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.

Holly Jolly

It's officially Christmas time in the Christenson home!
I love this video so much still. This is the Killers single from last year and I'm pretty sure I posted it then too. A clip from my favorite Christmas movie plus Brandon's amazing bolo tie and then the touching story of the man down on his luck makes this one of the best music videos in history.
Check out their Christmas single for 2011 too, it's not as touching but it's fun.

When I first realized I would marry Ed I was kinda bored with the name Christenson because it's pretty common, but having been a Christenson for almost two and a half years now I have learned to take pride in it. I love our more unique spelling of having "on" at the end instead of the more typical "en". The greatest part about this way of spelling is that when I really look at the word, it says
"Christ the Son"
I will always appreciate having Christ's name in my own name. I hope that I can treat this Christmas as a celebration of Christ and not just as a happy holiday that makes me feel good. I want to really focus on the Savior and how to be more like Him. That's my goal this Christmas.

I also need to think of something really great to give Ed.

And put Kona's Christmas sweater on her as much as possible.

These next three weeks will be the worst. I'm doomed for sure, but I did it to myself. Procrastination has never been worse for me, but hey, for my last semester I think I'm doing pretty well. I'm literally trying not to care about school as much because I've always wanted to not care. By no means am I a perfectionist or an all A student, but I don't think I've ever just totally given up on any assignment. Gosh, for once I just want to not turn in an assignment or not take a final (oh wait, I did that last semester...dumbest moment of my life). Anyway, I have yet to write 2 research papers plus 9 additional papers on top of that. Not to mention two more grad school applications. Whatever, it will get done somehow. Just three more weeks and I will be a college graduate.

So I now teach a ballet class. Yay. They had their recital on Monday night and it was so fun to be there with them. It made me miss my performances in the Cobb Civic Center so much.

Ed and I are hooked on the Real Housewives again so I'm off to go catch up on about three episodes instead of doing school work. I love that my husband loves these shows just as much as me.

Prima Dreaming

     I am literally overwhelmed right now with the beauty of the classic prima ballerinas. It's Friday night and I have found myself glued to my computer screen on a website with hundreds of classic ballerina photos. These pictures make me want to jump off the couch, pointe my toes, and leap in the snow pouring down outside. These are amazing women, full of power and grace. As I look at these pictures and study their faces, I can literally feel their emotion. I like to put myself in their shoes for a minute and imagine bowing for thousands of people cheering and yelling "Bravo!" for me as I stand on the greatest stages in the most beautiful theaters in the world. I am wearing a gorgeous romantic tutu and holding my partner's hand, smiling for the whole world to see. People are throwing red rose bouquets on the stage in front of me and I am overcome with joy. I may even shed a tear on that stage. What could it have been like to be these women? Rehearsal every day, glamorous costumes, and ballets choreographed just for me. Dancing with the greats, classical training, my teachers screaming "feel the music! straighten that knee!" (in Russian or something depending on which prima I was). And I'm sweating in rehearsal and thinking about just quitting ballet for good, but then it's opening night and I'm at the curtain call with people screaming my name and it's all so worth it. This must have been how they felt. Well, it's how I like to imagine they felt. It reminds me of this quote from my all time favorite prima, Sylvie Guillem. This is taken from an interview: But does she ever think of stopping? "Mais, oui," she says, looking astonished. "All the time, and for many, many years. And sometimes you think, why do I do all of this? Because you feel a little bit lost, a bit tired. But then you wake up a bit more and you go and you are excited by what you do." She pauses to consider how to describe what drives her on. "It’s because when finally you achieve something, then you are alive and you did something that only you can do. And if you don’t do it, if you don’t push yourself to do it, and look for the best way to do it, then you don’t wake up". I love that quote. I love her with all my heart. What a spunky woman. I have to think that all the women in these picture had a bit of spunk in them. If I could pick any alternate life, I would have been one of Balanchine's favorites and danced with Baryshnikov for ABT and NYCB. And of course I would guested all around the world. In other words I guess I would have been Gelsey Kirkland. I love ballet because it puts me somewhere else. It's a magical world. It's not that I'm trying to escape this world or my life, but it was always nice to just get caught up in the music and feel nothing but the elation of dancing on stage. Lipstick, hairspray, headpieces, pointe shoes, pink tights, tutus, long legs, and perfect pirouettes. That's what I would wish for.

