Michael Corio (Editor-In-Chief)

Editor-in-chief Michael Corio is once again getting ready for Christmas by eating too much, reliving great memories with childhood friends and hoping for a chance to hit the slopes in his home state of New Mexico. Aside from relishing a few weeks of freedom from the school grind, Michael had a chance to visit his sister and father in San Diego, where locals were suffering from bone-chilling temperatures of 60 degrees. Christmastime at both his mom and dad’s houses involve loud family gatherings, tons of decorations and lights and homemade pasta made by his 101-year-old grandfather almost once a week. Things on the to-do list while in Albuquerque are to sweat it out over plenty of spicy green chile, get to the mountains before returning to one of the flattest places in North America and most importantly celebrate and enjoy the festivities with close family and friends. Michael will be ringing in the New Year in Chicago, he is looking forward to spending that last part of break enjoying a change of pace in his new apartment. 

Colleen Connolly (Focus Editor)

Focus editor Colleen Connolly is spending two weeks in Ireland, Spain and Germany with her sister, Kelly, over break. She’s most looking forward to buying an overpriced wool sweater from the Aran Islands, brushing up on her Spanish skills and sharing kebabs in Berlin with Kelly. She’ll be back in Chicago just in time for Christmas.

After a relaxing, jetlagged Christmas, she’ll spend a few days in Iowa with extended family. Every year, her family has a white elephant gift exchange where Colleen and Kelly have a reputation for giving the worst gifts. They also always play a quite heated game of Trivial Pursuit. The annual Thanksgiving game this year turned nearly Hunger Games-like, and Colleen had to tell everyone to “remember who the real enemy is.” She’s hoping everyone tones down the competitiveness for Christmas.

Colleen is looking forward to coming back to DePaul in the winter to be in her own apartment again and see her friends, but she is dreading the cold winter winds and the fact that she’s graduating in less than a year and has no idea what she’s doing afterward.

Haley BeMiller (Nation and World Editor)

Nation & World Editor Haley BeMiller has been keeping busy with The DePaulia over winter break because things still happen in the world even when she’s on vacation. Up until recently, she was also working at her internship at NBC Chicago. However, that wrapped up Friday, Dec. 13, so she is now a free agent until January.

Christmas for Haley will involve a lot of baking. She will also attend The Wolf of Wall Street with her family on Christmas Day and spend the evening sobbing profusely over the Doctor Who Christmas special.

Haley will spend the rest of her break watching Supernatural, hanging with her best friend and cuddling with her dog. She is also going to Disney World with her boyfriend, mother and sister, and SHE IS SO EXCITED.

Summer Concepcion (Online Editor)

Online editor Summer Concepcion has had a swell winter break so far. In between updating the website regularly and working on an online class, Summer has spent some time at home and done some traveling. She traveled to (and fell in love with) Seattle and Olympia, WA to visit friends from high school and spent some time in Chicago taking care of some internship business while fitting in concerts, reunions with friends she hasn’t seen in a while and getting freelance work published in the Chicago Reader for the first time. For the rest of break, though, Summer will spend the next few weeks in her hometown of LA catching up with family, friends, her cat Bandit and the warm weather she grew up with but has been deprived of lately (thanks subzero Chicago wind chill). She plans to celebrate Christmas with family at her cousin’s new house and perhaps partake in yet another “white elephant gift exchange” that usually happens every year.

Andrew Morrell (Arts and Life Editor)

This year, Arts&Life editor Andrew Morrell is putting the “break” back in “winter break,” mostly by not really doing anything. He’s still keeping the website updated, attending events and doing some writing of his own. Other than that, with no Christmas employment or intersession classes, he definitely has some time to kill. He has been back and forth between Chicago and his hometown of St. Louis, where the wonderful family photo you see was taken prior to Thanksgiving dinner. His friend Will took it from Facebook and Photoshopped his sister, Amanda – who lives in upstate New York and couldn’t attend – into the picture as the turkey, along with adding some holiday memory. Such funny!

Christmas with the Morrells is a low-key affair, just like Thanksgiving, since their family is spread out all across the country, making holiday meet-ups a rare event. They will be breaking with tradition somewhat this year by traveling to visit Amanda in New York and spending Christmas there, along with some other family members who live in the area. They will still do their best to maintain ages-old Christmas traditions, though, which include eating homemade spaghetti and meatballs on Christmas Eve and watching “Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” on DVD (recently upgraded from VHS).

Hope your holiday is just as amaze as mine will be!

Courtney Jacquin (Managing Editor)

For as much as she hates everything else the rest of the year, Courtney LOVES Christmas. Like really loves it. She loves getting gifts for loved ones, a skill she’s perfected over her 21 years because her mother is the most difficult person to shop for on the planet.

This winter break Courtney’s spent her time finishing out her internship at RedEye Chicago, taking an online intersession class and seeing how long she can subsist on holiday Hershey Kisses before she has to go grocery shopping.

Courtney’s been having holiday fun times by seeing The Nutcracker, eating really large pretzels at the Chriskindlmarket and spending far too much money on wrapping paper.

Now in its fourth year as an annual tradition, Courtney will spend Christmas Day at the movies with her dad. While this year’s film has yet to be decided, not many exciting films come to Crystal Lake, Ill., “The Wolf of Wall Street” is the current frontrunner.

As for New Year’s Eve, Courtney doesn’t have any current plans but she’d really like someone to go to the Music Box Theatre with for the “Moulin Rouge” extravaganza that’s happening Dec. 31. “Moulin Rouge” is really important to her.

Max the Cat (Design Editor)

For as much as he hates everything else the rest of the year Max the Cat REALLY hates Christmas. Like really hates it. He hates getting gifts for loved ones, a skill he’s never had to use because he hates everyone because he’s a cat. He is the most difficult cat on the planet.

This winter break Max the Cat spent his time finishing out his bowl of food, taking a nap and seeing how long he subsist on catnip.

Max the Cat has been having no holiday fun times this year, because why and how. His owner finally learned to never put up a Christmas tree because Max the Cat will knock it down with his ferocious paws of feline fury. It seems that this year, the owner person has chosen to provide the God Max the Cat with sacrificial ribbons and garish holiday wrapping paper. These offerings were deemed acceptable by the all power feline God.

Now in its fourth year as an annual tradition, Max will scoot his butt along the floor because it itches sometimes.

As for New Year’s Eve, Max the Cat has no plans because, he is in fact, a cat. But if everyone decided to disappear, that’d be good too. People are terrible and being alone is important to Max the Cat.