It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

The Shopping Holiday

I love the holidays. Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, and Black Friday! All my favorites in a month and a half! Every year I hem and haw about whether or not to get up early and brave the crowds for the Black Friday sales. Inevitably, I end up setting my alarm and heading out with the crazies! Unless of course I'm working, then my decision is made for me.


Every year after Thanksgiving dinner is over, I settle down with the paper and start going through all of the ads. I decide what is worth braving the crowds for and set my plan of attack. This year, I set my alarm and hit the road just before 3am. I know, I know, I'm officially one of the crazies. I made the rounds to all my favorite stores...

And got pretty much everything on my list! I came home happy and exhausted. I took a nap then decorated the house (pictures to follow at a later date!) What a wonderful start to the shopping season!

Oh how grateful I am...

This year I'm fortunate enough to have both Thanksgiving and Christmas off work. In years past (and also years to come, I'm sure) I've had to work one or both holidays, so I count my blessings whenever I have them off.

Following tradition, we went to my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Chris slept in, enjoying a rare day off work, while I got up early and headed to my grandparents' house to help with the cooking. For the past several years, I've been going out early to help, and surreptitiously learn all their secrets! Everything they make is always amazing, and I'm hoping their skills will rub off on me.

(Sorry about the bad lighting, it was the only picture I got that day!

Maybe my mom or aunt will share their pictures with me...)

It was a wonderful day, as holidays with my family always are. The only thing missing was Dan and Rebecca. I'm looking forward to Christmas, when they'll be here for over a week, but I still missed having my little sister there helping me make the rolls. At least I know she has awesome inlaws to spend the holiday with back home in Utah.

Thanksgiving is always an opportunity to reflect on our blessings, and I can't help but be amazed at how very blessed I am! I have an amazing husband, who really does balance and complete me, awesome parents, the best little sister ever, and a wonderful extended family. I have a good job that I love, a safe and secure home, plentiful food filling my pantry, and two snugglepups and a sweet kitty. Above all, I have the gospel, knowledge of the Savior's atonement, and the love of my Heavenly Father. Oh how grateful I am.

Everybody ought to have a sister...

This last weekend I drove up to Provo to visit Rebecca for the weekend. It's been a while since we've been able to hang out, so I was really looking forward to the visit, and it did not disappoint!

What a long drive, but it just flies by when I blast music and sing along! And let's face it, there's not a lot of scenery to distract you until you reach Utah. I do love this street though, makes me smile every time!

Zzyxx Road, who comes up with this? My theory is when they were making the freeway signs, they got to the end and went, "hmmm we've got all these letters left over at the end of the alphabet, what can we spell with these?" and ta-da, Zzyxx was born!

I arrived on Friday evening, just in time for Becca to make dinner for me and Dan. Do I have good timing or what? Dan's a pretty lucky guy though, besides how awesome my little sister is in general, turns out she can cook too! Yummy chicken enchiladas were on the menu. Now as we all know, I'm not much of a Mexican food fan, but I have to admit these were pretty darn good. And simple too. I might even have to make them for Chris. I don't know though, I wouldn't want to give him a heart attack from the shock of me making Mexican food! :)

Saturday morning, we headed over to the Bijou market, an adorable little craft show featuring handmade items. Becca's sis-in-law Kate had some of her artwork featured there, and I have to say I was blown away. Her artwork is so adorable! You can check out her amazing art at her Cinnamon Ink shop on Etsy.



After the market, we did a little shopping at the mall, then headed home to bundle up for the BYU game in the afternoon. Dan's dad has season tickets and invited me to accompany them to the game. Pretty awesome, right? This was actually my first game at BYU, and it was a blast! Cold, but a blast! BYU did great, 40-7 over New Mexico. We had a great time hanging out, and even watched the game a little while we were there! :)

As you can see by how bundled up we are, it was a little chilly! But hot chocolate helped with that!

On Sunday it snowed lightly on and off. It was interesting going with Rebecca and Dan to an actual building for church; in the past, her student ward was actually in one of the lecture rooms on campus. Her ward is a young married couples ward, and it was pretty neat how everyone in the ward is pretty much at the same point in their lives. We were planning on having dinner with the Utah Forbush's, but unfortunately Rox's cold took a turn for the worse, so we ended up staying in Provo. Dan had some homework to work on, and Becca and I decided to watch a movie. We watched Coraline, a movie I've wanted to see for some time. It was....weird. Very weird. After that, we just made dinner and enjoyed our last evening together.

Monday morning, I saw Becca off to work, then got ready and headed out myself. Dan was home to see me off and lock the door behind me. I spent the morning doing some shopping in Provo, then started the long trek home about noon. I was fortunate enough to not get snow coming through Beaver, and the trip home went by pretty quickly. It was good to get home though. Dan and Rebecca have a pretty comfortable couch, but I missed my bed! And Chris of course. :) I miss them already though, and can't wait til Christmas when Dan & Becca are here!