The time has come the walrus said...

I am finally comfortable here.  Maybe it is the lack of school work or the impending departure but I finally feel comfortable with this situation.  I leave in two and a half days and I'm not ready.  But will I ever be?

I'm going to miss these two.

Odds and Ends

I don't know if you can see this but Reese woke up with a scratch that made her look like scarface.  I immediately cut her nails.

My Mim is in town for a couple days, which I have been looking forward to because it has been over 2 years since I have seen her.  She is amazed by everything Reese does.  I am so glad they were able to meet each other.  She does this little game where she traces the cracks on your palm saying "here's a crack, here's a crack, here's a crack" then she smacks your hand and says "there's a crack."  Reese just thinks it is the best and she was doing it back to her last night a dinner.  Speaking of dinner, my Mim made sliders!  The best dinner in the world - basically chicken and noodles but I really think my Mim puts magic in them!  Reese had her first taste of sliders and she liked them!

I cannot believe that Christmas is in a couple days and that I will be leaving here in one week.  I am not ready at all but I don't think I ever will be.  I still have Christmas presents to make and wrap, white chocolate pretzels to make, a cookie recipe to find (so that I can dominate the cookie competition we are having at Christmas), and all the details of packing and moving that need to get worked out.  I have a feeling that I won't be sleeping much this next week.  Speaking of, it is midnight and I still have a thank you card to write and a present to embroider, I better get to work!

Update:  My grade was just posted and I got a 95% on that monsterous final paper!!!  That means I rocked my first semester of grad school with two A's!!

Dominic and Maria!

A battle with the worst flu I have ever experienced didn't keep me away from meeting Dominic.  One of my best friends from IU welcomed Dominic to her family on December 10th.  He is a really cute baby, not as cute as Reese was but a very close second!  Reese went with me on the road trip and was a real trooper (minus the no napping).  I am so glad that I was able to see Maria again before I head back west but getting to see little Dominic was really one of the highlights of December!

This was my view as I drove back to Griffith from Alexandria.  I didn't really mind it because the roads weren't slippery.  It was beautiful and a sight I don't often see.  Unfortunately, it was all slush by home so I haven't been able to play with Reese in the snow yet.

Finals

My first semester as a grad student is almost over!!! 

Only one monsterous paper to write and I am using the motto "slow and steady wins the race." Though I really just want it to be done so it can be out of my head and I can focus on Christmas.  I am currently starting page 10 of what I predict to be 17-20 pages long.  Time to focus, focus, focus...

Snow...

Today I had to scrape snow off my car for the first time since I bought it almost two years ago!  I went out Christmas shopping in the windy, crazy snow just because I don't get to and it felt right.

These are some of my favorite Christmas ornaments!  There are about 12 of them total and when I saw them in the ornament box I screamed a little.  They made me really happy!

Reese de-ornamenting the tree the morning after I put them all on.  It is now a daily routine.  She loves to pull the bells off and shake them and I love it too much to tell her not to.

who doesnt love cheerios in the morning?

P.S. Reese now has 9 teeth!  4 on top, 3 on bottom and a molar on each side!!

Santa!!

After a wonderful holiday party at my cousin Emily's on Saturday night, we headed to Marshall Fields (Macys) on Sunday to look at the windows and visit Santa Claus.  Many family members came out to enjoy this moment with Reese which made it really special.  We waited forever but it was totally worth it!  She was happy to see Santa and just kept looking at him.

Is it really you?

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

I took the night off on Thursday and headed up to Chicago for a "We're Related" evening aka a night with my 3 cousins.  We had a great dinner at the Blue Line Bar where we sat by the fire with glittery snowflakes hanging above our heads.  Then we headed downtown to see a taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, a show produced by NPR.  It has been a long time since I have laughed that hard and since I was the nerd who wanted to do this, it was great to see that my cousins really enjoyed it too. 

I took a couple pictures around Daley Plaza after the show: the tree all lit up, and the Picasso looming over the closed up shops of the Christkindl Market

Mustache

She is just so beautiful... you know I had to do it.