Christmas in Neskowin

What a loverly break it has been.
Christmas day, we woke up and waited for my dad to stop getting ready (not so favorite tradition), opened gifts from Santa and the family (a more favorite tradition), and ate a yummy breakfast. We had our Christmas program at Church, which I sang in with my momma. It was really a great service.
That afternoon, we headed out to our beach house in Neskowin for a couple of days.  Very relaxing.
One of the days we were there, I took some time to take pictures since I haven't done it in awhile. I literally was the only one on the beach for a couple of hours.  Here are some picts from my solitary shoot:

Then we had some family pictures.

more about my break to come!

tiny tim

...is not the one from A Christmas Carol. Check out what my brother just showed me.
http://youtu.be/c71RCAyLS1M

Then watch this.
http://youtu.be/26wsU5LaWb4

Now go out and feel better about your singing abilities and performance showmanship.

vampire diaries

Is it possible to be in love with fictional characters? I am more bitten...I mean, smitten...with these vamps than I ever was with Edward Cullen.  They have been the source of my entertainment this winter break.

I mean, seriously, move over Robert Pattinson.

Ask Anna. I tried really hard not to get hooked. But who can resist this?

Bye, Independent Study!

I mentioned to my mon that we ha won the decorating contest at work and she said, "yeah, I saw your blog. Was that really everything?"
We had no budget and a large area, MOM. But in case anyone else isn't convinced, I have more pictures.


Today was my last day working at Independent Study after 15 months. I've really liked working here and it was sad to say bye to everyone there. Besides being winners, we had classical rock duets, basketball tourneys, and plenty of things to laugh about. I'll come back to visit, my fellow paper pushers!!!
In the mean time, I'm going to recover from finals and papers by taking a fatty nap and going to the temple. Portland tonight! ❤

nerd

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear

A couple of weeks ago, my work sent out an email declaring a decoration competition that will be judged at the Christmas party.  That day, I walked past the testing department and they were already going crazy.  Each time I walked by, their area had vomited more Christmas everywhere.  It was war.  I went to my supervisor's office and asked her what our budget was and she informed me that we don't have one. Challenge accepted.

We were separated into areas so that we could branch out and meet others. The issue with my area is that it was the biggest area.  We can work with that.

Our motto for the proceeding week was "We need to beat testing."  Since we work with mail, we decided to make our area into Santa's workshop.  

We had Santa's flight plans:

We managed to get letters to Santa from the North Pole:

We had the good and bad lists (checked and ready to be checked again):

Our elves were busy at work:

We value our elves:

I don't have any other pictures from the other rooms, but it was very festive :)

The morning of the big day came.  The day of judging, of course (what did you think, Christmas?).  We had a popular vote within the office and for the whole morning, it was neck-to-neck with testing.  At the beginning of the party, it was announced that testing won the popular vote.  So now it was up to the judges' pick. Second place=yellow! (testinggg)  And in first place....GREEN!! WE WON!  

Best. day. ever.

what will you give for Christ(mas)?

http://youtu.be/0FSQuHDIsVw

In the past few years, I have been so wrapped up in the stress of finals that Christmas surprises me.  I'm not fully in the Christmas spirit!  So this year I promised myself that I wouldn't let that happen even with 25 pages of essays and 5 finals in 2 weeks.  I heard yesterday that the best way to get in the spirit of Christmas is to give to others or to serve others.  Last Saturday, I went Christmas tree hunting for 5 trees to give with our giving tree gifts to 5 needy families in the area.  Hunting for Christmas trees is my favorite thing to do, so much so that I make my family wait until I get home from school so I can go with them.  This weekend's hunt was an adventure.  I'm used to going to tree farms in the quiet neighborhoods of Wilsonville, but in Heber City, Utah it's ok to just go to the side of the road and cut a tree down (with a permit, of course).  So we were parked on the side of a highway, trudging through 2 feet of snow through the forest and up steep hills and across freezing creeks to find the perfect trees.  We were successful and cold.
And I was officially in the Christmas spirit.
We talked about Christmas traditions and listened to the Carpenters Christmas and Bing Crosby during the long drive.  It got me really excited and that excitement has been building since then.

{photo cred: Trey Mortensen}

Our ward Christmas party was Monday, I am constantly listening to Christmas music (since it's after Thanksgiving, now), the First Presidency Devotional was Sunday night, I have some shopping done, and our apartment looks so festive!  All with time to write papers and freak out over finals.
I love Christmas.
Have you listened to Michael Buble's new Christmas album? Soooo good.

hey, michael. you have something for me?

ungrateful

Ok, ok this is a post about what I'm grateful for. My title is a misnomer.  I did that since everyone else's title is "What I am Grateful For" and I wanted to be different.  The content will be the same, though, so that's where the differences stop.

I mean, what else would I post for a Thanksgiving post?  How much I like to eat?  We all know that already.  About how weird turkeys look?  We won't have to worry about that when they are in our stomachs.

So here we a-go-go!!

