Winterlicious!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! I don't know about all of you, but to me it feels like November not almost January!!

If you can believe it, we're all done with getting ready for the Christmas hassle (look at that!! and it's not even Christmas eve!!)...presents bought and wrapped, tree up, decorations out...even the stockings are up on the mantle!

I love Ave Maria Radio!! Look at all the yummies they sent us :)

Delicious smelling pine cone wreath!!!

One of our many stockings :)

yay for presents :)

a little Christmas Creche camel :)

Reindeer!

My dad got these three *special* presents for my mom <3

Let us see your Christmas preparations by linking them in the comments below!!

Merry Christmas!!
xoxo,
Rachel

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The Hobbit!!! (Again :)

So, two days ago, Rachel and I went to see the Hobbit!!
It was AMAZING! I was very surprised, because I liked many of the characters better in the movie than in the book, especially Thorin (the lead dwarf). And (guess what!) it actually stayed true to the book's plot!!! I loved how they even kept in some of the small details from the book, especially the two songs and the riddles. 
They added certain characters and events to the movie that were from J.R.R. Tolkein's notes (appendices), not actually from the book, adding a little twist. One of these characters was Radagast, the brown wizard. I liked his role in it, because it helped foreshadow the LOTR movies, and it added a little comic relief :) 
I found out that it was only a third of the actual movie, when Rachel whispered near the end, "I think this is were they will stop!" 
I don't know if I can stand the wait for the next two parts of the movie. But this will be better in the long run because the director won't have to cut anything good  that was in the book from the movie.
I highly recommend the Hobbit for EVERYONE, and I might even say this was my favorite movie of the year!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5xpcwquIpRQ

~Nina

Happy Feast day of our Lady of Guadalupe!

That's right folks! Today (or I guess yesterday now) was the feast day of one of the coolest ladies on earth...my mom!! And yup, yours too :)  I always new we were related!!

This is a picture my  mom drew of herself, many much years ago yesterday...quite the artist, isn't she??

In honor of our Lady, we (my dad, sister and I) saw the new-ish movie For Greater Glory.  My dad has been trying to get me to see it for along time, but as I am not a huge one for war films (unless they're either Gladiator or the Patriot) I hadn't wanted to go see it--in this case, I was completely wrong in my assumptions, as it was a great movie, albeit sad, and though in a few spots it was a little cheesy, they never lasted long and was overall a great film.

Anyway, as the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is very important in our house, I thought I might put up a post on her with the basic story outline for all who might be interested.  Unfortunately, her feast happens to be right before my five finals, so instead, you can go here to find the general story.  As I am so good at getting side-tracked, I guess you got a little movie review too, but the general idea of this post was to wish you all a blessed feast day :)

And so...a blessed feast to all!
xoxo, Rachel

A little comic relief

So, I don't even know if this should count as a post, as it's just a bunch of things i found elsewhere, but enjoy!  A few things to brighten your sad life without me :)

Now, in general, I won't post something from a TV show, as you would have to know the show to get the joke, but I'm breaking my rule in this case cause you don't necessarily need to know the background and it's pretty awesome :)

the runner-up :)

And yes, for all you (if any) wondering...that was doctor Who :)

And finally, the winner, the iconic evil cat :)

So, if any of you think I'm tired, you're right: I'm tired. But anyway, hope this brightens your day!

~Rachel Guadalupe 

Downtown

 So, last Saturday, Rachel and I went downtown!!! We got bubble tea (Rachel's first time), strolled through the Diag, and modeled in Orchid Lane (everything is 15 bucks or less there!)
Here are some pics:

Orchid Lane--maybe my new favorite clothing store?
They sell jewelry, carvings, clothing, and random exotic
things, like henna and Hindu-dots. And EVERYTHING
IS $15 or less!

The diag--sunny, 60 degrees, beautiful!

So...at first we thought these were dresses,
and then we saw they were pant-outfit-things...
probably straight out of Africa! Now
I wish we had bought them, Rachel--they were
so crazy that every day wearing them would
make the day fun. Haha, can you see us going to
HSC in those?!?!
:)

Random skirts we found. Colorful! 

BUBBLE TEA!!!
At first Rachel liked it...

but later she felt like throwing up.  Btw, bubble tea
is a mixture of flavored tea (I got blueberry, Rachel
got kiwi) with tapioca bubbles at the bottom. I love it
and could drink bubble tea everyday, but it is
pretty strange, and takes some getting used to.

 We had a great time, trying the very unique things that make A2 special! :D
Nin@ and R@chel
maniraforever@gmail.com

Our Country...

worries me sometimes. Namely, NOW

Obviously not enough people payed attention to the Facebook post a few days before the election "Change your clocks on Sunday and your president on Tuesday...".  So now we are stuck for another four years with Barack Obama as our president, and the only thing I can tell you is to PRAY!!

In the words of Fr. Ed Fride, pastor of my local Church: "If as many people prayed for our president as they did complain about him, he would be a walk-on-water glow-in-the-dark saint by now" :D

So go out.  pray for our Country; pray for our President, and above all, pray for a miracle!

~toothyandtoothless

Halloween!

So, as most of you know, this past Wednesday was Halloween!!  Nina and I got together with a couple friends and we all went trick or treating together, our costumes being based off of some sort of Doctor Seuss character or another. (I'm pretty sure this is our last year-Nina :)

Nina and I were Thing 1 and Thing 2 (we figured if everyone thought we were twins anyway we might as well go as some :), Rosie was the Cat in the Hat, and Sarah was The Amazin' Maisie with her lovely tail :)


I never thought I''d say this, but yay for my daddy always taking pictures!! This way I'll always have something to remember that night from, not to mention, I have something to post on this blog along with the post :)

The four of us...quite lovely, are we not?? :)

Rosie and Sarah...you guys are so cute!!  (and look, you can see Sarah''s tail in this one :)

Thing 1 and Thing 2...what can we say?? <3
Look! You can see the bit of blue spray we put in our hair!
Look hard--I don't think it's just me. Although, I might
just have to clean my glasses. :) 

                                             

:D

Sarah--she's turning the room pink. :)

We had a great time and took in a huge amount of sugar (just what we need, right?)
Toothy and Toothless, or
Nina and Rachel

***Tell us what you did for Halloween and link pictures if you can!!