Hi again! I have been an utter failure at updating my blog. In my defense, though, it was Christmastime, which is always busy, plus I was finishing my first semester of grad school. Please forgive me.
Updates...As alluded to above, I successfully made it through my first semester of grad school, not too worse for the wear (three A's and one A-). Ceeelll-lebrate good times, come on! Then came Christmas, as it always does, in spite of the Grinch's efforts to keep it in check. I got to spend some good time with family and friends, though not enough. Even though I was home for a little over two weeks, it was still too short. I enjoyed it, though--playing games with my family, watching movies, going places, just spending time together. I got back on Sunday, and school started two days ago. This semester will be just as hard as the last, if not harder...I have to finish two papers with professors, one of which I will be presenting at the PSA Conference in Seattle in March, plus I have to get going on my thesis. Not to mention taking 10 credits again. My classes are Linear Regression Analysis (doesn't that just sound so fun? I can already tell that will be a struggle), Ethnographic Research Techniques (interesting, but very time-consuming), Race and Ethnicity (a very interesting class), and of course, Pro-Sem (the seminar where we learn how to be academic professionals and what you can do with an MS in Sociology). The papers I'm working on with professors are the same one from last semester -- one on anger within the family, and the other on child health outcomes in single-parent families. Now I get to figure out exactly what I'm doing for my thesis...I don't want to share too much about that until I get going on it, because right now, I only have a very meager idea on what I'm doing.
Yep, that's it! School pretty much defines my life right now, which is kind of sad when I recall the fact that I am halfway through my 19th consecutive year of being a full-time student (17th if I don't count preschool or kindergarten). Yikes. I think a good solid 20 years oughta do the trick, don't you? I plan to finish my Master's in April 2012, then it's off to...somewhere. I have no idea where, but I will be moving on from where I am now.
I will probably update this more often now...I have a tentative goal to write every day (or as often as I can...), so whether or not I post a blog will depend on the subject matter of what I write. Any ideas of topics for me to write about?
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Christmastime
I love Christmastime. I love it SOOOOO much! (like the children's book, "SOO Big!" but instead, it's SOO much!) My apartment is all decorated, I love singing Christmas songs, I love the warmth and spirit that everyone has, I love trying to figure out the best gift to give someone...I just love it all!
Most of all, though, I love the Reason for the season. I am so grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ! At this time of year, many people celebrate the anniversary of His birth, but forget about the rest. This is a time to celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the greatest Life that ever lived, the birth of the One who would Atone for all of us, who would suffer for our sins and sorrows so that if we will dedicate our lives to Him, we will be saved. His birth was only the beginning. Christmas is a time to remember that He, Our Exemplar, Our Redeemer, lived a perfect life. It is our duty to follow that example, and Christmastime is our reminder to be more loving, more generous, more giving, and overall more selfless.
Tonight was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. The prophets admonished us to focus on the good, to remember the true purpose of Christmas, to give the greatest gift we can give to others (the gospel), and above all, to keep the Christmas spirit in our hearts all year long. May we remember to do so this Christmas season and always!
This is a small nativity scene that I believe used to belong to my grandmother? (Correct me if I'm wrong about that, Mom.)
One side of my living room. (The couch is in front of that door because all that's behind it is the heater.) That advent calendar is from my childhood. And yes, the French horn is hanging over the heater dial thingy. =P
My roommate's lovely tiny tree, sitting on the table, and lights around the windows/door
My array of ornaments and stockings =) Figuring out how to hang those took some ingenuity...I took one of those metal sliding rod thingies (no idea what they're called) and tried to put in the window sill, but it was too short, so I had to tape cups on either side of it, hahaha. Now the ornaments and stockings have something to hook on to!
Most of all, though, I love the Reason for the season. I am so grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ! At this time of year, many people celebrate the anniversary of His birth, but forget about the rest. This is a time to celebrate the anniversary of the beginning of the greatest Life that ever lived, the birth of the One who would Atone for all of us, who would suffer for our sins and sorrows so that if we will dedicate our lives to Him, we will be saved. His birth was only the beginning. Christmas is a time to remember that He, Our Exemplar, Our Redeemer, lived a perfect life. It is our duty to follow that example, and Christmastime is our reminder to be more loving, more generous, more giving, and overall more selfless.
Tonight was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. The prophets admonished us to focus on the good, to remember the true purpose of Christmas, to give the greatest gift we can give to others (the gospel), and above all, to keep the Christmas spirit in our hearts all year long. May we remember to do so this Christmas season and always!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Hallowthanksmas: A Discourse
Does anyone else feel like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are too close together?
Halloween: Come October 1st, or even September 1st, everyone is excited about Halloween. People talk about costumes, parties, dances, and the like that they will participate in for Halloween. Everyone wants to watch scary movies and go to haunted houses. Halloween gets the longest season for celebration of any of these three, purely because of its calendar date: there are 30 whole days of October before the holiday, not to mention all of September, whereas Thanksgiving has at most 27 and Christmas has only 24 (unless you're counting from the day after Thanksgiving, which could be as many as 31). But should it really have first priority here, people? Maybe my dislike for Halloween comes from a childhood tendency to get scared easily (this may or may not be a lingering tendency to get scared easily...). I was one of those kids who always dressed up as a princess, fairy, or angel; I always hated haunted houses, and I was usually secretly glad when Halloween fell on a Sunday and we couldn't go trick-or-treating. Now, I realize it is my dislike for the principle of fear. Call me a killjoy if you want, but fear is Satanic, and a holiday that has become associated with scaring the living daylights out of people for fun is not a good thing, if you ask me. But enough of that; my real complaint lies in the fact that the Halloween season is far longer than Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I don't think that's fair.
