Merry Christmas 2010

UPDATE: I made you guys a Christmas card. You deserve it. Click to enlarge.

Mostly everyone is taking Christmas Holiday off, so you'll most likely read this after Christmas.

So-here's my Christmas letter I wrote to you guys.

Dear friends, followers, and countrymen/women,

I heartily wish you a Merry Christmas at the end of another wonderful decade. This year has been a huge year for me, but it seems to have flown by at top speed.

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This can't be like my Christmas letters to family because it would be too revealing. Sorry, guys.

I started a blog. Bet you didn't know that, did you? But oh, I'll tell you all about it. I was inspired by my friend's blog. I'd always been pretty tech-savvy, so I thought it would be a cinch and fun to try. My mom forced me to go outside and exercise, and I became inspired. Being one for fancy names, I immediately decided that it would have something to do with the word "Amaranthine". Unfortunately, the domain address "amaranthine" was already taken. (And the guy who took it doesn't even update it anymore!!!)

So, because "amaranthine" means eternal, or everlasting, Amaranthine Forever became my blog name!

At first, my only follower was myself and my friends. I didn't even know what to post about. Then, I went to Mexico and began writing about that. And as my writing developed, so did my followers list. I remember two early followers in particular, Madeline and Migillicutty. Madeline doesn't update, and Migillicutty does rarely, but I'll always remember them. They commented on every, every, post and inspired me to keep writing. And I vowed that I would do the same for others.

I have no idea how I found Endor's blog. But before I found it, I maintained a..distance from my few followers. They were my followers. I commented on their blogs, "Great post!" and they commented on mine. "Nice story!" But they didn't feel like friends or a community or anything.

On Fairy Tale Princess, however, there was a whole community of fellow Star Wars fans  who knew each other. And I joined. Among them were Barriss, Leia, Savannah, and Audrey. If I hadn't found Endor's blog, I never would have found you.

NaNoWriMo provided a whole other community. I found people who could relate to the over-caffeinated, late night typing, word count freaking out that we experienced. (Abby!)

Dance, homeschooling, and of course, Star Wars were things that we could experience together while being thousands of miles apart.

I also got quite a couple adrenaline highs when Dan Madsen, Dan Wallace, and Andrew(From the creators of Darths and Droids!) visited my blog. I realized that one of the best things about the internet is that anybody, anywhere, can talk to anybody else. And no contact information, appointments, or phone calls needed. It also brought a hint of caution. Be careful what you write! You never know who might be reading it. 

I also got an award yesterday. :)

So what I'm trying to say is thank you. For you. Thanks for all the comments, the shared highs and lows, everything. This blog has been unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  I've learned a lot about myself and God, and also had some really good times! I'm so thankful for the internet,  this new medium that can be used for good or evil.

I look forward to hitting my one year anniversary, and hope to continue to share my life and insight with you. This has been the best year ever! I hope the years continue to get better and better! My dream is to meet each and every one of you in real life.

In Christ,