First of all, many congratulations to my little sister. She totally rocked in tryouts on Saturday, and ended up taking first place out of all bass clarinets in her region! Yaay Kat! :) So she'll be going to Area tryouts come January... I'm really proud of her.

Also, she's been a great help recently. She helped me put up our first artificial tree while mom and dad were away at a Christmas party, in order to surprise dad and convince him that artificial trees COULD look as good as a normal tree, and also that they were a LOT less fuss and hassle. (Many thanks to Sam for the idea; also thanks to Blacker for convincing me that enormous trees are rarely worth the effort if ONLY THREE OTHER PEOPLE feel like helping.) I think it worked. Dad was first a little shocked at the large fake tree, but it's really pretty and quite realistic (well, once you fluff out the twig ends, which takes a while) - and he didn't have to put it up or place lights on it. Plus it doesn't shed needles, and you can lug it around in small bits instead of battling an unwieldy 8+ foot 1-piece real tree. I admit that I kinda miss the smell and feel of a real tree, but perhaps it's worth the tradeoff. As mom said, there are always pine-scented candles... ;)

Also finished my UCLA app today - hurrah! One more to go tomorrow before I can breathe a little easier and take my time with the next 4. However, tomorrow's also Mom's birthday, so I'll probably have less time than usual... I'd like to do something nice for her, like wrap that present I made for her and perhaps bake something without it turning out miserably. ;) We'll see...

Anyway, I feel I should probably try to get back on TX time, so that means I should sleep now. Later, and to all my friends scattered around the country and world - happy holidays, and send an email! Though I'll be seeing my old friends from HS and catching up with their stories/lives, I still miss you guys.