Keeping Peace on Winter Break

You are home for winter break and your boredom and frustration may be starting to hit you.  Here are some great tips on how to survive winter break.  Make sure to keep peace with your family and enjoy your family time.  It is pretty nice not having to pay for laundry and getting a free meal!

I was extremely excited to go home for winter break last year. Quality time with the family, no schoolwork, and holiday festivities were just a few of the things I was looking forward to.

What I didn't expect were the changes I would have to make to my lifestyle now that I was back living at home instead of in an apartment.

1. Money: When you were in high school, your parents may have footed the bill for things like gas, shopping, or eating out. Now that you're in college, your parents may be expecting you to pay for more of your personal expenses or to limit what you spend on nonessentials.

Being home for the holidays is great for a free meal or Target run here and there, but try not to take advantage of your parents—or their wallets.

2. Cars: Did your sibling inherit your car when you went away to school? This can create animosity when you're home for breaks, especially if both siblings have a fairly active social life.

Lay down some ground rules about who gets the car and when, and what will happen if both parties have a function at the same time.

3. Conduct: Certain habits that you may have picked up in college—such as messes, late night pizza orders, and use of profanity—simply won't fly now that you're home.

Keep in mind the company you're in now that you're home for break. Parents and younger siblings may not appreciate your inability to do laundry or stories about your college adventures. Keep this in mind before you pawn off your dirty clothes on Mom or dish to Dad about your craziest weekend of the semester.

For more information see USA Today.

Greeting Card Ideas

We love getting greeting cards during the holidays, and we are sure that you do too.  However, after the holidays no one really knows what to do with the cards that they have gathered over the past month or so.  Here are some great tips on how to save those memories without taking up a whole closet in your apartment.

1 Scan or Photograph: Keep digital copies of important cards. File them by year, occasion, or filtered in your digital photo album.

2 Turn into A Book: Send your greetings to Cards for Keeps and they'll transform them into a bound book. If you're feeling crafty, you can try doing this yourself by following the blog Something Turquoise's DIY tutorial.

3 Reuse: I love well designed greeting cards. So much thought has gone into the design, so why not turn it into something else? As long as you're okay with losing the greeting part of the card, you could frame it, cut it up and use it for another project, make it into a gift tag, etc. The options are endless!

4 Turn into A New Card: Much in the same vein as above, a card does not need to be used just once. If it's a folded card, cut it in half and use the front as a postcard.

5 Donate to a Charity: Before you toss any unwanted cards, consider donating them. St. Jude's Ranch for Children will recycle used greeting cards and turn them into new holiday and greeting cards. You can also purchase their recycled cards to support their programs and services.

For more information see Apartment Therapy.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Let's Go Pirates. East Carolina University will take on Lousiana's Ragin Cajuns in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. This news comes after one of the most successful seasons in East Carolina's history, and the news that they would be joining the Big East Conference in 2014. The bowl will be broadcast December 22nd at noon.

East Carolina take by SEC blogger Chris Low: The big news off the field this week was that East Carolina would be joining the Big East Conference in 2014. On the field, the Pirates enter the postseason playing some of their best football of the season. They’ve won five of their past six games, but were edged out by UCF in a tiebreaker for the Conference USA East Division championships. Both teams finished 7-1, but UCF won 40-20 back on Oct. 4.

The trip to face Louisiana-Lafayette in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl will be East Carolina’s sixth bowl appearance in the past seven years. The Pirates, under third-year coach Ruffin McNeill, have shown that they can score points this season. In their past five wins, they’ve scored 40 or more points four times and ended the regular season with a 65-59 win over Marshall in two overtimes. Quarterback Shane Carden has rolled up 2,838 yards in total offense and accounted for 29 touchdowns. 

For more information see ESPN.