“Christmas can …

“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.” -Ronald Raegan

Most people have done their Black Friday shopping and designated hiding places , better known by believers as Santa’s Workshop. In the excitement of the holiday season and it’s gift giving tradition, it is easy to forget the reason for the season. As a Christian, I wish to stress that while I love the idea of Santa Claus and the little elves, Jesus Christ and his life but most importantly his  resurrection is the reason I celebrate. Through his life and death, the world gained salvation.

Santa’s Little Helpers hahaha

My family’s Christmas tree this year…START the Whobilation music!!!

There are times for every family when we see closer, stronger, and generally sweeter. For my family, the holidays seem to bring out the best in us. I have always loved Thanksgiving and Christmas although I never really experienced it until my mother married her former husband. He is for all intents and purposes the man I call my “Dad”. Today marked the start of the holiday season or what I refer to as the WHOBILATION…hehe I LOVE the Grinch! Anyway, as is tradition in our family, the women cook the meal and the men serve the dessert. This year, we had to make twice as much as we normally do though.

It used to be that Thanksgiving included the Toole Family, the Bassford family, The Seawrights, and the Lewis’. For the first time, we had outsiders in our private thanksgiving feast haha. Terrance was there, as was my Dad’s new girlfriend. Needless to say, I’m glad that my parent separated on friendly terms and still remain friends after their divorce. Nevertheless, there were a lot more mouths to feed. However, considering the annual football game and parade watch, I’m glad they came. If nothing else, more people means more apple pie!

I woke up extremely early just because I was so excited, so I sat in the sun room with my hot chocolate and polished off my ornaments that my brothers brought down from the attic yesterday. After pastries and the parade, keeping with tradition, the women were put out of our house and sent away while the men finished dessert and screamed at the t.v. about the football game.

It was great. I mean fan-stinking-tastic, until the dreaded holiday greeting card photos. That created a lot of issues as you can imagine. I mean who classifies as family in a group as undefined as ours is??? By the time dinner rolled around, we were all exhausted, hungry, and ready for Black Friday shopping. Still, we didn’t hesitate to crack jokes, drown in egg nog, or tell ridiculous stories like we always do. After all of that, all we wanted to do was sleep but we still had one important thing left to do.

Trimming the Christmas Tree.

Between the thirty of us, and the step stools that we affectionately call Santa’s helpers, the tree was looking beautiful in no time. The older people settled in the living room to watch Charlie Brown, while the kids went to the den to play Just Dance for the thousandth time. But the most perfect part??? B.C. AND I ARE OFFICIALLY A COUPLE. Or at least that’s what Kay has been screaming for the past hour. When he asked, it was unexpected given that we were in the middle of dinner but I will work with him on his timing later. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, if you’re American that is, and that you have a great holiday season.

Peace, Blessings, and Much love,

Semmie  ❤

Model United Nations Trip 2012- Chicago!!

We are Pakistan!!!

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Holiday Madness

I don’t know if you have seen it or not, Thursday night I got all dressed up to see Breaking Dawn with B.C., Kay, and her boyfriend Terrance. It was so awesome. Although, Stephanie Meyer and I should talk about her plot twists. I almost had a heart attack. In case you were wondering, I’m Team Switzerland. I’m kind of sad that there won’t be anymore movies. But at least now I can get through the movie theaters. But, I digress. The best part was seeing Kay! I’m so happy that my sister is back, I don’t think I could survive a Bassford-Toole Family Thanksgiving without her. I need somebody there to wake me up from my food-induced comas.  She’s only been home for twenty four hours and so far we have been together.

I missed our girl time. We were up half the night painting our nails, watching movies, and giggling  so much that Mrs B. came in to send us off to bed…just like old times. Only not so much. Kay has a boyfriend that we don’t know for the first time ever. There is definitely going to be some testing going on Thursday. I can see it now. It’s going to be like the Spanish Inquisition. Poor Terrance…my brothers are bad enough without B.C..

As far as B.C. and I go, we are not a couple. He’s “dragging his feet”. I just hope that if he does ask me to be his girlfriend he doesn’t do anything cliche. I don’t want anything dramatic. Just keep it simple and personal, ya know? ANYWAY, I do owe him a big favor. Apparently, my body doesn’t want to cooperate. I forgot to take my medications, so I had a seizure in the middle of breakfast. Or at least that’s what I was told because I don’t remember exactly what happened.

