Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

1.02.2012

Slacker Pass

Yeah, if I had a slacker pass, I'd (virtually) hold it out to all you and have that as an excuse for my hiatus in blogging the past few weeks.

Yeah, well, I don't.

All I have is some weak excuses:


"I had a lot of really important things going on. Things like sleeping and reading books and re-reading other books and eating delicious food and staring at walls."

"My computer was just... sitting there. And the books were next to it... and they won out."

"My mom was sick." (No, this has nothing to do with my lack of blogging, I know.)

"The Christmas tree was nicer to look at than blogger."

"It was my parents' 25th anniversary."

"Christmas."


Yeah, so... we'll just skip those, shall we? Because we both know that I'm not fooling anyone.

I'm pretty lazy.

So, yeah. 2011 came and went. It went by in a whirlwind. Seriously, was it a full year ago that I was sitting in my friend's basement feeling like I was going to throw up and trying to celebrate the new year? Okay yeah that was such a terrible new year's eve. I stayed there until about 12:10, then left and went to bed.

Party animal, you know?

This year I'm going to be better.

I know that sounds like such a vague resolution. And truthfully, it is. But I've worked some of the specifics out in my head, and I will continue to do that. I just don't think I'll post it on the internet for all to see.

Actually, it's not that I'm embarrassed about them, or feel like they're super private or anything, but I just know you don't want to read it.

I just read a multitude of "resolution" lists and "what I learned this year" lists and it bored me out of my mind.

Oh, I mean... no offense if you did that. Total respect to you. It just gets tiring after a while, so I'll save you from this blogger's list.

You're welcome. And bully to you for reading this far! More respect to ya.

Instead, just think about your personal resolutions for the 2012, I guess.


I think I'll go watch a movie now.

11.16.2011

Things of late

Here's some things going on in my wonderfully busy life right now that bring a smile to my face, excite me, or entertain me. Or all three.

The prospect of this movie. How it actually looks like they did a good job with it.

Mimi Cafe's French Onion Soup.

The cold weather on campus.

Marcel's new adventures. He's back, guys. If you haven't seen the original, shame on you, watch that first.

Christmas music (I know, I know... Thanksgiving and all that. I used to be a die hard only-post-thanksgiving listener, but did you know Christmas music is addicting?).

Seeing Savion Glover perform. Go look him up, right now. I'm serious.

A drawn out HP marathon with some girls from my hall.

And so much more. Life is good, you know that?

1.11.2011

i am writing.

so here i am.

writing.

i don't really know what i'm writing about, to be honest. i just felt like i've neglected my blog of late a little. and not that you really care or missed it, but i feel like keeping it updated is a good thing for me. so i've decided to force myself to write something and we'll just see what comes from these clicking keys.

you may have noticed i'm writing in lower case, and a lack of capitalization exists.

you are not, indeed, going crazy. because i most definitely have been using correct punctuation (to the best of my abilities) up to this point in time.

but something happened the other day. i got really really sick of doing that. i don't know why, but it happened. so i'm using lower case for the time being. if you feel this lowers your opinion of me, i'm sorry.

anywho. the new year came and went and i didn't do much to celebrate it on this blog (or anywhere, really. i felt nauseous as the clock hit midnight, and promptly left a party. what an awesome way to ring in the new year, right?). so. i'm going to just jump on this bandwagon going around by saying i'm jumping on the bandwagon.

i'll let you know about this past year.

pictures? yes, i like that idea.

okay no wait. not just yet. first, reflection.

i learned a lot this year. i really changed and grew as a person, and i feel entirely different from how i felt this time last year. 2010 was, all in all, a really great year filled with happy stories.

some lessons i already knew and some lessons i learned:

1. making new friends is the best.

2. hard work pays off (the ap test, student council, my job, etc.)

3. my family consists of my closest friends, and i love them all so much.

4. change is healthy.

5. acceptance of change is even healthier.

6. this is it.

7. high school is the best.

8. ...that i know so far. because i can't wait to go to college.

9. teachers can teach more than their subject.

10. i love history.

11. communication is important in any type of relationship (friends, love interests, parents)

12. and texting is not communicating.

13. you can't ever wait for someone else's approval to feel validated. you need to love yourself anyway.

14. this church is without a doubt true.

15. classy things and classy people make life.... classy.

16. follow through on everything.

17. disappointments come and go.

18. you can't ever want to please someone so much you compromise yourself.