Thanksgiving: First of all, no one ever knows when Thanksgiving is, because it's the fourth Thursday...so you have to pull out your calendar and then count down from the first Thursday to find out when it is. I feel like Thanksgiving gets gypped, because people are still enjoying their Halloween candy and the fun of dressing up for various costume-wearing Halloween celebrations at least a week into November. Then there's the fact that Thanksgiving is downplayed anyway; everyone is excited for Halloween to come, but no one really seems to care about Thanksgiving. There are very few Thanksgiving decorations: when you're a kid you make turkeys out of construction paper, but after a few years you end up making jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, putting up trees for Christmas, and doing nothing for Thanksgiving because you're still cleaning up those rotten pumpkins and getting ready to put up all the holly and the ivy. I'm surprised that we Americans, notorious for how much we love stuffing our faces with food, should neglect this holiday that encourages a feast in which you eat as much as humanly possible. But in all seriousness, have we forgotten what it means to show gratitude? We feast for Thanksgiving to celebrate and show our gratitude for the many blessings we have received. Shouldn't this be more important?
Christmas: I could say a million things about Christmas, but I'll settle for a few. Christmas has all this wonderful music to listen to, when there is little or no music for Thanksgiving and Halloween. This is not a plug for more Halloween or Thanksgiving music. Rather, I feel like there should be more time to listen to Christmas music. Some people get mad if you do so before the official Christmas season starts, but I'm a supporter of Christmas music whenever you want to listen to it! Unfortunately, the school calendar does not support Christmas. There are always final exams, papers, and other projects that make it impossible to really celebrate the season until semester's end. By then there is no more than a week to celebrate the season. That really is not enough time. Christmas, as the holiday dedicated to the birth of Our Savior, ought to have the longest celebratory season of all, because the birth of Jesus Christ is of greatest importance. Shouldn't our priorities be with the Savior?
To be fair, we still have school on Halloween, and we get two days off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for Christmas. But I don't think that makes up for it. I'm not proposing we overhaul the system and change the calendar so that Halloween is halfway through September, Thanksgiving at the end of October, and Christmas gets two months. I just think that our priorities are a little mixed up, and that we should place greater emphasis on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And that is my long, but worthy, justification for the fact that I am currently listening to Christmas music. =)
Halloween: Come October 1st, or even September 1st, everyone is excited about Halloween. People talk about costumes, parties, dances, and the like that they will participate in for Halloween. Everyone wants to watch scary movies and go to haunted houses. Halloween gets the longest season for celebration of any of these three, purely because of its calendar date: there are 30 whole days of October before the holiday, not to mention all of September, whereas Thanksgiving has at most 27 and Christmas has only 24 (unless you're counting from the day after Thanksgiving, which could be as many as 31). But should it really have first priority here, people? Maybe my dislike for Halloween comes from a childhood tendency to get scared easily (this may or may not be a lingering tendency to get scared easily...). I was one of those kids who always dressed up as a princess, fairy, or angel; I always hated haunted houses, and I was usually secretly glad when Halloween fell on a Sunday and we couldn't go trick-or-treating. Now, I realize it is my dislike for the principle of fear. Call me a killjoy if you want, but fear is Satanic, and a holiday that has become associated with scaring the living daylights out of people for fun is not a good thing, if you ask me. But enough of that; my real complaint lies in the fact that the Halloween season is far longer than Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I don't think that's fair.
Thanksgiving: First of all, no one ever knows when Thanksgiving is, because it's the fourth Thursday...so you have to pull out your calendar and then count down from the first Thursday to find out when it is. I feel like Thanksgiving gets gypped, because people are still enjoying their Halloween candy and the fun of dressing up for various costume-wearing Halloween celebrations at least a week into November. Then there's the fact that Thanksgiving is downplayed anyway; everyone is excited for Halloween to come, but no one really seems to care about Thanksgiving. There are very few Thanksgiving decorations: when you're a kid you make turkeys out of construction paper, but after a few years you end up making jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, putting up trees for Christmas, and doing nothing for Thanksgiving because you're still cleaning up those rotten pumpkins and getting ready to put up all the holly and the ivy. I'm surprised that we Americans, notorious for how much we love stuffing our faces with food, should neglect this holiday that encourages a feast in which you eat as much as humanly possible. But in all seriousness, have we forgotten what it means to show gratitude? We feast for Thanksgiving to celebrate and show our gratitude for the many blessings we have received. Shouldn't this be more important?
Christmas: I could say a million things about Christmas, but I'll settle for a few. Christmas has all this wonderful music to listen to, when there is little or no music for Thanksgiving and Halloween. This is not a plug for more Halloween or Thanksgiving music. Rather, I feel like there should be more time to listen to Christmas music. Some people get mad if you do so before the official Christmas season starts, but I'm a supporter of Christmas music whenever you want to listen to it! Unfortunately, the school calendar does not support Christmas. There are always final exams, papers, and other projects that make it impossible to really celebrate the season until semester's end. By then there is no more than a week to celebrate the season. That really is not enough time. Christmas, as the holiday dedicated to the birth of Our Savior, ought to have the longest celebratory season of all, because the birth of Jesus Christ is of greatest importance. Shouldn't our priorities be with the Savior?
To be fair, we still have school on Halloween, and we get two days off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for Christmas. But I don't think that makes up for it. I'm not proposing we overhaul the system and change the calendar so that Halloween is halfway through September, Thanksgiving at the end of October, and Christmas gets two months. I just think that our priorities are a little mixed up, and that we should place greater emphasis on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And that is my long, but worthy, justification for the fact that I am currently listening to Christmas music. =)
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