Just hear those sleigh bells jingling.

It's not even december yet and I'm already singing Christmas songs! Today we put up the Christmas tree (after running to the storage place to grab our tree and find a lovely family of decaying birds waiting for us) and it completely got me in the mood for the season. I love Christmas time! Everything about it is great; I love spending time with my family, the movies are always great, it's cold outside, the fireplace is always on fire, and holiday jazz is just a great thing to listen to! I'm so excited for Christmas this year!

Speaking of holidays, Thanksgiving was very nice this year. We had round one with my Uncle John and my cousins in Stockton on Thanksgiving Day, and we had round two at my house with my grandparents today. It was really fantastic, and the food for both days was good, although I really appreciated the traditional food today. It was so nice to spend time with my family though.

I also have had a pretty good amount of time to spend with my friends this past week. It's been so nice being able to see all of my friends that I miss so much, and it's even better to know that I'll get to see them fairly soon during Christmas break, which will be about a month for most people. Anyway, I'm excited!

Now, this week, I basically just have a bunch of projects to do/turn in. It's going to be hectic, but if I can make it through the next month of work, including finals, then I'll have some much needed rest to look forward to.

I'm thankful for...

FRIENDS!! Haha, well I am, of course, but I'm mostly just excited that I get to see most of them soon! It's finally that Thanksgiving Break kind of time and a bunch of my friends are going to be periodically coming back to Tracy so that we all can be thankful. I got to see two of my friends today! One I don't know all that well, and one who I know very well (or at least I think I do) and have been missing greatly for the past few months. It was really nice to get to spend time with both of them and talk about Harry Potter.

Speaking of which, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I was AMAZING, to say the least, and I am so excited to see the next one! Yes, it's about 6 months away and yes, I'm impatient, but it's going to be so epic!

I was really glad that I got to see the movie with my sister. Anna and I joke around all the time and play video games together and such, but there's never really been anything that we both absolutely loved before. But ever since we both got hooked on Harry Potter, that has changed, and it's been really great to have something that we can both just ramble on and on about. Although it would help much more if she actually read the books so we could talk even more about it. Find time to read the books, Anna! I know school has you busy, but Harry Potter is more important than a measly middle school education!

Just kidding. Or am I?

Finally, I'm very excited to visit my uncle and cousins this coming up thursday! We live in Tracy, they live in Sacramento; that's about an hour away and yet we see them once a year, maybe. Sometimes we see them even less than that. I want to say the last time we saw each other was for christmas two years ago but I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm really excited to see them!

This week is going to be a good one, I can feel it.