So Much Christmas

 It's the most wonderful time of the year! I loved being able to come home from school and have over a week before Christmas to do festive things with my family and friends. Please enjoy this journey through my 2011 holiday joy!

A Night in Bethlehem

Me and Rachel, as Bethlehemites.

Our ward went with a more authentic theme this year for the Christmas party. Basically, I went because Rachel had to be a shepherd in the nativity play, and I couldn't just pass up the opportunity to mock her for that. When the angel came, she mouthed, "OH MY GOSH." It was an ingenious interpretation. The soup-and-breadsticks dinner was great, and walking through the live nativity was really sweet. Nice job, wardies.

Gingerbread and Lights Night



A couple of days after I got home, Delanie, Candace and I got together for out yearly gingerbread-house making night. This included serious life-talks in Walmart while shopping for graham crackers and candy. Then we drove through the Layton lights! I love the Layton lights because they are made up of so many random things that have nothing to do with Christmas. Like sharks and unicorns. Also, driving through the tunnel amazes me every time. (On another night, our family drove through the lights four times in a row. Around and around.) We built our graham cracker houses at Delanie's new apartment (which is beautiful!). Delanie told me that this was my year - the first year my gingerbread house was not going to collapse before I could finish it. And she was correct! My house featured Walter the Walrus and it is in fact still standing. I love these girls; I am so lucky to have them in my life. Going on ten years of friendship!



  

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My dad's birthday is precisely one week before Christmas, so it is always an important part of the Christmas countdown. It is a bit difficult to have a happy birthday on a Sunday when you're the bishop, but I think he had a good day. Lauren and I got him a pie, which was a win I felt. We watched one of our favorite Christmas movies, The Nativity Story. It looks like a church movie, but it was in theaters and has legit actors and such. (There's even some violence.) I like it because it brings Mary and Joseph to life as real people with normal lives. I always tear up a bit when Joseph tells Mary he believes her. Perfect start to Christmas week. (Side-note, speaking of good movies to see over the break. Sherlock Holmes 2. If you haven't seen it yet, you must!)

Christmas Carol Sing-In

We've been going to the Christmas sing-along night downtown every year (minus the years we didn't live in Utah) since I was born. Every year it gets bigger. When I was smallish, it was held in Assembly Hall, but since we've lived in Layton, they've had it in Energy Solutions Area. And you better be there when the doors open. It's kind of crazy, but we LOVE it. The more people singing along to the symphony orchestra, the better! Last year Jon Schmidt played at the sing-along, which we very much enjoyed, especially because we got to meet him and he signed Lauren's arm. This year, Alex Boye was the special guest. He was entertaining. And funny: "There are only three black guys in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and if you haven't figured that out, you're inactive." Of course Santa Claus made an appearance, as did the Jazz Bear. Last year, we spent almost the whole time trying to get featured on the jumbo-tron, and finally did near the end. This year, we got on twice right at the beginning! The first was because we were all swaying back and forth, and when there are six girls swaying in a row, it's a bit of a cheery sight. The second time was when Alex Boye came out and Rachel and I held up our hands in the shape of hearts, like the crazy girls do on the Justin Bieber movie. The camera man who was walking down our aisle looked at us, laughed, and filmed us. Then the very old senior missionary next to us started doing the heart thing too. That was a great moment. After the sing-along, we walked around the temple square lights and saw the nativity. Beautiful!


Streamers shot into the crowd by the Jazz Bear



Sleeping Under the Tree

A time-honored Christmas tradition. Although I'm, well, twenty, I still enjoy piling under the tree with all my sisters to sleep by the sparkly lights. We thought about sleeping in a too-small tent like they do in the Kid History Christmas episode, but that didn't happen. The tree is still up so I suppose there's still time...


Watching My Sisters Do Weird Things

Rachel and her besties, Ryan and Shayla, decided to dress up as Christmas characters and take their other friends extremely random presents that they got from DI, such as a wedding dress and three copies of Babe on VHS. I got to be there to take pictures of them. Never a dull moment.



Shopping and the Baking Spirit

During the time between my last final and Christmas Day, I went Christmas shopping at least five separate times. Finding something for each member of our big family is a project, but I love thinking about a specific person and what would make them smile. My favorite shopping moment was when Abbie and I found a Justin Bieber cardboard cutout for the low low price of 19.95, and then propped him up in the passenger seat window all the way home from Ogden. And nothing goes with Christmas shopping like Christmas baking. During baking day, I tend to just hover around and sneak my favorites: peanut butter cookies with the kisses on top. I love Christmas.

