Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like.......Finals

I am usually the biggest fan of Christmas there is.

By this time of the year, I am usually listening to holiday tunes 24/7, baking gingerbread men galore, have visited and gotten my picture taken with Santa, drinking hot chocolate every night, built a glorious snowman, gone sledding, and have already finished and wrapped all of my christmas shopping.

This year, however, is different.

I feel like a sick combination of Ebezener Scrooge and the Grinch.

I have absolutely no Christmas spirit.

I can seriously sympathize with Cindy Lou Who singing "Where Are You Christmas?"

I don't know why, but I honestly feel like Christmas is not happening this year.

Well....maybe I do know why.

Maybe it is because I am getting married in four days, and I have been so preoccupied with the wedding that Christmas has not even appeared on my radar.

Maybe it is because, due to the fact that we sent out 700+ wedding invitations, the Craig family is definitely not doing a Christmas card this year.

Maybe it is because I will be on my honeymoon for Christmas, so I will not be there for all of the usual Christmas traditions.

Maybe it is because I had the grade papers this year instead of decorate the Christmas tree...boo

Maybe it is because for the first time in 15 years that I don't have a chocolate advent calendar....double boo

Or maybe it is just because I have to survive finals before the most wonderful day of the year can arrive/

Regardless of the reason, I am no where near ready for Christmas.

I have not bought a SINGLE present yet and I have absolutely no idea when I will find time to.

(I should probably finish purchasing wedding presents first anyways)

Hopefully, like Scrooge, I will be visited by three ghosts who will bring back my Christmas spirit and help me check off everything on my Christmas to do list. 

But until then....

Bah Humbug

Weekend Assignment #2

American Heritage is one of the most dreaded classes at BYU, but I absolutely loved it.

I loved it so much in fact that I decided to become an American Heritage TA.

Being a TA involves dealing with herds of freshman on a weekly basis.

Freshman are an interesting species.

I have a few students who could not care less about anything and then I have a few who are the most hyper students you can imagine. 

They are so worried about their grade that they email me multiple times a week, come to each and every one of my office hours, study endlessly for the weekly quizzes, and are constantly checking their grade on blackboard.

As you can imagine, with the notoriously difficult American Heritage final these students are stressed out of their minds.

When we received the lovely assignment this weekend to find someone more stressed than we are (quite a feat considering in the next two weeks I have to grade a massive stack of papers, do a handful of projects, take five finals, do my christmas shopping, oh and not to mention finish planning the wedding and get married) and do something nice for them,

I immediately thought of my distraught American Heritage students.

When considering what I could do for my poor kids, I thought of what I like when I am stressed.........

chocolate.

So for my last lab I taught this week I brought a huge batch of my famously delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Because a little sugar makes every problem less stressful, right??

My students thought so.

They absolutely loved the cookies and forgot about their stress for a moment.

Plus, this selfless act of service will hopefully boost my teacher evaluations too :)