Obligatory bragging that I'm done with finals and 3rd semester of college

Seriously. I'm done. I don't know where the semester went or how I learned everything whattttt. Yeah. This semester has been grand, grandiose even. Go figure. Don't start talking to me about how I'm starting Level II of my program in less than a month, and that I'm halfway done with the best years of my life...I want to hit pause on today. Yep. Quick-someone go and invent that, I'll make you cookies and be your best friend :)

This time of the year makes me super nostalgic. I don't know why, but monumentous things always seem to happen to me and my family in December. Cross your fingers the only crazy thing that happens this year is me being homesick for Logan...it's already happening. How can you miss something without it being gone? Who knows.

Monumentous moment #1: Day after Christmas, 5th grade. 2001.
We were out exchanging Christmas presents and came home to find our house flooded because the master bathroom pipe had burst. My brand new blue slippers floated across three inches of water and we popped paint bubbles. I never imagined that a house could flood on the inside, but it can. Go figure. This led to a gratuitous trip to the Blue Bell Factory and three months of a baked potato bar in a hotel, sharing a bed with my sister and making a green poster about skunks. Oh the memories...

This is too familiar of a sight. I want to look at our old pictures from our house of it!

Monumentous moment #2: Day after Christmas, 10th grade. 2006.

This was the absolute toughest day of my life, followed by the absolute toughest weeks of my life. I was out babysitting for the Coopers (love them!) and came home to a family meeting that changed my view of everything. Everything in my universe was affected by my parent's divorce, but I've been able to learn so much from it.

Monumentous moment #3: Christmas Break, Freshman Year. 2009.

The first Christmas away from my family, and the first time my mom was diagnosed with cancer (don't worry she's 100% recovered now!). It was hard. Winter is hard. However, I was able to grow close to my grandma, and learn some great stories from her. I now consider my grandma as a role model and I would love to be like her when I get all cute, deaf, and wrinkly. I was also reminded how much I love being able to get lost in mountains of books; the only reason I made it through the winter break. 

This is Isabelle, our first snowman. We're going to go above and beyond this year!