*my family and the fact that I feel their support from hundreds of miles away every day

*modern medicine and the smart people behind it

*I was born into the LDS Church and I found truth on my own

*chocolate

*technology that allows me to talk to my family face-to-face every week and lets me write and research for papers at home and a little box that is able to play all of my music and I don't have to switch CDs in my walkman for a new album

*heaters and air conditioners

*indoor plumbing

*books

*movies

*music

*salt to make the sidewalks not slippery and so I have less of the likelihood of falling on my butt in the morning

*considerate and genuinely kind people

*puppies

Feliz el dia de acción de gracias!!

new and old

A new song as of last week: "Ghost" by my girl Ingrid Michaelson.
http://youtu.be/v5Sfc4Oht9c
An older song from the most recent album of Yellowcard: "Sing For Me"
http://youtu.be/hC0SavZptSo

more pictures from my weekend

{I'm so proud of Anna for going on her first Ferris wheel ride, even though she doesn't like heights}

{$62,000 ring at Tiffany's--we decided that we're marrying for money, not for love}

{that lady was soo nice for letting us try on all of those gorgeous rings}

{pretty bird}

{too much rock for one hand}

there's a place off ocean avenue

I had the opportunity to live a middle school dream this weekend. And an adult dream.  But it's been about 10 years in the making.  A couple of weeks ago, Anna texted me that we should go to the Yellowcard concert in LA and escape Utah for a weekend.  I was like uhduhyeahgirl and so Thursday Anna, her sister Ellen and Ellen's friend, Brenna, and I hit the dusty trail for Los Angeles.

Friday we went to my favorite breakfast place, the Egg Plantation.  They have 101 omelets and the best strawberry stuffed French toast.

Then we headed off to the city.  We drove around looking at the touristy things and found where George Clooney supposedly lives.  We couldn't stay away from the beach another day, so we stopped by Marina del Rey for a little bit.

We had dinner at Cabo Cantina on the Sunset Strip and waited near the front of the line at the house of Blues for the concert.  There is nothing like a concert.  I was telling Anna that I want to still go to concerts when I'm 60, but then I realized that I might die if I do it when I'm old because I'm still sore from doing it when I'm 21.  Plus, I'll definitely lose my hearing.  I wake up the next day with what I call a concert hangover (don't worry, ma, no actual drugs are involved in this process): ringing and plugged ears, headache, soreness all over my body, exhausted, raspy voice.  Love it.  SOOOO worth it.

Go Radio and Every Avenue opened and that was a fun start.  I don't know what it is about musicians, but holy moly Charlie Brown, sign me up for the next tour!!  Also, it was extra fun because it was the last show of the tour and so the bands were playing pranks on each other the whole time.  For example, YC came out during Go Radio and flipped all of the drummer's cymbals upside down.  The two openers came out at YC's last song and danced with them on stage. Extra dose of fun. We got the signatures of some of the band members after the show, including LP, the drummer for YC.  The venue was awesome, the people were crazy, the set choice was super, and I finally saw YC in concert.  Don't get much better then that.

{in like with Every Avenue's guitarist}

{Ryan Key, lead singer/guitarist of Yellowcard}

{LP's drum solo}

{also in like with Yellowcard's bassist}

{oh, and did we mention the guitarist for Go Radio??}

Saturday, we slept in forever and then went to the Plantation again with my grandparents. Can't get enough of that place.  Then the girls headed off for Santa Monica where we played on the beach and strolled down the pier.  Ellen and I chased some birds (hopefully I can get that video soon--they started chasing us haha). It wasn't as warm as we had hoped, but it sure as heck wasn't snowing!  I held a bird and it kissed me on the lips.  I got hit on by a creepy street performer during one of his performances.  We took Anna on her first ferris wheel ride and it was so fun!  We ended the visit by finding the 3 story Barnes and Noble on the 3rd Street Promenade.  I died and went to heaven.  We thought it would be fun to see "Breaking Dawn," too, buuuut that was an interesting movie. A lot of blood and an angsty shirtless R.Pat.

{"there's a place off Ocean Avenue"}

{Santa Monica pier and beach}

{we love the beach}

I had so much fun this weekend.  As we drove closer and closer to Provo today, I got sadder and sadder.  Then I remembered Thanksgiving with my family is in two days and I recovered :)

all hallow's eve

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. The order of my favorites are probably: Christmas, Halloween, my birthday.  I'm still working on making my birthday a national holiday and so we all can get school off and party. But it's slow-going, sorry.
I've already mentioned how my family always watches tons of scary movies each year and how my friends and I have carried on this tradition.  So that occupied most of my free time this month.

The Friday before Halloween, my complex had a party in the parking garage so we dressed up and danced.  It turned out to be a little lame, so everyone came back to my place to watch "The Ring" and drink hot cocoa.

{fake tats, pink hair, eyeliner, fish net tights, black}

{Me, Meagan, Hilary, Deidre...aka punk, Sandy, hipster, dead ballerina}

{pink hair is growing on me}

{the group}

Sunday, the Whiteleys had a dinner party and I got to catch up with some old friends.  Chris and Camille did the cute Uh Huh creatures and preggo Amber was an oven with Jeff as the chef (get it? bun in the oven).

Monday, we watched "What Lies Beneath" and ate treats at Lizzie's.  We made Halloween cupcakes, of course. :)

I wish that I had pictures of what our apartment looked like. Then again, it might have been too scaryyyy...