December?

HOW is today December 1st? It doesn't make sense. I could almost swear to you that New Year's was only a few weeks ago. And graduation was like, YESTERDAY.

But hey, time keeps on slippin', slippin', into the future, and now, I see, we'll never stop this train.

Enough about time, though, because we all know how it is. Let me just say that, instead of letting my "baffled-at-how-fast-the-year-has-gone" self worry about things I can't control, I'm going to holler at December and the holidays Clark Griswold style. That's right. I'm going to make sure my friends and family have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny frickin' Kaye.



Of course, the thing about Christmas is that it's so exciting, it's really easy to overlook Thanksgiving, so before I move on to Rudolph and Charlie Brown and the three Wise Men, I want to give a quick recap of this past weekend.

First of all, I want to say that my Grandma is a BALLER. She's 91 and she cooked Thanksgiving dinner for 13 of us. NINETY-ONE! It was as amazing as always, and I'll be thankful if I can do HALF of what she does when I reach that age.

Second, it was great getting to see family and old friends. I got to kick it with my cousins on Thanksgiving day, and I ran into a plethora of old high school peeps Saturday night at Natty Greene's here in town. It was a mini-reunion up there, and I saw some folks I haven't seen in two or three years. Catching up was fun, and it was interesting to see who is already rising to success, and everybody in my boat, which I don't really have a word for (I'll get there one of these days, haha).

Third, Thanksgiving weekend wouldn't be complete without some FOOTBALL, and while my second team (Auburn) had it rough, my first team, NC STATE, wooped up on some wind storms from Miami and became BOWL ELIDGIBLE thanks to the leadership of my pick for ACC Rookie of the Year QB Russell Wilson (Whew, long sentence, out of breath). State might get into a bowl by the hairs on their chinny, chin, chin, but I've got a new HOPE for the Wolfpack in the future, and we've all seen how much HOPE has helped us this year already.

Finally, I've got to give a shoutout to our Christmas tree. We used to get it a little further into the month, but once my sister and I started college, we started decorating it at the end of Thanksgiving weekend. One of my FAVORITE things about the tree and this time of the year happens right before I go to bed. Nine times out of ten, I'm the last in the house to go to sleep, so I turn off all of the lights. Around Christmas, I do it in an order that leaves the tree on as the last light source. It gives off this glow that's a mix of warm and colorful lighting with Christmas tree smell and quiet. It's definitely a nice way to end the night. Here's a little sample of what I see (imagine the smell and the quiet):



There you have it. Thanksgiving was amazing this time around, and if it was any indication of how great the month of December will be, it should be smooth sailing into the new year. Watch out for me between now and then, because I'll be blasting Christmas carols and cruisin' down the street to some "Jingle Bell Rock". Word.

Drew