Weekly Update: Christmas Edition

• I'm adding 2 new topics to the Weekly Updates (see below). If you have any other suggestions, feel free to let me know! Thanks for reading, everyone! Merry Christmas!

• Current Scholastic Pursuits
• Well, the interview tally stands at: 6 acceptances, 2 rejections, and 3 pending... hooray! I was a little disappointed over one of the rejections but that's life and I'm way more happy about the fact that I got interviews at my top 2 choices... so keep your fingers and toes crossed for the last 3!
• I've taken the last week off to prepare for Christmas and generally catch up on sleep and R+R. Penguin starts his vacation today and will be with me for the rest of the week, so I'm really looking forward to spending some quality time with my number one man.
• Christmas was beautiful. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and it was a relatively quiet night. Dad and my grandmother's boyfriend were both asleep in front of the TV by 8:30pm, so that kinda tells you how much of a rockin' party we created. However, it was nice to have a quiet night before the massive excitement of the next day. Christmas Day was spent with Penguin's family - which outnumbered my own family in people by about 2:1 - and the day started with the joyous announcement of Penguin's brother's engagement. There were tears of joy all around and some rather spectacular reactions to the news. Following this, the gifts were distributed. The generosity and sincerity of this exchange was both overwhelming and touching. I felt very blessed to be so welcomed into this wonderful family and I've never been more in love with my darling Penguin.

• Recent Recipe I've Been Drooling Over...
• To be honest, I'm still too stuffed from 2 back-to-back Turkey dinners to be drooling over anything. I'm gonna pass of this topic until next week. :)

• Favourite Thing on Etsy this Week...
• I'm also going to dodge this topic since I'm still reeling from getting absolutely everything on my Christmas list this year! I feel so fortunate to be able to wish for and receive such wonderful -yet frivolous - things when so many people in the world can dream only of food, shelter, and warmth. It's very humbling and I am profoundly grateful.

• What I'm Reading Right Now...
• The Unconscious Civilization by John Ralston Saul (continues!)
• I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

• TED Talk I Watched this Week...
• I've decided to replace the TED talk with the opening comments of the Munk Debate by Dambisa Moyo and Stephen Lewis.
• While it has recently come to my attention that there is now a fee for watching, I still recommend The Munk Debates as terrific resources of education by some first class scholars and world activists. Check out the variety of topics here.
• The topic of the Munk Debate I've posted here is: Be it Resolved the Foreign Aid Does More Harm than Good... with Dambisa Moyo arguing in favor and Stephen Lewis arguing against.

• Song of the Week

• Thing I'm Most Grateful for This Week...
• The love of (both!) of my families and dearest friends.

• Thing(s) I'm Most Looking Forward to This Week...
• Oooh. This one is a tie. Cross-country skiing with Penguin and New Year's Eve at The Sands top the list this week.

• Bunny Photo of the Week

• Here's Penguin, Jazz, Hoyle, and I. The bunnies may never forgive us for taking this photo but then they regularly disapprove of everything we do, anyway.
• Merry Christmas to all!