For the first time ever, I’m writing these ahead of time so I don’t have to take time away from my Thanksgiving break. Enjoy!
Ah, Thanksgiving. All the gratitude is refreshing to me, and it’s lovely to see people reflecting on what they are thankful for. Me? I’m thankful to have gotten through most of this semester. And of course I’m thankful for the requisite family, friends, job, education, etc. The last year and a half since coming to college have been a growing time for me, and I’m so thankful to have the opportunities here to strive to become a better person.
Let the holiday season begin! Today is the first day I allow myself to listen to Christmas music so you can rest assured that I will spend most of today belting songs because: joy. Christmas music is so joyful, and I love that. You can get all scrooge on me and complain about the crazy shopping and greedy people, but I’m gonna sit here singing about how happy it is that Jesus is going to be born. One thing my family has done for many, many years is the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. Pictured below, it is said 15 times a day (we would usually sit down and say them all together) from November 30th to December 24th. Just google it to find amazing stories of favors that have been granted through it.
Did you see Pope Francis’ letter this week? Evangelii Gaudium looks pretty awesome, and I’m looking forward to reading it (yeah, right after Lumen Fidei…).
Don’t nice people make you happy? I found this random acts of kindness compilation on Pinterest, and want to go out and do all them! The only issue is that most involve money. And I’m a college student. So I’ll have to spend some time compiling ideas that are not expensive.
Remember how I gave blood a couple weeks ago? (Nope, probably not. I was kidding. Who remembers things like that?) Well, my arm is just now recovered. Yes, it took about 2 weeks to fully get back to normal….the inner part of my elbow was rather sore, and I got to witness science by watching various stages of the bruise. Isn’t that just beautiful?!?! It was actually pretty interesting, so I took pictures. But I decided to exercise a little discretion by not posting them here because it seems a little TMI. You’re welcome.
What are some of your favorite unusual Christmas songs? One of my favorite (not really unusual though) is Breath of Heaven, which is one we’re doing for concert chorale. It is seriously so beautiful, and I’m writing a whole post on it. The arrangement we’re singing has a lot of dynamics, and we’re singing it in the large Abbey church. I hope to have a video to share, AND it will be streaming live!
I will be done with this semester in just over 2 weeks! It’s terrifying and exciting at the same time. And I hope I don’t feel like the child in that picture. Suffice it to say that my media presence will be somewhat lacking during this time because I’d like to end the semester by doing okay on my finals. Which means studying hard instead of writing things about random things. The challenge is looming, so I’d best be off to meet my match!
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A Drop in the Ocean 
I really like {the portions that I’ve read} of Pope Francis’s writings!
Also, I appreciate your discretion with not sharing your bruising process 🙂 Glad your arm is feeling better!
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