!

Oh and I stole some more pictures off my cousin's blog. I think I should make her my new photographer. For one thing, she takes really good pictures of things I didn't get good pictures of, like these:

And for another thing, she took good pictures of me... Not that I'm trying to sound vain or anything. It's just that, after those pictures of my in the stadium... I'm desperately seeking decent pictures of me!!! And luckily for me, my cousin can deliver :). Seriously, I'm not trying to be or sound vain. But I think this picture of me and Aunt Hila is a good one, and I'm going to use the part of me for my new blog picture. So thanks Katherine! Hope you don't mind that I keep blog-stealing :).
Oh, and two things I wanted to include: the Mexican caviar didn't turn out as good as I remember it being when someone else made it. Also, here's the song from which they made the "theme song" of Love Actually. It's called "Love is All Around" and I love it.