A Caroling Party

The day before Christmas Eve, the day we like to call Christmas Adam, we had our family Christmas party with my dad's side. Everyone met at my parents' house and went caroling through some older neighborhoods in our ward. Even though only 4 of the 9 siblings in my dad's family were present, there were still 25 or 30 of us, which was quite a caroling crowd. Of course we made Rachel dress up like Santa again, and all of us filled up the street traveling from house to house. Two little girls who were walking their dog said, "Look, it's like a parade." Indeed, that would be us. After caroling we had the customary Christmas games and gift exchange. My grandparents, who are on a mission in Samoa, joined us via Skype. Rachel had to carry them around on the laptop from person to person, showing them whoever was opening a present. I don't know why that was so funny, but it was.





As was this. Too much
Christmas for Janie.

Christmas Eve

Get this - my mom signed us up to clean the church at 9 am on Christmas Eve. She is definitely a doer. I was less than excited, but as always, we ended up laughing and singing a lot. While cleaning, Rachel, Lauren and I sang all the Spongebob songs that you have to sing on Christmas Eve - "This Christmas Feels Like the Very First Christmas to Me," "Santa's Comin' Tonight Tonight," and "The Best Time to Wear a Striped Sweater is All the Time." Back at home, I spent hours reading all the Christmas books with the little girls, killing time until we headed to Ogden. Christmas Eve night is always at Grandma's in Ogden, and this year was just as happy as ever. We had a bit of an untraditional Christmas Eve dinner - pizza and Olive Garden salads and breadsticks. Yum. We opened our pajamas, like always. Then we played with the Christmas crackers mom brought! I didn't know about English Christmas Crackers until this year - they're these things you pull apart and they make a popping noise and smoke a little bit. It's like a bit of the fourth of July mixed into Christmas. Perfect! After you popped them, our crackers had little whistles, cheesy jokes, and crowns inside. The whistles were numbered and came with sheets that told you how to play Christmas songs on them. That was exciting. We didn't sound great, but it was Christmas cheery.

The little girls went to bed so that Santa could come as soon as we got home, and then my Madre and I went to Midnight Mass at the Catholic church near our house. My Grandma has told me about how Midnight Mass was such an important part of her Christmas celebrations, so that was special to me. On the way there, my mom was saying, "We're just barely on time, so we'll probably have to stand in the back." I was like, "How many Catholics can we have in Layton?" But moms are always right. Their chapel was about four times bigger than ours is, and it was completely packed. We did get to sit down, though. I loved walking into the church and having the deacons open the doors for us and say, "Merry Christmas!" It had only been Christmas for about ten seconds, and I love the idea of celebrating immediately! There was a perfect Christmas spirit in the chapel as everyone sang and prayed together. When we got home at about 1:30, I really scared myself going in to Abbie's room to get Rachel's Justin cut-out so I could put it up by the tree. I knew it was in there and that I was getting it, and I still jumped when I saw it in the dark. And then I hit Zoe (the cat) in the head with it. That thing is going to be the death of me.

 Actual Christmas

The little girls literarally dragged me out of bed at about 8:10 in the morn. We are not one of those families that wakes up at four on Christmas, thank goodness for me. I am usually the last one up, and this year was no different. Unfortunately, I slept through the traditional qutoting of Harry Potter when we first see the gift pile: "I've got...presents?" Dad made scones for breakfast and we emptied our stockings. We went to church before opening anything else. That was very brave of the smaller children, I thought. Half our family sang in the choir, including me, even though I was obviously only there for like two rehearsals. I just really wanted to be extra involved in Christmas!

We didn't start opening presents until about 12:30, so we didn't finish until about 3:30. Weird! We even took a break in the middle for eating. That was actually me; I made everyone stop so I could cook some chimis. But let it be known that Rachel originally wanted us to take a half an hour break between every round of presents so that it would last longer. We would still be opening presents right now if we had done that. Santa was very generous to me; he brought me a new mp3 player, all 8 of the Harry Potter movies, a nice new practice suit for swimming, a cozy Beatles blanket, the book lovers' edition of Scrabble, a heaping pile of books, music, clothes, and other little treasures. My Beatles blanket was the first gift I played with, because as soon as we finished opening presents I fell asleep. Lame, I know, but I definitely woke up about an hour later to play all our new games.

