"I don't want any of it to change. I wish I could just hold on to those days forever."

~Anne Shirley

Out and About at High Speed

Ok not quite at high speed. but since I've been home it feels like there's been something going on every night. Not that I'm complaining or anything...Actually even before I got home my sister invited me to a friend's house to watch a live production of Phantom of the Opera (like not the Hollywoodized version-like the real deal). Fantastic! And I now want/need to watch the rest of it someday...The other day I went caroling with the young adults from my home church here. It was a good time though slightly awkward since I didn't really know many of them very well. But it was fun nonetheless. And we decided to sing to the guys at the Coop even though we didn't actually need gas. They just kinda looked at us confusedly and were like "these people are weird." Ya it was a good time...Then last night I went to the school's Christmas concert. There was trouble on Candy Cane Lane...the red candy canes though they were better than the green candy canes and the green candy canes thought they were better than the red ones. Really cute though difficult to hear due to a crappy sound system. so they resolved it by Mrs. Clause making candy canes that were rainbow striped and saying that all candy canes are equal. Then my one friend who happened to be organizing a good part of the program decided she was stressed and needed to go out afterwards. So we got some people together and went out for drinks and wings. Good times. Though again a little weird for me since after not having been home for awhile I feel like I need to re-get to know people here. But hey it was good. And wings are tasty and make excellent left overs. Yum. Though I cannot recommend getting a virgin banana cream pie...unless you really like banana cream pie. (I like pie but not in drink form...) So ya. That's what I've been up to. And now I get to clean the house and figure out a dessert for supper tonight. I like being home. Oh and surprisingly it's not -30 outside. I feel so gypped of my winter coldness. And I like being able to walk 10 minutes and being across town. The joys of a small town...

Reading line up for Christmas break thus far...

-The Children of Hurin ~Tokien (I feel like a nerd)
-The Illiad ~Homer
-The Heaven Trilogy ~Dekker
-Chronicles of Narnia ~Lewis
-Mere Christianity ~Lewis

I like to think I will have tons of time for reading over the break...And for at least half of the books listed I feel like a nerd/geek...Ah well...Also I'm open to suggestions for other books that I should read.

Final This Final That

....And suddenly it's almost Christmas! Crazy. I've been in the land of term paper writing for about the last month and now get to write finals. Fun times...At least the topics were relatively interesting. But it meant that for much of the last couple weeks I hadn't really eaten incredibly healthy or gotten enough sleep. :( ya sad day. I've also made friends with the library; spent more time in the library this semester than I have in the last 3 years of school. Oi. And I find that I don't actually mind working in there. But oh well. I have a bit of time to recover from it.

In other news, I went to an Ugly Sweater Smoothie Party. That was fun. Smoothies are delicious and some of the sweaters were pretty bad...although when I went to Value Village in search of a sweater (cuz Value Village is just know to have such things as tacky sweaters) I found it difficult to find one of that caliber...I did manage to find one though it wasn't quite what I was looking for but it worked. And now I have an Ugly Sweater for future events of that sort.

Oh I have a new job. H'ray! Thus far I'm really enjoying it. And the hours aren't too bad right now and it provides a change of pace from school and extra cash is always good. Plus I get to work with a friend.

So ya. Other than that there's just been little things that make up my day and usually doesn't prove to be all that exciting. The only exciting thing right now is being done exams and going home for Christmas. Ya just a bit excited about that...considering I haven't been home home since last year it will be interesting to see what's changed or hasn't changed since then. Either way I'm looking forward to it. :) Should be good.

And ya that's been my life. Oh I had my first coffee type drink the other day...I think they called it a peppermint latte or something. Not too bad though it won't be something I get very often. Same with mochas. I've determined I don't like the mochas at Starbucks; too much coffee and not enough hot chocolate. Ya big stretch considering I don't drink coffee....ever. So ya.

Yup that is pretty much all that is exciting in life right now.

Oh and one more thought. One of my profs mentioned a couple weeks ago that Advent/Lent are times of reflection. I found it a very interesting statement considering we were in the midst of hard core paper writing time. But reflection usually means that you take time out of your day and meditate on what God is doing in your life and to just not be rushed into doing "everything else." Essentially both seasons are times of preparation to witness what God is about to do. With Advent comes Christmas and with Lent comes Easter (i.e. the death and resurrection of Christ). Moral of the story is to take some time out to reflect on these events during this season that we may be prepared for the coming of Christ.

Alissa