Through the Years We All Will be Together

The title of my post "through the years we all will be together" is very appropriate for this time of year because for me, when I am home from school, I am spending my time with my family and close friends who as the song goes, "if the fates allow," I will be with them all throughout the years! I wanted to give you a quick view of my Christmas celebrations thus far. Even though my immediate family consists of just me, my mom, dad and sister, my extended family is pretty....huge! We are all really close and we're together all the time. So here's a picture recap of all of my holiday fun!



Here's my grandma and my aunt wearing their pajamas!





My first party was with my grandma's side of the family (my mom's mom) and we all went to my aunt's house for a pajama party, gift exchange and lots of snacks! Everyone showed up wearing their pajamas!

Here's my family and I!

Later in the week we celebrate Christmas Eve with my papa's (my mom's dad) side of the family after Christmas Eve mass.

Here's a picture of my great-grandma and all of her grandchildren (4+spouses) and great-grandchildren (6) on Christmas Eve!

Following the party at my aunt's house, we went to my grandma and papa's to exchange gifts with them and my aunt, uncle and cousins. We couldn't stay too late because we all needed to get home in time to go to sleep for santa to come!

Brady, my little cousin got a Mercyhurst sweatshirt from me!

Jenna, a future Laker, got Mercyhurst sweatpants and a t-shirt!



Here's a picture of Mike and I!



On Christmas day, my mom and dad hosted 30+ family members at our house! We had ham, lasagna, and many other platters, not to mention cookies!

Here's my papa (he lives in Las Vegas but is here for December) and some of his great-grandchildren!



Here's myself with my mom, dad and sister on Christmas!

My Christmas was wonderful and spend with family and friends! I hope yours was merry and blessed and I wish you a very happy new year!



It's Christmas- My Favorite time of Year!!

Hello all! So sorry I have not had a chance to make a post lately. Our Christmas break (which is 2 weeks long...woo hoo!!!) started last Friday which was our last day of classes. I have until January 3rd to be at home and spend time with my family. So far over break I have been running around shopping, cookie-ing and all that Christmas jazz!
My mom, sister, aunt and I have pretty much been at the mall every night since I've been home! I can't complain though because it's so much fun and we always end up stopping for a snack on the way home! I have also been helping my mom get organized all over the house because she is hosting Christmas Day here at home and we have 30+ guests coming! We have been baking cookies and wrapping presents galore; I went over to my grandma and papa's house last night and I was there until 2a.m. helping wrap presents! While I was there, my papa was somewhere around dozen number 30 for his wonderful pizzelles which I got to sample right out of the iron.
Today, Christmas Eve, I will be going to mass at my Church followed by dinner at my Aunt Marlene's house. Due to our Italian heritage, the tradition holds that 7 fish are to be eaten on Christmas Eve. I am not a fish-person so I won't be eating the fish but some of the other family members look forward to this tradition. After dinner we will exchange presents! Since I am still in college, I am not yet considered to be an adult, so I am not included in the adult exchange and I get to be a kid for 2 more years.

Tomorrow is Christmas and my mom is running around the house trying to prepare. She and my grandma prepared the lasagnas the other day and they will cook them tomorrow along with the ham. I am looking forward to the many many festivities to come in the next few days but most importantly, I am looking forward to spending time with my wonderful family who I am so very grateful for and appreciative of.
Wishing you and your wonderful family a very Merry Christmas! Be on the look out for pictures of my holiday season...coming soon!

Picture of the Week - the Christmas Version!

Some of my roommates and I had a "Secret Santa" gift exchange and here's my gift! Meghan picked my name and I picked hers. She gave me a pair of Christmas pajama pants and a Nun bowling game which is silly and fun! I gave her a t-shirt from the Victoria's Secret Pink section and body spray. Two of my other roommates participated too. Even though we were really bad at keeping it a surprise, we still enjoyed it!

Christmas On Campus- A Mercyhurst Tradition

Today was an exciting day at Mercyhurst! We held our annual tradition called "Christmas on Campus" which is put on by the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership Development for underprivileged children from the Erie area. I was the student co-chair this year which meant that I helped to make the whole day possible which was such a great feeling! We had 10 agencies from the Erie area come in with children to spend the day with our volunteers in the Student Union. We actually had about 300 Mercyhurst student volunteers...I think this really says something about this community! Our students are so willing to help and to lend a hand whenever needed. Today the kids that were running around were really excited, but us big kids (aka college students) were just as excited!!!!

The kids were all paired up with a "buddy" which was one of our volunteers when the arrived. Then, they were able to run wild (and you better believe that they did!) all around the Student Union to make crafts, play games, decorate cookies, make gifts for the parents and most importantly see Santa and Mrs. Claus. After all of the running around slowed down, all of the kids and their buddies sat down together in the Great Room to eat their cookies that they decorated and drink milk while listening to Mr. McAndrew, a retired professor, read them the story of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. After the story was over, Santa called out each child's name and they were able to go up to him and receive a gift! They were SO excited! Some of the kids love coming to Mercyhurst on this day so much that they've been coming for many years!

