Hello there my little pancakes! How are you doing?

I'm happy. It's really that simple. This does not mean that I am not stressed or have moment where I want to slap someone upside the head with a frozen waffle. It means that the feelings of happiness trump all of those negative feelings. Which I think is pretty awesome. So, yes. I'm happy and it feels absolutely amazing. This is largely in part to the fact that I am currently in the middle of the sequel to the best day ever and unlike most sequels, this one is totally living up to the hype.

Things that have gotten done:
-about 1/4 of a 1500 piece puzzle
-pancake eating
-egg in the middle of bread eating
-grilled cheese
-being extremely cute
-sudoku
-to do lists
-online lectures
-the watching of All dogs go to Heaven and Walled In
-the watching of shows
-comparing the shampoo and conditioner we use
-playing super Mario bros brawl (I was Yoshi and Kirby)
-redesigning my artsy tag
-the revelation that I'm a mermaid
-lots of tea
-story reading
-the listening of music

Things that still need to get done:
-gingerbread house making
-3/4 of the puzzle
-the cleaning of a certain messy room
-more of a certain show
-coloring
-playing a Japanese game I don't remember the name of
-Listening to a comedian I don't know the name of

Now, that may not seem like a lot to get done, but I'm leaving really early Friday morning and I really don't want to. I'm going to miss it here so much. I can't wait to come back. Would coming back be the THREEquel or just a continuation of something totally awesome?

Christmas was awesome too. I went to my friend Nuno's house with my mom and spent Christmas Ever with his god mother, god father, and his godmother's mother. They're all Portuguese ans there are all a lot of fun and wonderful to be around. The food was phenomenal, all home made and very Portuguese as well. I totally got to take some of it home. Everyone knows that leftovers are one of the best things ever. Christmas day I spent time with my mom, who loved everything I got her, and went to church, which was lovely.

On the topic of church, I had a conversation that really made me think about my involvement in the catholic religion. I've always been very involved in my church community and have loved to volunteer within the church and things of that nature. However, I am also the same person who at 18 decided I needed to find a religion on my own, because I was not okay with just believing something because I was told it was the right thing to do. I've come to find that I'm much more spiritual than I am religious, mostly because I have such huge problems with the majority of religions and how rigid they are. I believe in God. I also believe in all types of love, including gay marriage, I believe abortion should be the choice of the woman who's pregnant, I don't believe that not believing in God will send people to hell or that the lack of belief makes them any less human or kind than me. I have a huge problem with the pope, in that I do not believe he is the closest person to God, not just because I believe that anyone who wishes to be close to God can achieve that, but because when Jesus was supposedly on the earth preforming a wide variety of miracles he had almost no clothes, lived simply, and didn't surround himself with gold and other lavish things. I also think the bible is taken entirely too seriously. The bible was written down years and years and years after the events that are in the bible supposedly happened, so just from a logical standpoint, I can't take everything written in it too seriously. Then there's the fact that there's a bunch of different versions and that all too often the bible is used a crutch. I take it as more of a collection of stories that are meant to be used as a guide on how to be a good human under the particular religion that uses it.
So, with all these beliefs, you might wonder why I even go to church. I have my reasons. So back to the conversation. We were talking about how anyone who believes in gay marriage can be a part of the catholic church. An institution that does not agree with or support every kind of love equally. I've been thinking about it a lot and it actually makes a lot of sense. I can still be supportive of God without being supportive of the church. Does this mean I'm never going to church again? I haven't decided again. I'm not just going to throw that option completely to the side, because it would be the most comfortable or the easiest one. I want to give it some more time to mull over. I want to think it through more, before I make a decision. While religion, spirituality, and my beliefs tend to be things that are emotionally tied to me in one way or another, I'm still very logical about them. So, yes. There is a possibility that after I think about this I might just stop going to church. I can find other ways to be give my time and try to be a good person. The church is not the only place in the world that offers me the opportunity to those things. The reason I go is out of respect to God. It's to say thank you in a way, for all the ways he's there for me. Once a week, stopping by his house is the least I can do. That's really the only reason I go, but it's important for me. If I do end up deciding that going to church is no longer something I wish to show my support for in any way, I'll have to find another way to say thanks to God. One that -I- feel is appropriate.

How was your holiday? :) I hope that you're all doing wonderfully. I miss you!

Peace, Love & Pancakes
-Liberty