Here Comes Santa Claus

This Sunday turned out to be quite the eventful day. It started off with me being blessed with the opportunity to play the piano for some of the girls in my ward to sing. I was proud of myself and the job I was able to accomplish, even though I did make a few mistakes. I survived though and turned out none worse for the wear. Following the sacrament meeting by Bishop McMullin of the presiding bishopric, Kristen decided to go just a little crazy with the icicles hanging outside of the church building.

I was pleased with the results of her work. There were no deaths from the smacking and no blood either. Something tell me that her father might not have been too excited had something happened to his daughter. So we survived the episode with the icicles and were commanded to move on to the next part of the evening.

We went to the Christmas party hosted by my father's cousin and her husband and played with children. One of my cousinish persons decided to smack me in the face with soft little slippers and then jump all over me. It wasn't the most relaxing feeling but it did feel good to just have fun and not worry about discipline, oh the joys of just being a buddy. When I couldn't handle the bundle of energy in the five year-old I moved my attention to Max. He was happy enough and did not even cry when I held him. Well this party was soon drawn to a close when 6:30 came around and we whisked ourselves off to Kristen's family annual Christmas party.

The parents were clever enough to encourage the young children to sing Christmas carols around the player piano and everyone was more than willing to join in the game. Of course it had been planned that Santa would appear at the end "Here Comes Santa Claus." This was the second time in one week that Santa appeared for me at the end of the song, the first being at the library when I was asked to dress up as an elf.

I did manage to learn something new and excitng about Santa this year though. It turns out that he can blow up and shape balloons into whatever you desire. My favorite was a dragon. This up here though is Michael and whatever his animal was it now escapes me. After Santa hopped back on his sleigh we were pretty much done with the evening. We talked a little longer and then decided that going to bed early that night wasn't such a bad idea. Turns out I shouldn't have been so hopeful. I got home about 11 and didn't go to bed til 1. Someday I have got to figure out a better sleeping schedule.

Graduation

I haven't posted in nearly a month and I should probably be slapped around for it. Regardless, I'm posting now and hopefully this will suffice for your month kick of the Steve update. I finally managed to graduate, and yes it really is official this time. I even have my grades and transcript to prove it. I decided that I should probably walk because my mother was really pushing for it and I thought it would make most of the family pretty happy. I must be honest though when I say I was not looking forward to it. I remembered high school graduation and how long and boring that was. I decided I didn't want to have to deal with that again and so I bought along a book to read just in case.

Turns out that the book was completely unnecessary because I found a few friends from my Institute Council days and we hung out while waiting for our names to be called.

I didn't really get much out of the commencement speaker because I myself was speaking most of the time. It could be likened to the day you get married and you don't pay any attention to the person conducting the ceremony because you are too excited to marry your wife. Apparently I was too excited to be done with school to care about what the speaker had to say about a college education.

The graduation finally came to a close and then I had to find my parents and grandparents among the throngs of people. It didn't take too long and then my wonderful mother gave me a homemade lei. It was a great gift, perhaps the only thing better would have been an actual diploma in the diploma cover, but I'll have to wait a few more months for that to happen.

And so the story goes. I am no longer a Wildcat, but now an alumni of Weber State University. How does it feel? Wonderful, scary, exciting, nerve-raking, relieving, etc. I am excited to move on to the next phase of life which includes: dating Kristen, who is also now a graduate, studying for the GRE, finding a full-time job, leading the music in sacrament and creating activities for the ward. So if you are ready to offer me that full-time job now is the time to come forward.