christmas and serial killers

I love Christmas I really do, but the last of the Christmas parties is over now and I'm so glad. I feel as though I'm coated in chocolate and stuffed with turkey. Electra got so much stuff that I'm fairly sure we'll never see her bedroom floor again. But it was so much fun watching my family this year. We had our best Christmas ever, not because of the awesome gifts that we gave or recieved. We had the best time because (caution severe cheese incoming) we had each other and everyone was safe and healthy.
Now I'll move on so that I don't lose the bulk of my readers to sugar shock. If you haven't taken the quiz on Leah's blog you should jump on over. I've always been fascinated with the causes of psychopathic behavior. What would make someone kill and torture others? The scariest part of it is that psychopaths look just like everyone else.
"America's 1st serial killer was a man called H. H. Holmes (his real name was Mudgett). Estimates of the number of his victims range from forty to one hundred and upwards, most of them women eager for marriage whom he killed for their money. He himself confessed to the murder of nearly thirty victims.
Since Holmes was an inveterate liar as well as a swindler and murderer, the true details of even the killings to which he confessed will never be known, but the physical evidence found in his building in Chicago, known as "Holmes' Castle," left grim implications. Detectives searching it after his arrest found trapdoors, hidden stairways, concealed panels, and blind hallways. Especially sinister were several sleeping chambers which lacked windows and were capable of being sealed air-tight. The gas piped into them was controlled from Holmes' bedroom, whereas the valves on the gas fixtures within the guestrooms were dummies which could not be shut off by the occupants. In the basement of the Castle were a dissecting room, a crematory, and several mysterious machines, one of which bore a disturbing resemblance to a medieval rack. Traces of human remains were in evidence." (source)
CREEPY!!!!!!!!!!!

christmas

I got tagged.
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate, with caramel! and whipped cream...great idea Tiffany
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa is not real, but I love wrapping gifts. What's the fun of Christmas without large amounts of paper to clean up
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I've got white because its classier, but colored also makes me think of growing up. We always had colored lights
4. Do you hang mistletoe? If I can get some, someone in my redneck family usually takes shotgun or tractor out to get some. However, as to the tradition of cornering someone under the mistletoe, never done that.
5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the day, or at least the weekend, after Thanksgiving. Me too! Tiffany
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Everything, I love holiday food, but I have a special place in my heart for Danish Butter cookies (excepting the ones with the raisons in them, yuck)
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Putting up the Christmas tree, we always went out looking for the perfect tree (always cedar) cut it down, and decorated with a hodge-podge of ornaments made or collected over the years. Then when we were younger we would sleep under the tree with the lights on all night.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Birth, My parents never lied to me in the name of creating an imagination. Funny I still somehow have an imagination.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Actually we usually went to my grandma's on Christmas day and to the Ring family christmas on Christmas eve (until the family got older and stopped getting together) so my family always made enormous sandwiches and opened presents on the 23rd.
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him? None you see he's not real <>
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love it,NO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12. Can you ice skate? NO, Last time I went ice skating I twisted my knee very badly and it never really recovered.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My hope chest, solid wood, very useful.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family, I love them
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Danish butter cookies.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Sandwiches on the 23rd, though its hard to schedule now adays
17. What tops your tree? a star Electra picked out
18. Which do you prefer Giving or Receiving? Giving
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol? Carol of the Bells
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum.

well well well

So apparently I have made the single people I know either ticked at me or at least mildly uncomfortable, shocking that I would say something controversial, but I must admit that when I wrote it I didn't actually think it was controversial. Honestly the whole blog grew out of enjoying a lunch with another couple, and the fact that since we've been married Steve's friends have stopped coming around as much. I didn't mean to imply that singles aren't as fun or that I like them any less, its just that apparently they seem to think we aren't as fun. And none of that was directed at anyone at church, ya'll are awesome, and we love you!

the Largeness

Last night we got an addition to the family, or at least thats how Steve talks about it, and while it doesn't eat it does take up as much room as all three of us put together. We are now the proud owners of a 37 inch TV and the entertainment center to put it in. To me to be honest this is awesome because I love movies too, but I find that this not as endearing to me as it is for Steve, nor is it likely to ever be. I could go Freudian on ya'll and pull out all the reasons why men love to have a big TV, but then who really wants to go there?

Marriage is great, I love it, but I'm finding that the friends issue changes. Not that you have to go out and find new friends, but you want "couple friends". I have my friends, Steve has his friends and they overlap alot, but we get excited if we find out that there's a married or dating couple that we both like. We even have tried to set one of Steve's friends up in hopes of gaining "couple friends" in our home town, and truly if we knew anyone who deserved some of the lovely ladies at church we'd be setting them up. I think that once you are coupled up yourself the natural thing is to seek out like people. We had lunch with another couple recently and because they were also newly weds with children we had tips to trade and stories to tell that we all could identify with. I don't want to sound like I want to dump all my single friends, I don't I just want to marry you off. Is this just the natural order of things? Is this why people tend to marry in herds????