festive cheer and freedom

I'm feeling a little festive, so I had to change my little header above. Reasons for such festivity?

i) I got my first Christmas card in the mail today from Nicole and it made my day :)

ii) I'm finished all my exams and projects! It feels so great to have a few weeks off from school.

iii) I'm looking forward to catching up with friends I haven't seen in ages.

iv) A few overdue awards from Carla and Sara! I got the Kreativ Blogger award from Sara and this lovely award on the left. Both involve sharing 7-10 facts about yourself and then passing it along. I'd like to award Manju, Margarita, Amanda, and Krissy! I decided to put a little spin on things and instead share ten things I can't wait to experience  and do in the next few weeks -- hope you gals don't mind!

1) Reading

I have the biggest pile of books waiting for me to just tackle them with hungry fingers (makes it sound like it's a feast, meep). Sometimes it feels good to just read for pleasure instead of reading something that's on a course outline. I've already read the last book in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series called "Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?" My sister got me into these books way back when the first one came out -- I feel like a bit of my childhood is gone now it's over (the same feeling I felt when I finished reading the Harry Potter series haha).

2) Catching Up With Friends

It's going to be so good to hug those friends I haven't seen in a while and avoid all topics regarding school and work. I can't wait to catch up with the friends I can just talk to about anything and everything. As you get older, it seems harder to hold onto friendships, mostly because life just gets in the way. I love the friends I have where we understand life is busy, but what we have is important. Ah, I'm a cheeseball.  

3) Apple Cider (Cocktails)
Me and my closest friends are bringing back our Secret Santa tradition and exchanging our gifts at a potluck-dinner Christmas party that I can not wait for. Hopefully on the menu is apple cider cocktails, which is the recipe of the week. I've never actually tried them, but just the thought of them makes me thirsty. This list is making me both hungry and thirsty now (my stomach just grumbled).   


4) Snow!

And I don't mean that nasty, gnarly snow -- that's only good when you have chestnuts roasting on an open fire (and I don't have a fireplace). But I love the feeling of seeing a good few inches of powder snow on the ground, and seeing it glisten as the sun hits it. So pretty. Today's been a combination of a little snow and rain (not cool).

5) Making Things

That sounds so ominous ... what will I be making? BABIES! (just kidding!) But I hope to tackle some form of home-made crafts, either to give as gifts or just to admire.  Catching my eye are making frosted glass, an exploding box of photos, or this snowglobe that I found via weheartit which led me to this blog entry about de-cluttering your kitchen and making snowglobes. I thought it was adorably cute and would love to try it out ... maybe with a little plastic coffee cup? And, as you can tell, I've been doing a lot of discovering via the world wide web ... that's because I'm a lazy bum who spent the first day of freedom on the computer, yipee.

6) Cards & Presents

Over the next few days I'm going to be writing and sending a bunch of cards and I can't wait. My mom's been grumbling and saying she hates writing cards out to our relatives, but I love to send things (paying for postage? not so much love there). On top of that, I'm going to be braving the mall with its overcrowdedness and try to get some nice items to give to the parentals/the friends/The Boy/the dog (yup, he gets a present)! Wish me luck that I don't get trampled? :)

7) Getting Out Of Town

The past few months have all been a routine, with not much room for adventure. I would love to go on a road trip (with clear roads) to a nearby town and explore while getting yummy samples of fudge. Or maybe go to an outdoor skating rink in another city.

Now, The Boy's never been skating, so I'm sure we would be as paralyzed as the couple in that picture (but hopefully we'd look just as fancy, haha). I get so happy at the thought that I don't have to see my school for the next few weeks ... makes it sound like I hate school (ironic, since my whole life is going to be school), but it's just overwhelmed me. I just want to get outta town.

8) Sleeping

I need to catch up with my pillow -- projects have made me abandon it far too early in the morning, so I can't wait to sleep some more.

9) The Holidays

Christmas and New Year's are right around the corner -- it's going to be a bit different this year with my sister on the other side of the country (plus the fact that my family's kind of given out presents early ... oops), but I know it's about more than just that. And while plans for New Year's are still up in the air, hopefully it'll involve more catching up with friends and a new year's kiss? (Ever since that episode of Friends where none of them get kissed at midnight, it's kind of stuck with me. I am cool.)

10) Drinking LOTS of coffee and getting a holiday drink from Starbucks/catching up on blogs/playing The Sims and/or Final Fantasy/watching a ton of movies/experimenting in the kitchen/drinking yummy hot chocolate/cleaning my room/making graphics/just relaxing.

Yeah, that's about it in a nutshell.

Thanks to you all for always being so amazing, I'm sending lots of hugs your way.

If you'd like a Christmas card, drop me an e-mail :)

And now I have to ask:

What's made your week better?