I'll be home for Christmas...

Well, I never got around to blogging about the rest of my week with Dan. We had some fun times hanging out, going to my church, meeting Dan Ribbens for lunch, going out to eat with Brita, Jen Binger and her brother J.D., going wine tasting with Brett, and watching movies. It was great!

On Monday, we gathered up our belongings to travel to Chicago for Christmas! Jamie and Chad arrived in Chicago on Tuesday, Chad's mom on Thursday and Rob on Friday. I had a ton of fun playing with my niece and nephew Eleanor and Ezra and seeing their parents (my bro and sis in law) Andrew and Natalie. I can't tell you how many times Eleanor asked if she could jump on me, which meant, "you lay on the floor, and I'll bellyflop on your stomach!" Luckily, she is only a 29.5 lb four year old, so it didn't hurt at all! Here are select pics of the week in Chicago!








Christmas is always fun, but is particularly fun when kids are around. I am so thankful for Andrew and Natalie and how they've brought up Eleanor and Ezra to be such great kids. I am also thankful for my parents and their care for us as their children. They have given so much to us already and continue to support us all now that we are all grown up. Every time I see them it reminds me of what they have done for me. Thanks mom and dad! In general, I have just been so thankful to be back with my family the past couple of weeks. I'm gonna miss them when I leave! I will write more later with some pictures of the other kids in Philly. (I would do it now but I have over 700 pictures to choose from and they are taking a while to download!) I leave to return to SB on Wednesday!

Brother Dan

On Monday night I picked up my big brother Dan from LAX. His flight got in at 8:05 and my final in Fullerton was supposed to end at 6:45, so the timing was going to be great. Unfortunately, the final was group presentations, and they went way long. Therefore, I was a little late picking him up. (But I am so glad to be done with it!) Dan is the first of my five siblings to visit, so I was super excited. So excited, in fact, I missed the exit to the airport (OK, that was only b/c I was coming from a different direction on a different road, but somewhat b/c I was excited too!)

On Tuesday Dan got to meet the entire Kinesiology and Athletics department as Kirsten and I hosted the White elephant Christmas party. I ended up with a brand new fondu set! It was lots of fun and it was a great time for Dan to meet everybody.

Yesterday I showed Dan around Westmont and downtown Santa Barbara. We ate lunch downtown and then went down to the beach and Stern's Wharf. We took a bunch of fun pics while we were down there...





Later last night, we played an intense game of "take one" (aka speed scrabble). Then I helped Kirsten with a little project in which she stayed all night doing! I stayed up finishing up a paper while she scrapbooked :)



Today, Dan and I went on a great hike through Romero Canyon. We just might be a little bit sore later :)









I have had a blast so far and am looking forward to more to write about this week!

New links!

I was really proud of myself for figuring out how to change the links on the right of this post. So, I put some links to blogs of my friends and family. If I am missing yours, let me know... that means I don't have it :-) Anybody curious as to why I was doing this? I was procrastinating. Big shock, I know. I am posting a picture of my nephews at soccer camp this past summer. They are so cute and I am so excited to see them again this Christmas!

The Cousins

On Monday after class, I met up with Bonnie and Susan for dinner. When I got there they asked, "Do you like Sushi?" I have never had it before, and I was feeling brave, so I told them I was willing to try it. People, this is a big step for me! It actually wasn't as bad as I would have imagined. I still didn't love it. I didn't like the texture of the spicy tuna rolls. The California rolls were definitely safe and the shrimp tempura was probably my favorite. I also had a rainbow roll. The evening was so much fun. There were lots of fun memories shared and stories told (for instance, "Remember when..." and "Do you remember the time when...") Susan lives in Venice Beach, so I definitely need to see her more often. Bonnie was in town for a two day visit, so I was so thankful to get a chance to see her while she was here. Hopefully I'll see her in Philadelphia as well. It's so nice to see family when you are so far away from home. All in all, a very refreshing and relaxing evening that curbed my appetite for family until Dan gets here on MONDAY! HOORAY!

Goofy!

So the other day my friend and housemate Jen Price and I had a fun time at starbucks. We were there to work, but not as much as planned. Now, we did get SOME reading done, but I'm the type of person who needs to take "healthy" breaks during my work. If you go to her link you can see a funny video of my ADD and goofy-self.

I must say, I have a paper due on Monday that I finished on FRIDAY. So, I have been productive, which is nice! I just need to edit tomorrow! Hooray! :-) Have a great day!