Hello Readers. I’d like to take a second to reintroduce myself. My name is Ben and I’m a freshman at the University of Richmond. Alright, that’s enough. I know it’s been a while since I last checked in, but it hasn’t been that long. Or has it? After a month of rest and little activity, the time is approaching when I return to Richmond. For some reason, I’m not as excited as I thought I would be. Life has been pretty nice lately. A month of no homework, no tests, and frigid weather. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
I arrived back to Wisconsin on Friday, December 14th after a connecting flight in Detroit. It was a tight connection, but I made it. I walked outside of the airport at Minneapolis and wondered how I had lived in these temperatures for 18 years. It was an 80 degree temperature swing within a few days of time.
The frozen tundra welcomes me back from the plane
The sign at my plane’s gate told me it was 10 degrees outside
For the first time in four months, I was home. Unlike some others I know, I still haven’t referred to Richmond as home. My older brother’s Christmas decorations greeted me when I arrived. There are about 10,000 lights that he puts up, I believe, and it’s impossible to miss our house in winter. He spends tons of time putting them up and built a nativity scene by himself. Our family gets so many comments on the lights and our house is usually pictured in the local newspaper because of them.
My brother’s intense Christmas decorating. This is only some of it.
I arrived home and was starving, since the flights hadn’t allowed me any time to eat. After quickly grabbing some food and not even having time to unpack, I was rushed off to my siblings’ swim club’s Fun Night. They followed in my footsteps and started swimming. The parents were supposed to participate, but I was nominated to step in since, let’s just say, I am more comfortable in the water. I had been in a pool only once in the past nine months, but I did pretty well. I was still under 30 seconds in my fifty freestyle.
Me and my brother at his swim club’s Fun Night
The day after I got back, my family hosted our annual Christmas party. There was lots of good food and drinks. I was asked lots of questions about this past semester, but I didn’t mind too much. I talked a lot about this blog. It’s always a good conversation topic.
My siblings and friends at my family’s annual Christmas party
Being the good older brother that I am, I attended my little brother’s 2nd grade Christmas recital. At least I got free cookies out of it.
My little brother’s 2nd Grade Christmas concert
I tried to reconnect with friends and hung out with them a little. However, it was nowhere near as much as I had planned. I did have fun times bowling, going to bonfires, watching movies, and eating half-price appetizers at Applebees. They were fun times. I also caught up with my teachers from high school. I visited them and saw what had changed. Also, I talked a lot about politics with them and got their views on the Presidential race. I have been religiously following the race and check news and polls daily. It’s pretty interesting to me. With Iowa and New Hampshire done with, it looks like it’s going to be going on for quite some time.
Having fun at a bonfire at my friend’s house
My family goes to the Mall of America and out to dinner every Christmas. We go shopping, but don’t really buy too much. We just wander around the largest mall in America. Then, we went out to Red Lobster for dinner.
Me attempting to eat crab at Red Lobster
Christmas found our family staying home and spending the day together. We opened our presents and stockings for most of the morning. I got almost everything on my list. I only have a need and space for practical things, so it was pretty simple. I did get a can opener and atlas though. You’ll find that amusing if you’ve kept up with my posts. I also got the WICKED soundtrack, games, and clothes. Now I need to find a way to get it all back.
Christmas morning by the tree
Opening presents as a family
Having fun with the presents (and the Richmond hat I gave him)
Our dog, Misty, got a reindeer outfit. She didn’t like it.
My Christmas gifts
It was definitely a white Christmas as it was snowing pretty heavy that day. After opening presents, we went sledding. Our dog had a fun time chasing us down the hill. We didn’t feel like walking all the way up the hill, so we got our brother to pull us back on his 4-wheeler. After sledding, we sat down for a Christmas dinner together.
Having fun sledding with my brother’s 4-wheeler
Sledding with my family
My sisters
Christmas dinner with the family
My younger sister, Emily’s, birthday happens to fall the day after Christmas, so we also celebrated that. While her and her friends were out bowling, I came home to find her cake on the table. I thought it would be funny to hide it, so I did. I left them clues so that they could find it as part of a treasure hunt. I thought I was pretty clever.
Celebrating my younger sister’s birthday
Emily’s Birthday Dinner of fondue
The gingerbread house my siblings made
A few days after Christmas, we headed over to my grandma’s house to celebrate Christmas with her.
Christmas at my grandma’s
ICICLES!!!
My biggest time consumer during break was the swim team. I just stopped in one day to say hello to all of my former teammates. I ended up helping out a bit and they all joked that I should get in. I hadn’t done any swimming in a long time, but I decided to get back in the next day. That led to me showing up to most of the practices and getting in. I looked at this break as a way to get back in shape after first semester. It worked pretty well. My friend, Kristin, and I started slow, but we got back into the swim of things fairly easily. I hung out with the team quite a bit and attended almost all of their meets. I also got to hang out with them and help them the annual lock-in. I also got to go out to a nice dinner with my former coach and catch up with him. It was a lot of fun to see how he and everyone else was doing.
 
This was my second home during Christmas Break
Playing dodgeball with the swim team at their lock-in
I did look ahead to next semester. I already have bought all of my textbooks. I’m planning to start one of my CORE books and get a jump start on that. I also got my grades back from first semester. I was really pleased. I got a grade in Economics that I didn’t even think was mathematically possible. However, I am having an issue with one of my teachers. There is a discrepancy in the grade I was told and the grade I received. I’m still trying to get that cleared up.