Seeing the kids made me so happy! Their Christmas spirit was radiating throughout the Student Union and they reminded all of us big kids how exciting Christmas can be. We loved having them on campus and I can't wait for next year to see them back again!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Here's Mike (my boyfriend) and I!

Here's the tree with some of the presents below!

Here's the great room with all of the kids and their buddies!



Giving back to the community is one of the many reasons why Mercyhurst is so much more than just a college. Christmas on Campus is one part of the Mercy way that you will experience! Service is actually a part of our Mission here at Mercyhurst. It's awesome to go to a school that is dedicated to service because not only are we helping others, we're also helping ourselves as we grow and learn to be thankful for what we have.

P.S. A special holiday recommendation: The Glee Holiday CD! First of all, Glee is one of my FAVORITE shows, but the Christmas album is amazing and perfect for the month of December :-)

'Tis the Season!

Christmas is in full swing here at Mercyhurst College. We went all of November will absolutely no snow here in Erie which was pretty weird because Erie is often known as the coldest and snowiest place on earth! However, once December arrived, so did the snow and it got here just in time for the Christmas season!

Just this past weekend the Ambassador Club held its annual "Christgiving" which is a mixture between Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone did their share by bringing turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, pop, cups, silverware and of course pie and cookies!

One of the best things about this party was that it was held in our student union which is beautifully decorated for Christmas! Also, it was an "ugly Christmas sweater" competition! This was so much fun because almost everyone participated and came looking pretty "ugly." Liz and I actually made our ugly sweaters. We used puffy paint to draw some tacky looking pictures and then we sewed Christmas buttons all over! To top it all off, we bought silly hats from Michael's. We were a great success!

Unfortunately, Liz and I were not the ugliest! Brian won...and he definitely deserved it. I'm pretty sure it was a woman's sweater and it had actually ornaments sewn on to it! All in all it was a great evening and I had a lot of fun. Sometimes it can be difficult to be here at school and away from my family especially around the holiday times because I love hanging out by the fireplace, watching Christmas movies with my mom, dad and sister. However, yesterday I was feeling very lucky because even though I am not at home with my real family, I have a second family here at school that is so special, fun and important to me! It's times like these that make me never want college to end because I am having wayyyy too much fun! Luckily I am making awesome memories to last a lifetime.

Here's a few more pictures from Christgiving!

Here's my roommates and I!

Here's all of the juniors!

I hope you're enjoying December just as much as I am!

95 and Still Going Strong!

Last night my entire family went out to dinner for my great-grandma, Frances Veshecco's 95th birthday!!! Here's a picture of us together! She still lives at home, she's still fiesty and still going strong! Even though she's 95, she was still embarassed to tell people how old she was turning! Her cake said happy birthday mom, grandma and aunt on it along with a picture of a bingo card because she loves going to bingo!

Happy happy happy birthday, grandma, I love you!

Hey winter term, how'd you get here so fast?!

It is with heavy hearts the Mercyhurst begins winter term. A fellow junior here, Jenni-Lyn Watson passed away over break. I wrote about her in an earlier post and I asked for prayers for her and her family. Her funeral was today and Mercyhurst provided two buses to take students to the mass and the entire community paused for a moment of prayer and silence today at 11:30 as the funeral began. My heart goes out to her family and all of her friends here at Mercyhurst who are hurting.

I have hit the ground running with winter term. There's literally no way to ease into it! This term I have a unique situation, I am only taking 2 classes and my 3rd class is an off campus internship. Here at Mercyhurst, a lot of majors require students to complete an internship before graduating while some majors strongly recommend them. My major is one that strongly recommends it...I know that as a Business major, when I am finished with school I will be competing against many many many other Business majors in the job market. I definitely am working hard to do things that will set me apart from other people and an internship is a great way to do so. Through working here at Mercyhurst in the Admissions office and the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership Development, I have come to know that I would like to pursue a career in the higher education field. Therefore, I sought out an internship that will give me great experience. I am interning at Mercyhurst Preparatory School, which was originally combined in one building with Mercyhurst College but is now located just south of our campus (it also just happens to be my high school). My internship is taking place in the Admissions office and my supervisor, Mrs. DiTullio has a lot of things planned for me to do and I super excited. This is not going to be a boring, coffee getting kind of internship!

My classes that I have are Quality Leadership with Mr. Daryl Georger who is so funny and brings a ton of real world experience to the class. Just the other day, in order to prove a point about costs, he called up a friend from GE to ask a question. He definitely knows how to make class fun and not overwhelming but at the same time he has so much knowledge to share and I know I will learn a lot.
My other class is Catholic Symbols and Sacraments with Mr. Caeser Monteveccio. At Mercyhurst we are required to take two religion classes however, they are not limited to Catholicism, there's a bunch of different class options to choose from. I am really excited for this class because Mr. Monteveccio also seems like he will make the class be interesting. Also, I had him during my first term, freshman year and he remembered me years later. I think that is pretty cool because it truly shows that you will not just be a number here, teachers actually make an attempt and do a good job at getting to know students.

I'm looking forward to a great term!!

If I may offer a suggestion: the 25 days of Christmas starts today on ABC Family. It's an AWESOME way to get into the holiday spirit ... who doesn't absolutely love Christmas movies. So grab a cup of hot chocolate and tune it!