It's Christmas!

So. Christmas was a little different this year since it landed on a Sunday. And church in the middle of your Christmas can throw off the schedule a little bit. Add into the mix a couple of sisters who spent the morning getting ready to perform in the ward Christmas program, and your Christmas just might extend well into the afternoon the way ours did :) Things to note:

↑ My mom is absolutely adorable! Biggest surprise of Christmas--she got us all matching Christmas robes! They are fluffy. They are soft. They are so incredibly warm! It's like a blanket you can wear! So much fun! Mom, you are the coolest!

↑ When it comes to dancing, my family has some serious moves! One of our family Christmas gifts was "Just Dance 2" for Wii... oddly enough, it's a game that is both enjoyable to play, AND enjoyable to watch! And talk about a workout--it's a nice way to stay warm in the winter :)

↑ Mo-mo saw a picture of dwarf hamsters last month and fell in love with them. So guess what? Her bf bought her some for Christmas (after asking my parents for permission, of course!) They are pretty silly... they squeak and fill their cheeks so full of food they can barely fit through their little crawl tunnels. But they are really cute, and Mo-mo is an excellent first time pet-owner! This one's named Izzy :)

Other fun stuff... We had berry-filled crepes for breakfast--yum! We all received floaties in our stockings for our cruise in March (we are all getting so excited!) Sister gifts turned out great--I made Katie-cakes a towel wrap for mine, and Bumblebee's gift of Chi products for me was MUCH appreciated/celebrated/I-can't-get-over-how-good-it-makes-my-hair-smell! J-bug's Christmas presents were oddly Halloween-themed this year... she's really into a show called Monster High and a book series entitled "My Sister is a Vampire" this year--she makes me smile :) We played games and tried out the Spot-It cards I brought home which were a HUGE hit... who knew my family could be so intense about a game? And yeah, pretty much we just took it easy.

Thanks family, you guys make my Christmas complete each year!

Besitos,

me

Antes de la Navidad

So. Christmas break is just about over. My family pulled out of my parking lot this morning and no joke, I just about cried. I have had sooooooo much fun with them the past two weeks, and I am so sad to have to come back to school and miss out on being with them! Don't get me wrong, there ARE things I like about being in the valley, but those things are mostly limited to my friends (who are all still out of town right now...) and--wait, nope, my friends are about it right now. ;)

Anyways, I took about a ka-trillion pictures over break, so I'm splitting my Christmas-break post up a bit and I'll try to narrow things down a bit so you don't have to scroll through 18 million pages of photos. Okay, things before Christmas:

↑Epic Food. Seriously, the best food I've eaten in a long time. Italian soup. White chili and cornbread. Jello-pretzel-cream cheese salad. Shrimp and cocktail sauce. Salami. Churros. Tamales. Enchiladas. Is your mouth watering yet???? Okay, so by now you should know that I have this weird fascination with food and cooking. I haven't had much time this semester between school and working part-time to cook the way I want to, so it was such a treat to go home and cook and eat and to have well-stocked shelves... *contented sigh* If I counted all the pictures of food on my camera, well, let's just say people would think I'm a fattie! I'm starting to forget how to cook for a crowd though--my mom caught me cooking three chicken breasts to make enchiladas for the whole family. The second she asked me if I was only cooking for myself, I realized--I've been away from home too long! :/

↑Mo-mo's Quilting Project. Mo-mo made a super-cute, super-intense denim quilt for her bf in the week leading up to Christmas. She worked so hard on it (think hours and hours of sewing), and it turned out AMAZING! Am I the only one who is blown away by the awesomeness of their younger sibs?

↑Christmas Pajamas. Every year my sisters and I get new pajamas on Christmas Eve. This year my mom put a fun twist on things by letting us choose in the order of who was willing to perform a Christmas song first (see photo below). J-bug was first to the piano... it made me laugh since she was the only one guaranteed to get a specific set of pajamas (footies with a hood!), but hey, I wasn't about to down on her Christmas enthusiasm!

:) Happiness.

Lotsa' love,

me.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

So... I left my apartment at 1pm today. And I arrived home tonight at 10pm. How does that happen, you might ask, when I live less that 5 hours away from school? Good question. Ummm... so I may have turned a series of small errands into a mountain of time-consuming effort. That's right, I went into several stores. And me + Christmas shopping + a big drive = WAAAAY longer than it should be! But everything is done and I am home finally, and let me tell you, there is no better feeling than coming home. There is no better feeling than talking with my family and playing with my sisters and just BEING in my house. I love it. Love, love, love it. Like seriously, I'm not sure you realize how much I love it. Try to imagine me exploding with joy like the picture below:

Yeah, I'm pretty happy right now ^_^ Anyways, I've been thinking lately about small moments and how the little things like hanging with my family and talking with my friends are what bring me the very most joy in life. So when I stumbled across this video, I knew I had to share.

Author Anna Quindlen once said, "Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live." So, during the busy holiday season, I "triple-dog-dare-you" all (name that movie!) to enjoy those small moments. Enjoy the family and the friends and the blessings in your lives. Enjoy the respite from work and finals and whatever other busy-ness you have going on. I promise you won't regret it!

Thank you for being a part of my life,

me

Christmas is Coming to Town...

Dear everyone,

I am missing my camera. It is blue, and cute, and looks like this:

I last saw it on Thanksgiving day in a black Panasonic case. Which means, yes, my Thanksgiving pictures are currently unavailable. So if it happens to show up, let me know. Of course I most likely just misplaced it in my apartment somewhere, but I get REALLY frustrated when I can't find something (personality flaw...) and I can only handle looking for 10 minutes at a time. Plus I have a theory that if I am patient enough, most of the stuff I lose will turn up. And if it doesn't, well, usually by that point I've realized I can live without it (like two of my most favorite pairs of flip flops. *sigh*). But I'm not sure I can live without this camera...

Anywho, Thanksgiving was awesome and now I can finally turn to the next holiday--CHRISTMAS!--without any guilt! I spent the last of break decorating our apartment:

Baby Christmas Tree!

Wreath I made with one of my bf's out of ornaments :)

And just tonight I finally got around to making Christmas countdowns! I sorta' stole the idea from the ones my mom used to make with us when I was little. You get to cut a piece of bubblegum off each day and there's a cute little poem to go with. By the way, (I tried SOOO hard to blow a bubble for you guys... apparently it's not one of my talents so I gave up and just smiled for this pic. Sorry!)

"Did you know that Santa Claus chews bubble gum everyday?

And did you know that Santa Claus blows bubbles in his sleigh?

Just 25 days 'til Christmas, I hope it gets here fast!

I'll have to plan carefully to make my bubblegum last!

One bubblegum each day is all that I will chew,

and with every bubble that I blow, Santa I'll think of you!"

Successful day! But in all seriousness, it WAS a great day. I spent all day on campus studying for my test and scored... (drum roll please) a 94%! Woot! It was such an awesome feeling to see the little "Fantastic!" next my ID# at the testing center! And I got to see all the Christmas lights on campus, and I have awesome friends, and I have a family who makes sure my radiator is working properly, and I have a dad who will listen to me and help me process my life for hours on end, and life is just kinda' really good. Famous Anne Frank is quoted as saying, "Think of all the beauty still left around you and BE HAPPY." I like that :) This time of year, it's easy to get swept up in finals, and how cold it is, and how much there's left to do in school before the semester ends, but when I take a step back to really look at the world, well, I can't help but realize how blessed I am. So as things get busy this Christmas season, I challenge you all to count YOUR blessings. And life will get a little bit better. I promise.

Take care,

me