Christmas Tea

I think the Christmas tea today was a big success! I had about 15 people come, and we enjoyed some tea, cookies, and conversation. What a nice way to end the semester.

Here's the before photos:

And the after:

Now I'm ready to head back to NM to celebrate with family!

The finish line is in sight!

Well, here we are in finals week already. Though the semester seemed to be creeping along at a snail's pace at some points, now it seems like the whole thing flew by. I finished my grading today, but I have a few lose ends to tie up tomorrow. I also hope to spend more time over the next few days making plans for the spring semester. Although I'm teaching the same two classes in the spring, I've been working on a total redesign for one course, and I'll be working with a new textbook for the other. That all adds up to a lot of work to do before spring starts. But I'm really excited about the changes--I think they will be improvements!

Other than wrapping up school, I've been starting to celebrate the holidays. On Saturday, there was a ladies' breakfast at church, which was really nice. There were also English Department and Percussion Studio parties, and I started baking cookies for my Christmas tea and cookies open house later this week. It's been fun, but I'm also really looking forward to heading back to ABQ soon. It's going to be so great to see family and friends there. I think Mark and I are both ready for a little break, too.

Verse 23

Here we are in the Christmas season, so I wanted my next verse to be one that reminds me of the most important thing about this time of year--Christ's coming--and how we should feel about it--joyful!

Luke 2:10-11

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."