A long semester, finally done!

Well, I've been slacking on the blogging, and I'm going to blame it on the end of semester insanity. But that's all done now, so I can catch up on all these things I've been neglecting.

My parents are the best people around. They helped Aaron and I out so that we could visit them for Thanksgiving break. All of my siblings and their families were there too, so it was a great little reunion. I finally got to meet my new nephew, Archer, who was born over the summer, and he is the cutest little guy ever!We also went into DC to see and take pictures of the monuments at night, and we ended up with some really fun ones, thanks to Mariko's photography skills.I'm so grateful for parents who are willing and able to help us out so that we could all be together for a week. Our family is going to be all over the place for Christmas, so I was so happy that I could see them all and spend time with them for Thanksgiving.

It's going to be hard for me to not be with my parents and siblings for Christmas. I'm a girl of tradition, and my family is absolutely full of holiday traditions. So this year I'll be going without the Christmas crackers, the sleepy soup, and the giant Santa stockings. But Aaron and I got our first Christmas tree together and set it up as soon as December hit, and even though it's only three feet tall, I think it looks really cute with all the ornaments that I've accumulated over the years. And according to my aunt, my three foot tall tree is the same style as Queen Victoria's tree when the tradition was first brought from Germany. Neat huh?Well Aaron and I have having a pretend Christmas tomorrow to open all the gifts that we're not bringing with us to California. (Aaron's oldest brother is hosting us for the holidays- so nice!) I'm pretty excited because there are some gifts sitting there "under" the tree that I just can't figure out!

I think this is probably the last blog post of 2009, so I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and and New Year!