Christmas Time!

Blake and I have had a great Thanksgiving break... True, I've spent the majority of the break studying for my upcoming finals, but yesterday we both took off and enjoyed the holiday. We spent the morning by walking to the movie theater to watch Harry Potter 7! We got there before they even opened so we could get good seats and tickets! It was such a great movie. JK Rowling will never let us down! We both love Harry Potter so much! :) 

Then we came back home and Blake heated up his broccoli cheese casserole he made and we met our friend Vicki to walk for Thanksgiving Dinner! Jeff (who goes to school with Blake) and Cat Vitt hosted a potluck Thanksgiving Dinner at their apartment up the street from us for all friends who were in town for break.  There ended up being 14 of us who gathered. I wish I had pictures, but I forgot my camera... :( I'll add some later if Cat tags us in any on Facebook! 

 We ate some great food while we were there! Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, rolls, green beans, sweet potatoes wrapped in prosciutto, apple cider, chips and dips, pumpkin pie, mint chocolate brownies, olives, and stuffing and gravy! Wow, so good! Most of the people were from California, and they had never even heard of Broccoli Cheese Casserole! I thought that was a world-wide Thanksgiving norm! We ended up staying til about 5:30 playing games and talking. We played 4 on the couch, which was really fun and confusing haha.

Now, it's officially the start of Christmas season. As crazy as it sounds, I love this holiday despite the finals studying which I've put up with for the past 4 years! I kind of enjoy getting up in the morning and studying hard core all day. There are no distractions, like throughout the rest of the year, and I feel accomplished by the end of it all! Finals... prepare to be conquered!

This is our adorable Christmas tree... I bought it off Craigslist back in October. :)

 More to come when Mom sends up her old Christmas things she doesn't use anymore and some lights she bought us! My dad's coming to visit on Monday through Friday of next week. I'm hoping I'll get to hang out with him a lot, despite my heavily planned finals studying next week. We're hoping he can come and visit my Torts class on Wednesday, which would be really fun. 

 Speaking of getting things, my sweet mother-in-law sent us a care package!  It could not have come at a better time, either! Blake and I have been drained these past few weeks, but especially right before we got our package. I had a Memo due that is worth a lot of my grade. I was stressed. Blake had a final coming up in Limbs. He was stressed. But then we got the package! If you look under the tree, you'll see some of our goodies!

 We got a John Grisham book (love those books!), sprinkles for holiday cookies (to match my fun cookie cutters that we I registered for!), some holiday coffee, and...

A First Christmas Together Ornament!

 Very sweet and thoughtful presents! :)

Sorry for the blog silence over the past few days. I get very vengeful  frustrated when the pictures won't post! But they're finally working again! 

Happy holidays everyone!
--Catie