Christmas (break) is here!

There's something a little sad about seeing all of my housemates' piles of packing for Christmas spread throughout the living room.  I look forward to having this break to be mostly alone to catch up on reading (there will be a whole paragraph about that), and I won't be lonely because I'll have work, Adoration, and a few friends that are also staying up here with whom to keep company.  But I can't help but also long for the day where I pack up everything to go back home for a while.

This weekend on Saturday I have an aunt and cousin who will be coming to visit for about an hour while they pass through KC (yay!!!) and Sunday I'll go do some "gift-wrapping" at the Little Sisters'.  I put that in quotes because I'll just be wrapping boxes, but the residents will sit around and "help" while I wrap...Sister thought they would really get a kick out of being "involved" in wrapping presents, like they used to when they were not in the nursing home.  Hence, I plan on decking myself out in holiday apparel and going to have fun with the residents :-)

So.  Books.  So many many books to get through and to begin!  Since I was basically done with my last final on Wednesday (easiest finals week ever), I made the most of my time...I finished my last 20 pages of Lord of the Rings (finally!  That was basically all I've had left to read in it since August, but I successfully kept ignoring it or not having time for it until this week), I finished my Medjugorje book, and I finished book 4 of the Anne of Green Gables series.  I'm now on book 5 of the series, and I've also started Orthodoxy by Chesterton.  At this rate I'll be able to take home quite a few of my books and bring some new ones from home.  Taking a long, extended, much-needed break from Facebook definitely helped with this.  And, since the departure from Facebook went so well, I'm continuing it in a way...I'm back on, but only for event purposes.  I already emailed a bunch of friends over Facebook and emphasized I didn't want to be just "Facebook friends"...I wanna be real-life friends!  Basically, don't try to keep in contact with me over Facebook at this point.  I will be avoiding it heavily, and catching up on reading and being present to the here and now.

Finals went super well.  I had already had my piano final 2 weeks ago, and my anatomy and physiology final the week before finals week, leaving only my anatomy and physiology lecture final, John: Gospel and Epistles final, French final, and Religion, Ethnicity and Race final.  The RER final (it's so much easier to just abbreviate) ended up being 3 essay questions, each no more than 2 pages long, to turn in at the time of the final.  And I had those written back on Sunday already.  Easy sneezy.  So I had the other three in a period of two days.  Tuesday was the John final and A&P final.  Wednesday was the French final.  And I was done.  Why can't every finals week be like that?  Crazy.  So Thursday I just turned in my essays, watched a movie in the XL dorm, and went to 9pm FOCUS Mass for the holy day.  Today I have nothing to do until I go to work from 4-8, so I will be cleaning my room and, hmm, probably reading...

Alright, well, that's all I've got, dear readers.  I pray the waiting  of Advent continues to awaken in your hearts deep peace and joy.  Blessings!