Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas!

We're at Ryan's family's house in Provo for Christmas this year. It has felt so decadently wonderful to be relaxing after such a busy four months in Indiana. And Ryan's family knows how to relax! Thanks, everyone!

Yesterday, Christmas Eve, we worked at a nice local restaurant that was putting on dinner for the homeless. It felt great to be doing something meaningful on such a special day. We didn't expect to be serving breadsticks, drinks, salads, meals, and chocolate cakes to their tables (we thought we'd be working in the kitchen), but it was a lot of fun being able to interact with them. My heart went out especially to those who had little kids with them.

Tomorrow we're driving to Arizona for chimmichangas (please bless they saved me one) and more wonderful family! Then on Thursday we're all off to Mexico together for Christmas break adventure #3!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Snow Day!

Church was canceled today. This is the first time in my life I can ever remember church being canceled! With driving conditions that are "dangerous or impossible" according to weather.com, I guess they decided on safety first. It looks white and pristine out there, but the roads must be slick. It must be time to break out the wassail...

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Who's ready for Christmas?


All I can ever think to write about these days is how much I want to fly out of here for the holidays! I can't even describe it!

I had to work much too much at Banana this week. But the good news is that I think I won't be there much longer, and it will be wonderful, amazing, indescribable to experience a mall-free weekend for the first time this semester! Plus, both of my other businesses are going very well.

Last night we went to a fancy dinner put on by Ryan's program. It was fun to sit with friends and chat with people we've gotten to know this year (mainly thanks to football games). They had a live jazz band, cocktails, ordures, and a nice dinner. Guess our tuition is getting us a few perks, at least!

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Only 17 Days!

Only 17 days--that's two and a half weeks--until we fly to Utah! I can't wait. It hardly feels like Christmas without any family here... If we were staying here I'd invest in a mini-Christmas tree, but since we're not, I invested in a poinsettia (except it's a pink one..). It's bringing a little Christmas cheer to our apartment.

Things I'm looking forward to, among many:

- Long conversations with Ryan's family (Hopefully they'll even let me make some candy cane cookies! I have a feeling they won't mind...)
- Seeing my mom and dad!
- Seeing my mom and grandma's Christmas decorations
- Cafe Rio
- Driving to AZ to see Mary and Corey and their families! The kids have already grown bigger since I last saw them in August. I told them not to, but they didn't listen.
- Singing with my sisters (you too, Sally!)
- Spending time with friends. We have so many friends to see that we've been missing like crazy!
- Mexico!!!! I love the beach so much. Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma, for providing us with so many wonderful memories.

Here's a little flashback to Christmas last year...