Good news...

I'm finally home! Our flights were pretty good overall, but the day was excruciatingly long. We left Rexburg at 5 in the morning and touched down in Greenville at around 7 at night, so we travelled for about 12 hours total after factoring in losing 2 hours as we crossed the country. It feels so great to be home and NOT seeing a "winter wonderland" every time I open the front door! The forecast here is calling for sleet/snow on Christmas day, but I'll believe that when I see it. I feel like they are just giving the people of upstate South Carolina hope for a white Christmas, which is the absolute LAST thing I want.

Tomorrow we are celebrating Christmas with Grandmama and Papa, plus I'm finally getting my hair cut! Yay! It is very much needed as it has kind of looked like a rat's nest for the past 3 weeks or so. I'm excited for Christmas because we are going up to Tennessee to see Memaw and my cousins, which is always fun!

I finally finished reading Jurassic Park! It only took me about 3 months… In my defense I had an intense amount of reading this semester so it was hard to set aside time for pleasure reading. But I was up until around 3 am finishing it on Sunday night because I just didn't want to put it down. I thought it was great. I have always been a huge fan of the movie, so I'm not surprised that I really enjoyed the book that went into even greater detail of a story I love. Anyways, I definitely recommend it to any fan of the movie, or to anyone interested in a science-y/technological story about dinosaurs. There is quite a bit of technology stuff that, I'll honestly admit, I just scanned instead of actually reading, but I think it would have just confused me to fully read it anyways. There were a LOT of differences between the book and the movie, and I won't bore you like I did my family with every little detail, but I will point out that just about EVERYTHING that has to do with the kids is wrong in the movie. First off, Dr. Alan Grant is shown as a stiff, kid-hating man in the movie, but in the book, he really likes the kids and he's happy to talk to Timmy about dinosaurs and his research, and secondly, in the book, Timmy is older, around 11, and Lex is 7, so they reversed ages in the movie. If there was one thing I had to complain about in the book it would be that I wanted to punch that little girl in the face every time I read anything about her. Every time she opened her mouth to speak she was complaining or being a brat, I just wanted that T-Rex to come out of nowhere and swallow her mid-sentence. She was so incredibly annoying. But, like I said, overall, a great read.

Speaking of reading, that is my favorite thing to do over my breaks from school. Since I mentioned that we lose 2 hours when traveling, I should also mention that I get jet lagged really badly every time. I can't fall asleep until around 3 or 4 every night and then I don't wake up until noon. I go through this every time for at least 3 or 4 days without fail. However, the good thing about my predicament is that this is prime reading time. There's no distractions from the TV or video games or music, I just sit in my living room by a lamp, or the lights on my Christmas tree (a new personal favorite) and read. It's AWESOME. It's too bad my house doesn't have a fireplace because then my life would be the perfect cliche, a girl sitting alone reading next to a warm fire. Ahhh, how serendipitous. Christmas lights are good enough for me, though :)

Since I finished reading Jurassic Park, I had to find something new to read. At first I thought I might reread Wicked and Son of a Witch to refresh my memory before reading the newest book in the series A Lion Among Men, but I decided I wanted something that took far less thought, and I wanted something familiar. So, I ventured away from my own bookshelf and went to the one in the guest bedroom and hit the jackpot. I knew as soon as I saw them exactly how I would spend the rest of the late nights of my Christmas break. Two words. Harry Potter. After seeing Deathly Hallows Part One and visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter several times this summer, I'm excited to read the books all over and catch things I missed before and discover more about my very favorite book series. I already noticed something I didn't before and I'd like to share it with all of the other Potter fanatics out there. (and I know you are out there!) When Hagrid is first bringing Harry to the Dursley's house, Dumbledore asks him where he got the motorcycle and he said (and I quote), "Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir. Young SIRIUS BLACK lent it to me." I find this ever so delightful now knowing all that I know about Sirius Black, it makes sense that he would lend Hagrid his bike so that Harry could be delivered to the only family he had left. J.K. Rowling, you are good! I probably didn't even think twice about that name when I first read the book like 10 years ago. Lovely tie in, just lovely.

Well, now that I've bored you with my Christmas break plans, I'll bid you all farewell, because I have a date with Ron Weasley every night for the next 2 weeks. He's just such a dream boat :)

Love,
A Southern Girl IN THE SOUTH!!!!