Holiday Edition

As expected, Emily had a virtually nonexistent Thanksgiving thanks to her oral surgery. That said, the surgery went well, and she had virtually no pain. She did have to stay on a very soft diet, though, and that persisted for more than a few weeks because two weeks after the surgery, they "activated" the chain they had attached to the tooth during the surgery. She said the activation hurt worse than the surgery itself. She seems to be in good shape now, though. Just in time for us to go back next week and have them tighten it further. Hopefully, this will only last a few months. Once the tooth is exposed enough to place a bracket, we can stop all the chain business.

Charcoal project

As tends to be the case, the end of the semester, right before the winter break, was a busy time, filled with projects, like the art project above, tests, holiday parties, and a choir concert. Fortunately, that is all behind her now. One nice feature of her current school is that they require students to take midterm exams only if they have a grade below 85% in the course or have missed several days of class. In Emily's case, neither was an issue, so she didn't need to worry about studying for huge midterms.

Right after the semester ended, Emily flew to Minnesota to stay with Chad and Sarah for a couple of weeks. She has been keeping herself entertained with some shopping, ice skating, and using the break to get ahead on her AP Human Geography (aka AP HUG) notes. All in all, I think she had a good Christmas. She certainly received most of the presents on her list, so I would call that a success. She will be back in Texas later this week and then back to school next week. I suspect she is ready to get back to seeing her friends, but I am definitely not ready for the grind to resume!