Happy December!

In the next week I will have 2 tests, 1 exam and 5 papers due. Ain’t my life grand? I am ready for the tests, the exam and 2 of the papers are already ready (and the last 2 are extra credit). I think I am ready for the conclusion of the semester; however, GITI reminds me that I still have 19 items to complete before it will let me lock down all of my courses and have an active course list of length 0. I love seeing the message “There are currently no active courses” in the education module of GITI, it is like a victory. Would be really cool if I could make GITI a little more automated so I didn’t have to deactivate classes myself. It has access to the dates and stuff, but I don’t know that I trust something I create that much (hence why GITI doesn’t have an archive, and everything is active).
I am looking forward to hosting my Christmas party on December 18th (or December 25th, depending on the family’s pick for their family gathering). I am planning to make a lot of junk food and serve a small dinner before, just enough so that we can all say we had dinner before dessert, but yet still have room for every sugar filled delight I create/serve. My biggest issue at the moment is figuring out who all I actually want here, I of course want my best friend Chris here, but other than that I don’t know what non-family I trust enough to actually be here. There are people who know so much more about me than my family, but I don’t know that I would trust them actually interacting with my family because im not sure how discrete they are around others. Most of my friends are pretty outward with their personalities around me, but with some of them I can’t have that around my semi-traditional family. A few of the 50 or so members of my close family may have an issue with some of my friends (as well as with me if they knew everything about me).
I am looking forward to the holiday season for various reasons, but most of all because events of the year are winding down and I can get some time to relax. Even though I have more credit hours scheduled for next semester than I had this semester I think it will be easier because I don’t have as many courses that I consider to be extreamly challenging. All of my courses are in the 2000 level or below, with the exception of my Philosophy course which is at the 3000 level, but I don’t expect to have an issue there. Dr. Presler is a very good instructor and makes her courses fun.
The part of this time of the year I don’t like is the excessive shopping that occurs, making malls unbearable for those of us who like to visit them for fun occasionally. Christmas is way too gift focused in this country, which is one of the reasons I am having my Christmas part as just a gathering of family and friends for the purpose of eating.
One of the more enjoyable things for me during the winter is seeing snow fall. In this region it doesn’t happen often but when it does I get very excited. I don’t really like snow on the ground, but when snow is falling from the sky and sticking to the ground I get more excited than during any other event. I guess sort of a reverse seasonal affective disorder. Snow is very messy and dangerous, which is why I don’t really like it, but while it is falling it is so amazingly beautiful and calm and seems to make the rest of the world stop for a moment in time. I have never experienced a snow on Christmas eve or on Christmas day, maybe this year will be the year for me.
My December is quite full up until December 17th, then everything stops, so I don’t know what my level of posting to the blog will be, we shall see….