feeling christmasy

It's in the air alright. christmas. the cold weather, the christmas trees, the lights - oh the lights. the smell of winter continues to barrage me nostrils. the sights os christmas lights fill my eyes with wonder when i look down on the downtown chattanooga area from up here on the mountain. the sound of pleasent music that is only heard once a year lightly touches my ears. the snow, as of yet is non-existent, but hopefully will get here soon enough. speaking of which, why the heck have we not had a single snow day this semester? what is this? why the heck not? come on snow, i believe in you. why don't you show these freshman what a real snow day is like. dump it down on us. it seemed that fall lasted just a few weeks. the leaves seemed to turn color and die within three weeks. maybe a week or two more. or maybe it was just because it was the busiest time of the year due to insurmountable piles of homework, and countless projects. blech. group projects will be the death of me. let me re-phrase that. group projects with people that don't do anything will be the death of me. i don't mind doing group projects if the other people help out, or - better yet - with friends. slackers are always the last ones to get picked. i wonder why. i wish break was here, but i'm ok with where i am right now. i'm alright with being on campus and enjoying the christmas-ness with the new family i have here. eating dinner in the great hall isn't great because of the food, but it's really good because of the people. we sure have some quality people here. like that adam lutz character. what a guy. and that grant thomas. and that peter upton. and that kevin hartzell. and that jacob corbett. and every single person that's on my hall. and that neil clement. and all of that first belz hall. and those founders people. lordy. i'm so glad i'm right here. sitting in the commons listening to music while surrounded by my hall mates is the place to be. well, technically the place i should be is in my room folding clothes. but at least i'm done my homework until finals. thankfully. this past weekend i had two papers, and a powerpoint presentation that i needed to work on. saturday was insane. i was in the library from 12 until 6 working on schoolwork. thankfully i didn't get too distracted, but the powerpoint ended up taking the entire time. so the past two nights i have worked on the other papers, and finally finished them at 2am last night. hooray for going to bed before 3! it makes me relieved to know that i will get more than four hours of sleep. especially when it's cold outside and i can escape from the frigid world outside into a cozy bed, even if it is only just for a few short hours. i tend to be up late even when i do not have as much homework just spending time with people on the hall, or just people that i like being around. i keep reminding myself that christmas break is just around the corner, and there will be three weeks where hopefully i will be able to sleep in and potentially catch up on the hours of rest i have lost this past semester. not that there are enough hours in the break for me to catch up on the weeks of sleep i've lost. so, instead i think i'll just forget about the rest i've lost and build the relationships i have here. maybe it's me, or the season, but it seems like people are the thing i value the most this time of year. i think it has always been that way, but being away from home with the situation at home makes me realize lots of things. things like the feeling of christmas is intensified when you put a bunch of people together and it's this time of year. i think the cold has something to do with it; that and the combination of the break being so close. maybe it's just everyone being ready for break, and being home again with all of the food that presents itself around this time of year. cranberries, baked apples, pumpkin pies, the best whipped cream you have ever had, cinnamon, peppermint, etc. they are all fantastic. they make me want to make a huge christmas dinner, which i fully plan on doing. i'm also getting stoked for all of the christmas goodies. ahh, it's just such a great time of year. thanks be to God for this wonderful season where we get to celebrate the coming of His Son. it's such a great feeling. that good old christmasy feeling.