Needless to say, I woke up with a horrible headache, which I am still fighting. After I woke up, I remember him being there and asking if I was okay. I realized what happened when he asked and I got embarrassed almost instantaneously. I mean, Kay and B.C. have seen it before. Terrance is another story, though. He doesn’t know me and I didn’t want Kay to have to explain that to him. I can’t take sympathy. In fact, I was so mortified I asked Mrs. B take me to my parents house.

Still, it’s things like this that scare me. I don’t know what will happen and even with medication I can’t control my body. I keep thinking about the future. What about B.C.. If we do get married and live happily ever after like Kay keeps saying we will, I can’t ask him to take care of me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I’ll ever really be totally independent. What about children? Oh my head is starting to throb.

Regardless to the unknowns, I want this to be a good Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you Wednesday evening hopefully.

P.S: Say hello to my wonderful sister who typed my every word without fail, hopefully. I told her it would make me feel better.

Good morning Starshine, the Earth Says Hello!!!

Cheesy title, you may think so. To me, this title means that on the days when I’m ready to cry my eyes out, there is always somebody there for me to laugh at. It means that I won’t have to watch Sex and the City reruns alone, or question Roger Federer’s greatness. To me, this line signifies friendship. Friendship is one of the most valuable things anyone can have. It is especially important when you are dealing with issues that most people never face. It is nice to know that at the end of the day I can take a step back and be “normal” for just a little while. But, then again, what is normal with friends like mine??

Mirka is Mirka. There isn’t anything that I can say about her. Mirka and I have known each other for about a year and a half and she is great as far as friends go. When I first met her, I seriously thought I would hate her! And for a while, I was fairly indifferent with her place in my life. However, things quickly changed when we crucified a stuffed animal together. For Mirka and I, the phrase “Nothing brings two people together like the hatred of a third party.” couldn’t have been more true. Ok, so we didn’t hate Nikki, we just seriously disliked her. Mirka is my workaholic, animated movie loving friend. She keeps me focused on my school work, and has enough Despicable Me quotes to keep me entertained.

I met Hermonie on Move-In Day. She is a tennis fanatic. She lives, breathes, and eats tennis. She would seriously get married at Wimbledon. She was originally friends with Mirka, given that both play on the same team but we slowly grew to being friends. Hermonie is…how do I describe Hermonie. Seriously, serious. She commits to whatever she does. Whether it’s being silly, sarcastic, or working on surprises she does everything in such a serious matter that it all seems to be of the uptmost importance. Hermonie is the one that I can be crazy with. She keeps me fun, and I keep her laughing. It’s a nice trade off.

Finally, there is Mitzy. Mitz is quiet and introverted, but fun and sarcastic. Mitz is like the icing the middle of the cupcake. We could probably a great little dessert together, but cupcakes are always better with icing in the middle..yes, we have talked about it. Although in this case, it may be more appropriate to say the icing on top of a giant cookie.

In my November tradition of thankfulness, I wish to say thank you to these ladies for making my college journey just that much more palatable this year. I really appreciate all you girls have done and I can’t wait to see what other memories we make in the future.

OHHH MYYYY…..GAAAAAAWWWWSSSSHHH!

Loved this day!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun….Being 80’s Tennis stars

“OOOOH NEMO TOUCHED THE BUTT!!” *in my Mitzy voice*

Double Standards and Friendships

I used to feel compared to my siblings because they were all cheerleaders, athletes, or in sororities and my mother seemed really proud of them. I felt like no matter what I did, I would never be good enough to be her daughter. Call that low self-esteem or whatever, but that is how it was. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 and regardless to what I thought that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The real issue was, I wasn’t sure of who I was as a person, nor was I confident. Therefore, I looked for imperfections purposefully to try and justify my feelings.

I know it was unfair of me to believe such things about my mother, but I couldn’t help it. As far as parents, my mother is great. But, my biological father is highly abusive and took any chance to degrade me. I used to let it bother me, now it serves to make me more determined towards my goals. But I digress. My father’s influence on my life was and is more far-reaching than I like to admit at times, but he gave rise to the insecurities that I have harbored over the years. He showered his love and affection on my elder sister because she was  “perfect” and I was the “abomination”. That’s the way things went. He’d always been that way and since my mother loved him, I deduced that she would share those same views. Instead of talking to her, I would throw temper tantrums when they would go to tournaments and leave me home or my siblings would be at practices and I was stuck in the house. Life was miserable.

Thankfully, my mother picked up on my sour mood and took matters into her own hands. Before I had a chance to object, I was enrolled in piano lessons. I hated it at first because it was so hard for me to remember the keys. As time went on, I got better at it. I started playing at 7 and now ,thirteen years later, I love it. Piano became my escape. When I would have a bad day, I would go to my room and play for hours. It relaxed me and gave my mom a cue that I needed to vent. It worked in both our favors and we grew closer because of it. It was also how I made some of my first friends.

