Merry Christmas

I'm just sitting at work. 7am on Christmas morning and waiting for my boys to wake up. Ed woke up early with me and presented me with a stocking full of surprises. My favorite was an Elton John Greatest Hits album with 30 songs, Ed knows me so well. He is showing up in about an hour in a Santa suit to wake up all the boys here and yell "Ho Ho Ho! Meeeeeerrrrrry Christmas! And happy Hanukkah!" (because lots of them are Jewish). Yes that's right, we landed a Santa suit from our bishop, beard and all. Except the pants are like capris on Ed and he will have to do some major stuffing with pillows to not look like such a twig. Don't worry, lots of pictures will be taken. When I leave at 11 we are driving up to Heber to be with Ben and Amy all day. I can't wait to see their dog and baby Ellie and cook like a real adult. For the first time, I kind of feel like an adult because we are making a complete Christmas meal today! Yesterday I make my best blackberry/raspberry pie, cake balls, and jello salad (Utah style)...even though everyone makes fun of those jellos with everything like cottage cheese and nuts, I absolutely love them! And this morning Ed is starting on the bacon wrapped weenies for me and we will make a whole pot of beets up at Amy's. Have I said anything about my recent cravings for beets on this blog yet? I can't remember, but it's a craving like I've never had before for anything, I can not get beets out of my head! They are so delicious and luckily, nutritious. Last night was awesome, we stopped by the Huntington family Grease Fest to chat with Grandpa and the rest of the family. Grandpa gave me another hand-made necklace with a marble stone that kind of reminds me of leopard print. It's beautiful and he said it is from a rock from his front yard. I like that because when he is gone and his wonderful house with literally THE best view in Utah belongs to someone else, I will always have a piece of it in this necklace. Then we went to my sister-in-law, Cindy's house for clam chowder and lasagna. She has four beautiful little girls who were so entertaining the whole night. We got to chat with Cindy about everything under the sun, as we always do and then Ed and I participated in the girls' nativity play. I was the donkey and Ed was a Wiseman. It was so much fun to see them excited about Christ's birth and setting out cookies for Santa. Oh to be a kid again! When we got home, Ed and I entertained ourselves with the Christmas gift we bought for Kona, but it's more like a gift to ourselves because it's so much fun. Who knew a laser pointer could please a cat and us on Christmas Eve night so completely? All in all, it has been a great Christmas so far and I know it is just going to get better. My heart goes out to those who can't have a Christmas like mine and I feel so lucky to experience these blessings. I am so thankful for my Savior and all that He has done for me and the hope He brings to all of us. Merry Christmas everyone!

December 9

Last night was awesome. Ben and Amy came over with sweet Ellie and their new Mystic.  It was so much fun to see them all. We ate a delicious dinner (thanks Amy), watched some Youtube, introduced Kona and Mystic, and topped off the night by watching the new video of Christ's birth.  It is really touching.  This last picture is my favorite, it was hilarious to watch Kona's reaction to Mystic in her domain, but she was nicer than I thought she would be.  She was definitely intimidated, but couldn't resist sneaking up on the unsuspecting Mystic. 

This week was a blur of writing papers, working, and going to my last classes of my undergraduate career! Weird, but good. I'm not really sad at all to be almost done with school, which is surprising because I'm usually overly sentimental.  Did anyone see Modern Family this week?  If you haven't you should because it's Modern Family in general, but also when Cam saved that wine cork to give as a present I was laughing so hard! If you watched it you will know what I'm saying.  Anyway, he reminded me so much of me and how I save every little thing that I can possibly attach to a memory.  I'm kind of a hoarder. 

Okay wives, what are you getting your husbands for Christmas!? Ed keeps saying he has all these great ideas for me and I can't think of one single thing to get him! I hate shopping for boys. This post is getting to be pretty random, but I'll just go with it. Christmas is going to be very different this year. I'm working Christmas morning, not seeing my parents at all (first time ever), and we really don't have any plans. It's just going to be me, Ed, and the cat so we'll see what we can think of that's fun. Ed says we can maybe go to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate graduating. The original plan was to go on a cruise for graduation, but hey, we just bought a new car so Cheesecake Factory will have to do.

I have nothing more to say except happy holidays and congratulations to all who just finished another semester!

Regret

Should have started these papers earlier. 

I've got 1 paper down. 

And I'm on page 5 of the 10 page research paper.

What do I have left you ask?

5 pages of this one

One 8 page research paper with 16 sources, don't even know my topic yet

Three 4-5 pagers

One 2 pager

Journal entries for every day of Deviance class since October

Four 1 pagers for Anthropology

Two more grad school application papers

and then I'm done. 

A couple stupid finals that I refuse to study for and I'll be graduated! 

Now if I can just survive until then. 

Luckily Rhodes rolls are in the oven and I had my fair share of beets today to keep me somewhat healthy.