Garrett called at about 8 that night. I was in the middle of singing a duet with Lauren on our new Sing-It Wii game, so I made Rachel answer it so that we wouldn't lose. About three seconds later, while she was explaining to him that I was busy singing, I was like, what am I doing? and I ran to my phone. This was the fourth time I have talked to Garrett since he's been gone, if you include the airport call, and every time before he calls I get nervous thinking that we will have nothing to talk about and we'll both be awkward and uncomfortable. I am wrong every time. Especially this time, I was thinking, "Okay, this time it for sure will be weird, because it's the longest we've gone without talking and we haven't even been writing that much. Things are definitely different this time." But I was still wrong! Even after 18.5 months of mission we were still able to make each other laugh as much as we always have. Thanks to the generosity and trust of his mission president, we talked for about two and a half hours and never ran out of things to say. So that was a pretty decent happy ending for the day.

 Christmas Music Night

The day after Christmas, we held a Christmas music party at our house for my mom's family. We gathered round the pianos and guitars and sang together, as well as had some performances. I have a very talented family. My contribution wasn't as serious as some others - Abbie and I graced the group with the Adam Sandler Hanukah Song while Lauren played it on the guitar. Although, Abbie and I did also sing a normal song called "Christ Child", so I guess we are just that versitile. Janie performed her dance recital number, "Sleigh Ride," and my mom played "Away in the Manger" on her flute while we sang. My cousins did some lovely things with their guitars and voices, like "Still, Still, Still." As always, good food was involved (thanks Grandma, for taking my clam chowder request!), more presents, (please note my Uncle David opening the singing gondelier we got him for his pool, above) as well as a game of Oodles. I thought it was a successful Boxing Day evening!

 I loved all the holidaying that went on this Christmas week, and now I'm ready to find something epic to do for New Year's. Today, I started filling in the book of lists I got for Christmas. It's called, Listography: My Future and All I Plan To Do in Lists. (Santa knows me fairly well.) It has TONS of lists to fill in, from "Museums to Visit" to "Situations I'd Like to Avoid." It even has a list called, "Other Lists I'd Like to Make." So, filling in that book has gotten me into a goal-oriented, future-planning mood, perfect for New Year's! I'm excited to spend time with friends and family this week, as we have out-of-state relatives around. Tonight we all went to the fun center and played about 8 games of laser tag, glow-in-the-dark mini golf, bowling, and trampoline jumping. Even though I lost just about every game of everything, the future is looking bright! It glows in the dark, so to speak.

Happy Holidays, everyone, and here's to a bright 2012!







Sisters: Yes, there are SIX of us.

There is a favorite family story about me that seems to epitomize my dad's experience raising six daughters. It's a crowd favorite; my parents even sent it in to Reader's Digest once. It goes like this. One day when I was four or five years old, I asked, "Dad, can we play ball?" My dad was pleasantly surprised. After my first day of tee-ball, he had given up hope that I would ever show interest in sports. He said something like, "Okay, what do you want to play? Basketball...baseball..." I gave him a confused look and said, "No, Dad. You stand over there and I'll stand over here, and you're the prince. You have to ask me to dance."

My parents had a boys' name picked out for every one of us. I was Ethan, Abbie was Nathan, Rachel was Sam....you get it. Actually, when I was on my way and my dad was slightly more obsessed with basketball than he is now, he was hoping for twin boys.  Benjamin and Duncan. Get it? Been jammin and Dunkin. I am fully convinced that this is why God did not allow me to be a boy.

My parents were sure that Lauren was a boy. Isaac. When they were told otherwise, we were all like, "What? What happened to our brother? Isaac?" It was like he'd changed his mind and been replaced. After that, we all kind of gave up on the idea of having a brother. If Hannah or Janie had been a boy, at that point we would've had no idea what to do with them.

My mom would never show it, but it kind of irks her and the rest of us when people tell her that our dad is a saint for putting up with six girls, implying that he must be miserable most of the time, and terribly disappointed with this unfortunate prank of genetics. When we get home after one of these conversations, our mom makes sure to tell us that our dad would not trade his life with us for anything. Apart from the "playing ball" story, I have never had a reason to doubt this. I have the letters my dad wrote me when I was born, and I'll tell you what...he really likes me.

