Deck the Halls: My Favorite Time of Year

You guys, it's almost Christmas!

Where some of my friends are spending their winter break, it's already December 25, but I've got a few hours to go. While I wish I'd had time to rally my friends to go caroling (really, I wish enough of them had been around), I'm still looking forward to tomorrow. The last few days have been pretty low-key, but there's a pretty magical feeling that just comes with Christmastime.

I've been arranging Christmas carols and singing far more than I usually do (though that might just be because I'm at home). Didn't actually get to go caroling this year, but I'll hopefully pull some friends together for a jam session soon. (When my friends and I jam, interesting things happen.)

Although I'm excited about lights and songs and the holiday season in general, recent events have me focusing on family, friends, and the people I love. Because sure, there's the commercial side of the holidays, and there's the religious side, but at the end of the day it's time to spend with the people we love.

While I'm limited to my California friends and family this holiday season, I've definitely been thinking a lot about my friends in other places - Arizona, the cold snowy lands, and the East Coast. In the last year I've made countless friends, many of whom don't live in my time zone. I'm not going to mention anyone by name because some of you would hate that, but know that all of you have made a huge difference in my life and I'm proud to be your friend. I expect to be keeping up with some of these friends for years (maybe forever), and distance isn't going to stop me from staying in touch.

That said, thanks to the band friends, the mealtime friends, the neighbors, the core-classes friends, the honor-band friends, the role models, the family members, the teachers, the mentors, the non-biological siblings (as well as my biological sibling), and everyone in between. You've all made a difference to me and I can't wait to see what the future holds for all of us.

Since I have a lot of friends who celebrate a variety of holidays, I'll close with Happy Holidays. :) Hope everyone is enjoying their time off!

Love you all,

Megan