December Updates!

Gosh, December has just FLOWN by for us! So much so that I've not been keeping up with my blogging duties, ha! December brought the welcome end to another semester of teaching with Purdue - for some reason, this semester just seemed to drag on forever. I was asked by the school of nursing to be the banner bearer for the December graduation ceremony - and let me just say it was an AMAZING experience! It happened so fast that we didn't get a lot of good pics, but here you can see me walking across the stage with the SON banner :) It was hard to believe that the last time I was in the Elliot Hall of Music was during my graduation in 2002 - and that I was carrying the same banner that was carried for my graduating class! Talk about coming full circle...

Then, Cory and I spent an evening driving to downtown Indianapolis to look at the Circle of Lights - here's a shot I took out of the moon roof:

And then one of the office buildings had this cute window lights display.
We finished the night by going to Circle Center Mall, doing a bit of shopping and indulging in fresh Cinnabons - so yummy!

Before we left for Christmas in Warsaw, Cory and I exchanged our gifts to each other (besides our iPhones)...and it was the Christmas of bags & embroidery for me, ha!

Thankfully, the drive to Warsaw on Christmas eve was smooth & easy - no weather problems at all! There is seriously nothing like the feeling of pulling into your childhood home and knowing within those walls are all of your family :) My sister & her husband Grant drove all the way from Colorado Springs, CO to be home this year - Grant is in the Army and will be deployed to Afghanistan sometime in 2009, so we were especially thankful to have time with him. As always, the time flew by and it was dreadfully hard to leave everyone - but we made it back safe and sound and are still in the midst of unpacking & cleaning up. The day after we left, my parents, Leslie and Grant drove up to Michigan to be with my brother & his family as they were unable to travel to Warsaw b/c they're 9 months pregnant! We're seriously just waiting for the call that Cory and I are Aunties & Uncles again, once Alice is born.

We still have our tree up, and while it's gorgeous & still smells great, I'm starting to get really anxious to have the house back to normal - so I have a feeling that we'll be packing things up sometime this week. Cory will be off for New Years day, but unfortunately, this is one of the craziest times of year for his line of work & he's already been working so many extra hours to meet his deadlines. I'm anxious for the new year to start so that things calm down for him.

January will be bringing some exciting things for us - none of which include me turning 30, so stay tuned for more updates! Have a wonderful & safe New Year!