My Christmas Letter

Recently, someone suggested that since I had now arrived at the very adult and mature age of 25, that I should start the good ol’ tradition of the annual Christmas letter. Not really having what one would consider a “normal” life for someone my age I considered what exactly this letter would report and came up with the following.

Dear Friends & Family,

Since the holiday season is now upon us I thought I’d take some time to share of the bolder highlights of my past year.

As many of you know, I am still currently employed as an Event Manager (fancy title for a glorified intern) and the year started off with yours truly getting her Level 1 Ropes Certification. This basically means I can not only belay but also hang out in what we call the Crow’s Nest and transfer climbers to the zipline, all the while pretending that I am cool and also not afraid of heights.

Soon after I got to counsel for the first time at Camp Cho-Yeh during our Midwinter Madness. I counseled the gummies, our youngest campers who would say things like “I found this candy on the ground, but I washed it off. Can I eat it?” And also called us out saying “You’re whispering. That means you don’t know what to do.”

The spring was full of projects, like remodeling our camp store, going to planning weekends with the summer leadership staff, and experiencing my first “Cowboy Church” for Easter. And then I got a tattoo in Galveston and it made me feel really hardcore for a while.

I traveled to Las Vegas this spring to watch my brother compete in the World Pizza Games (this is not a joke). He came in second in the fastest box folder competition. I was mega-proud. Then we all got drunk and ate a huge pizza.

All of the sudden it was summertime & one million college students came to work at Cho-Yeh and I started working as an office assistant, only adding to my disconcerting notion that I am getting old. I got to counsel the very last week & again had the lil’ gumdrops who constantly told me “You dance really funny!” and asked me “Do you like being tickled?”

After transitioning back to retreats I was offered a full-time job here at Cho-Yeh & also applied for (and was offered) one at a Conference Center in Oregon. I turned both of them down, due to the fact that I am young and/or afraid of commitment.

However, I’m still going to continue my current job through May of next year. Can I get a whoop-whoop for job security? And also a hoorah for the hundreds of tacos I am sure to consume at our favourite Mexican eatery, Los Pinos. Most of the first draft of this letter was just a gushing about how good their guacamole is. (YOU CANNOT EVEN KNOW).

In other news, I have watched seven whole seasons of Criminal Minds. It is safe to say I am now extremely paranoid about being murdered AND that I am officially obsessed with Spencer Reid/Matthew Gray Gubler AND that I am confident that I could easily work for the FBI as a profiler.

For Thanksgiving this year I went out to California to visit my sister at her camp, Forest Home. Sometimes I feel like we are living the same life, except she’s doing it way better and with more money/stability/beaches/mountains/hot college guys. So, not really the same at all. But a girl can dream, right?!?!

Oh, I also tried to go gluten-free this year. I’m not the best at it, due to the fact that cookies & pizza was pretty near all I ate last year. I also started running more (we’re talking a whole 6 miles a pop, people!) while shamelessly blasting Justin Timberlake and/or music from the hit television show, Glee.

All in all it’s been a good year. Most of my money went towards plane tickets, tacos, and patterned socks.

Happy Holidays!