Concerning Christmas, Twilight, and Other Matters of Extreme Frivolousness

Christmas is over. And to console myself, I am going to write about nothing but frivolous things. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will.

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, as I have stated in my previous post. For Christmas this year, we did all the fun traditions that my family has done for as long as I can remember. We had our Barnes Family Christmas Party, where everyone gets dressed up, Dad cooks up a fantastic feast (which we live off of for the next week), and, best of all, Santa makes a house call and gives everyone presents. The Christmas Party is a pretty big deal in our family, and it's one of the highlights of the season.

Another big deal is Christmas morning (obviously). On Christmas Eve, Dad begins to prepare Christmas breakfast (food is a major part of our family). We always have quiche, sausage and egg casserole, and German apple pancakes. Once everyone gathers together on Christmas morning, we run into the Great Room and open stockings. Then come the presents. After a couple of hours of ripping off wrapping paper and showing off new toys, we eat. And eat. And eat some more. It's pretty awesome.

Christmas afternoon is devoted to the Christmas movie. This Christmas we saw The Tale of Despereaux, which is based on the book by Katie DiCamillo. The movie was pretty good (but of course the book is better). It wasn't my favorite movie that I've seen this holiday though. My favorite movie would have to have been Twilight. Now, I am very much a girl, which is probably why I am so much in love with the Twilight series. I can't really explain why I love Twilight so much because Stephenie Meyer (the woman who wrote the series) is not an incredible writer, and the acting in the movie was only mediocre, although the soundtrack is amazing. However, I would be willing to read that series at least a dozen more times, and I would be willing to watch the movie at least a dozen more times, if not more. Girls will do weird things like that; it's how we work.

Now that Christmas is past, we all get to look forward to the year of 2009. It should be a serious year. I'm officially an adult in about three weeks, I graduate in May, and I start college in June (cross your fingers and knock on wood). But I think, as those merciless IB exams are looming up at me, that we shouldn't let the year get too serious. Sometimes, a little frivolousness is all we need to make things a whole lot better.

Home for the Holidays

Yes, I am home for the holidays, and I am loving it! All of my family is together for Christmas, including my sister Chelsey and her family (her husbnad Aaron and her kids Katie, Paul, and baby Averi) who live in New Mexico. Let me tell you, it's absolutely wonderful to have everyone home for the holidays (we won't attribute this wonderful feeling that I'm having now to the fact that I am currently not in a place where almost everybody drives me crazy). We have a lot of really fun things planned for the Christmas holidays, aside from our usual Christmas traditions. As we are preparing for this most amazing of holidays, I'm starting to think of all the reasons why I love Christmas time. Here are a few of them, in no particular order.

• Family's get together, and like each other, for an extended period of time.
• Snow makes everything look prettier.
• Christmas gives us an opportunity to give to others.
• Christ is the focus at Christmas time.
• Santa comes! I don't care how old you are, Santa always comes.
• You get free stuff. I know that sounds really materialistic, and it is, but hey, I'm always up for free stuff.
• Christmas is the time of the year when you bake the most, so the house smells amazing.
• Christmas songs are beautiful.
• Christmas lights are beautiful.
• You are allowed to feel like a little kid again at Christmas.

Those are just a few of the reasons why Christmas is my favorite holiday, and why I love coming home for the holidays. As Christmas approaches, maybe we should all think a little bit more about why we love Christmas. I promise, it will make you even more excited for that magical Christmas morning.

P.S. Even though I know Santa doesn't have flesh and bones like everyone else, I will always believe in Santa. Without Santa, a little bit of the magic of Christmas is gone. I encourage everyone to believe in Santa. Merry Christmas!

Something I have discovered

Thanks to a few friends at school, I have discovered the website http://www.stumbleupon.com/. It's a really cool website where you can type in your interest (some of mine are animals, photography, and travel among a lot of others), and then press the stumble button (you have to download the toolbar, unfortunately). Then just sit back and have hours of entertainment. And there are some pretty amazing websites out there that now I can just "Stumble Upon".

The title of this blog.

I'm just about to go into exams, and I'm really nervous, so I thought I would calm myself down by writing a post. I realize that the title of my blog may be a bit confusing (what does lightning and rain have to do with Ashley?), so here is the explanation of the title of my blog (not that you need or even want to know).

