Hey friends,

I’ve been posting links to del.icio.us (which mirror here,) but it’s been a while since the last real post. I’m on vacation this week in STL, and I’m going to try to blog once a day working down my list-of-things-to-blog-about. Today’s will recap what I’ve been doing.

Class finished up on the 9th, where I wrote like a half-dozen ICES review forms and said goodbye to my class friends. I didn’t have finals, thankfully, but I watched as campus does its usually wind-up and wind-down routine finals week. Work-wise, I try to freeze any changes or updates after reading day until grades are done, so I spent the time doing some linux installs (me covering for Nate’s position,) and trying to wrap up loose ends. Last week was entirely about patching old holes and finishing as many projects as possible so I could leave for a week and a half on vacation.

The 21st was the 25th annual Missouri/Illinois Braggin’ Rights basketball game. I met Mom and Aaron in STL, and we had a blast at the game. Aaron has some photos up on Flickr. I think I had a harder time eating my chicgo-style hot dog than the Illini did shellacking Mizzou. We’re 12-and-oh – something I didn’t expect when the season started, and now being fourteen and oh to ring in the Big1T1en season sounds attainable. Woot!

The rest of the week I prepped for Christmas, having everything wrapped and done on the 23rd. I think that’s a record for me. Christmas Eve we went to Grandma’s (as usual,) and ate well and played Uno until almost midnight. My family’s tradition is to sleep in on Christmas day, leisurely open presents over coffee, and then pig out on a feast. The rest of the night is spent moaning that we shouldn’t have eaten so much. Champagne, shrimp cocktail, ham, green beans, broccoli, cheese and rice casserole, sweet potato casserole, baguettes, chocolate cream pie… So much food. I read about what Sarah did this Christmas; what are your family’s holiday eve/Christmas traditions?

I did pretty well this year, getting a bunch of neat things from thinkgeek, some new clothes, a new pillow, a football, a binary clock, picture frames/posters, and more. I felt like I got a lot of presents this year, but I was the only one in my family with a real wishlist. Maybe that will teach them for next year.

The plans for this week are to work around home, lounge around a bit, watch a ton of Netflix movies, eat well, get caught up on email/blogging/websites, and enjoy being with my family.