What's Christmas Without Music

I thought I'd make a list of my favorite Christmas cds and songs. Pretty boring I know but hey, I've been listening to them for two months now, I have to get it onto paper sometime! Here's they criteria for the albums, it has to have only good songs, no cds where you put it in just to listen to one song, the whole thing has to be good. The criteria for the songs is pretty straight forward, it just has to be a great Christmas song!

Best Christmas Albums (in order, from my favorite to, 'favorite but not as much' and so on...):

1. Carpenter's Christmas

2. Celine Dion's These are the Special Times

3. Josh Groban's Noel

4. Brian Seltzer Orchestra's Dig that Crazy Christmas

5. Mannhiem Stiemroller's Christmas in the Aire

Other Songs of Note (in no particular order):

1. Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson and His Orchestra

2. You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch by Thurl Ravenscroft

3. Linus and Lucy by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

4. Baby it's cold outside by Martina Mcbride with Dean Martin

5. Santa Baby by the Pussy Cat Dolls

6. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams

7. White Christmas by Bing Crosby

Tis the Season to Keep Secrets

Christmas time is great, there is no other time of the year quite like it. Let me illustrate. When else in the year can you blatantly lie about where you have been for the past three hours or why you lock yourself in your room for hours on end?? Never! Owing to the recent change in how we give gifts, this year seems to have many more secrets than usual, many of which are mine! Mwahahaha!! I really can't wait for Christmas to come but I have so much to do it might help if it could scoot back a few weeks. Since I can't post any pictures of what I'm doing you'll just have to take my word and believe that everything is awesome! Come Christmas I'll do a 'leading up to Christmas' post and show all the pics of things coming together. Till then use your imagination (especially my family, good luck guessing guys, you'll never get it!!). Merry Christmas!

The Arboreal Abode

Last night there was a surprise. I had quite a rotten day yesterday and there wasn't much hope of it getting better. My parents had a gift certificate to The Tree Room up at Sundace so they decided to take me on a date. First of all it was so pretty up there. I've never been to Sundance, I board at The Canyons, so the whole thing was new. They had Christmas lights all over the place and were making snow up on the mountain, basically it was perfect. We got to the restaurant and were seated.  I've never been to a nicer restaurant like that so the whole thing was new to me. There were no children screaming, no loud music. It was just calm. They started off the meal with some meat (I don't remember what it was called, something french) 'compliments of the chef'! Wow! It was amazing, to say the least. Then came the bread with nuts and berries in it, keep in mind I haven't had bread in three months...HOLY COW!! It blew my mind, it was out of control how good it was. I ordered the blackened cod, my dad the duck and mom got the chicken. My cod came in a very good, mild sauce, black rice, edamame, and, get this, rose sprouts! It reminded me in the movies where they bring out the plate and it has three bites of food made into an elaborate decoration! There really was more than that but it looked and tasted fabulous! I also had a piece of my dads duck, what a shocker!! I've never had duck before and so I expected it to be about like chicken but actually it was more like a cross between beef and pork! Here comes my favorite part...dessert!! I had a strawberry-rhubarb cobbler! Ya, me, I know it's amazing, me of all people! Words cannot even describe how good it was. That's absolutely what they eat in heaven, no doubt in my mind! To wrap it up it was a great night, the food was out of this world(!!!!), and it really boosted my spirits. Thanks Mom and Dad!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As Christmas approaches ever closer I find myself getting ants in my pants and shirt and anywhere else ants can hide. Here's a list of my favorite things about Christmas time:

1. Watching my Pandora stations suddenly begin playing Christmas music. (I created the first one in early October!! Now I have five or six!)

2. Hearing one of my favorite Christmas songs come on ANY radio station and getting the willies, especially when I'm working on Christmas secrets;)

3. Talking to Britta and Quinci about what they want from Santa.

4. Counting the days left till the big day.

5. Thanksgiving day!! I can't wait for the food, I'm eating like a normal person!! ha ha

6. The day after Thanksgiving, going to see Santa come to the University Mall (this is one of my favorite days of the year)!

7. Setting up the Christmas tree and looking at all the ornaments we've collected over the years.

8. Decorating the house.

9. Unwrapping the advent calender...things...and trying to get the typewriter. Don't ask me why but that's the most coveted of all the doo-hickys ha ha

10. Seeing all the festive foods and...smelling them! ha ha

11. Watching Christmas movies; The Santa Clause, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, Elf and Holiday Inn (thank you Welch family!) just to name a few!

