It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday! I love the meaning, the songs, the lights, the coffee, the tree, the fellowship, and the all-around cheery feeling that everyone has. Now that we are in an apartment, I went out and got a tree and ornaments and stockings and new place mats and everything one needs to make an apartment feel Christmas-y. My roommate and I joked that the only thing that got us through finals was the joy that that Christmas tree brought us!

Last year at Thanksgiving I was going through my attic and I found an old santa suit. I asked my mom about it and she told me that my dad used to dress up as Santa for me and all of my cousins, but that she had completely forgotten about the suit. She agreed to let me take it and my roommate and I had a lot of fun dressing up and taking pictures in it. This year we have two more roommates so we decided to go out and buy more Christmas hats so that we could all take pictures!! Needless to say, it turned out to be a very fun night with the four of us taking turns in the Santa outfit :)

There have been multiple other activities to get us in the Christmas cheer! My roommates and I enjoyed a nice gift exchange. We also really enjoyed the night we got to set up our Christmas tree. It was before Thanksgiving and was still in the seventies or eighties, but I made hot cocoa and we listened to Christmas music. Unfortunately, Big Lots trees aren't always the highest quality and I had to return our first tree and exchange it, but it was fun nevertheless. Last week we made sugar cookies and had fun decorating about a million of those (which still didn't seem to last very long...)  One of the most interesting winter get-togethers I attended this year was sledding...in Texas...in November! It was obviously not on snow, but was on AstroTurf. It was surprisingly just like sledding and was probably one of my favorite memories of this semester!!

Okay, I think I have rambled on long enough about how much I love Christmas and what all has put me in the holiday spirit this year! I can't wait to see what fun Christmas brings. We will finally be seeing the Hockstra family and stopping by Chicago as well!

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:9-12

Songfest

Songfest is a dance competition put on by Chi Omega at Texas A&M to raise money for various philantropies. This year my sorority, Sigma Phi Lambda, was paired with KYX and we had so much fun with the show! I really enjoyed getting to meet a lot of new friends and grow closer with some old ones. After many hours of practice, we performed the show this Friday and Saturday night. As nervous as I was, I ended up having a lot of fun and really enjoyed the whole thing. We even won third place!! Here is a link to the video and a few pictures from the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCxVACgWa7o

What a wonderful Thanksgiving break filled with family and friends! I had so much to be thankful for this year. Wednesday I enjoyed lunch with a friend at one of my favorite restaurants, followed by the new Harry Potter movie with my family! Thanksgiving day we decided to get up early (5:45!!) and head out to the beach to watch the sunrise. We all enjoyed watching my dog react to the waves that she thought were chasing her (she’s not much for water). We came back home and watched the Macy’s Parade and cooked plenty of food. We enjoyed a late lunch and then headed out to the gun range to test out my dad’s hand guns. They had a little more kick than I had anticipated! Nick enjoyed capturing my facial expressions as I tried to shoot. The annual Texas A&M vs. Longhorn game was that night and I am excited to say that the Aggies BTHO t.u. this year. Whoop! That was fun to watch, even if I was the only one cheering my boys on. My dad and brother hit the stores early for Black Friday but I slept in and hit Target at seven with my friends!  I shopped in Pearland for the rest of the day with my family and went to El Toro for dinner that night! Saturday was filled with errands and making gifts for my littles in Phi Lamb. We played a little Euchre that night and went to church the next morning. It was a wonderful break and I am so excited that it is now officially Christmas time, although we have had our tree up in the apartment for a few weeks now ;) Here are some photos from the break!