merry christmas

y'all, Christmas is in three days. 

sorry i just really love this gif xD

in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be registered.

this was the first registration when Quirinius was governor 

of Syria. and all went to be registered, each to his own town.

and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from

the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David,

which is called Bethlehem, because

he was of the house and lineage of David, 

to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

and while they were there, the time came for her

to give birth. and she gave birth to her firstborn son

and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger,

because there was no place for them in the inn. 

....

and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory

of the Lord shone round them, and they were filled

with great fear. 

and the angel said to them, 

"fear not, for behold, i bring you 

good news of great joy

that will be for all the people. 

for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior

who is Christ the Lord."

luke 2:1-7, 9-11

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

how do you all celebrate Christmas?

<3 <3, 

allison 

choose joy

lately i've been reading, watching the nightly news

don't seem to find the rhythm, just wanna sing the blues

feels like a song that never stops

feels like it's never gonna

gotta get that fire, fire, back in my bones

before my heart, heart, turns into stone

.....

oh, hear my prayer tonight, i'm singing to the sky

give me strength to raise my voice, let me testify

oh, hear my prayer tonight, 'cause this is do or die

the time has come to make a choice

and i choose joy

.....

though i walk through the valley of the shadow of night

oh, with You by my side, i'm stepping into the light

i choose joy

.....

i need that joy, joy, joy, joy

down in my heart, down in my heart to stay

joy│for KING & COUNTRY

CHOOSE JOY.

this has become a particular maxim or motto for me, especially during this year. it was one of my new years resolutions. i even wrote a college essay on why joy is my favorite word.


this post is about how important it is for us to choose to be joyful, every day. being joyful doesn't mean that you're happy all the time. cuz everyone knows that is not possible.


happy. 
     feeling or showing pleasure or contentment


joy. 
     an emotion that’s acquired by the anticipation, acquisition or even the expectation of something great or wonderful 

from the web ;)

HAPPINESS is a feeling, sort of a rush of euphoria when you do something that you enjoy, when you read a book you love, when you watch a favorite movie. when suddenly, the world feels okay and everything around you is great. it doesn't last, though. i liken it to when you drink coffee, like the rush of caffeine you get. 

JOY, on the other hand, is a long-lasting emotion, something you can have no matter how dark or hopeless a situation. it's holding onto the belief that God's in control no matter what, and while you don't feel happy or don't know when you'll feel happy again, you can have joy. 

 may the God of hope fill you with all

joy and peace as you trust

in Him, so that you may overflow with

hope by the power of the

Holy Spirit. 

romans 15:13

personally, this hit close to home. i realized that too often, i would wake up and feel grouchy or just "out of sorts". and that's how the rest of the day would go. or when something goes wrong and you feel just down. i struggle with this a lot. and it's okay. 

i'm not saying that you can't ever feel sad or blah, because those are normal human emotions. we're supposed to feel sad. we're supposed to get angry. we're supposed to feel frustrated and just done. it's normal. 

but even when you are, hold onto the fact and truth that God is watching over you. that even when it feels like things are spiraling out of control, it's going to be okay. 

it doesn't matter if you wake up and feel irritated or annoyed or sad. you have the power to choose to be joyful, to act joyful towards your family, to realize that no matter how tired or frustrated you feel, that you can make the choice to be joyful. 

 though you have not seen Him, you love Him;

and even though you do not see Him now,

you believe in Him and are

filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.

1 peter 1:8

it's definitely not easy, but it's a choice that we can make. one that i'm trying to make every day. it helps me to write it on my wrist, so i can look down and be reminded at key moments to be joyful. i then remember how lucky i am, to have such a wonderful (and yes, loud and occasionally obnoxious xD) family, to have a job, to own my favorite books. i know it's not the same, but i often link joy with gratefulness. 

i hope that i've made sense here. it's a tricky topic, and one that i'm very passionate about. but it's hard to express my feelings into words, and i hope that y'all get what i'm trying to say. ;) 

so, what do you think?

really hope i've

made sense, xD

merry christmas,

allison

honestly can't think of a title / random funny things

just a messy, disorganized post full of random things i've heard + experienced while working at a bagel shop. enjoy ;)

*7am*
teenage guy: hey i'll have a bacon, egg, + cheese sandwich, to go
me: okay, that'll be $4.50
guy *pays + leaves a penny as a tip + walks away*
me: wow, thank you. have a great day.

lady: do you sell chopped chicken liver?
me: um, no
lady: okay, i'll just take this cream cheese
*after she leaves*
my boss *gags*: i will never sell chopped chicken liver

*guy pays for his order*
me: do you want a receipt?
guy: no thank you, carol
*he leaves*
me: uhhhh???
my boss: did he just call you carol?
me: um yes?

