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Christmas Cookies and Conversation
by
Alexandra Morris


It is getting late in the evening as I watch out the window, anxiously waiting for the arrival of my aunt, uncle, and cousins who were coming to my family’s house to celebrate Christmas. "Shouldn't they be here by now, Mom?" I turn and ask her, and I find her gazing at our twelve-foot tall Christmas tree. For a moment I, too, am distracted by the tree’s beauty as the lights twinkle like diamonds, and the ornaments dangle from the branches, blending in with the silver tinsel as it picks up the lights and makes the tree sparkle even more. "They'll get here when they get here, Alex. Tennessee is a faraway place." I sign, and as I do I breathe in the smell of christmas cookies that are baking in the oven. I smile to myself and think about how much I love Christmas. Suddenly, the sound of barking from my dog, Chloe, breaks into my thoughts and I turn my attention to the window and see a car pulling in our driveway. "They're here!" I exclaim as I run to greet my long-awaited relatives at the door.

After all the hugs, coats are hung up by the door, and warm Christmas greetings are over, we all finally sit down by the fire place with our warm Christmas cookies in our hands or mouth, and we begin to catch up on the happenings in each other’s lives. Soon the conversation turns to me, and I hear my Aunt Jill ask, "Alex, how did you do in your first semester of college? I want to know all the details." Oh gosh, I think to myself, where in the world do I begin? How can I put into words all the things that happened to me in just this one semester? Do I start with how I not only changed. schools, but how I also changed as a person? All of these things flowed through my mind as I sat there thinking about where to start. "Well, to start off, college life is very different from any other type of school life there is. Not only does your academic perspective change, but your social life does as well." Saying that reminded me about a lot of things that happened through the semester. "Coming from a Christian school, I was used to being around, taught, and having friendships with other Christians. Going into college, I learned fast that I wasn't in that type of circle any more. In a way, for me, it was like a whole other culture, and that was a lot harder to adjust to than the academic lifestyle."

As I ate the rest of my cookie, enjoying the sweet taste of the frosting when I bit into it, I thought about how to describe all of my classes. "In Political Science, I had to learn quickly how to write an in-class essay, because I didn't do very well on my first exam," I grimaced to myself as I remembered the grade. "Going into English 111A, I was kind of excited, and a little nervous at the same time, because I had never written an essay, except for that one in Political Science and we all know how I did on that. Soon I found that with a good teacher and learning the writing process, a process where I learned how to write, draft, revise, and publish an essay, I too, could write an essay." Thinking back to my first essay, I remembered that I put a semicolon behind a word trying to add emphasis--little did I know that a semicolon's purpose was to separate two sentences of the same type of thought, not adding emphasis on a word. A hyphen is used for that.

After finishing my cookie, I told my aunt, "All in all, Aunt Jill, my first semester went very well. I learned a lot of new things. For instance, I know that I can succeed in things I thought I couldn't before. I know now how lucky I was to have gotten the chance to go to the high school that I went to, and all of these things that I've learned this semester are far better than any textbook could have taught me. I learned how to grow as a person, trust in God to help me through, and learning those types of things are the most important of all."
 
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