2013 review.

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey

 

This has been a year of many ups and downs.  Part of my year honestly felt like those weird chapters of Bella's life in the book New Moon, the blank ones with months written at the top.  But then the Stars came out.  I decided it was high time I made an effort to meet people that weren't friends of roommates, old friends from USU or High School, or co-workers.  So I started out on my own and I met some amazing people who made my life a lot better. Oh and this one day I turned 30.

In tradition of all year-in-reviews I am now going to list those that have been lost to me this year:  My old pseudo grandpa: Del Niederhauser,  and friend from Jr. High: Kandy, Cory Montieth, Paul Walker, Nelson Mandela, and 4 guys named Mike, most notably, Michael Scott and the cast of the Office.

Speaking of the Office,  my life seems to have been entertainment tonight, today, everyday, all day. I get a lot of comments about how people hate looking at my facebook (but can't help themselves) because I seem to live a life of endless entertainment.  Well I must admit that there have been a lot of intentional and unintentional moments that entertained me this year.  I also went to back to school, lost 2 sisters to international time zones, and had the most weird dating year since like, well 2003, but overall, yes it was a year of endless entertainment.

Trips:  I went on 6 trips this year:  Germany/Italy, Seattle, Bryce Canyon, Zions National Park, St. George, and Vegas.  I love to travel, I am glad I was able to see so many places and do so many things with a lot of people I care about.  Some quick stats:

Movies: 29 movies.  Favorites include Iron Man 3, the Host, Thor 2, The Mortal Instruments, Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters, World War Z, Fast and Furious 6, and the Hobbit: Desolation Of Smaug. Honorable mention is Sharknado.  Seriously.  The last movie I saw this year was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  I HIGHLY recommend this movie.  It was funny, clean, and inspirational.  I will talk more about this movie soon.

Books: 41 books, and 5 were text books I actually read through!  My favorites were House of Hades by Rick Riordan, Inferno by Dan Brown, Chasing the Prophecy by Brandon Mull, and Into the Fire by Dakota Meyer.  My least favorite book was Warm Bodies...the movie was better for sure.  New series I got into was The Mortal Instruments. Most random thing I read was a sociological study and review titled, "What is the Hipster." 

Plays: I attended 13 plays this year, all were entertaining and most were well acted.  I loved Elf the Musical and 39 Steps the most.

Events:  I attended 13 concerts this year.  2 were repeaters, Muse and Imagine Dragons I saw twice.  The most surprisingly good concert was Fun.  They most random concert I went to was Rush.  I love live music so this goal to average one concert a month was a fun one.  The last concert I went to this year was Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas concert with my mom.  I love their new age music, but the cheesy graphics from the late 80's.... time to change that!

I also attended 2 Yankees games this year with Toni, gotta love it and glad I got to see Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte play before they retired.  Also Robinson Cano before he left us for the Mariners.

And I have to mention Salt Lake Comic Con.  I didn't know if I would really like it or not but it was a total blast, I had so much fun meeting so many cool people and hanging out with friends.

So I am definitely excited to see what 2014 has in store.  I have learned a lot about myself and what I want my life to be versus what Heavenly Father has in store.  I think those things are finely lining up a bit better and can't wait to see what path it leads me down.  Have a happy new year everyone!

 

“Let our New Year's resolution be this: We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” — Goran Persson

A Very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve:

Christmas eve was spent visiting with Susie and Maggie, chatting via Skype with Laura and her boyfriend William in Germany (where she was visiting his family for Christmas), and then caroling to the Chidister's and Sister Wake in our home ward, then over to Rose Park to visit Sarah and Alfredo (who served us divine Empanadas) and then to the Orton's where we had a lovely visit and hot chocolate bar.  After our traditional caroling, we met back at the Burrow with Brynn, Craig, and Baby Deirdre for stockings and a reading of the Christmas Story.

Christmas Day:

Since we are all adult-ish now we decided just to meet back at the Burrow around 1030 for breakfast and then presents.  Well even though we all met then, we found out that we had all been awake around 7 a.m. anyway!  We had German puffed pancakes for breakfast then enjoyed opening presents.  I received some fun things, mostly cooking stuff like the Duck Dynasty cookbook, "Miss Kay's Kitchen," Ann Romney's cookbook, and a Star Wars cooking set.  Also a food scale, Russian stacking dolls that are actually measuring cups, and a heart jello mold (like a human heart).  Laura sent me a beautiful scarf from Scotland as well as a Scottish cookbook and a beautiful man on a magnet from Scotland.  Kristan sent us all gifts from the Marshall Islands.  My dad got a cool tie made of shells.

That afternoon we were able to Skype with Kristan, then three-way call with Laura.  It was a bummer having 2 sister's gone this Christmas, but it was great to talk to them for awhile and see how they are progressing in life.  Super proud of both of them. 

