Christmas already!

Currently listening to: Harry for the Holidays (Harry Connick, Jr.)

BECAUSE I just watched: New in Town (starring that beautiful man)

I love flannel. It's a known fact. I love to wear flannel, I love plaid-designed things*, and I especially love men wearing plaid flannel shirts. Hence, Harry Connick Jr's character in New in Town is quite attractive (despite the fact that the movie wasn't my favorite ever). I also love Josh Lucas (plays the character Jake Perry) in Sweet Home Alabama - and he has a Southern accent, so double bonus.

I am listening to Christmas music, though, because it already

feels like Christmas in our house. Last week, my roommates and I decorated for Christmas and cut out sugar cookies. We didn't get around to icing the cookies - by the time you make the homemade dough and spend time with the cookie cutters, you just want to eat them and it doesn't matter what they look like! But our tree looks so cute and little. I am generally a fan of the real trees**, but since this is just our college house and we won't be here for over half of December, it's not worth it to invest in a live one. Plus one of my roommates paid for the tree, not me, so it's free in that sense :)

Yesterday, I baked an apple pie. It randomly sounded fun to bake,

and very few ingredients are needed. I even took the time to do the lattice-work crust, which just makes it really pretty. I was very pleased with the result. Perhaps the six apples the recipe called for was too much - I think five would have worked out better - but other than that it was delicious! Especially with some vanilla ice cream.

Tonight is the Lighting of the Square here in Fayetteville, and I am so excited! It is about to get even more Christmas-y around here!

I have a major prayer request for my best friend from high school. His name is Scott and he is having some major health issues. He became deaf when he was three, but was able to function quite normally in the hearing world. I actually forgot he was deaf all of the time and would yell at him. Anyway, he had poor vision in high school that was not correctable by glasses. However, this past spring, it began to rapidly decline and went from being about 20/70 to 20/400. He also began to be very dizzy and not be able to balance as well. Since then, his vision has continued to decrease and he is very weak right now and is mostly bed-ridden. He has been to the Mayo Clinic twice and I think is supposed to go again before Christmas. Last I heard, he is also having trouble breathing. He is back in Conway with his family, so I don't always know exactly how he is doing and I feel really far away. We have complete faith that God can heal him, but at the same time we know that God's plans are bigger than ours and we can't always understand what God is doing. Please pray that doctors will be able to figure out exactly what is wrong with him. They know that the mitochondria in his cells are not processing proteins like they should, and the result of that is that cells are deteriorating, but researchers haven't figured out why. Also, please pray for encouragement for him and his family. It's really scary, and I am not even in the midst of it. I am believing God for something big, but His timing is definitely not mine.

*I even bought Burberry perfume due to the fact that its "logo" or background or whatever is plaid.

**My parents for the past few years have been threatening to get a fake tree, but it always makes me really upset and they give in to get a real one. There is just something about having that actual smell in the house. I absolutely love it!