Advent, finals style

The reality about being a student's wife is that the alternate personality of December is finals madness. This caused a bit of a conflict for us last year as I have been removed from finals madness for many years and also had some expectations about what our first Christmas together should look like. This year, we are both much for realistic. We have discussed the amount of work that Christopher has to do and have planned the time that we will spend together. I have spread out the Christmas things and am now almost done with shopping (about 90%) and am ready to send out our Christmas cards today.

We also decided to change things up a little bit - the advantage of being {somewhat} newly married - and create our own traditions. Because our time before Christmas is generally busier than the time after Christmas, we decided to try our own version of "the 12 days of Christmas" with the 12 days being from Christmas to Epiphany, Jan 6th. We aren't really sure what those days will look yet, but so far our ideas involve giving each other some small gifts, making a meal for someone else, volunteering in our community and connecting with friends. I'm excited with how it is all going to work out.

This week is the first week since the beginning of Nov that I have not worked overtime. YAY! I celebrated by spending time with friends - knitting and then dinner and gingerbread house sight-seeing at the Milwaukee Public Market - and have been visiting the gym again.

I am also reading three books: Preparing for Jesus an advent book by Walter Wangerin Jr. I read this book last year and loved it. Matched, a teenage novel about a dystopia (is that a word?) society that controls everything. And The Story, the Bible told in stories. Some of the chapters are "Noah's Boat," "A Few Good Men ... and Women," and "No Ordinary Man." I thought it would be a good review of the stories and the connectivity of the Bible.

Tonight we are going to a Fish Fry with some friends, other students and their significant others, proof that students can have some fun even during the end of the semester crunch.

Gratitude List #1901 - 1917


And for your viewing pleasure, the best of the Gingerbread competition:

My favorite, the three little pigs, because it is creative.

Just in case we forget WHY we are all here.