Shannon Wells
November 28th, 2022
As the fall 2022 semester comes to a close, there is one thing on everyone’s mind: Holiday Break. Before students wrapped up their classes and turned in final exams, our own Shannon Wells asked students about their plans for holiday break, the holidays, favorite traditions, and more. Here are their responses:
Alexis Mcquitty
Freshman
Biological Sciences
Holiday Break Plans: I have seven siblings and I plan on spending time with them during the holiday break.
Holiday Plans: For the holidays, we are having the holiday dinner at my house and all of our family comes over because it’s easier for everyone to come to us.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite holiday tradition is the elf on the shelf that we have for the kids.
Best Gift Ever Given: I don’t know what the best gift I gave is.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I received was when my little sister was born around Christmas time.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I would like to ask Santa for Starbucks this year.
Sydney Chenault
Freshman
Pre-Health-Physical Therapy
Holiday Break Plans: I plan on spending time with my family outside of basketball practice for the holiday break. I know I don’t get to do that a lot so I’m super excited to spend time with my family.
Holiday Plans: For the holidays I plan on cooking, baking, doing all of the fun Christmas stuff.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite holiday tradition is making cookies.
Best Gift Ever Given: The best gift I ever gave was a blanket that had all of the pictures I have with someone. I really liked that person.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I ever received was my friends and family. Being able to be a friend to someone. Like my sister and my parents. It’s the gift of life.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I’m asking Santa for good health for the next year, good friends, and a good family.
Ayla Deck
Sophomore
Pre-Middle Childhood Education
Holiday Break Plans: For the holiday break, I plan on taking a break and relaxing from all of the business this semester. I plan on spending time with my family for the holiday break and I also work as well, so making extra money before I head back to school.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: As my favorite holiday tradition, I really like driving around neighborhoods at night with my family looking for Christmas lights. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
Best Gift Ever Given: I’m all for handmade things. I once painted a box for my friend and it was personalized. I think that was the best gift I gave because it was handmade and sentimental.
Best Gift Ever Received: I can’t decide which gift was my favorite, but the most thoughtful gift I received was from my grandma when I was in high school. She saved a bunch of little toys and miniature dolls that I played with when I was little and wrapped them up and gave them to me. It was a really nice surprise.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I am asking Santa for sleep this year. Just a nice and restful break.
Lily Zinsmeister
Freshman
Respiratory
Holiday Break Plans: For the holiday break, I plan on spending time with my family and my boyfriend and his family because he is away at college right now.
Holiday Plans: For the holidays I plan on splitting time with my mom’s side and his mom’s side.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite holiday tradition is decorating the tree.
Best Gift Ever Given: The best gift I gave someone was a new pair of shoes.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I received were concert tickets.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I want to ask Santa for a new pair of shoes this year.
Adam Freeland
Freshman
Pre-Middle School Education
Holiday Break Plans: My plans for the holiday break are to take a break from school until the next semester and spend it with the family. Get together and reset before the next semester starts and start fresh.
Holiday Plans: My plans for the holidays are to see my family and hang out with my son – I have an eight-year-old – and to spend time with my wife. Also, I plan on making cookies and a fire and spoiling him with the presents.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite tradition is putting up the Christmas tree. After his [my son’s]birthday that’s on November 6th, we put up the tree. So, every year on November 7th is our official “put up the tree day.”
Best Gift Ever Given: I gave my wife a wedding and I gave her a baby, so those are pretty cool gifts I gave.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I ever received was a book called “Unlearn.” I got that book two years ago and it’s a really eye-opening book. It changed my outlook on life.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I’m asking Santa for a 4.0 GPA this year.
Hannah Johnson
Sophomore
History
Holiday Break Plans: My plans for the holiday break are relaxing, playing with my dogs, going on cute dates with my boyfriend, and also celebrating my birthday.
Holiday Plans: I plan on spending time with my dad for the holidays because my dad and I are super close, so any time I get to spend with him I absolutely love and adore. I also want to go see the festival of lights this year, so I’m going to try really hard to convince my boyfriend to do that with me.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite holiday tradition is every year my dad and I make coffee or hot chocolate and we watch “A Christmas Story” together.
Best Gift Ever Given: The best gift I ever gave is going to be the gift that I’m giving this year because I recently just had some dogs pass away all in the same year which is really sad. So, for my parents, I’m making a painted mural of all three of them together and I think that’s going to be a really good Christmas gift to them.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I received was probably when I was eleven or twelve. I was a huge fan of SpongeBob (I still am) and my dad gave me this huge SpongeBob pillow. To this day, I still have it on my bed.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I want to ask Santa for a nice, good, and safe Christmas because I don’t want anything this year.
Morgan Schooley
Freshman
Psychology
Holiday Break Plans: For the holiday break, I plan on mainly spending time with my family and relaxing.
Holiday Plans: For the holidays I plan on watching my sisters open up presents and have my family come over for brunch.
Favorite Holiday Tradition: My favorite holiday tradition is called “tree day,” where my family and I go out to a tree farm and pick out a tree, and then we come home and put it up. We have food and we put up lights on it and ornaments and then we watch a Christmas movie.
Best Gift Ever Given: The best gift I gave someone was toys that my sister loves.
Best Gift Ever Received: The best gift I received was a bike when I was twelve.
What Are You Asking Santa for This Year: I would like to ask Santa for a new car this year.
