Well, we made it

to the first weekend of the new year, I mean. Friday night involved homemade pizza, working on a few inspiration boards and playing games, getting through a few chapters of The Lord of the Rings (I'm finally reading it!), then heading to bed early. Today we got up pretty early (for a Saturday), then Sam made us homemade crepes before we started on the laundry, cleaning house, and making my shopping list. Later today I'll be going to the gym and shopping for a few things with the rest of my Christmas gift cards. Productive, yet relaxing, and plenty of time with my sweetie. Sounds like the start of a great year to me!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

It looks like this.

 I still feel a little like this. 

And I'm back at this. (Note: not my office)

I'm back to doing this. 

I just looooove January.

2010 Highlights

Looking forward to this new year, I wanted to share some highlights (and lowlights) of 2010.

• We started out the year with a month of back-to-back colds and then I continued to stay sick with something digestive for several months until the spring. After several doctors, lots of tests, being destitute because I could hardly work, and a good amount of despair and hopelessness, it was determined that I had a screwy gallbladder. (That's the most simple way of putting it.) Meds and changing my diet helped slowly get me better. I had one more attack in July, but I've been healthy ever since! P.S. That was a really condensed version of this terrible period of my life, just FYI.
• In May I accepted my current job at a dental marketing firm as a marketing and project manager! And I got to leave Comcast! I've learned and grown so much from this opportunity, about how to handle responsibility and how to manage, and I'm excited to see where the next year will take me.
• In August we traveled to Georgia for my family's annual vacation to Destin, Florida. We spent some time in Georgia, and then a week relaxing on the beach, shopping, eating some great seafood, and even spending a day at our favorite water park right across from the Gulf: Big Kahuna! Sam and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary with my family, and traveled back by road trip to bring a new car out to Utah.
• In the summer we were also called as Ward Activities Co-chairs and were busy busy busy planning activities every month through the summer, fall, and into December. We've also learned a great deal from this chance to serve and really enjoyed having a calling that we could work on together.
• Ross came out to BYU as a freshman this year and we've loved spending time with him almost every week. I'm glad that he'll be here for winter semester too.
• Sam plowed through more school and we're excited that he'll be done this year!

(This is sounding a lot like a Christmas card, isn't it? Well, I didn't send them this year, so I guess this will have to count.) Overall, I'm thrilled to get past a year of growth on to all the big and wonderful things planned for 2011. It's gonna be great!

A Lovely Christmas Vacation

I'm so thankful that we got such a great Christmas break this year. We came to Georgia on the 19th of December and didn't get back until this morning. Almost 2 whole weeks! I haven't spent that much time in Georgia for Christmas in over 5 years. We had tons planned to do, more than we could have done in that time, actually, but it was still a great time.

The Sunday before Christmas, we performed in the Stake Christmas Concert. On Monday, the Wilcox girls went off to Atlanta to see Jennifer's new apartment on the north side, go out for lunch, and shop at the Atlanta Apparel Mart (so much jewelry!!)

Sam and I also had several days to finish all our shopping, which way more relaxing than previous years when we would have to finish on Christmas Eve.

We also got to relive a Christmas tradition we haven't done in years: seeing the lights at Callaway Gardens! It was a very cold night, but we all bundled up on the Jolly Trolley to enjoy the sights and wander the Christmas Village.

Christmas Eve and Christmas were busy, as always, as we share the day with both families. But the bouncing back and forth is worth it as we get a full Christmas with both families!

We got some great kitchen stuff like a mini food processor, some gadgets from Williams Sonoma, several movies, and new clothes! The Sunday after Christmas we performed again, this time in Sacrament Meeting.
The week after Christmas gave us time to hang out, do more shopping, and even have lunch with the Houghtaling's!

So much pecan bark and good food, so many presents, so many games, so much family time! We were starting to feel very settled in Georgia and weren't thrilled to return back to daily life and its work, bills, early mornings, and winter weather. Thankfully, there's always next Christmas!

A real Christmas miracle

 Painting recovered from the Provo Tabernacle fire. The image of Christ was untouched. Image courtesy of KSL

Daniel 3:24-25
24: "Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.     UAdd a Note 

25: He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

And another great message from today's Christmas program: "And after they had seen Him, the Wisemen took a different road home. Should it not be so with us?" I always enjoy reminders of the true meaning of Christmas

Ok, NOW it's the most wonderful time of the year!

Ok, ok. That wasn't all I wanted to say. I've just had that pent up all evening. Recap of the story was that some guy in an SUV had pulled up after us in line I guess thinking he had claimed the spot we were directly perpendicular to. When I backed up a bit to let the guy leaving out of the parking spot so we could take it (and had a right to in the first place), the guy waiting behind us honked like crazy, then rolled down the window to scream profanities at us, then raced around to park by the sidewalk and get out when we ignored is angry taunts, THEN followed us and threatened to beat us because we continued to ignore his obvious desire to fight over it. We walked quickly into the restaurant and a crowd of people to hide from him. Some people are CRAZY! We were both shaking with anger, offense, and anxiety for at least half of what should have been a lovely birthday dinner out. Thanks, psychotic jerkface.

In other news, the Provo Tabernacle burned down, and I am really sad about that. It was a beautiful, 120+ year old building that looked more like an old Catholic church than an LDS church meetinghouse and was a big piece of Provo heritage. I have distinct memories of great Stake Conferences there both in my single days as well as my married days, a lovely Handel's Messiah sing-in at Christmastime, not to mention BYU Women's Chorus concerts. One really great memory I have of Sam and I from our Freshman year happened there: he came to my concert all dressed up and carrying a bouquet of red roses. I heard girls in front of me giggling to each other and debating over which of them some cute boy below them was looking at. I leaned over to see who all this giggling and fuss was about only to see my Samuel looking so handsome and searching the balcony of singers for me. He smiled when he saw me and the group of girls in front whipped around to ask if he was mine and proceeded to tell me how lucky I was. But I already knew that. Wow, sorry to gush. I'm just sad.

But on a happier note than either of those things, Christmas Break is here! Like the last leg of a marathon, we made it through finals and work and sleep deprivation to 2 weeks of freedom! Yesterday was Samuel's 24th birthday and, sure enough, he had to take a 7am final. :( I still got up early with him to make him his favorite breakfast of Raspberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast (yes, it's as amazing as it sounds). Then after his final he got to take a long nap, be exempt from dish-doing, enjoy some decadent brownie-ganache birthday cake made by yours truly, and play some basketball before hunkering down for more studying. Tonight we went  out for dinner at our favorite La Jolla Groves and did some window shopping in the mall. Now we just have to finish laundry. And pack. And pick up the house to be ready to leave tomorrow. It will be a late night, but who cares. Tomorrow we'll be on a plane to my beloved Georgia and to CHRISTMAS!

 

 To-die-for chocolate cake

 

 Awesome lights in the Riverwoods shopping center's new square.

 The huge tree in the mall! Doesn't it look a little bit like these two pictures could be one panoramic picture?

This is why I hate Utah traffic...

Dear jerk who flipped out over the parking spot we took that you thought you had claim over by sneaking around us to try and get, 

Rolling down your windows to curse us out, then pulling over to get out and follow us while threatening us because we ignored you doesn't make you look tough, it makes you look like a spoiled child and a fool. If this violence and aggression is how you respond to something so trivial, you've got way bigger problems than us, and the next time you harass us you WILL end up in handcuffs. I feel sorry for every person in your life.

Sincerely,
One more person who has no respect for you.

Whew. Had to get that out.