Christmas Morning

As I've said before... I love Christmas! This Christmas was no exception. I was so lucky to be able to split the day between my boyfriend's and my family. We started the day off at my boyfriend's house where we woke up to the whole family enjoying a very relaxing morning. 

Zairis, Zairalis, and me Christmas morning

My boyfriend's sister has a baby daughter named Zairalis, and she is the apple of the whole family's eye; she is the first grandchild in the family, so she is definitely doted on! We spent the morning giving presents and helping Zairalis play with her new presents (because she is only 9 months old). She is definitely a cutie and it was so much fun to be surrounded by family on Christmas morning.

After the morning festivities, Zairis and I packed up our bags and made the 30-minute drive to my mom's house to spend the rest of Christmas Day with her, her boyfriend of 12 years, and my grandparents. Because none of my older sisters were able to make the trip home, it was an unusually small get-together at my mom's house of only 6 people. We had some very traditional German dishes for our Christmas dinner including Potato Pancakes (which I made!) and Chicken Paprikash. We also started the meal off with some bacon-wrapped scallops and kale salad (I made that, too!). We ended the meal with a delicious gluten-free apple pie, because my mother's boyfriend is gluten-intolerant. 

After the meal, we exchanged presents; this was perhaps my favorite part of the day! I got some clay bowls for my apartment and a yummy vegetarian cook book from my mom (so I'll be able to make her some food when she visits!), a lotion set from my grandmother, and a hot-shot tea maker from my mom's boyfriend.

It was such a fantastic Christmas and I am so very thankful that I had not one, but TWO families to celebrate with! How was your Christmas? Did you spend it with friends and/or family? Did your family drive you nuts, or did the day go off without a hitch? Did you have Christmas meal, if so... what? Did you even celebrate Christmas, if not... what holiday did you celebrate?

Hope you all enjoyed your holidays and are gearing up for a FANTASTIC 2013!

lia sophia

As I have mentioned in a few of my previous blogs, in addition to working at the Financial Aid Office and Whitney Management, I am also a lia sophia Advisor. Lia sophia is a direct sales company that specialized in jewelry - think of Mary Kay, only it's jewelry instead of makeup. As an Advisor, I have had so many fun experiences and met a bunch of really cool people - and I only started a few months ago!

A cool perk of being an Advisor is that I get to attend monthly chapter meetings. At these meetings I get to meet other Advisors and share tips about what works and may not work with our business. These meetings are also where Advisors get recognized for any accomplishments or milestones they may have achieved. This last meeting, I was recognized for becoming a qualified Advisor, which means that in my first month of business I made at least $1,500 in sales and have at least 3 parties. I was so excited to receive the award and it made me even more motivated to take my business to the next level!

I am really glad that I decided to become a lia sophia Advisor and find it to be a really cool, fun way to earn extra cash. If you have any questions about lia sophia or other ways to earn extra cash while in school (such as jobs on campus, or local businesses) let me know! I am more then happy to answer all of your questions!

If you'd like to learn more about my lia sophia business, you can like my page on Facebook!

Family Visit

As you may have gathered from reading my previous blogs, I absolutely LOVE when people come to visit me in New Haven! This time, it was my future sister-in-law Zaimaris, and her 9-month-old daughter, Zairalis.

Zairalis was very taken with the ornaments on the tree!

Zaimaris and Zairalis came to visit for the entire weekend, which was a ton of fun. We had a great, relaxing time and it was such a treat to be able to spend a whole weekend with the baby! 

Because Zairis (my boyfriend) and I live in New Haven, we don't get to drive the 45 minutes home to Zairalis very often, which means our visits have been very few and far between. It has been such an experience to watch Zairalis grow up so fast between our visits, and it is amazing to see how big and smart she is for only 9 months old! 

Though the visit was so much fun, it was also a very good reminder to wait until I/we are absolutely ready to have children. Having a baby in the house for only a short two days was enough to make me realize that when a baby enters a family, everything changes. While this is how it should be, and I hope to one day to have children of my own; right now, as a 22-year-old college student, I am nowhere near prepared to have a child! 

How about you, do you want kids? Do you already have kids? Do you have any nieces or nephews that you absolutely LOVE to spoil?

Dentists, Dentists Are No Fun :(

One requirement when coming to Albertus is that you are covered under a health insurance plan. Albertus offers the option for you to stay on your parents' health insurance or join the school's plan (which is simply added into your tuition; this year it was about $1,000... give or take a few hundred). Because I was not on my mom's health insurance plan I gladly accepted the school's insurance plan. So far, I have found it to be a quite a help when I get my annual Winter Cold (which always seems to last the ENTIRE winter.. uhg!) and in treating the allergies I seemed to have developed since moving back from Texas.

My Dental X-Rays

One thing to keep in mind when making the decision of which health insurance plan to use is that the school's insurance plan does not include vision or dental. Because dental is not included, I pounced on a deal I saw at a local dentist office: $57 for a cleaning, x-rays, and dental-work plan (no insurance required. 

It wasn't too bad, actually. I had made an appointment on Saturday and the cleaning was very quick. It was kind've funky to see my x-rays (so I took a picture, naturally!)... and I was very happy to find out that I still don't have any cavities (woo-hoo!!)

The actual cleaning was a little painful. I absolutely hate having a dentist poke around my mouth with a drill and suction wand. Not only is it incredibly awkward, but sometimes it really is painful and felt a little bit like they were drilling right through my gums & teeth! 

The end product was good though - my mouth felt completely refreshed. I would recommend them to a friend... so I suppose I will recommend them to you! I went to Dr. Dental which is located on Amity Rd, heading from New Haven to Woodbridge.

Winter Wonder!

This past Friday, the Student Government Association (SGA) held an awesome Winter Wonder dance! This is an annual, semi-formal dance that Albertus puts on every year towards the end of the Fall semester. This year, SGA really outdid themselves! The decorations were beautiful, food delicious, music was"hopping" and it was a great turn out.

I attended the dance with my boyfriend, and we had a really great time. Probably my favorite part of the dance was the Photo Booth that SGA had set up. The photo booth printed your pictures out automatically, and there were tons of fun props to wear while taking the pictures! 

They also had a backdrop with city-related props... I had a lot of fun posing for pictures!

All in all, it was a great night full of fun, music, and dancing. I really enjoyed my time and am looking forward to next year's :)