Christmas Blessings!

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go...

Merry Christmas everyone!

The {Lazy} Peacock, M.A.

It is official.  I graduated on Friday, December 9th from the Wheaton College Graduate School.  I now have an M.A. in Intercultural Studies (missions).  To make it even more official... I gave my last presentation on December 12th, followed by turning in my final research paper on the 15th.  I was holding my breathe until my professor returned my paper, but I just got it back and it was an ace in the hole.  Breathe released.

Dr. Moreau on Friday night

Geesh, I love this man (and the black gown)

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Pomp & Circumstance

Drum roll please..................................................................................................................................

This Friday, I am graduating with my master's degree in Intercultural Studies. As of 7:00 PM this Friday, I am done--Done with research papers, done with finals, done with heavy reading.  I'm just plain done.  At least, for now.
 

Please join me in celebrating this momentous occasion by gathering up all of the pencils in your house and ceremoniously throwing them out your front door. Just kidding. Perhaps have a cupcake instead. That's what I plan on doing. Saturday afternoon, I'm gathering with family at one of my favorite restaurants. We are going to have lunch and cupcakes. I am hoping for either a tiramisu cupcake or maybe a chocolate peppermint one to pay homage to the season. Either way, I'll be taking a jog Saturday morning to account for my celebrating (and to blow off steam from my finals, which are actually the Monday after I graduate.)

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't give a few heartfelt shout-outs: 

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my gorgeous Hubs. He selflessly gave up a lot of fun nights out with friends.  He ate copious amounts of cereal while I was in night classes. And, he fearlessly put up with all of my anxiety and frustration over the last four years. I love you so much and this is as much yours as it is mine. Thank you for helping me accomplish my dreams.

Thank you to my dear family. You read through a lot of my papers, listened to my rants, and gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going when things got overwhelming.  Thank you for always answering the phone when I needed you.  I hold you all in my heart.

Thank you to my friends. You walked alongside me- literally, listening to my crazy venting. You bounced around research ideas with me and then you calmed me down after I bombed my research presentation. You kept me on time for my classes. You made me laugh when I wanted to pull my hair out. You are all amazing.

Thank you to my incredible coworkers. I really could not have done this without your support. Thank you for letting me run out of the office for classes, for listening to my verbal processing, and for praying for me diligently. We truly work in an environment of iron sharpening iron and I thank God for you.

And thank you to my blog family. The {Lazy} Peacock has truly served as an outlet for me over the past couple of years--A way to escape the stress of school and write about anything and everything that makes me happy.  I look forward to being able to dedicate more time to sharing with you in the future. 

5K OK

I haven't mentioned this yet, but it is huge... Hubs and I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving Day!  I mean it literally--We ran the whole thing. To make it even more fun, it was a family event.  We ran the race with Hub's two older brothers, our sister-in-law and his oldest brother's girlfriend.  In addition to that, Hub's parents, my sister, her husband and their new, adorable little girl showed up to cheer us on.

It was only the second time in my entire life that I ever ran over 3 miles. I was initially worried I would end up walking a large portion of the race, but I worried for naught.  I had no trouble finishing the race running.  In fact, when it was over I actually felt like I could have kept going.  Is there an 8K in my future?  Let's not push it.

What's up next?  January 6th, 2012 will mark the one year anniversary of my new healthy lifestyle with Hubs.  To date, I've lost 93 pounds and my goal is to make it to 100 by the 6th.  I really think I can do it!  To help me stay focused (because the Lord knows it's getting harder and harder to drop the pounds), I signed up for a sprint triathlon on June 10th, 2012.  A sprint triathlon is a .5 mile swim, 14 mile bike, and a 5K run.  I think I am going nuts!

Let this be an encouragement to you... If there is anything you want to do (weight loss or whatever), but feel like it is too daunting or impossible--You can do it!  If I can lose 93 pounds in 11 months, you can do anything.  I'm serious.  Just take a look at my new, slim, super sweet gams.

Christmas Crushing

We recently planned our office Christmas party.  We are going to be celebrating a bit early this year because my boss is going to be having surgery mid-December.  I am excited to say that we are going out for Thai food this year!  I recently fell in love with Thai food and was able to introduce it to Hubs, who now loves it as well.  Have you ever tried Thai fried rice?  Awesome.  Not healthy. But incredible.

Anyway, instead of doing a white elephant, this year we are doing something new.  We each pulled a coworkers name out of a hat (pretty ordinary), but instead of searching out strange/unwanted gifts for that person--We have been commissioned to pick out something we have really loved over the last year (under $10) and gift that instead.  It will then be our responsibility to explain why we loved the object/s and why we think our chosen person will love it as well.  It’s different, right?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’ve loved over the last year that my chosen person might also like.  In doing that, I thought it might be fun to share some of those things with you too.  This is completely random and unsolicited, but maybe in the process, I’ll decide what to get my mystery person. 

Here goes:

The first thing doesn't cost any money.  In fact, it is free for all and is located right here on the web-- It's Gina's SkinnyTaste blog! I owe this woman a huge debt of gratitude (93 pounds of gratitude to be exact).  Hubs and I create meals off of her blog almost every day.  Never have we eaten so well.  We particularly love her chicken enchiladas and her chicken rollatini with proscuitto and cheese.  Really, you can't go wrong with any of her recipes and she calculates all of the Weight Watcher point values for you.   

My second favorite thing this year has been Green Mountain's caramel vanilla cream coffee.  I am particularly fond of all their coffee flavors, but this is my favorite.  I even love it black and I'm pretty sure I've never admitted that before.  

My next favorite thing is inevitably linked to the coffee above--It's my Contigo coffee mug.  Hubs bought two of these travel mugs after using one at his brother's house.  We love them because they have an autoseal feature that prevents any and all spills.  In addition, I can fill my mug with coffee in the morning and still have warm coffee in the afternoon.  It's a Christmas coffee miracle!

Another one of my favorite things hails from Bath & Body Works.  It is their handibac moisturizing hand lotion.  I took two containers of the stuff to Greece with me and it served me very well.  So far, I've tried the fresh market apple, fresh lemon, the warm brown sugar and the sweet pea.  Not to give anything away, but I also just ordered the winter candy apple and pink sugarplum for stocking stuffers. 

Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention my new favorite ear warmer- my knit headband.  I actually got mine from a fellow grad student who makes them with her roommate.  I love that I can switch out the knit flowers on my headband because they are just buttoned on.  In addition, I love that my hair stays styled instead of getting flattened down.  Besides, it is just plain chic.

I hope this gets your gears going about what has been meaningful/helpful to you this year.

Have a blessed December night.