Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

I haven't written in a few days because when I'm at home I feel like I'm in a different world. I hardly have my cell phone with me and I'm never around the computer to check email or update things. My first week of break was delightful. My parents both took a few days off of work and since we didn't want to leave our dog in a shitty kennel,we decided not to do a big trip anywhere and instead opt for little day trips. So over the course of the last 5 days I've been running all over southern california. The first day we went to Universal City walk, ate at hardrock cafe and saw Chronicles of Narnia. I liked the set design very much in the movie, but having not read the books I had nothing to compare it to. The next day my dad and I went to LACMA and I got to see the exhibit comparing Pisarro and Cezanne, but I don't really care for impressionism all that much. Then we all drove for an overnight trip to the mountains and went to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. The lake was such a wonderful break because we spend a few hours sitting in the cafe and reading and drinking tea. It was my perfect afternoon. The coffee shop has gigantic glass windows so you can look out at the lake and we were there right at sunset. Before coming back to valencia, we got to hike around the woods up there and feed the ducks in the lake. Our dog, Mushka, was left in his cage and had peed and pooped all over that area while we were gone. He's getting pretty unmanagable and unannoying with all the knawing on fingers and toes, and whining for hours in the middle of the night. We're hoping that he calms down soon.

Yesterday we got up really early in the morning to help set up the Santa Clarita Homeless shelter which is opening tomorrow and wasn't even put together yet. It was very disorganized with the lady in charge having no idea how to deligate and then my brother and Dan Howell having to unscrew the door to get a fridge through it and then screwing the door back on upside down. In the end when we left, it seemed like things were starting to come together. We'll be cooking some dinners this winter for the shelter which I'm looking forward to.

Tonight I got to see my girls! In celebration of Brigitte's birthday, Tasha, Cait, Brigitte and I went to a tapas bar in hollywood. It was a nice reunion seeing as Tasha just came back from being in England since September and Caitlyn I hardly get to see even though she's just in Berkeley. I can't even remember the last time we were all together. Of course, all of them have boyfriends so I felt a little out of place in the conversation half the time, but it's great to catch up and have things be exactly as they were before everyone went away. The tapas bar had surprisingly good food and it was a byob place and they didn't card when we brought a bottle of wine. I can't wait for the next 2 months to go by so I can be 21 already. It's felt like an eternity.

The Christmas palm trees went up in our living room today and all the presents are underneath it. It's really starting to feel like the holidays.