More updates

So, I was supposed to update more about what happened to me over break. Now that I'm not home any more, the stories don't sound quite as funny...

The kiddos in my house are super cute. Sam loves to run and bang on stuff, play the piano and put his socks on his hands like puppets. Anna is the cooing queen, laying on her throne of pink blankets and smiling all day long.










I saw my few friends from home once or twice. Rich and I got coffee, and had a great conversation about how his neck is sore from lifting carpet at his job. He seemed to be doing well, despite the pulled muscles and caffine addiction aquired along with the carpet lifting. Danielle and company were fun to hang with, we actually went to a bar. Nobody really drank, as we all had to drive home, but we had an enjoyable night icing out the boys who thought 5 girls out on a weeknight would be fun to pick up. That was about it for socializing in Madison, unless you count the evenings spent alone reading the newspaper over a sundae at Michaels. At least I was out of the house.

My mother and sister got me to go on many crazy errands. They dragged me to the mall and the grocery store all in one day. Mom and I went shopping for various other things, as well, still not my favorite thing. I got out of it with tons of yummy food and a very nice cashmere/angora sweater, but the emotional cost was almost not worth it. It was nice to spend some time with the Grahmann girls, especially when we had all three generations along (and the little on is just so cute, she makes even the mall bearable).

I made baby blankets for the two unborn Grahmann boys, and their parents liked them very much. I'm about half done with Michael's blanket, which is turning out great. I'm still stuck in a rut with Kathleen's, though, it's not especially exciting or personal in design, so I may start that one again.

My family spent a wonderful holiday all crammed in my cozy home. We played Hoopla, my favorite game lately, a version of Cranium where everyone is on the same team. I guess we won, though there was no one to beat. We also had a great night of other group games with my sibling's friends. We ate tons, laughed tons, and had a very nice time being ourselves. We've been working on not fitting back into old family stereotypes (Julie the uptight older sister, the boys the oblivious ones, me the scared little kid), and I think we did rather well. I felt more included, Julie was much more calm, Mom and Dad seemed to enjoy the time better than in recent years, and Alex and Steven made us all fit together. It was really nice.

I got some great stuff for Christmas, including laser hair removal (which will actually be many a Christmas worth of presents, as it is very expensive). I got my first treatment, and it didn't hurt at all, despite the dire warnings of my sister. I also got some great pajamas, lots of iTunes money, and a wonderful ballerina sock puppet.

The GRE is in a week, so I better get back to studying. Did you know that the square of the length of a box's diagonal is equal to the sum of the squares of its length, height, and width? Don't care? Neither do I.