That's what Chirstmas is all about, Charlie Brown

"Christmas time is here, we'll be drawing near. 

Oh that we could always see such spirit through the year."

I love Charlie Brown, so I had to put up my favorite lines of the Christmas Story, which Linus recites when Charlie Brown yells in desperation:
ISN'T THERE ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT??

Sure Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.

Lights please.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came unto them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angle said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavely host, praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Wishing you and your families a very happy Christmas.

Christmas Morning

Some pictures from this morning:

Sisterly love

Dork sisters

Rosie wearing her new shirt and staring intently at a lizard on the window

Matching 'Slaughter University' jackets for me and Sara = awesome!

Pride and Prejudice and ZOMBIES!  lol

The ward cookbook! Yay!

Earrings from Africa- cute!

Tickled Pink presents from Mommie

What a GREAT Christmas! I'm so glad to be Home for the Holidays.  
I think that's the best present of them all.

One Big Catch-up Post

The last week of the semester was one of the busiest I've had.  And probably one of the most hectic.

Last day of classes (Thursday Dec 10):

Went to the Church History Museum in Salt Lake with DaNae.

We also saw the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie in the Legacy Theater, SO GOOD!  I cried my eyes out!

We ran around Temple Square taking pictures and seeing everything, too.

And to top it all of we ate at Macaroni Grill, my favorite place!

Church History Museum

Podium just like the one in the Conference Center

Actual size Moroni statue-  he's huge!

Assembly Hall- the orange lights were awesome!

Typical bride shot, 'cept I'm not getting married anytime soon ;)

Pretty lights!

More lights!

Woot woot! (look we match the lights!)

I love this nativity with the temple reflected

Me  :)

Inside Macaroni Grill, warm at last!  What a long day...

Extra virgin olive oil! lol 

(we were pretty tired at this point)

What a great day trip!  And it was good to have some fun before the week from hell started.

Monday:

Wake up early and study

Take American Studies final (2 essay questions, which ended up as almost 6 pages front/back in a blue book)

Work 3-7

Tuesday:

Work 6-9 am

Go to the hospital and get a TB test injection

Sleep (my cold had come full-swing by today and I was wiped out)

The girl buying my contract was being obnoxious and immature last minute

My ride to the airport bailed, had to find another one

Spend the rest of the night packing and start moving it out

My friend took me to the grocery store and we got dinner (this was like midnight), and she ended up staying until 2am, then her car got booted.  It was a great adventure.

She's from Canada so she got Canadian bacon pizza and Canada Dry!  Yum!

Booted car  :(

The security guy who booted her car.. she was certainly making the best of the situation!

Wednesday:

Go to the hospital and pick up my ID badge and shirt

Work from 2-6

Go to the Glenwood office and work out the switching of contracts

Ward pizza party in our apartment

Go back to campus to take New Testament Exam without studying (I got a 90%!!)

Come home, finish packing, move more of my stuff out

Deep clean the fridge and my bedroom for the final check out

Stay up late studying for my last final

Thursday:

Leave the apt at 630 to catch the bus (I stupidly took a Nyquil that night, so it was terrible to wake up)

Shove down a muffin and milk from the bookstore

Take American Humanities, my most intense final (multiple choice, short answer, 3 two-page essays, and art identification section)

Sell some of my textbooks back south of campus

Go back to the hospital to have my TB test checked (I'm TB free!)

Go home, eat, finish packing, cleaning touch-ups, and move every last thing out

Lady didn't show up for my final checkout on time (noon), so I had to leave at 1230, hoping she would come later

FINALLY I was on my way to the airport and HOME FREE!

I flew from Salt Lake to Vegas on a 45 minute flight, then had about an hour and a half there, in which time I ate at Burger King like I always do when I'm in Vegas.  Then a direct flight from Vegas to Orlando, about 4 1/2 hours, arriving about an hour late that scheduled.  

Florida is HOT!  lol.  I'm so glad to be back, and I really don't want to go back to school or cold Utah.  But, two weeks here is all I have, so I will definitely enjoy it!  <3

Snow

I hate Jack Frost.

Look what he did to Provo:

Paper Chain

Well tonight I realized there are only 19 days until I come home for Christmas break, so I decided to celebrate the countdown being in the teens by making a paper chain to be a visual reminder.

Here it is hanging in the corner of my room

YAY!

I can't wait to see everyone!!

ElfYourself: Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  It's always a little weird being away from home and not having everything feel quite right on the holidays, but yesterday's celebration hit the spot.

I went with my friend, Alicia, to her parents' friends' house for dinner.  They were the sweetest couple I've ever met.  From the minute I saw them I knew that I liked them.  And, boy, was the food good.  It was actually pretty similar to what I'd usually have at home.  There were all the usuals, then a few extras thrown in for pizazz. There were little cornucopias made from ice cream cones with mixed nuts and M&Ms spilling out.  So cute!  The husband has made punch of Cranberry Grape juice with "just a squirt of Squirt."  Delicious!  And the fruit salad was probably my favorite: lemon pudding with fruit and marshmallows all topped with raspberries.  A-ma-zing.  I need to get the recipe.