*three minutes before we close, a lady walks in*
my boss, under her breath: oh no, not her. haha, you get her!
*my boss disappears into the back kitchen*
me: oh great

guy: hi, i want some bagels without holes in them
me *coughs + tries to keep from laughing*: um, i'm so sorry, sir, but all our bagels have holes in them
guy: ugh, fine.
*he literally has me pick up every bagel + scrutinize the holes*
*after he leaves*
me: does he not know what bagels are??

shoutout to the guy who sounded just like the godfather xD. also shoutout to the guy who ordered a jalapeño bagel with strawberry cream cheese. *gags*

also, my new favorite thing to get at the shop (bc i get a free bagel per shift ;) is a bagel with bacon, butter, and tomatoes. sounds weird, but it's amazing. xD

hope y'all are doing well! 

least favorite Christmas song?

mine's a tie between

"Santa Baby" and "Last Christmas"

xD

merry christmas,

allison

currently / autumn

didn't get a chance to write an October or November wrap-up post, so this is kinda a summary of what i've been doing lately. ;) very random. 

R E A D I N G

a lot, xd. 

seriously, i'm in that phase where i'm reading about ten books at a time + not finishing any of them. ;P

i'm reading: 

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (for the second time in five months, xD)
• Muse of Nightmares (ok the first one was WAY BETTER)
• Frankenstein
• The Children's Homer (ugh)
• Quo Vadis
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue (haha, again....)
• The Lie: Evolution / Millions of Years

yup. 

had a mini binge session one week (recovering from stress of midterms x_x) + finished The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, House, and Trusting God (wow, what a combination, xD). Trusting God is amazing + changed how I think about God's sovereignty. definitely recommend.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein was really good -- especially as I'm not a fan of the horror genre, but it was more of a psychological thriller. definitely recommend. 

House (Peretti + Dekker).....was interesting. It unsettled and disturbed me, mainly bc I'm not a horror / supernatural fan. I definitely skim-read it, and finished it feeling very unsettled. so, not sure if I would recommend. ;)

W A T C H I N G

a medley of things. "The Crimes of Grindelwald" was AMAZING. and i need to see it again. 

• The Office
• 24 
• Studio C + JK Studios
• booktube (Cherry Wallis, jessethereader, etc.)
• holiday cooking shows
• CHRISTMAS MOVIES (we have this tradition where we only watch Christmas movies during December. so far, we've seen "Elf", and are going to watch "White Christmas", "Home Alone", "It's A Wonderful Life", and "The Griswald's Christmas Vacation")

per usual, the Office (amazing + hilarious). also, we started watching 24 with my parents, and it's really good! there's definitely parts we skip (violence, mostly), but the concept is so cool + intriguing! each season is set during one, twenty four hour day. so each episode is one hour, in real time.

L I S T E N I N G

compiling playlists for my WIPs is so much fun, xD. also went to a for KING & COUNTRY concert the other day, and it was utterly amazing. it was a Christmas concert, but they also played all of my favorites, "joy", "burn the ships", "amen", etc. SO GOOD. 

• Hamilton soundtrack
• Owl City
• Mumford and Sons
• for KING & COUNTRY
• Adventures in Odyssey (#noshame xD)
• CHRISTMAS MUSIC (y'all, i have a five hour playlist. with michael buble, pentatonix, bing crosby, nat king cole, etc.)

R A N D O M

cherry vanilla bagels are the best. also, my bagel shop just started selling gingerbread bagels. <3

ALSO, i'm officially in love with the starbucks toasted white chocolate mocha. it's amazing. also the peppermint mocha is amazing. it literally tastes like christmas. ;)

i preordered the Bucky funko pop (from infinity war) and i cannot wait till it comes! story: when my dad took my brother and i to comic con a couple months ago, my brother and i scoured all the booths for a Bucky funko pop (seriously, every single booth, my brother would look at every one <3 <3). apparently, they're really rare, so we didn't find any. oh well, xD. update: it's not coming until the day after Christmas *sobs*. apparently there were production issues. x_x

i had senior pictures taken a couple weeks ago. it was interesting, as i've never really had professional photos taken of me before. 

had a college interview the last week of october. it went really well! the guy who interviewed me was super nice + loved Narnia, so we had a brief geek out session, talking about our favorite books. xD

y'all, Christmas is less three weeks away.

also, finals are next week. please send help. also i had a spanish oral presentation on thursday. x_x but it was about lin-manuel miranda, so that was really fun! ;)

also, just wanted to say thank you for putting up with my very random posting schedule recently. for awhile, blogger wouldn't let me schedule posts, so i was just posting whenever i had a chance. i think i figured it out, so hopefully i'll be posting regularly on saturdays and occasionally on wednesdays. ;)

also, nothing to do with this post, but HAVE YOU SEEN THE AVENGERS 4 TRAILER? cuz i'm still freaking out over it. literally, i almost cried when i saw it for the first time. 

what's up with y'all?

favorite for KING & COUNTRY

song?

also, what are some of your

favorite christmas traditions?

merry christmas,

allison