There is a series of books called The Wheel of Time. It is my absolutely favorite series on this planet (not my favorite book, but my favorite series). I love all of the characters in the books, but there are four specific characters which I love the most--Perrin Ayabara, Faile ti Bahere t'Ayabara, Egwene al'Vere, and Gawyn Trakand (it's a fantasy series, so get used to weird names). Just FYI: Faile is married to Perrin, and Egwene and Gawyn are in love with each other, but they can't be together due to extenuating circumstances. I'm a hopeless romantic, and one of the reasons I love these characters so much is because these people are the center of the romantic plots in the series (that's not the main reason why I love the caharacters, but I won't get into those because my explanations of why I love those characters would go on for hours).

The title of my blog comes from my favorite chapter in the entire series. It's chapter sixteen of the sixth book in the series, Lord of Chaos, and the title of the chapter is "Like Lightning and Rain". In the chapter, Gawyn finally finds out that Egwene loves him (which is where the quote comes from). Being the hopless romantic that I am, my heart leaps in my chest every time I read that passage, and it makes me really happy.

And that's the story behind the title of my blog. Now you know just a little bit more random information about me. It's exciting, isn't it?

Kerala Part Two

Because Mom really enjoyed the last pictures, here are some more for your viewing pleasure! This is Kiera and her friend Chloe Stoker. This picture was taken as we took a hike through the Periyar tiger preserve:

People in India associate a lot of things with cows, and the Hindus even worship the cow. It was fun to see a huge cow fair as we were driving to one of our hotels. There were hundreds of cows, and a lot of them had the horns painted like these guys below: Don't worry, painting the horns wasn't a fashion statement. When owners paint their cows' horns a certain color it tells the other traders and buyers where the cow comes from. This is a picture of a house boat, which is what we stayed on for a day and a half:

Mmmm...prawns:

Here's Kiera inspecting a piece of coir (coconut husk which gets spun into "fabric" for rugs):

Kerala was a lot of fun, especially since we got to go with the Stoker family. We didn't get to eat turkey on Thanksgiving day, but I think the amazing seafood we had made up for it.

Way Down South...

I realize that my last post was a little deep, and long, so I thought I would treat everybody to some pictures of our Thanksgiving trip down to Kerala, which is a southern state in India. We had a lot of fun looking for tigers and watching dancers and Kerala ninjas. Enjoy!

Inspiring Minds

I was inspired. I was inspired to start this blog by my oldest sister, Chelsey, who diligently writes in her blog (cheltzey.blogpot.com if anyone wants to go look, which I strongly advise). I was further inspired by one of my best friends, Maddie Stoker, who has just started her own blog. So here I am, ready to give blogging a try.

Now, I should have started this blog two years ago, when I moved to this insane country called India, but I'm a top procrastinator. This is my attempt to rectify a big mistake because I have not recorded a lot of the incredible happenings that I have lived through on a daily basis.
India is just crazy. Period. There are a lot of things that drive me absolutely crazy, such as:

• When people say they are coming at one time, but then don't come for another four hours or just don't come at all.
• When traffic is completely stopped by one cow in the middle of the road.
• When a traffic light breaks, and every car moves into the intersection at one time because each driver feels that he is the only one who is allowed to go through the intersection. Then the intersection becomes one huge mess.
• When people completely disregard what you are saying.
• Or when people say they understand what you're saying when they really don't.

However, there are some features that make living in India worth it. We are surrounded by a totally new culture, and sometimes it's just amazing to learn about the way these people think. The school I attend is really good. I have a driver and I got a phone (which I wasn't going to get until I went off to college). And I've met some of the coolest people while I've lived here in Delhi.

India is a country of extremes. You can drive down the road to the Oberoi hotel, one of the best hotels in Delhi, and be accosted by ten, maybe fifteen, beggars at your car window. Just last weekend, Mumbai was rocked by a terrorist attack which killed or injured hundreds, and yet my family and I were with our great friends, the Stoker family, in the beautifully lush state of Kerala.

I may not understand why the things that happen in this country actually happen, simply because their culture is so foreign to ours, but I'm going to endevour to enjoy every single day of the six months that I have left in this country because, really, that's all I can do.