I want to preface this by saying that I appreciate any and all gifts because of the thought put into them, not the price tag. To me, someone using their money or effort to give me something is a form of love and it never fails to make me happy.

With that being said, what I actually want for Christmas this year is to be with the people I love and take some time for myself to relax. I want to spend a whole day doing absolutely nothing (+ a face mask or two, probably). And another whole day watching Christmas movies with my boyfriend. And another whole day doing hometown things with my best friends, etc. etc. etc.

I can't speak for everyone, but it's difficult to be in a bad mood after doing simple things with the people you love. For example, I used to hate grocery shopping with my parents each week when I was younger because I thought it was boring, but now that I'm at college, I miss spending that hour or two with them each week and wish I'd appreciated it more as a kid.

That's why I'm looking forward to being home in these next few weeks. Now that finals are done and I really don't have anything to worry about until January, I want to decompress and appreciate the little things that either get overlooked in the busy day-to-day life, like nice weather or being lucky enough to attend my dream school, or things I took for granted when I was younger, like home-cooked meals.

All in all, I love the holiday season and I'm really excited to be going home after finals to do the few things on my Christmas list --- relax and spend time with my favorite people. It doesn't hurt to mention that both of those things are free :)