a few Christmas gifts

We got a ping-pong table. Mom and dad decided to face-off :) 

Miriam got a blue hippopotamus for Christmas and wanted to log it onto Webkinz :P Charlotte was teaching her how to navigate the website :) 

My parents got me this book, which I've already started and very much enjoy so far :) 

Merry Christmas

"And the angel answered [Mary], 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.' And Mary said, 'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her." 

~Luke 1:35-38

Christmas Eve

Mimi got up early to make bread :) 

. . . and we actually got snow :) 

[photo credit: Miriam]

Also, I did Mimis hair :) 

. . . and I did Charlotte's too, but she took it out before I got a picture :/ 

We had a great time at my uncle's house and then we celebrated at our church's Christmas Eve service :) 

Christmas in Erie

My roommates and I and Blake, Ali's boyfriend, had our own Christmas in Erie on Thursday night. We decorated Ali's little tree with candy ornaments and ballerina ornaments and pretty little white lights. As we wrapped presents for each other, we put them under the tree so they had been sitting there for a few days and Blake started getting rather curious :) 

before we opened the gifts (obviously) 

the lights casting cool shadows on the walls :) 

post gift opening -- lots of wrapping paper and purple :) 

I got Blake Mere Christianity and he started reading it right away :) . . . with a bow on a his head :) 

buckets, bruises and bothersome presentations

So, I've obviously been quite busy again.

However, I've been working with a wonderful guest choreographer on a very innovative modern piece. There are 20 dancers and she could only come in this week so we've all had 5 hour rehearsals with her every day since Friday. The piece is all about buckets. We get to do many different dance styles, but each one includes the buckets in some way. Between sitting on buckets, drumming on buckets, running in buckets, walking on buckets and dancing with a bucket on my head, almost every part of my body is bruised, but rehearsals are over (until after Christmas) and I'm very excited to perform the piece in February.

Also, while studying for a test tomorrow, I came across this page of notes.

I should add that I really love all of my classes this term and I've had the chance to write some really interesting papers. However, the obligatory how-to-write-a-standard-persuasive-essay presentation is getting rather old . . . 

a weekend in the life of a tech study

I will be lost in the black hole otherwise known as the theater until Monday. 

laughter

While on Thanksgiving break, I got to see most of my favorite little friends at my parents' care group on Friday or at Church on Sunday :) In classic little boy style, some of the boys greeted me by piling on top of me and bursting out laughing :) I miss these little faces and so many others while I'm away at college. It was nice to know that they missed me too. I loved getting to spend time with all of them and I can't wait to see them all again in December :)