I went through various angsty phases when I was not so pleased about being the oldest of six girls. But now, my sisters are my everything. I feel so unspeakably blessed. I often hope that someday I have daughters who remind me of my sisters. I think about the way Abbie's always singing, how she's always been the one willing to swim out into the ocean with me, and when we got in a car crash together and the first thing she said after the impact, as the car was filling with smoke, was, "Are YOU okay?!" And Rachel: the way she loves to play dress up (she and Lauren like to play hobos, pioneers, or anything that could end in a good death scence), how she has asked me every day for ten years, "Can we play a game?", and the way she makes everything into a holiday or special event. Lauren: When she wrote a letter to Jane Goodall that ended up in Time Magazine, teasing her about engineering camp and how that only made her love it more, her "special connection" to Zoe the cat, her free, careless laugh. Hannah's fiery red hair and personality, how hard she worked to learn to read, the way she follows babies and toddlers around wanting to mother them. Janie's loud confident voice in her short little body. She'll surprise you by saying things like, "Why did they have to kill Osama bin Laden? Why couldn't they just teach him how to be nice?" and "Abstract is when you know what your art means but no one else does." I love each one of them more than I could ever love anything, and I hope I can see pieces of all of them in my daughters. (I will not be having boy children.)

Some of my sisters (cough, Lauren) still like to give me grief over a home video we have of the day Janie was born, where I say that Jane looks like an alien and I'm scared to hold her. I know we laugh about it now, but Jane, I am so sorry about that. I was thirteen and hopelessly selfish. Know that now, there is no one I'd rather hold. I love it when I crack open the front door, and immediately hear you and Hannah yell, "HILARY!!" and come running to me. I love how when I pick you up, you have this funny way of holding onto my arms like a monkey. You have done that since you were a baby. When I hold you too tight, that's my way of saying, "PLEASE remember this when you're older. Please remember that we lived in the same house once."

"The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend." - Cali Rae Turner

My sisters are my best friends. They are always there for me, no matter who else walks in and out of my life. We have moved together, been through all the weird fads together (Backstreet Boys, Pokemon, Justin Bieber), learned to swim, play the piano, and sing together, been all over the country together, and most importantly, most of the crazy fun things I have done in my life have been done with my sisters. I would NEVER trade any of them for a brother, even for one day. Shudder.

I have been blessed in my life to have friends who feel like family. But I feel even more blessed to have sisters who feel like friends. I love you, girls. I'll always be your big sister.

Tour of India

My mother has never been content to let us laze around all summer. A couple of weeks ago, my sisters were playing Rockband on the Wii, and she asked them, "Is this helping you become what you're supposed to become?" That's how she is. She has always comes up with ways to make us read, exercise, be artistic, and otherwise learn over the summer. This year, she decided we should celebrate a different country each week. And it's actually been really fun so far. So I decided to blog about our world travels so that my blog actually has a purpose!

We started with India. India is a pretty important country, since 1 out of 6 people on Earth live there. We started by going to the library, of course.

We found folk tales, biographies, picture books, and histories. My favorite things we learned about were the Taj Mahal, and Gandhi. Basically no one has ever been as cool as Gandhi. And the Taj Mahal is beautiful and romantic. 

Next, we colored pictures of some of the Hindu gods. There are millions of Hindu gods, so when I say some, I really mean just some. Mark Twain said that in religion, all other nations are paupers, and India is the only millionaire.

This (the elephent) is Ganesh, the god of good fortune. Ganesh is usually featured at weddings and other new beginnings.

And this is Devi, the mother goddess.

We went to Taste of India one day for lunch. It was so much fun! It was really pretty inside and everyone was wearing a turban. Plus, they gave the kids an ipad to play with while we waited. Who does that?

Everything was good, if you like spicy.

Abbie helped us make these cool tea light holders out of clay. She's a potter.

Lights like these are set in the holy Ganges river as prayers. We had our own little light festival in our backyard.

And let's not forget family yoga night.

We also watched a Bollywood movie. That might've been the worst part of India week, at least for me, so there is no picture. But really, India is really cool! This week were are doing the Caribbean Islands, so stay tuned!

Something I Wrote on a Piece of Hotel Paper Once

So, sometimes I write poems. Let that sink in.

A couple of nights ago, my dear roommate Jessica and I went to a poetry reading at the True Aggie Cafe. Whenever we go to these readings, I'm always briefly inspired to share something I've written with someone. This feeling usually goes away when I realize how frightening the prospect is. But tonight, I figured, my blog would be a good place to start.

I got the idea for this poem in a hotel in Midway. I was on a trip with my dear friends, Delanie Candace and Melissa, in a fancy resort. Of course there was a pad of hotel paper on the desk in our room. I decided it would be nifty to write a poem about traveling on the fancy paper, which claimed to be "printed with soy ink" and holds the inviting phrase "thoughts, meet paper." I took a piece of the paper home and wrote this poem on it. The poem is named after the hotel. I found out later that Zermatt actually means "on the flat." I wish I had found out that it meant something much more poetic or related to the theme, but what can you do.

Zermatt

In hope of shedding our
usual skin, we leave again
and again.