19. and speaking of which, i really like myself. and i'm okay with how i am.

20. smiles and positive thinking can turn a day around in an instant.


okay so i'm sorry that was a lot. but i learned a lot this year, so.... yeah. maybe we can have a heart to heart and i can elaborate on each point. i tried to keep them as concise as possible.

and now for pictures.

my disclaimer is that our computer died last spring, so i don't particularly want to go through all those photos because that means doing something complicated. maybe a couple of pictures from pre-computer-crash, but mostly they're from this summer and fall and winter.

oh look! i found a picture of prom. me and tosh. oh, what a fun time! he's the best.


bird's eye: student council retreat, our attractive photoshoot.

youth conference: june. team "delivery"!

me and kendra: lagoon.

girl's camp: me and my girls. :) only the best group ever. (mary poppins forever.)

the fifth of july: spent the day with evan and his family at the freedom festival in provo. me and his sister claire got matching hair, and it totally rocked.

girl's night: this is the only picture i had from the time maddy spent here, so it's rather lame. but the point is that my very best friend came to visit me.

drive-in: me, sarah, alyssa, caroline, christian, and becca all went to a drive-in theater. life goal? check.

park city: kendra and i had a blast on top of a mountain, among other things.

dixie: leadership conference in st. george. best. council. ever.

first day of senior year. drivin to school in indiana.

evan and i went to the john mayer concert. amazing? heck yeah.


sadie's with christian. we went to the space center for our day date. uh, as cool as you think it is? yeah, it was.

evan took me to homecoming. yes, it was wonderful.

we went and saw ingrid michaelson! oh man, she rocks.

music man. what a fun experience. the lovely pick-a-littles pictured above.

christmas. this is about... 1/3 of our ornaments? maybe half? i don't have awesome pictures of my family on my computer, but know that i spent most of my break relaxing with them. and oh was it good.


okay. so that was long. i'm sorry. thanks for pulling through if you've read this far!

here's the deal. i'm going to start that 30 day thing with my friend shelby tomorrow. ah.

rather than explaining all the thought that went into this decision, just go read her musings about it.

maybe you'll be entertained, i don't know. anyway.

post over.




...p.s. i'm wearing dress #1 :)

12.25.2010

tradition

Tradition ROCKS.

Let me just tell you.

I love it so much. Doing the same thing over and over because it brings happy times, feelings, and memories. My favorite Christmas traditions:

1. Our tree. It's always real. We go cut it down from a farm in Alpine, and every year it gets bigger. This year it's 15 ft tall and about 6 or 7 ft wide. And I'm not even exaggerating about that.

2. Our ornaments. Each year, my Grammy gives us money to buy an ornament for ourselves. Her rules are that it must be either glass or sparkly. That way, the lights in the tree reflect in the glass and/or sparkles, and the whole tree just glows. So we now all have our own box of ornaments just for us. And I can take it with me when I get married and have my own tree. My parents also get us an ornament each year, and it usually has something to do with an event that's happened in the past year, so we remember each year through ornaments. For example, I have a King Tut from the year I studied Egypt in school. A cell phone from the year I asked for one, but wasn't old enough. A present from the year I had my Sweet Sixteen. This year, I got two little red [love]birds (I like to think they're love birds. They're kinda cute), as the one I chose, and from my parents a pizza (my first job this year - Pizza Pie Cafe), and this Thespian ... thing. You know the two faces - smiling and frowning? Yeah. Each side is a different face. It's rather creepy, honestly, and I don't want to be caught alone with this ornament in a dark room. But I really do love it. :)

3. Present tags. No boring "To: Anna From: Mom & Dad" at our house! No, each nametag has a different name, something to do with us. "To: #2 From: #4 & #8" (I'm second child, my parents 4th and 8th). "To: Elizabeth From: Marguerite & Conley (middle names). I used the rapper names Garrett and I joke about for his card - "To: G-Money From: Hot BisKIT" (we'll be famous someday). This lovely tradition pretty much makes everything more entertaining, especially when my mom runs out of ideas and writes nametags late a night. "To: American Studies Awesome Student!" Haha. I laughed. Just put "awesome" at the beginning of the name, and it would have made more sense. But it was great. This year, one of my nametags said "To: Scope for Imagination From: Blog impaired" and "To: This Lovely Notebook From: Pen & Pencil". I felt cool about it.

