Happy Christmakwanzakah!

And that is honestly because I've missed the beginning of every winter holiday so far! Sorry everyone!

Merry belated Christmas, happy belated Hanukkah , and joyous belated Kwanza!

Sorry again that it's so late. I've just been so productive over the first half of my winter break that I haven't been able to blog!

Let's see what I've done so far:

• gone running
• finished my book
• made and wrapped everyone's Christmas gifts
• scrapbooked for Phi Rho
• baked Christmas cookies
• bought next semester's school books
• and color with my new crayons!

Haha, this is what I call productive, or at  least "winter break productive". I still have quite a long list of less enjoyable things to accomplish, but I'll worry more about those later.

I cannot believe how much snow the southeast part of Michigan got yesterday and this morning! I went outside to measure it because I didn't actually believe the weather reports, and low and behold, we got 8 inches! I think that's more than the last two years combined. My plan was to go outside and build a snowman, but I couldn't convince my sixteen year old brother to come with me so... yeah that didn't happen. Maybe on tomorrow's agenda?

Oh, I do want to mention something that I got for Christmas this year. My brother.. my goodness, he just knows me so well. His gift was probably one of my favorites that I received. Little known fact, one of my favorite YouTube videos is this one:

Because, otters. They are just too cute and the fact that they hold hands so as not to drift away from each other when they're sleeping may be the most adorable thing ever. So my brother, knowing all of this, got me this poster:

Seriously, how awesome is that?! That video never fails to make me smile, even when I'm really stressed out with school and work, and now I have a picture to hang up in my room that has the same effect. Perfect :)

Other than adorable otters, my Christmas Day went very well! We made a yummy breakfast and opened presents in the morning, lounged around in the afternoon, I went running with my new thermal gear and running watch (thank goodness it was before the blizzard hit), then made surf and turf dinner followed by board game night with my family. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful people in my life :)

I hope everyone else is enjoying the holidays just as much as me!

All that counts is here and now.

Alright, so about these finals... I've got a bone to pick with you all about it. The only thing I've heard people talk about or seen on social media (aka. Facebook and Twitter) is people complaining about how unprepared they are, how little hours of sleep they are going to get because they're studying all night, or how poor their grades are going to be after these finals are over.

Well you know what, I have no sympathy for you people. You are the ones who are wasting time on these websites trying to get attention and solace from anyone you're connected with, when you could be STUDYING AND PREPARING FOR YOUR EXAMS. Guess what. Everyone is in the same boat as you! All of us our studying or writing papers or making presentations for our classes, so we aren't going to feel bad for you if we're in the exact same position. It doesn't matter if you have five finals and I only have two. That's the way it happened to work this semester. I might be swamped with projects and exams next semester, and you might just have a couple of exams that aren't even cummulative. Everything will balance out in the end.

Also, if there's anything that I've learned from my last three years of secondary education, it's how to effectively prepare, or at least do so to the best of my ability. I'm not going to lie: I worked my butt of all (or most) of the semester, so I don't have to cram all the information I was taught over the past four months into a week's worth of studying. To be honest, I haven't studied more than three hours or so for each of my exams this week, and I've mostly been catching up on television shows, reading my books, or running errands...

Granted, there are the people that can cram, cram, cram all of their classes into one or two all-nighters and ace their finals. Kudos to you, but that's not how it works for me, let alone in the real world.

Basically, the point of this rant is that you all just need to relax. Think about it this way: this one class that you're having difficulty with, whether it may be one, three, or more credits, it is a small fraction of the 128 (or more) you will be graduating with when you get your diploma leave MSU. All you need to do is put everything into perspective.

With that, good luck to everyone this week! It's not the end of the world, you're going to be fine, and it's almost over. Plus, there's the Holidays, snow, and a New Year to look forward to :)

Campus Holiday Dinner!

Tonight is the Holiday Dinner in all of the major cafeteria's around campus!!! This is one of my favorite dinners the caf provides, mostly because there is just SO much food to choose from! Here's the menu for South Pointe (Case Hall), but almost all of the cafeterias will be serving the same thing:

• Grilled New York Strip Steaks
• Golden Butterfly Shrimp
• Corn
• Baked Potato
• Franks in a Blanket
• Crab Rangoons with Orange Marmalade Dip
• Mozzarella Cheese Sticks with Marinera Sauce
• Fresh Fruit Display
• Cheese and Crackers
• Baked Red Snapper
• Sauteed Chicken with Spinach
• Quattro Formagia
• Golden Fried Shrimp
• Long Grain and Wild Rice
• Acorn Squash
• Parmesan Knot Rolls
• Assorted Knot Rolls
• Cinnamon Raisin Dinner
• Rolls (with three assorted flavored butters)
• Holiday Punch
• Egg Nog
• Gourmet Hot Chocolate

Not to mention all of these AMAZING desserts!:

• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Chocolate Fudge
• Rocky Road Fudge
• Sugar Cookies
• Assorted Mini Holiday Cupcakes
• Pumpkin Cheesecake
• White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake 

  The reason that I bolded AND italicized the sugar cookies is because I helped decorate them at the MSU Bakery!! I'm not sure if I had actually ever mentioned it before, but that's one of my favorite reasons for working there. It is always so much fun around the holidays even though there are dozens upon dozens of sugar cookies to decorate. It's never a bad thing though because I get to pick up extra shifts!

Anyway, you should all go to the holiday dinner at whatever cafeteria is closest to where you live! I even know people who live off campus and are still going because they know they're going to get a great meal out of it! :) And don't forget to try the sugar cookies! :D

'Tis the season.

How in the world is it already the LAST WEEK of Fall semester classes?!?!?! I know that they say time flies, but boy, did it have to fly that quickly?! I remember when I was writing a blog about midterms and now it's FINALS?! I guess my schedule is so consistently busy that I never stop to think about how fast the time is going by...

I think this has been one of my most inactive weeks for finals preparation as well. I lucked out, in terms of engineering, because I didn't have a design project to do for the end of any of my classes. The only MAJOR projects I had to work on were two papers, a short presentation, and a test I have tomorrow acting as our final. No wonder I only just realized how close it was to going home..

And Christmas! I don't even want to think about that just yet. I have NO IDEA what I'm getting my close friends, let alone my boyfriend or family members. Good thing there's about a week and a half between the beginning of break and the actual holiday! I'll have some seriously planning, shopping, and creating to do during that time. That's another thing about me. I like giving gifts that I make! Pinterest is a WONDERFUL source for all sorts of DIY crafts, so I'm bound to find something cute to make! Most likely it will revolve around food. I feel like those are the best types of gifts sometimes.. :p

Speaking of presents, I actually have a Christmas list this year! If I even ask for anything, it's normally tuition or sorority money, but this year, I'm asking Santa for a running watch, a nice scarf (preferably Spartan themed), and a new travel coffee mug! I probably could have gotten all of these things for myself on Black Friday (or whatever they call it now since it starts ON Thanksgiving...), but I wanted to change it up this year and make it different for my parents :p What are you asking for this year?

This Christmas break should be really relaxing , yet incredibly productive. I already of a list going (and I've probably checked it more than just twice ;]). It mostly consists of catching up on all of the books I have yet to read and television shows I have yet to finish. But I do have quite a bit to do for Phi Sigma Rho as well, considering I will be Senior Member Educator next semester! I'm very excited to recruit for our Gamma class and teach them all about Greek life and Phi Rho! :D My junior Member Educator is SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC about it, so it's going to be fantastic working with her!

Ahh! I'm so exicted! I just need to get through five more classes and three finals!