Christmas Cactus

I have owned a Christmas cactus for probably 5-6 years now. I got it from my Grandma Jo before I started Calvin and have managed to keep it alive ever since. Christmas cacti are supposed to bloom around Christmas time, but needless to say, my Christmas cactus has never bloomed. :( Until this year!! It apparently likes the climate of the east side of the state better (perhaps because Grandma Jo lives on this side, too). So I guess one thing that the east side of our fine state has over the west side is that Christmas cacti like the climate better. Enjoy the pictures!

Book List

So...you may be wondering what I'm doing with all my spare time since I'm out of school for a month (until Jan. 12!) other than posting quite often on this blog. I do have a life, although not much of one if you ask Brian. I've been catching up on my reading and am thoroughly enjoying myself while doing it. Here's what I've read so far:

1. "On Rough Seas" by Nancy Hull
Nancy was my Calvin advisor and friend and this is her first published novel. It was great!

2. "The Green Glass Sea" by Ellen Klages
A great YA novel taking place at the top secret location where the atomic bomb was made.

3. "A Midnight Clear" by Katherine Paterson
A collection of short Christmas stories Paterson wrote for her husband's Christmas sermons.

And here's what I'm reading/planning to read by Jan. 12:

1. "Plus" by Victoria Chambers
The story of a premed student turned plus-size model. An ARC I'm reading for work.

2. "White Sands, Red Menace" by Ellen Klages
The sequel to "The Green Glass Sea" about the atomic bomb.

3. "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson
I read this story every Christmas and have to again after the kids at church did this last week.

4. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
I've owned this for probably 5 years and have never read past the first one.

Any other suggestions? I think this will keep me pretty busy, but I'm always up for more suggestions!

Christmas 2008

I took a few pictures of our Christmas decorations since only Jon and Suzy will get to see them this year. They're our only visitors before Christmas who will get to see the tree. We got a decent amount of snow last night, so it finally feels like Christmas is almost here. We'll see how long the snow lasts, but our apartment complex actually got the plow out for the first time this winter.

Us with our tree.

Our new name ornaments from Bronner's.

The 2008 ornament from my mom.
My favorite ornament. A little pink because of the Great Christmas Flood!
My shepherd sheep.
My new Christmas sheep.
The three snow men that Oma made.
My African nativity scene from Katie.
My sheepie nativity scene.

Family Pictures 2008

At the end of October, my sister's boyfriend Kyle, took our family pictures. They turned out really great and we even used one for our Christmas card. I thought I'd post a few of them for your pleasure. See Kyle's website for more of what he does.