We ride up and down gold
elevators, shuffle through
airports, and drive over
bridges under a few stars.

Everywhere, someone will
ask, "Where are you from?"
as if this were easily answered.

At night in a hotel, I dream
of trying to fit together
a puzzle of a map,

my sleeping self still
catching up to where
we really are.

2010.

Okay, I swore I would never have a blog, but 2011 is going to be the year for trying new things. So here I go!

2010 was a crazy year for me! I had a few major changes in my life this year, but I'm pleased to announce that I have adjusted rather well and that 2010 was good to me! If you are going to read my blog more than once, you will soon find that I LOVE making lists. So here is my first list of 2011: things I remember about dearly departed 2010.

In 2010 I...

1. spent Spring Break in a fancy Park City resort with my best friends!

2. finished my freshman year of college.

3. officially declared my major and minor! (English Teaching and Sociology)

4. went to EarthFest and saw Train in concert.

5. heard songs I had written with Garrett on a cd he recorded in a studio.

6. got a new job on campus at the writing center!

7. sang at the Joseph Smith fireside in the Spectrum, and at the CES fireside in Provo.

8. got better grades than I did in high school!

9. drove on the freeway for the first and only time. (shut up.)

10. said "see you in two!" to my boyfriend of 2.5 years as he headed out on his mission to San Fernando California.

11. wrote a lot of letters!

12. was sorted into Hufflepuff at Abbie's Harry Potter birthday party.
13. watched the Winter Olympics!

14. went to many an Aggie basketball game.

15. attended 3 of my roommates weddings in two months!

16. colored with multi-cultural crayons.

17. participated in Walk-a-Mile in Her Shoes.

18. saw pelicans. In Utah.

19. walked for cystic fibrosis.

20. bought two goldfish named Phineas and Ferb.

21. had funerals for two goldfish named Phineas and Ferb.

22. saw the cliff divers at the Mayan.

23. let a large snake squeeze my hand.

24. went to the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway! And met Captain Jack Sparrow there.

25. went to the Utah Art Festival in Library Square. Win!

26. slept on the trampoline with my sisters.

27. met Elder Bednar.

28. turned 19 at Seven Peaks!

29. went on a road trip with my best friends to San Diego!!

30. took a Western-themed vacation with the fam.

31. rode a horse for the first time!

32. went four-wheeling and boating.

33. saw 4 plays (not all at once): The Foreigner, Scarlet Pimpernel, Suessical and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

34. floated down the Buffalo River. And watched Abbie fall backwards into the river immediately upon sitting in her tube.

35. planted things in a greenhouse!

36. was a winner in a writing contest.

37. found out I love the farmers' market!

38. started singing at the nursing home every Sunday with friends.

39. went to the Harry Potter 7 premiere!

40. rode in the homecoming parade on the SAAVI float.

41. met Jon Schmidt!

42. gave blood.

43. met my amaaazing new roommates: Taylor, Jessica, Shanna and Michelle. They have made the year so much better!

44. got my wisdom teeth out.

45.took a family history class.

46. read a LOT of good books.

47. took water aerobics!

48. tried to be an artist with the oil pastels I got for Christmas.

49. was a fairy for Halloween. I went to the Howl and saw We the Kings!

50. went outdoor ice skating by the temple.

51. learned to make a dog out of a balloon.

52. finally climbed all the way to the waterfall in Adam's Canyon.

53. touched sting rays at the aquarium.

54. made a pretty gangster music video with my sisters.

55. had a glowstick party in the park.

56. went to the paint dance!

57. froze mullet-head Barbie in the freezer.

58. went to Christmas Around the World with the family.

59. volunteered with Storytellers, Aggies for Africa, and SAAVI.

60. memorized the young women's theme in Spanish.

61. decided to start a blog.

Whew! I feel really good about this year! I knew that I didn't want to just sit and "wait" for Garrett to come home, and because of that choice I have really learned to be in charge of my own happiness. Which is priceless! There are a lot of things on this list I thought I would never do. Numbers 42 and 61 are definitely included in that, but so is number 10. If I told my 15/16-year-old self that I would spend half of 2010 "waiting" for a missionary, she would say what a lot of people probably want to say to me: "That is the stupidest thing ever." Well, when you meet someone who ALWAYS lets you choose the music in his car, even if it's The Ting Tings, you have no choice but to do a few stupid things to keep him. And I found out that while waiting for a missionary isn't like living in Candyland or anything, it's pretty good. Thank you to my crazy friends and family for making 2010 not only bearable, but wonderful! I have big plans for 2011! (Turning 20 in Disneyland sound good?)

Happy New Year!