After dinner we started a puzzle on a card table in front of the TV.  Disney Channel was having a movie marathon and we ended up watching it the rest of the day.  We caught the last half of The Parent Trap which I haven't seen in so long, and I'd forgotten how good it is.  Then came Happy Feet which I'd never seen before, and it was pretty good, but definitely not what I'd expected.  I definitely got a kick out of the Elvis-impersonating penguin, "Memphis," Robin Williams' Spanish accent, the Guru penguin "Lovelace" with plastic six-pack rings around his neck, and the life-like animation of humans.  The next movie was Chicken Little which I also haven't seen.  It seemed a little short, and it wasn't the greatest movie ever, but entertaining enough.  Next up was Meet the Robinsons, one of my top favorite Disney/Pixar movies, along with Cars which came after.  Sometime during Cars we finished the puzzle.  Narnia, Prince Caspian was up next, but the couple didn't like magical "wizardy" movies, so we changed it to the last half of Miracle of 34th Street, a good movie to get me into the Christmas spirit.

Speaking of Christmas, Thanksgiving is now over, so let the Christmas festivities begin!  (Beginning with this cute blog background!)

Happy Christmas!

Twas the month before Christmas...

A thought-provoking poem I received in an e-mail this week:

Twas the month before Christmas

When all through our land,

Not a Christian was praying

Nor taking a stand.

See, the PC Police had taken away

The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing,

About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say

December 25th is just a 'Holiday.'

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit

Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an iPod

Something was changing, something quite odd!

Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa

In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down

At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.

At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears

You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty

Are words that were used to intimidate me.

Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen

On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter

To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.

And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith

Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded

The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate 'Winter Break' under your 'Dream Tree'

Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!

Just a few thoughts about things that I wondered growing up about PC and Christmas.

I always wondered why we were allowed to be taught about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah in school with no question, but they were really careful to leave out the Jesus stuff when they taught Christmas. And why is it that only the minorities ever get offended?

And the phrase "happy holidays" was something I grew up knowing and saying. Not until I got older did I realize how PC it was. I mean, honestly, there's only ONE holiday out there that I'm celebrating, and that's Christmas. Of course, it could be a reference to New Year's, too, but in all honesty, I'm only thinking about Christmas. I understand that it's a nice way to not offend anyone, but if someone said, "Happy Kwanzaa" to me, I highly doubt I'd be offended, or anything close to it. I'd just think, "Oh, that's what they celebrate. No biggie. They aren't trying to force their beliefs on me."

And, here's a bit of Christmas Myth-busting for you: The word Xmas. Is it a horrible word that anti-Christians have put out there so that they don't have to write "Christ," like I heard when I was growing up? Nope. The letter chi, or X, in Greek means Christ, so it's not secular at all. Feel free to use "Xmas," knowing that you are just a little bit smarter than everyone else who doesn't know what it really is. :)

Merry Christmas!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas :(

Peppermint

My new favorite Christmas candy.

Candy Cane Kisses.  So delicious...

White chocolate with bits of peppermint candy.

Love, love, love!

Knees

Yesterday on my way up the stair in the Testing Center I tripped and hit my knee really hard on the edge of a step.  I thought I'd done something really bad to it, and had a hard time walking a bit after that.

The Testing Center is bad enough without knee injuries.

It doesn't look too bad here, it's just the bruise in the middle, but BOY did it hurt.

Sudoku

At work I've been doing Sudoku puzzles from the newspaper to pass the time.

Last night I did the Weekend Warrior.  Woot woot!

I'm pretty much addicted now.  I came home and did some more.

Lotion

I found this bottle of lotion in a box in my closet last night.  I decided to pull it out and use it since it's getting cold and dry.  

It's pretty much the most delicious thing I've ever smelled.  I don't know why, but I'm just in heaven when I smell it.

Thank you to whoever gave this to me as a gift!

Sticking

And.... it looks like the snow might just stick this time.

Either way, it's still gross.

Snow, snow, go away, come again NEVER!

(The view from out my window)

Pepsi

I've been spending a lot of time browzing YouTube watching Michael Jackson stuff lately.

He's got some good stuff.   I love the Jackson 5's stuff, too.

One of my favorite finds is this Pepsi commercial.

Even though I wasn't alive it makes me feel so nostalgic. (I've never understood how that's possible, but I feel the same about The Beatles.)

BYU Women's Soccer Video-- Wow.

This makes me sick.

Here's some footage from a BYU Women's soccer game that got featured on ESPN because of how dirty the other team was playing.  And the refs only called one yellow card the whole game.

Sleepy Roommate

I always tell her not to lay down doing homework or she will end up falling asleep.

But, does she listen to me?...

(Notice her cell phone in her hand.  She turned off her alarm without realizing it.)

More pictures to come (I swear, this happens nightly)...

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The yearly struggle: What to dress up as??

Nachooooooo?

Nah, we went with Darth Alexa this year...

I went trick-or-treating with the Vanfleet family.

Only 2 of the boys dressed up (Ryan and Austin were "too old" and Wyatt wouldn't wear a costume yet).

Here's Daniel as Robin Hood

Chase as a very stoic Bill Nye the Science Guy

Baby Wyatt as a very cute Baby Wyatt

The Vanfleet Family of Pumpkins  :)

Fall Pictures

Me with the Y on the mountain in the back--

FYI I'm also freezing my butt off in the COOOLD weather (notice my big red ski jacket?)!

A pretty shot; you know I like pictures of the Y  :)

The Halloween Sky

There was a very beautiful moon out tonight,

and it seemed just perfect for taking pictures behind big, bare, creepy trees around campus.

The sky was so pretty on my way to work!

The moon and the Y

A very creepy tree.  Spoooooky!