Although I got about 2 hours of sleep last night, I was still able to wake up bright and early this morning to open presents with my fam. And I'm happy to say that I got pretty much everything that I asked for =]. Mis padres got me an iHome that sounds AMAZING - its like a symphony in my head. I'm very much trying to simplify my life this coming semester. Right now there's just too much clutter in my room. I have an unnecessary amount of books, most of which I won't read all year, and I had a stereo with like 6 speakers...I don't know why I felt the need to bring all that STUFF. So I wanted to condense that with the iHome; I'll also be putting a lot of my books in boxes for the semester. I'm thinking that an uncluttered home will help produce an uncluttered mind. I was also very happy to receive a new comforter and bed set; I've been using the same one since the beginning of high school and it just wasn't working anymore lol. It also made me happy to see my brother and sister open their gifts - my sister's still in the tearoffthewrapping-analyzethepresent-moveontothenextone stage, so it was funny to remember back when I was like that. Oh, to be young.

After hanging out at the house for a little bit, we went over to my grandparent's house for Christmas dinner. It wasn't too much different then usual, though my grandma did put silly string in the stockings of me, my siblings, my Pop-Pop, and my aunt Amanda. So naturally, they were going to get used. When we were opening our stockings, my Grandma said "Under no circumstances are those to be shot in the house." HOWEVER, my aunt and her kept going back and forth until my grandma TRIPLE DOG DARED her to shoot the silly string. And anyone who's seen A Christmas Story knows that when you're triple dog dared to do something, you have to do it. So when my grandma realized that she was soon going to be covered in silly string, she ran like a bat outta hell out of the house, with my Pop-Pop and aunt following. Then my sibs and I grabbed our ammo, and we all engaged in a short-lived melee of silly string carnage. It was good times. And then we opened the rest of our presents, and my grandparents got me a new guitar. =] Its MUCH better than the one I've been playing with. My aunt and uncle got me a case to go with it, and my parents got me a capo, so I'm all set. All in all, it was a great Christmas - I got some great gifts and got to spend time with my loved ones (that's kinda important, you know).

As most of you probably know by now, I also recently made the decision to go for the cueball look and baldify my head. Although I did it partly on impulse (though I did take a night to sleep on it), I think part of the reason I did it was because I wanted to outwardly manifest in my physical appearance a change to correspond with the inner changes that have been going on. And yea, I think monks look cool too.

I hope you all had a blessed holiday, and will spend the few remaining days of the year to look back on the experiences you've had - good, bad, or indifferent - and find a way to learn from them to create a better You.

Peace, love, and sticks,

Justin