Happy New Year!

Just wishing everyone a happy and safe new year! It's sure to be an exciting one for all of us.

Hurray for Christmas Break!

The first semester is officially over! Of course, this last week was made a little easier by the fact that Wednesday school was closed due to ice and Thursday we had a 2 hour delay. Friday we had our end of semester pizza party and movie day; it's something that the kids get really excited for. We ate Papa John's pizza (paid for with the grant I applied for and received in November) and watched A Christmas Story, which is my favorite Christmas movie. I'm really looking forward to 2 weeks off!

Wednesday was also Chris' 27th birthday. I had been planning his gift since around August, and it went very well. My gift was to completely redo our master bathroom into a Purdue bathroom! I'll post pictures soon... it actually worked out well that school was closed, because I was able to show Chris all the stuff I got him to put in the bathroom, AND he volunteered to help me paint! It turned out well, and we're both really happy with it. I had been sick to death of the blue color I'd painted that room when we first bought our house 3 years ago, and I started thinking that it would be nice for Chris to have more than one room in the house that reflects his style. Thus the idea was born!

Today I have Christmas with all of my Dad's family. I wasn't able to go last year, since I had purchased Cincinatti Bengal's tickets for Chris and the game overlapped with the family stuff, so it will be nice to see my cousins etc. this year. We're supposed to have Christmas with my Mom's family on Christmas Eve, but no one is sure if that will actually happen. My Grandma Carolyn is currently in Florida with her boyfriend Glen (he owns property down there), but the glitch is that Glen has been having a lot of health problems lately and has been hospitalized. So I guess we'll have to play that one by ear. We usually head to Connersville late on Christmas Eve so we can have Christmas morning with his family. On Christmas afternoon, we head back home and my Mom, Dad, and Heidi (and this year Jeremy) will all get together for dinner and presents. And then finally, we're done! Well, for 2 days anyway.... then it's my mom's birthday! We don't have any plans for New Year's Eve... usually we just stay at home and eat way too much and watch the ball drop. I don't know how much time I'll have to post while on break (I still haven't got much Christmas shopping done), but I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

8 More Days!!!

That's right folks! There are just 8 more days left in the first semester! Usually, there's so much going on in the last 2 weeks before Christmas break that it seems to go really quickly, but so far that's not the case. I'm really excited for school to be finished for the semester. This has just been a really long semester, and since I'll get some new students second semester, I'm hoping for a better group. And I'm loving the fact that we don't have to go back to work until January 5th!

Despite being so excited for Christmas break, I'm ashamed to say that I don't really have any Christmas shopping done. I've got 2 things for my sister, and a couple outfits for Claire, but otherwise... nothing! I'm very disappointed in myself... I'm usually done by this time of year! But last weekend Chris and I were really sick, and we didn't even leave the house. And this coming weekend we've got all sorts of prior engagements, so we won't be able to shop then. So it's looking like the Lakes' will be doing all of their shopping last minute, unless I can find some time to go after work this week. And since I'm still feeling crummy, that doesn't look so good. So keep your fingers crossed that I'll manage to get all the shopping done before the big day!

Thanksgiving Break Summary

Well, Thanksgiving went smashingly for us! The morning of, Chris and I had to wake up at 6:00 to put the gigantic 22 pound turkey in the oven. Other than worrying about the turkey cooking (and who doesn't worry about that!), the rest of the cooking went well. My dad helped me peel the 10+ pounds of potatoes, and Sheri helped me a lot with other stuff. We all ate entirely too much and had a great time. I'm so lucky that our families get along so well, and that everyone's been willing to change their longstanding traditions to make this new tradition together. Sheri and Claire spent the night with us, which was fun. Although, and I'm not going to lie, the best part of the whole day was after everyone left and Chris made me go take a nap. When I woke up 2 hours later, my entire kitchen was already clean! God bless my sweet husband and mother in law!!! And my adorable niece as well... apparently she helped wipe down the counters and put dishes in the dish washer!

Friday was spent mostly playing with Claire. She's really into Barbies right now, and luckily my mom saved all of the Barbie stuff that Heidi and I had, so I was able to stockpile some Barbies for Claire to play with at our house. She was in heaven!

Saturday... well, Saturday I think I was still recuperating from all the work I put into Thanksgiving. Chris and I did manage to get all of our outside Christmas decorations up. We had the inside decorations done for Thanksgiving. I'll post pictures soon... I just can't get motivated to go stand outside in the snowy cold right now, which would be needed for the full effect!

On Sunday my mom, Heidi, and I all tried to do a little preliminary Christmas shopping. I had already ordered some items for Heidi (since she's nearly impossible to shop for). I managed to get several cute outfits for Claire. She's recently had a growth spurt and desperately needs some new clothes. Chris and I aren't doing presents for each other this year, since we both agreed that the new TV we bought would be our present to each other, but I've got to admit that I'm not really looking forward to shopping now that I'm not shopping for him. He's my favorite person in the world to shop for; he gets so excited and it's so fun find that one right thing that will make him light up. Oh, well, maybe I'll settle for buying him a few stocking stuffers... On the plus side, his birthday is the 17th, and I have a big surprise for him. I'd write about it here, but I know he occassionally reads this, so...