I am excited to announce that I am officially back at Rockland Community College.  Yesterday I signed up for classes.  I am taking Legal Research and Writing, Civil Litigation, Computer Legal Application and Domestic Relations.  I had a really nice adviser.  And I can’t really complain about the class times.  They’re not early.  Last semester, I had an 8:15 class and that’s the worse time to have a class.  Domestic Relations is an on-line class and that works perfectly for me.  This time, I am ecstatic to be in the paralegal major.

A tip for people going into college.  Declare a major that you’re in love with.  Don’t take any old major.  No, declare one that you’re in love with.  I thought that I was going to be a social worker but I didn’t want to deal with the traveling part of it.  I also thought that I was going to be a special education teacher.  That didn’t work because it would too much programming lessons ahead of time.  The paralegal idea suits me best because I love to study the law and I need a job to be aligned with computer work.  But go into a field that interest you, not somebody else.

Oh my goodness. I had such a good time at Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the Klippel family had their annual Christmas party. There were an awful lot of people there. My family from the city couldn’t make it, but that’s OK. There was music and food there.

I usually don’t say this but every year, we have a theme. One year, we did ugly sweaters. Another year we did a pajama party. This year, we did a Redneck Christmas on Christmas Day. That meant that we wore whatever we thought fit the theme. I wore a red camouflage shirt, overalls and I stuck a bandanna out of the pocket. Grandma wore a plaid shirt and overalls. Now, one of my aunts is from Alabama and I am a very country-western girl.. This was our year. She had a camouflage pair of pants and a black top. Everyone looked great.  I think that it was everyone’s favorite theme.

Grandma’s brother and his girlfriend came. Her brother is a jolly old man and loves to joke around. In my opinion, he would make a great Santa Claus. He has that kind of personality. My, I guess he would be my great-uncle, is a really lovable, fun man. On that side, we must have a million relatives. I have one aunt and I don’t know how many cousins. His girlfriend is loony too, but she’s his caretaker. They come around every now and then. When we are all together, we are always laughing and joking.

I must have gotten everything I wanted. I got a book about the Amish, new clothes, a sleeping mask, a new bedspread and so much more. I was really pleased with everything I got. I actually was looking for a book to read over break, but I didn’t pick one and I didn’t ask for Christmas. My father’s girlfriend must have read my mind and she got me a book as a present.

My Christmas was very nice. I hope yours was too.

Here is a Christmas Eve hymn.  I hope you enjoy it.

We Three Kings of Orient are
Christmas Hymn and Carol

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to rein

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray’r and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav’n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light .

I am a practicing Catholic and since it is Christmas Eve Eve, I thought that I would post a Catholic prayer for today.  I hope you enjoy it.

Lord, in this holy season of prayer and song and laughter, we praise you for the great wonders you have sent us: for shining star and angel’s song, for infant’s cry in lowly manger. We praise you for the Word made flesh in a little Child. We behold his glory, and are bathed in its radiance.

Be with us as we sing the ironies of Christmas, the incomprehensible comprehended, the poetry made hard fact, the helpless Babe who cracks the world asunder. We kneel before you shepherds, innkeepers, wisemen. Help us to rise bigger than we are. Amen.

Here is a familiar Christmas carol we all know.  I hope that you enjoy it.

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
He’s gonna find out
Who’s naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!

You better watch out!
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake

You better watch out!
You better not cry
You better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Since it is Christmas week, I might as well post a Christmas memory that I have of my family.

When I was a child, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was a heart-warming time of year.  Grandma had dinner cooking on the stove and I would help bake.  Grandpa also helped cook.  He was an excellent chef.  We used to tell him that he should write a cookbook.

“We’ll see,” he would say.

It was Christmas Eve and I was about nine.  I got washed and put on my Christmas pajamas and I would ask, “Are Aunt Sydney, Uncle Peter and Britney coming tonight?”

” Yes they are.  And Daddy too,” Grandma said.  “And we will read The Night Before Christmas.”

“Oh boy! ”

Grandma and Great-Grandma, who we called GG, went on to prepare the ham sandwiches and other things while Grandpa and I watched shows like The Little Drummer Boy or a musical special.  It got to be seven o’clock and Aunt Sydney, Uncle Peter and Britney arrived.  We had supper and then, Britney and I got ready for bed.  Grandma and I read us The Night Before Christmas. When the story was over, we went to lay down.

