Well, I did it!

I did it, guys! I graduated... Woohoo!!! 

(I hope you guys are prepared for the photo montage!) 

Still haven't received my diploma yet though - that they send in the mail! 

Look, there I am in the back! 

My family can clean up when they have to.

One of my favorite professors, Dr Berry, stopped by for a photo too! She is fabulous.

After I walked, no time was wasted before it was Meg's turn to graduate from law school!

Waiting patiently. The law graduates wear white, according to a  UT tradition.

Father and daughter. The law graduates are given sunflowers when they cross the stage!

At night, the tower was lit JUST how I imagined it would be... burnt orange, and proudly displaying "12"!

I do love my tower!

And as for the main event? FIREWORKS.

No rest for the wicked, however! Sunday was THE PARTY day! We had plenty of people come and celebrate with us - Whole Foods catered (come on, in this family, would there be any other option?), plenty of beer was consumed, and Guy Forsyth played! 

Another picture to add to my slowly amassing a collection of pictures of me with singers.  (I have one with Willie Nelson on my piano.)

No party is complete without CAKE. 

In this case, the cake is NOT a lie! 

Graduates, ASSEMBLE.

After cake, some people were nice enough to give me presents (despite there being a strict "no present" rule imposed by my mother!) I got a vintage 2-sided puzzle from one of my mother's coworker friends who is apparently just as big a Tolkien nerd as I am! On one side it has a map of Middle Earth, and on the other, a watercolor of Bilbo and the Dwarves floating down the river on their empty wine casks!

Yeah, I totally built that puzzle the next day.

And along with some nice jewelry and other lovely trinkets, Dad and Pippa gave me a 2-volume copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Nobody loves the dictionary like me!

 After the party cooled down and people started to leave, drinking games occurred! A little beer pong here, a little flip cup there.

The Powling Coalition was a little bit slaughtered by the Clifford Collective. If you'll notice, my mom elected to be part of the Cliffords, despite the fact we reminded her that she'd been a Powling for much longer!

Now that it's all over, it's time to kick back and enjoy a few more days before I start working again. I plan on borrowing a few puzzles from my mother, because I am suddenly totally obsessed with them. They're delightful, really!

My cousin Josh is in town, too, so we've been going out and enjoying ourselves! It's been wonderful to have him here with us, even for only two weeks!