     But that's not my life. And I'm thankful for what my life really is. I'm thankful that I had the chance to live a much smaller version of this ballerina mania in my own small little company back in Marietta. We had small performances and got yelled at quite a lot. But we also felt the absolute joy of being on stage and bowing at the curtain call for that smallish theater. Our parents and a few friends. Those were good times. Well that's my escape for the night. I just wanted to tribute to these wonderful women in these pictures. They are absolutely gorgeous and they deserve a thank you.
(more pictures of these lovelies on my pinterest)

November Weekend

It's been a really good weekend. 

We started early with Ed's birthday on Thursday : he opened presents throughout the day, we went to our beloved Rice King for lunch with sister Cindy and talked about everything under the sun, suffered together through the worst class on earth (philosophy), ate some good mexican with friends and ordered "The Rock", I blindfolded Ed and kind of surprised him (I am not that skilled at surprises apparently), bowled the night away with our best friends wearing party hats, and came home late to eat the cheesecake I made together in bed while watching Modern Family. Wow. Happy 23rd Birthday, Ed! 

Then it was Friday. I had a super easy day at work which consisted of going to the driving range, hanging out at the park, eating an amazing thanksgiving style lunch, and clocking out after a "hard day's work". Then we test drove two cars, argued about it, and decided to just wait it out and chill on the new car thing. We are sick of these car dealers trying to screw us left and right. Then we ate at The Smoking Apple....oh thank goodness for that place. We stopped by the intramural game that Ed is a new member of and watched our friend Marc break his ankle and get rushed to the hospital. Came home and layed in bed watching Nomeo and Juliet on Netflix.

Saturday was next. The morning consisted of sleeping in, t.v., eating the Hickory Farms summer sausage I got Ed for his birthday, and trying to decide what to do with our lives that day. We ended up going to see Tower Heist and laughed out loud in the theater almost the entire movie. Then we walked around window shopping making sure to stop by Williams Sonoma to oodle and pretend like we're rich. Got some apple cider and carrot cake samples and stopped by in the toy store that was playing Christmas music to get in the spirit of the holidays. Then we headed home and Ed helped me make a cake for our friend Kelli's birthday. We celebrated her birthday at Outback and headed to her house to play games. We went to bed late knowing that we had an extra hour for daylight savings and slept in this morning.

I'm sorry if this was boring to read, but one day I will look back on this weekend and remember that all I need is my husband, my friends, some good food, and my kitty to be happy. Today we have been playing hand and foot together and laughing at Kona, watching football and cuddling in blankets. It's been nice. Now we have to start a new week and I know I will regret not doing any homework or graduate school applications but what the heck, I've enjoyed my life.

November does amazing things to me. It is one of my favorite months because to me, it's all about family. It's about being thankful and vamping up for the best holidays. It's about getting close to ending a semester and this year, ending my undergrad! It starts to get chilly and every day I hope to wake up and have no snow, but it's coming, I can feel it. I start to drink hot chocolate every night without fail and plan all the presents I will buy my favorite people. I will definitely miss my parents this year at Thanksgiving, but I'm excited to have another Christenson feast. Now I'm off to help finish off the cheesecake and eat as many yummy things as I can because tomorrow I'm back on the diet. 

Signing off, a very content Amanda.

Frame Worthy

I need to frame this picture.

It is a perfect depiction of my life right now : my husband, my cat, my tiny house, and gorgeous fall.

I'm happy to be here.

I really will be sad to leave Provo one day, and especially this little house of ours.

At least I will take the husband and the cat with me.

Happy Halloween everyone!  I am off to Petsmart to get Kona a costume.