12. Christmas Eve, anything we do!

13. Never, ever, sleeping on Christmas Eve night, sorry little story, last year my parents wanted me to sleep so bad that they gave me a whole Unisom to try to help. The plan backfired miserably! I ended up wired all night long! Thank you mom and dad ;)

14. And of course Christmas day, just being together!

Well there's a list of a few of my favorite things about Christmas. I had to cut the list down from 9,678,564,364 but you get the idea. Happy Holidays!

The Christmas Bug

The bug I am speaking of is not the bug that ruins Christmas by keeping us bent over the toilet or curled in a ball, no I would never talk about a bug like that (but just fyi I've already dodged one bullet this season, Britta and my mom both got the flu this week and guess who didn't?!). The bug I'm talking about is the one that nips you in the rear and makes you suddenly NEED to buy presents, decorations, food...pick your poison, it affects everyone differently. But for me it causes me to need to completely deplete my bank account...I mean go Christmas shopping ;)! So this year after we drew the name of our 'person' (the receiver of our gift), my parents made a proposal. Why not, instead of spending a lot of money on the gifts why not spend a lot of  time? As a result of that proposal we kids are now limited to ten dollars and we have to create whatever is to be given. Surprisingly we are all so excited about this new change and, out of sheer need, have become scavengers, don't be surprised if you get a call from one of us begging for scrap fabric, wood, anything really!

Carving

One of my favorite things to do during Halloween is carve pumpkins. I spent hours agonizing over which pattern would be perfect. This year I spent so much time debating that I didn't carve my pumpkin till Halloween night. The patterns weren't as hard as I would have liked and I didn't have quite as much time as I normally do (we were off to go trick-or-treating with the girls) but even with the rush and simpleness of the pattern I was very pleased with the results!

Getting all the patterns put on right (It's three sided!!)
Poking the pattern onto the pumpkin. Feverishly trying to finish before we leave!The finished product! Jack Skellington......Zero, his dog......and Sally, his true love!

So all in all a very successful carving session!!

The Game of Life

The past few weeks I've had an awful lot on my mind, and seeing as this is this closest thing I have to a journal I thought I should put those thoughts down for posterity's sake. The topic at the forefront of my mind has been trials. Everyone has them, and I believe everyone needs them but that in no way takes away from the difficulties that are or lie ahead. As I looked at the hand of cards life has dealt me as of late it is often all I can do to stay sane, and yet as I play this game of life in those times when I cannot continue playing alone all I have to do is look over my shoulder and there is the Savior telling me how to play. With him I cannot lose. Although I have a perfect game-plan I sometimes insist on doing it alone, and when I can play no more then I look to Him. I wonder sometimes why I don't save myself the trouble and rely completely on Christ. But invariably there are times when I look to Christ and he says, "You can play this hand, you have the knowledge and I trust you." How humbled I am in those times to have the trust of the Savior. With Christ as my guide I cannot fail. Elder Holland said, when we suffer, often times that is when we are closest to God. While some suffer because of choices they make, my suffering was not my fault. At times I was tempted to blame or feel angry at God, like he had left me, but I can tell you this, I have never felt Him so close. He never left my side. As long as I left my heart open and humble He would come, with comfort and peace. How comforting it is to know I have a Savior who descended below it all, who knows exactly how I feel and can offer strength. When I was in seventh grade we were required to write a Shakespearean sonnet and as my mom was bedridden at the time I wrote it for her never knowing or hoping that it would apply to me but as life often does, it surprised me.

Trials
Above you like a mountain it towers
Never ceasing, ever changing, it looms
Nothing stops its everlasting power
Leaving in its path a wake of gloom
Relentlessly you fight the evil foe
Tirelessly you travel to the peak
Emanating a soft but powerful glow
Despite the fact that hope seems rather bleak
Dodging through the intricate web it weaves
With one purpose in mind you carry on
You realize now that it is just a key
You understand that it is almost gone
Even though the road ahead looks so long
You understand this trial made you strong
To my mom
Who never lost that glow

It is said that it takes enormous heat and pressure and time to make a diamond. The same is true of people. As we fight our way through trials, collecting scrapes and bruises on the way we become diamonds over time. As I look back on this trial and the things I have learned I hope I have allowed even the smallest part of me to shine a little brighter.