4. Christmas Eve meal. We get in touch with our German heritage for this night. Chicken noodle soup (no, that's not really German, but it's homemade so it's delicious), and the rest is breads, cheeses, meats, crackers, sausages, etc.

5. Hiding the pickle. Classic - my parents hide our pickle ornament (glass and sparkly, fear not), then the kids all come and look for it. Whoever finds it first gets an extra present. And just so you know, I totally found it this year. And got a free drink at Roxberry.

6. Christmas night Pajamas. 'Nuff said? I think so.

7. Christmas night. All the kids sleep upstairs in one room, then descend the stairs together in the morning (shielding our eyes, of course, except Trina who always peeks... which has now become tradition... cheater), wake our parents, walk out youngest to oldest. My dad has now mentioned in recent years that we don't have to follow that rule they made when we were young. We can go out and begin with Santa gifts by ourselves. We all retaliated. "No!!" "Tradition!" "Are you INSANE?!" We do it out of spite, almost. To show we really love it.

8. Christmas breakfast. Mini sausages, english muffins, clementines, orange juice.

Ahhhh. Doesn't tradition bring you such comfort?!

What are your favorite traditions?



P.S. I received a RECORD PLAYER from Santa.
How. Magical.

12.20.2010

it's beginning to FEEL like christmas

Agenda for December 20th, 2010:

1. Wake up late. 10ish?
2. Groggily flop downstairs, join two younger siblings and watch 3 episodes of Man vs. Wild. Go Bear Grylls!
3. Eat a healthy breakfast (first one I've had time for in weeks).
4. Take a long shower.
5. Straighten hair for first time in weeks.
6. Go to bank (surprise! Pizza Pie Cafe called - I left my last paycheck there. Hooray for Christmas money!)
7. Go shopping at Target with Garrett and Cami.
8. Teo meets up with us for more shopping.
9. Run into friends at Target.
10. Go pick out annual tree ornaments in Provo at Hobby Lobby
11. Have driving skills insulted by siblings.
12. Pick up Parmesan cheese for mom.
13. Return home to delicious meal made by the best mom ever. Curry? Love it.
14. Read scriptures with family.
15. Deliver bags of chocolate popcorn to neighborhood families, caroling at the door.
16. Family prayer full of giggles.
17. Sit and look at 15 ft. tall Christmas tree.
18. Relax and enjoy the holidays.

.....check.

12.15.2010

tomorrow...



+PLUS+




=EQUALS=



Kids in the Cold



...and that is where I will be tomorrow. So come to Lone Peak between 5 and 12 and donate money to Make-A-Wish! We're not going home until we make $10,000 - so we need your help!

AAaaannndd....

You can enter your world famous CHILI in the Chili Cook-off! How fun does that sound?! I know - super fun, right?? $10 entry fee for a chili, and bring money to donate to your favorite recipe!

Really though, we'd appreciate all the help we can get. Come have fun and raise money for a good cause. :)

Oh and by the way...

Once the break starts, I suspect my posts will become more entertaining. As of now, I'm trying to contain my excitement for the break so I can focus on Gold Rush. But in three days time....

OH BABY.

11.09.2010

baby, it's cold outside!

Today, on my way home from rehearsal, I stopped at Dear Lizzie.

One of the most beautiful stores on the planet.

I stopped because 1) I had to meet a friend at another nearby store and was early, and 2) it looked so delightful.

I swear, every time I drive by and those windows are all lit up, and I can see the chandeliers hanging all over - it calls my name!

Yes. The store. It calls.

"Anna! Anna!" (it sounds like a classy lady from the 40s) "Why don't you stop by?"

Psh. Who cares that everything in there is ridiculously overpriced?? I only LOOK at things (most of the time).

And usually, I have this No Christmas Music Until After Thanksgiving Policy. Today, however, when I walked into Dear Lizzie and heard the Christmas music, I gave in. That's it, folks. I'm not fighting it this year. Next time I'm in the car, I'm turning to Kosy 106.5. I'm gonna sing it at the top of my lungs (and potentially cause a car accident). I'm secretly putting on Bing when I'm home. I'm humming "White Christmas" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" under my breath.

Dear Lizzie does me good. The cold outside? Though it brings with it signs of a delicious winter and Christmas (*sigh*) and the holiday season in general, it's.... well, cold! I'm frozen right through. But the happiness that fills me in that store sends the chills away!

And now? I'm in my pajamas and slippers, sitting by the fireplace.

This feeling is a good one.