michelle emily: December 2012

30 December 2012

December from Miranda

Here was my December according to Miranda (my iPhone...all of my electronics have M names).

my family likes food

I was rear-ended and Liesel was totaled...RIP my first car :(

Allie came into town so, we hit up the Portland scene=Voodoo and Powell's

Allie's cute picture that I snagged.

double rainbow action on the 205!

YSA stuff and Christmas parties

Sam's violin concert

skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows with Tommy Allen

fancy Christmas nails with momma

and, of course, getting ready and packing for DC (THIS THURSDAY!!)

Now we are off to the beach house for New Year's Eve/Day.

Christmas!

Does anyone else get a little bit depressed the day(s) following Christmas? Cuz I sure do.
I hope that New Year's will be a good enough pick-me-up for ya!

Christmas Eve/Sunday before we have a tradition of putting up a stocking for Jesus--since, you know, it IS His holiday. We put pieces of paper inside with our names and what we want to give to Jesus that year, i.e. "I want to be nicer to my siblings," etc. We usually watch a Christmas movie like "Elf" or "Grinch." Buuutt this year we ended up watching a scary movie, which was different haha.
Christmas morning, we did the usual: stockings, breakfast, presents. I dropped by my nanny house for an open house lunch. Those boys are so cute!
But the most bestest part of Christmas this year was talking to Elder Ericksen for two and a half hours. I can tell he has already matured and is learning valuable lifelong lessons.

I hope your Christmas was great!

16 December 2012

I Found Christmas

I am constantly in shock with the reception of my poetry. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here. I do it mostly as a joke or as a filler for something, yet people end up liking my stuff! I think I will keep posting things, if you guys will let me!
Like today. I gave a talk in my ward about Christmas and I was supposed to talk about my feelings of Christmas and Christ. I had a section written out, but it was under time, so I decided to look for a story or poem to throw in there about Christmas just for fun. But I couldn't find anything good, so at 11:30 on a Thursday night, I whipped out a poem about Christmas to fill space.
After I gave the talk today, people didn't come up and say that they were impressed with my tie-ins of Christmas with lots of good scriptures from Isaiah and the Book of Mormon, which I had really thought out this week. Instead, they were like, "Hey! I liked your poem a lot! I want a copy!" What? Thanks? What?
So here is my filler Christmas poem. Enjoy!

Where Is Christmas?
By Michelle Ericksen

Where is Christmas?

It is December’s holiday,

Some Christians may say.

But others may complain

And forget about the name

Of the man who is Emmanuel

Because correctness is political.

Where is Christmas?

It is lost in the all stuff,

And in St. Nick’s bearded fluff,

The songs about the reindeer,

And whose heart goes to whom this year

I found Christmas.

In the Salvation Army ringers,

And the door-to-door singers,

The increase in happy greetings,

And the big family meetings.

I found Christmas.

In the words of a devotional.

In the love so emotional.

Surrounded by more charity

And reflective new year clarity.

They found Christmas.

In the sky late at night,

‘Neathe the star shining bright,

With the sheep grazing near

Under the angels they do hear.

They found Christmas.

In the arms of Mary

In a place contrary

To the birthplace of a King,

Of whom the angels sing.

There is Christmas.

03 December 2012

two holidays and a vacation

Sorry about the hiatus, guys--it's actually been productively busy! I'm zeroing in on my new apartment in DC and I have some leads for jobs there, too. All I can say is that God knows me better than I do and He is patient enough to wait for me to get my act together. Things have just been falling into place TOO well for it to be coincidence, you know? I'm starting to get more and more excited now that things are becoming more real. Especially since someone who also interned in DC recently pointed out that there is a good chance I'm going to be working in The Castle!

Is this real life?

As for the updates, let me jump back to, erm, Halloween. I had carved pumpkins at FHE and with my sister and on the day itself I was a vampiress and made about 100 cupcakes. That's just about it. Oh, and my family kept up the tradition of watching a bunch of scary movies the whole month and decorating the house super spooky. A little neighbor girl came up to my mom one day and said, "I like your grapeyard."

the pumpkin that the Bigelow sisters mostly carved while I cheered them on.

my zombie pumpkin

mummies--my first time attempting pumpkin cupcakes

the graveyard--chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting

Then this one came into town, so we ate Mashitas, went shopping, and watched Breaking Dawn, Part 2.

my fortune at the mall: "Joy will come with the return of a good friend." awwww.

"the flash is too bright!" and so was vampire Bella.

For Thanksgiving, my family actually went out to California the week before Thanksgiving since my dad and I had to work on Thanksgiving. Saturday, the first order of business off of the plane was going to In-N-Out. That night, we ordered pizza and watched the BYU game.

Sunday, the girls went to a baby shower for a family friend. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family and also Anna Peterson. Yayyy Anna Petersonnn!!! I ended up driving back to Anna's in Santa Monica so we could have a girls' night and party. Whenever a friend comes into town, her employer is always like "go out clubbin" or "go have some fun on the town" and we are always like "ok" then we run back to Anna's and get into sweats and watch Vampire Diaries. That's why I love that girl!

Monday, the brave ones went to Universal Studios. I was excited about the rides but not excited about the Jurassic Park ride. But, you have to admit, I'm brave because at least I face my fears and go on the Jurassic Park ride, every time we go, anyways. This time, I was feeling more confident because, well, I'm not 12, and also because I knew what was coming so I could close my eyes if needed (I'm not 12...). But then they changed the ride. So I DIDN'T know what was coming and I was 12, again. I hate Jurassic Park.

We got to go on the new 3D Transformers Ride, which was epic and I hadn't been on the Mummy ride, either, which was epic. And I survived Jaws and King Kong on the studio tour. So, all in all, a pretty awesome day. That night we watched "The Birds" in honor of the references to Hitchcock's movies during the day (we also survived Norman Bates on the studio tour).

Tuesday, we ate breakfast at my most favorite place on earth, the Egg Plantation. Seriously, you haven't lived until you have tried their strawberry stuffed french toast. I crave that stuff every day. Then, some of us went shooting. That made me feel pretty BA. Wish I had taken pictures. That afternoon, the ladies had high tea at The Tea Gardens, which is beginning to become a tradition for us. My grandma is British and she still drinks tea religiously every afternoon, so we decided to make it an outing for the girls.