even the grayest clouds have silver linings

the next person who asks me when i am going home or what i am doing for christmas is going to get a nasty glare.....ok, not really. but i have been overly pestered lately (today most especially thus my thoughts on the matter) as to how i am spending the holiday. which is understandable, i know that is generally a harmless question. however for one who very much misses their family already and has for the past 26 years spent every christmas except for one with said family, its a rough reminder that she will not be seeing her family, or any familial relative, or even any close friends on the most tradition-filled, family oriented day of the year. it is not an easy thing i tell you. so in my usual desire to find the silver lining, i'm going to think of all the pros to not going home for christmas:

   no air travel = no germs, no TSA, no long lines, no worrying about bags, no cramped legs for 3 hours

   no worrying about weather in the midst of traveling

   no coughing up the $500 for the plane ticket

  no oversleeping every day and then getting used to 10 hours of sleep and then having to return to a normal schedule and hating it

   no re-acclimatizing to colorado dryness and high altitude 

  no overeating due to mom's cooking and mom's sweet tooth and thus...

  no gaining 10 pounds in 10 days

  no SNOW

  ......but really i would like to submit that if you are spending the holiday with your family, embrace the craziness, cherish every weird tradition, tell them you love them, laugh at every joke/random story/dramatic gossip....cuz you never know who wishes they were doing all of those things with their loved ones. 

our apartment complex has an office where they store and sort all the packages for all the residents, yesterday as i was picking up a shipment and noticed the over abundance of packages stacked up throughout the office in usual holiday season fashion. the thought came to me that all the packages in the world don't hold a candle to the worth of family and loved ones. 

in happy thoughts.....the GRE will be over in 3 days. 

and my applications to GW and UVa are almost done. :) :) :)