T'is the Season . . .

T'is the season to reread books. And all that "be jolly fa-la-la-la-la la-la la-la" crap. One of my favorite December traditions is one that I established last year. (How many consecutive years does it take for something to become a real tradition? Survey says—two.) December is national reread some books month in my household—or yours, should you choose to accept the quest.

Starting too many new things around finals is just way too overwhelming, and since Christmastime is cheery and sentimental anyway, I love rereading books that I've already read (redundancy fail) just for fun. On my list this year is Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (I've been having a Sarah Dessen itch lately), The Hunger Games (I might finally finish them all), and maybe even Harry Potter.

Important Information that Everyone Should Know.

I've been in high school for a while now. I'm qualified to hand out this valuable information.

1. Best friends aren't a necessity. Friends that will let you copy their homework are.

• 1B. Homework is public property. Not letting someone borrow it is like not letting someone use that plastic lounge chair at the pool—meanie. I'll let you borrow my french sentences whenever you want as long as I can copy your electron configurations.

2. Cramming for finals is all right. There is no reason for you to know what trisomy 21 is beyond the last day of school, unless you're going to be a microbiologist—then it would be pretty important, I guess.

3. Learn how to sleep with your eyes open AND/OR grow really long bangs. It'll come in handy.

• 3B. Look interested and you won't be called on.

4. Become a great schmooze. Perfect the little half-smile, apologetic puppy dog eyes, and quiet voice, and you can get away with practically anything. Late for class? "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! My locker was jammed!" Seriously showed up ten minutes late for class the other day and didn't even get a tardy.

stumpin' it

I live in an urban area that was long, long ago an orchard. Now it's packed with bunches of houses and streets, but the place still has about a million old trees. They're everywhere and they're old decrepit trees prone to falling down if a storm gets 'em just so.

Sometimes, it's cheaper to, instead of getting the entire tree and stump removed from the ground, just carve the stump into a peace of art. And thus stumpin' has become somewhat of a norm here . . .

The statues in my city aren't as cool as these.

Ah, the horror!

I'm not sure if you can tell, due to my camera's utterly crappy performance in grocery store scenarios, but that says, "red cans turn white to help protect the polar bear's home." Either Coca Colans are so selfish that they are only protecting one polar bear's home this holiday season, or they made a serious error . . .

Happy December

Bah humbug, Christmas isn't even until the end of December. Why is there Christmas music in the stores as soon as the Halloween decorations have been cleared out? I absolutely hate starting the Christmas season before Thanksgiving.

But now that's it's December first, the Christmas season can officially begin (because I totally get to decide that). Time to whip out the decorations, start baking cookies, buy all your presents, or do whatever crazy traditions you do this time of year.

Gah! The adorableness is overwhelming me.