I’m heading back to America during Christmas break, and I have to say that I’m quite excited. I’ll get to eat lots of home-cooked meals that I didn’t laboriously make myself, I’ll stay with my parents and my sisters and there will be much bonding, I’ll be able to see my beloved Mt. Rainier on the horizon once more, there’ll be trees everywhere and rain everyday, and of course, y’know, Christmas! There’s a lot to look forward to.

I think the biggest factor behind my anticipation is seeing my Niecey Baby, Missy Elliott. Missy does not like being restrained in any way; she’s got running around and walks and fetch and tug-o-war and licking-you-to-death-because-why-aren’t-you-playing-let’s-goooooo to do. As a result, she’s not fond of hugs. At all. She’ll tolerate it for, like, five seconds, mostly out of shocked betrayal that her beloved humans would torture her so. Stage two: she turns those big brown puppy-dog eyes on the nearest human, begging for rescue while they just coo over how cute she is in her misery. Stage three: squirming to freedom. It’s so cute. She hates it, but she’s so cute in her misery, that we all can only continue to torture her. And I haven’t been able to torture her personally in many months.

So I’m looking forward to it.