Hello April?

It's not April, but it basically is. The temperature says so- my mind says so- it's settled. 

Right now I've found some down-time. I think mom forgot about the rest of the items on her infamous "Saturday List" because she is cuddled on the couch with a thick blanket, the dog and her phone. She looks real comfortable. 

Mary Catherine is on her laptop beside me, Kyle is on the computer (which has been blasting MC's country music playlist for a good 20 minutes), Dad is on a motorcycle ride and Dan is working. 

And Christmas is over. I'm kind of sad, and I leave tomorrow which is even sadder- but exciting. 

I have one professor who posted our syllabus a few days ago- reading that wasn't really a good idea for me. I didn't have nice thoughts about that professor. I just wanted to enjoy my last week of vacation and she was reminding me of all that I will have to do. Soon. 

College bites. 

Then I bought textbooks- that was depressing. 

But Christmas.. recap. GO! 

We bought a real tree again this year. Sharon made the selection- she saw it and knew she had to have it. So that didn't take long to decide. 

But just to make sure, we took our time and looked around a little bit. Mostly for pictures, but you understand. 

Dan drove us over in his truck. A Christmas tree doesn't fare well in the freestyle if you know what I'm sayin. 

Dan man made the necessary removals- apparently the stump must be fresh? That's what we'll go with anyway. 

And then I found some discarded branches that served as some impressive antlers. 

 

Getting a tree is a process...

 It took a team to set this sucker up.

Daddy had to help

Mom untangled the lights by wrapping them around a very willing MC.

Festive Shasta.

Little Miss Diva had to have a bow. She's such a poser. She fits in so well.

Let the decorating begin! 

Our very unique  2011 Christmas tree. Sharon let us have at it this year. No perfectly placed poinsettias and golden ribbons- we threw so much randomness onto this tree. 

See the school bus? It's there. Random.

Dad and I got into the spirit and decided to do some father-daughter bonding during our Saturday alone. 

We made cookies. 

(I believe this picture was taken somewhere around the 3rd cup of flour. We had 7 more to go.)

This man doesn't joke about his cookies. 

Pan 1= fail. 

Dad learned quickly that if he wants to make cookies the size of CD's, a cooking time longer than 8 minutes may be necessary. 

A few hours, 10 cups of flour, 3 different oven temps. and a few thousand cookies later, Dad and I decided we would no longer be bonding through baking. 

Next time we'll just watch a football game together =) 

While we eat our 39,408,398 cookies.

I also went to Mary Catherine's chorus concert. That was fun. 

She's growing up so fast! Just yesterday I was in my sophomore year of high school and loving concert choir. Oh my.

See her?

We had our much needed down-time too. Shasta was more than welcome to help us out with that. 

Lazy days at home are pretty much the best. 

Dan you're weird. 

I also got to spend some time with my high school pals! What great girls they are-we always have so much fun together. I'm pretty sure it takes us all so much longer to tell each other what's happening in our lives because we get so giggly. That, and Cherakee usually has a few dozen sarcastic comments which throw everyone off ;) 

Emily was with us too, but she left before we could get a group picture. Emily, you're in the photo in spirit! 

The two on the left were concerned with Chelsea's feet. 

No reason.

Beauties. 

Cherakee and Chelsea 

 Leave it to Chelsea to jump on people. 

Nicole is pretty crazy =) 

I was shocked/disgusted because a "practically naked" Chelsea sat on me. 

She was preparing to get in the hot tub and was cold in her bathing suit, so she put a robe on. I was still freaked out.

The hot tubbers

Steamy! 

Oh and FYI- I'm now back at school.

Classes started yesterday, and boy was I tired! I'm spoiled this semester because Monday, Wednesday and Friday my classes don't start until 12pm! No more 9am classes for me! 

Unless you count 9:30- because that's when I start on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But that's not so bad. 

My schedule is pretty full, I'm taking 18 credit hours which is sort of frightening... but I'm determined! 

I have a lot to update on here. My word! 

I also have a thrilling New Year's party I want to talk about! 

If Maria can wait, I'm thinking that might be saved until the next post. 

Next post- maybe like the end of the week. But who knows. I'm a busy college student right now! Not really though- I'm not busy... yet! 

So read fast, readers. I'll update again soon! 

Love, love.