I met Taylor Elexus first, followed shortly by Kay and B.C. My friends at home weren’t ashamed of me because I never allowed my disability to become a hinderance to my personality. They saw me for who I was, not what I was capable of. After Taylor’s death we all fell apart a little. It was hard for us to be around each other and not mourn her. Eventually though, things got better.  Now that we are older and in college, we have grown apart some though. Kay went away for school to study in NYC, but B.C. made the decision to stay closer to home and is an hour away. My friends now are the same way. Yes, there are times when they do things without me, but I don’t mind it because they deserve the time to have fun without worrying about me every once in a while. Life, double standards, and friendships are big challenges but I’m working way through them all now.

College Life and the Modern Southern Belle

I was born in Washington, D.C. and I lived in Bethesda, M.D. for the first six and a half years of my life. However, the South is my home. So today, as with every other Saturday as far back as I can remember, I pulled out my gloves and got to work. I cleaned my entire suite, showered, and found the perfect dress for today. Now, don’t go getting all worked up if this isn’t how you were raised and you think I’m a little too old-fashioned. That’s how I am.

Just to clarify, being southern isn’t about waving a Confederate flag, it’s about a lifestyle that teaches that “Yes Ma’am” is said to every woman, where “Thank you, Sir.” is an appropriate response when a gentleman holds a door open for you and your Sweet Tea is brewed sweet, not sweetened Iced Tea. Being Southern is as much a mindset as a geographical reality, but being Southern isn’t about the Confederacy. For a long time, I denied my upbringing, my accent, my food and my colloquial “y’all” because of the negative stereotype that the South is riddled with illiteracy, ill manners and an attachment to racism. I am here to say that I am not that kind of Southern girl.

My grandmother, aunts, sisters, and mother are all the same. From an early age, I was taught to adhere to the rules of a lady. So much so, that even now there is always tea in my fridge, pink lemonade cups on my desk, and enough yes ma’am and no sir’s to make my grandma proud. It’s a huge thing to me. The act of being a southern lady, is in extremely rare form. While I’m not going around calling Northerners Yankees and and calling the civil war “The War of Northern Agression,” I do strive to embody the good things that came out of a time when women held themselves in higher regard. I won’t be a submissive wife by any means, but every woman should know how to care for her home and family and how to behave in public.

The saddest part? I think I’m the only one that realizes that it is missing. The young women I sit next to in class, have dinner with, and encounter on a regular basis have lost sight of what it is to be a real lady. Regardless to where you were born, you can never be to old to learn good mannners. The language they use is horrible. I never dreamed of saying some of the things they say. They eat like pigs and wear next to nothing. Maybe it is me who is behind the times, but the times don’t seem like a place I want to be. What happened? I realize now that I am but a Modern Southern Belle trapped in a world of bad manners, loose women, and foul mouths…this world is better known as College. And the only rebuttal I have is…Bless their hearts.

Date Nights and Fright Fests

Okay, so anyone who knows me knows that I don’t celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense. My mother never let us dress up or go trick-or-treating. And, I guess, now that I’m older I’ve lost interest in it. So, we usually just hang out around the house. So that was the plan for this Halloween, chilling out and getting a head start on a few assignments. Or so I thought. I guess B.C. had other plans.

Around six that night, he showed up at my dorm. I didn’t even know he was coming!!! It was bad! I was in my pajamas and had my head scarf on with not a drop of makeup on. I blame my roommate. They set me up. They should get a job with the CIA or something. Anyway, so he showed up with P.F. Changs, which is like  my all time favorite food and a bag of junk food. The man knows the way to my heart. Of course, I wanted to change cause I was such a mess, but he just wouldnt let me. He was in sweats too, so I got over it pretty quickly. We spent five hours watching movies, joking, and working on papers together. It was nice. Shoutout to MTV, AMC, and Syfy for providing the horror flicks, by the way.

But, he totally wasn’t counting that as a date. According to him, that’s what we do all the time.  So last night, we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s and out for dessert at TCBY. He told me that he felt bad because he couldn’t afford to take me anywhere nicer, but I was just so happy to spend time with him. I mean, we are college students. I didn’t expect the world from B.C. . That wouldn’t be fair, I can’t afford it either. However, I did appreciate the effort. I even gave him a kiss (on the cheek lol)! All in all, it was a great date, or two.