Elizabeth Skene

Christmas is officially over.

We drove all over West Michigan, went to 4 family christmases & hosted a reunion for our college friends.  As much as I absolutely love seeing the people I love most, the introvert in me is more than ready to have some down time. My social energy reserves are completely depleted & I’m looking forward to reading [I'm half done with both Everything is Miscellaneous & The Book of Laughter and Forgetting] & knitting [I'm nearly done with a shawl].

My camera had been having issues for the past year [including one that was fixed by smacking it on my leg] & this September it officially died. Although I missed having a camera, it wasn’t in our budget to buy a new one, so I waited until Christmas. My dad does photography & we added one to our list & he got us one! I feel SO lucky & spoiled – it’s nice & takes really beautiful photos.

I’ll be able to update my Flickr more often now, but here are some of my favorites from the past day.

A beautiful antique sewing machine Joel got me as a Christmas gift

Some of the appetizers Joel made for the party

Joel & Wes, being cuddly as usual

Jerry & Gwen

Alisha & myself looking silly

Most all of our college friends! <3

Classes start next week already!! I need a vacation from this vacation!

I’m off to meet friends at the Ugly Mug & enjoy a walk in the snow.
xoxoxo

After an incredibly crazy & strange last night, I woke up today relaxed, happy & ready to get things done. However, instead of applying this motivation to homework, I instead started a fire [in the fireplace], turned on Christmas music and started hanging up decorations. I’m already feeling much more cheerful about Christmas.

Not to mention – I HAVE ONE WEEK OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!!
There is a LOT that I need to do, but in 7 days I will be donedonedone with school until January 7th. Glorious.

We got our car this week! It’s so nice & we got an amazing deal & I feel very very spoiled & lucky. It’s a 2001 Hyundai Elantra GT, a manual with only 90,000 miles on it.

Some of the gifts I’ve ordered have started to arrive in the mail & yesterday something showed up for me! It’s a gratitude journal from Chronicle Books. Journaling is always very helpful for me, but I’m not the best at being consistent, so I thought this journal, with prompts & quotes, would be helpful. Although life is stressful a lot of the time, I have nothing to not be happy about & grateful for – I lead a very fortunate life.

Tiny snow flakes have begun to fall. Lovely. In a bit I’ll be heading over to Shadow Art Fair to do some shopping for friends & family. Joel already went so he could do some shopping for me.

If you’re in need of some new Christmas tunes, I recommend downloading the free Suburban Sprawl Holiday Compilation. Every year local artists send it songs & put together a wonderful album of songs.

Now, for a shower & shopping & homework.

xoxoxoxoxo

Life continues to be busy & crazy & stressful & overwhelming but always interesting & worthwhile. Time has flown by & I can’t believe it’s the end of the semester & I am working on many, many things.

These are the questions I’ve been asking myself this week:
When did it get to be December?
Why I can’t I do grocery shopping online?
How addicted to caffeine should I become?
Where can I buy a small & sad Christmas tree?

The official Christmas season [not the retail Christmas season, which started before Halloween] is upon us & I’ve hardly noticed. This has always been my favorite time of year in the past. The day after Thanksgiving I’d begin stringing lights about, listening to my favorite carols and hope for snow. Strangely, I’ve become more & more disillusioned with Christmas these past few years & haven’t managed to be an endless stream of Yuletide cheer.

I’m not sure what’s causing this, although the Christmas I worked at Target left a bad taste in my mouth, to be sure. And last year I was alone for Christmas while Joel was across the country, saying goodbye to his grandmother in a hospital. Right now I’m so focused on school that it’s hardly crossed my mind that Christmas is nearing. Perhaps my tumultuous journey of leaving Christianity behind has soured the experience a bit, as well.

However, although I may not be dancing about, singing carols and giving away candy canes, there is one thing I still love just as much – buying people presents. I love it. I’ve done a lot of shopping on Etsy so far and I plan on doing a lot more at Shadow Art Fair [at Corner Brewery this Saturday, be sure to come!]. Also, we’re planning on getting a Christmas tree this year [we didn't last year] & since we don’t have much money or space, I want to get a small Charlie Brown tree. Nothing fancy, nothing showy, just something simple to make the apartment feel a little more special.

In addition to some christmas shopping, I ordered myself a few books today – Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger and Smart Mobs by Howard Rheingold. At the moment I have neither the energy nor the brainpower to write you brilliant summaries, but I’ve read chapters of each & they are both very good books. Each title links you to a blog with entries pertaining to the book topics, as well as other information on the book. Plus, I’m sure to comment and review them once they arrive & I read them.

For now, I’m going to read some articles & practice summoning ice cream…