I drove home to Maryland for the Thanksgiving break, and I am so glad I did! I originally planned on staying on campus, especially since our final exams start the Monday after Thanksgiving, but I decided my sanity was important to survive 14 pending final exams. 

My family played its traditional capture the flag/nerf gun tag game at the local park. It must look absolutely ridiculous to the people walking near by to see a bunch of grown adults play with nerf guns, but it is tradition. 

Since I have two practical exams on Monday and Tuesday for my extremities class, it was nice to have lots of family members on whom to practice my orthopedic tests, manipulations, and palpations over the weekend. Also, as per tradition, I gathered up 6 of my 8 nieces and nephews to decorate Christmas cookies with me, while their parents did Black Friday Shopping, or worked. I can’t express how much I love spending time with these kiddos. That alone was the mental therapy that I needed to get through the final two weeks of coursework/exams! Then I was able to snuggle with my youngest nephew (only 10 weeks old) for a few hours, and it was heavenly. 

To further show how much I love spending time with the kids, instead of hanging out with the rest of the family and eating dessert, I took a few of the kids to see Frozen 2 after we ate Thanksgiving dinner. I absolutely LOVED it! Great movie! I’m glad I only took the kids who are 5 and over, as there were some intense scenes. I was a little disappointed in the music, but overall, loved the overarching messages in the movie. It left me feeling empowered (which is a little cheesy to say, but it is who I am).