Back to School

I'm officially a student. Again. So in the true spirit of furthering my education, here is a fairly accurate depiction of what I've been doing the past two weeks.

But I really can't complain; I love every second of it.

Getting back into the whole school routine has been a little more difficult than I anticipated (and by that, I mean the homework and getting up early). But I'm trucking along. Luke starts school again next week, so we'll definitely be peppering the apartment with pencils (do people still use those?) and books.

For those of you who don't know, I started the Masters of Science in Journalism program at Northwestern University at the beginning of the month. It's a one-year program, so I'm on the fast track to becoming a bonafide journalist (or, so I'm hoping).

This quarter is pretty intense and is referred to by students as "journalism boot camp." Because, really, that's what it is. We've been going through the basics of journalism pretty quickly, and in a couple of weeks we'll start our full-fledged reporting. Each of us will be assigned to a beat within our neighborhood (i.e. education, crime, sports). Then we'll be expected to report stories each day in the form of print, audio and video journalism.

Currently, I'm working on a two-minute audio piece (like you might hear on NPR) and plan on featuring who else than my lovely husband as my first source. I'll let you mull over that and post the finished product sometime in the next couple weeks.

All that to say, I am loving this new season of life and am excited to see where it takes us.

And of course, if you have any good story ideas - send them my way :)

'Twas a Very Merry Christmas

We just returned a week ago from spending the holidays in the homeland (a.k.a. Minnesota). We were able to see lots of friends and family and had the best time. And of course, being that it was Minnesota, there was plenty of snow to go around. I could have done without those last few inches, but Luke just couldn't get enough (see pictures below).

I got to spend lots of time with my very best friend, Miyong and we even made it to the Holidazzle parade - though we almost froze our toes off. I also made about a million cookies with Jenn, Betty and Kirsti at our third annual holiday cookie bake day! This year we had an extra special helper - six-month-old baby Will (three-month-old Lucia was going to come too, but then she opted to stay home with dad).

We spent Christmas Eve in Minnetonka and drove down to Wells for the rest of the holiday, where we got to meet our two-month old niece, Claire. She is the cutest, tiniest, must cuddly little baby girl in the world! Luke spent some time holding her during the weekend, but his biggest qualm was that she couldn't "play" with him yet.

Meet Uncle Luke!

Merry Christmas from the Hills!

However, when Luke got bored with Claire sleeping and laying around all the time, he took to the great outdoors with our brother-in-law Nick. And when we heard a loud thud coming from outside the house (a clatter, if you will), it wasn't Santa Claus, but Luke and Nick jumping off the roof into the snow. Naturally.

I thought I would leave you with this photo from my parents' cozy living room.

We hope your Christmas was as blessed as ours!