I got a camera for Christmas!!

Great news!!! I can now share my life with everyone through pictures thanks to Santa Claus!! He was very in tune with my needs this year! So let's not waste time and jump right into my Christmas!

This is just a special picture of Anna and myself on Christmas. No, you will not see pictures of Christmas morning because this girl looks ridiculous in the wee hours of the morning. We don't share those candids with anyone.

So back to the maraca saga. We had a fantastic Christmas morning and breakfast at our house before getting ready and heading up to Lila and Grandaddy's house for the day! Beth Ann had to work until 3:00, so we had some down time before we ate. Down time to me presents a premo time to whip out some carols on the ivories. And what do you know?! The piano was open!! So I played the fam some songs. I had my mom take a picture to document that I, in fact, had a turn this year.... And yes. Anna is on the maracas. My, how the tables have turned.

Well, then Anna decided to dampen the spirit of Christmas by stealing and hiding my maracas!!! What the heck?! I moped through our late lunch/ early supper... lupper if you will... I tried to recruit family members to help me track down my percussion. Well no one would talk. Luckily, I remembered that for some reason, Lila had 3 maracas! I only have 2 hands therefore had only taken 2 maracas out of the closet! I went back to the closet and got out the third maraca!! HA! Anna can't dampen my Christmas spirit that easily!

Therefore, the following still took place, as it does every year (although with one less maraca)...

Aside from what I'm sure appears to be a very musical and slightly annoying Christmas, we had a great day!! It's probably one of if not my favorite day of the year!!

So onto another fun activity! We were given a Rice Krispy Holiday House kit from the Shumperts for Christmas!! So tonight, Jocelyn and Emily were over here and we decided to make it!!

Here's Jocelyn with the ingredients to fun!

Anna was clearly VERY excited about what was happening!!

And Emily read us the instructions!

So here are the finished products!! One is mine and one is Anna's. Care to guess which is which??

Yes, the one on the left is Anna's and the one on the right is mine. Let me just share with you what all is going on with mine... the "blob" in the top right is a snowman handmade by myself. My house just has a lot of character, I think!

Ok, that's all for now! Hope everyone has a great remainder of the 12 days of Christmas! What are we on now? ONLY THE THIRD!??! Still a lot of celebrating left to go!!

Happy Holidays!!

Peace and Love!!

I'm HOMEEEEE!!!!

Well, I've been home since Friday!! SO exciting! So I got home and Christmas was in full swing at the Derrick house! Our tree was up, which I guess it was right after Thanksgiving, all our decorations were out, and even my little tree in my room was up! I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!

So here's some fun Christmas "traditions" at the Derrick house....

- Anna used to write the Christmas letter when we were younger. I got to "illustrate." That was my mom's way of telling me that I wasn't talented enough to write the letter. Eventually, I got to the age where I realized this, s0 I moved onto another project. Now, I write my own Christmas letter. It has some pretty substantial information if you ask me. Big events such as Anna's freshman 15 are announced in the letter every year. However, I'm not allowed to send this letter out to very many people. I don't really know why.

- The Christmas card picture is always a fun decision. Again, I am not allowed to have much to do with the choosing of the picture. This can probably be traced back to the time I took it upon myself to take the picture we were going to use and photoshoped it so that my hair was really really blonde and Anna had very dark skin. I switched Anna's skin color back to normal, but I kept my hair very blonde. Some of you may remember and/or still have this card. I'd hang on to it!! This year, the picture was decided and printed without my knowledge.

- Every year we go up to my grandparents' house on Christmas Day. While we're there waiting for everything to get started, Anna and Beth Ann, my cousin, play duets on the piano. I'm going to be honest. Its not like they're very good. But, I've always been told that I'm not allowed to play with them. So, once again, to be included in the spirit of Christmas, I had to take it upon myself to pull out some maraccas from my grandparents' toy closet. Anna and Beth Ann get mad at me every year, but that anger could easily go away if they would give me some of those keys.

It just wouldn't be Christmas without all this! Love it!!!!!

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!!

Lots of Love!

Who told me this would be awful?

Can I just say that I am thoroughly enjoying exam week! Is that weird? I am seriously having such a good time! Sure, the studying is kind of unfortunate, but just this week has been amazing! I mean, we don't have classes, so its not like we are at a loss for time to get everything done. I got a pretty sweet care package compliments of the fam. Breakfast is being served nightly in GDH at 11:00. Seriously. Fun!

Let's see. Apparently there was a tornado, or something very similar last night. Who knew?! I slept right through the windy, stormy conditions.

I know that was short, but I just thought I'd let everyone know that I am by no means suffering this week!

Lots of Love!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

Well, its exam week. Fantastic. Just took my French exam. As usual, I threw in some accents when I was in doubt. But I think it went pretty well. I now have theater papers due tomorrow as well as my biology and chemistry exams throughout the rest of the week.

I seriously can't believe I've been here a whole semester! Its crazy!!

So, as this semester comes to a close, I thought I would share a list of some things I have learned so far at Presbyterian College:

1. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Example. Just because there is no attendance policy in French doesn't mean you should skip as often as you can.

2. Even though you live 50 yards away, leaving your room at 8:59 will make you late for a 9:00 class.

3. Never sign up for a night lab.

4. While the idea of staying up all night working may seem like a good idea, it isn't.

5. Waiting until the last week of school to worry about pulling your grade up in a class... bad idea.

6. Don't take theater.

7. You know you are spending too much time in the library when people are talking to you on facebook asking where you are when you aren't there. Although, there is no shame in a good library friend.

8. If you didn't exercise regularly before you came to college, you won't once you get here.

9. Only good things can come from talking to your professors.

10. You will never value your shower at home more than you do when you have a hall bath.

I'll be coming home on Friday. Get excited!! I'm so thrilled about not having ANYTHING to do over break!! Hope everyone has a good week! Prayers and positive thoughts would be much appreciated as I take these next 2 exams!

Lots of Love!!