Ten minutes later, we heard bells and a “Ho ho ho.  Merry Christmas!”  It was Santa Claus!  Each of us got a present.  It was a miracle.  I thought that Santa Claus flew out of the book.  We each got a present and then, we said good night.  My aunt, uncle and cousin went home.

The next day, my father, grandparents and I exchanged gifts.  That was the best part of the day.  Santa Claus left a lot of presents as did Grandma, Grandpa, GG and Dad.  It was such a good time.  We had fun at the family gathering too.

Bittersweet.  That is the perfect word to describe my graduation from St. Thomas Aquinas College.  I have formed so many friendships at this school that it’s hard to move on.  This college made me feel comfortable in its close-knit community.  I got to know a lot of the staff, hang at the pool table and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I got a well-rounded education at St. Thomas Aquinas College.  From my psychology classes to my core requirements, the professors were excellent.  They got to know the students, especially in Positive Psychology.  Positive Psychology was a class that students could share personal experiences and talk about them.

I did alright in Mass Media.  The professor was very accommodating, but sitting in that class was hard for someone that wasn’t a communication major.  I had some idea of the subject because I had taken journalism twice, but I was unfamiliar with the economic part of it.

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy was the toughest.  The professor gave terms to define and an essay for a test.  I took the first one in school and failed.  After that, I took the tests at home because I needed to type my answers myself instead of dictating them to my aide.

I liked how the Child Psychology professor taught with a variety of activities, but I didn’t like how she rushed through the lessons.  When I got her syllabus, I was intimated by the amount of work there would be this semester.

I will miss St. Thomas Aquinas College a lot.  I made a lot of friends there.  But we will keep in touch.

I figured that since the Christmas season is coming that I would post some quotes to get everybody in the Christmas spirit.  I hope that you enjoy them.

“Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.”
Thomas S. Monson

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” Norman Vincent Peale

“He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” Roy L. Smith

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!”  Charles Dickens

“God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.” Pope Francis

Merry Christmas Everybody

Christmas time is about coming together and celebrating, catching up and sometimes, well, we reminisce with friends.  I’ll give you an example.  Err.  Let’s start at the time that I was in sixth grade.

I started middle school in September 2004.  I was given one adviser, or homeroom teacher.  I must have known eighty percent of the sixth graders in there but none of the seventh or eighth graders.  I stayed there for about two days.  My guidance counselor thought that I would be more comfortable in there.  Now at the time, I was a communication board user.  I couldn’t really hold complex conversations because I had to tap everything out and that took a long time.  So I kept conversation really simple with the upperclassmen in the advisory.  I also gave them minimal information about myself, which was a big mistake.

One of the things that I didn’t tell them, among other things was that I could walk.  They thought that I was wheelchair-bound.  We were in advisory together for two years and I thought they knew that I could walk being that I transferred to my desk from my wheelchair every day.  Anyway, that’s enough bashing.  Let’s continue the story.  I didn’t realize that they didn’t know that I could walk until I was seventeen.  Or, at least one.

So it was the end of junior year of high school and I was in the girl’s room about to exit.  One girl was talking to a friend and I recognized her.  I was in my posterior walker and she stopped talking and says, “Oh my gosh!  You’re walking and everything!” I was so happy to see her.  It was nice to surprise her with my walking right before she graduated high school.

Well, I had a great night at my first college dance last night.    I went with one of my aides that I haven’t seen in a while.  It was so good to see her.  She’s a fifth grade teacher in the Bronx.  It was such a wonderful feeling to see her.

A lot of people that I knew went.  There were people that I had in class in previous semesters at the dance and there was a lot of people from the pool tables there as well.  I mainly danced with my classmates and we had a blast.  We danced in a circle and everyone was cheering me on and we chitchatted.  I wore a royal blue velvety dress. I didn’t know anyone at my table, which sucked, but I found people to talk to.

My aide caught me up on work, personal life and wedding plans.  Everything was going well with her.  She told me that we can still do things until I got a new aide so that made me very happy.  It just felt so great to see her again.