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.

Mr. Jones and me tell each other fairy tales

Over the past few days I've felt slightly out of the loop with my diminished circle of friends. Some of my friends I barely see, while others I see all the time, but when I do they always seem just so bleh, it's not really enjoyable. I guess that's what happens when everyone is busy, huh?

Well, I'm supposed to be going to Pismo in a few weeks with some friends, and I'm really looking forward to that, but my work hasn't let me know yet whether or not I'm going to have the time off. Please, work, let me know!

Well, nothing new has really been happening lately. It's almost Halloween, though! I like Halloween, but you know, I'm not really sure why. Let's take a look at some reasons why I confuse myself:

A) I hate scary movies, things that pop out at you, and all demons of the supernatural sort. They scare me.

B) Besides trick-or-treating and dressing up, most of the things kids do during Halloween really never interested me. I'm talking about egging cars, going around scaring little kids, or just plan fooling around.

C) Although I've worked in a couple haunted houses before, I'm not particularly scary, and I hate walking through haunted houses.

But yet, I love the time of the year Halloween falls on, I've always had good memories of Halloween, and I'm really into those cheesy Halloween specials/disney channel movies/tv shows, carving pumpkins, and giving out candy.

My family has never been into Halloween, mostly meaning my parents. The most decoration you'll get out of us is a few holey pumpkins and a scarecrow, and no one really ever dressed up, but yet I still have some vivid memories of Halloweens from my childhood.

One that I always seem to go back to has always stumped me as to why I even remember it. It had to be the most un-exciting Halloween ever, but for some reason I really enjoyed it. I don't remember how old I was, but I do remember that while my dad was helping out at the church Halloween/Harvest festival at the park, and my mom and sister were trick-or-treating, I was tasked with staying home and handing out candy. I basically sat in my family room (the one with the tv and my playstation two), and played RayMan 2 and watching those previously mentioned Halloween movies all night, all the while periodically running to and fro handing out candy to those who were actually participating in the festivities.

So I don't know what it is about Halloween, but I've always really enjoyed it. I hope this year will be a good one too! If I'm not working, that is lol!

"When a man loves a monster!"

This was probably one of the funniest lines of the performance I saw today. You see, usually on the fourth of July, my family will go over to a friend or family's house and have a barbecue and just sort of chill. This year we decided to do something different. We went to church like usual for a sunday, but then after that we left for San Francisco to see a matinee performance of Young Frankenstein: The Musical.

Now, I was extremely excited to see the show and had heard great things about it beforehand, so I had high hopes for the show. When the first few songs had passed, I was sort of dissapointed. Yes, the actors were very good and the jokes were funny, but it just wasn't living up to Mel Brooks status. But, I kept my head held high and waited it out, and I'm glad that I did. The show ended up being both hilarious and very entertaining!

And what's better after a great show than some good food? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! So we headed over to Bucca Di Beppo to get some amazinf grub. It was really good, and after we were done with our cheese ravioli and fetuccini alfredo, we headed home.

And if that wasn't good enough, I got to hang out with a really good friend of mine and watch some pretty appealing fireworks, if I do say so myself. Altogether, it was a really awesome Fourth of July, and I'm glad I got to spend it the way I did!