After a turkey dinner we decided to go check out some highly recommended Christmas light displays in Sandy and Draper.  They were pretty cool and the dogs liked them too I think.  We spent a lot of time trying to guess what "Christmas Carol" Briar Rose was "singing" while we drove.  There was this crazy mushroom-like tree in Draper park and there was also a great view of the Draper temple.  Over all it was a great Christmas!

Making Christmas.

 

I've been busy on my two days off before Christmas trying to celebrate the season.  All of my gifts and decorating have been done for awhile but I hadn't done much of the traditional celebration things.

Becca, Melissa, and I decided to make gingerbread houses to celebrate Becca's birthday and then watch some Christmas movies.

I went and saw Elf: The Musical at Pioneer Theater Company.  "O.M.Gosh" was it funny.  The songs were delightful, it was expertly performed, and it followed the core of the movie that we all know and love.  Highly recommend it, I don't think I have been as entertained at a show since I saw Newsies on Broadway in NYC last year.

I cleaned my entire room head to toe.  This may not seem very Christmasy to you, but growing up there was a rule that Santa couldn't bring gifts if our room was a mess, and usually a mad scramble to clean them up well, so for me this is a big deal still.  Always easier to enjoy the holidays when the house is clean.

I made chocolate and candy cane dipped marshmallows for hot chocolate and they are delish.  Also made some Cinnamon-Pecan popcorn from Our Best Bites.

Finished sewing my projects I started for Baby Deirdre last August.  Started as in I bought material and I still hadn't done anything about it until yesterday!

Last night we went to the Piano Guys Christmas Concert at the Energy Solutions Arena.  I saw it with Toni, Melissa, Krystal, and Camille, and it was really cool.  They played a lot of non Christmas songs and had some cool guest performers like Alex Boye, and Jon Schmidt's dad.  My favorite songs were O Come O Come Emmanuel, Peponi (The Swahili version of Coldplay's Paradise), and Angel's We Have Heard on High (played on the inside of a piano).  At the end we all sang Silent Night which was cool when being sung with 12,000 of your closest friends.

 

 

When life gets in the way...

I realized there are a lot of little moments I missed blogging about because of finals....

Finals came and went, Cyrus and I had set it up that we could not take the final test and still pass the class and when we decided to take the final with minimal studying we actually did fairly well.  Ok really well, we each scored 3 A's and 1 A- as our Final grades this semester.  I wish I could have gotten that elusive 4.0 I have never seen in my life but my sister had a baby and I was grateful school was over so I am over it.

This one time when a guy I used to really like invited me to his bachelor's party.  So not cool dude, you knew how I felt about you.  Have a nice life.

My Christmas playlist is 5 hours long and that doesn't include the amazing Piano Guys Christmas album.  Super excited for that concert on Saturday.  My favorite Christmas performers are:  Mannheim Steamroller (also going to that concert), Kurt Bestor, and Linda Eder.  I also have soft spots for Piano Guys, She and Him, SheDaisy (only the Christmas album), Jenny Oaks Baker, and Ella Fitzgerald.  My favorite songs are Carol of the Bells (any version), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland or Linda Eder version), Sleigh Ride (any version), O Come O Come Emmanuel (any version), and I Wander as I Wonder (Katie Thompson from Forgotten Carols version).  And yes, Justin Bieber made the list with Pray...okay, and with Mistletoe.

My friend Megs is getting married, she dated a guy, got really serious, they ended it, he moved across the country, they reconciled, and then decided that if they were going to go for it they may as well get married.  Way to be you too, I am so excited for you!

I am doing an advent Lego Starwars calendar.  It has been kind of amusing to post each creation on instagram everyday and seeing the response.  There is a guy who is following my posts now and I can count on him to like the post within 4 minutes regardless of when I post it.  Amusing.

One of my guilty pleasures is following celebrities on twitter and watching them fangirl over each other. 

Just waiting for one more package and my Christmas shopping is done.  I get way to much enjoyment trying to pick out good and fitting gifts.  I have reigned in my spending a bit which is one of my great trials in life.

Melissa and I have been watching Fast and Furious movies, well fast and furiously, in honor of Paul Walker and have loved every minute of it.

We also watched a doc on Nelson Mandela.  Respect.

My friend Val got married and it was a wonderful wedding day, filled with laughter and lots of old friends from the best singles ward that was ever in Salt Lake.

The snow came in mightily and froze early.  We have had some killer ice/icicles hanging around.

My dog can be so dang cute sometimes and finally learned how to not burn her bum sitting on the fireplace.

We had our annual Slug Club Christmas party after seeing Brynn's baby and watching the Hobbit Desolation of Smaug.  Yummy Butterbeer was had by all.

A Tolkien holiday

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”  

-J.R.R. Tolkien

This quote by Tolkien is the most Christmas related quote I think he has.  Gold, I wonder as I wander, frost, fire, light, King of Kings... Okay it is a stretch but for me it was a little stretch.

Anyway the point is this weekend was a very Tolkien holiday for me.  I went with my family to see the Hobbit and then I went with a bunch of friends to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert where John Rhys-Davies spoke (he plays Gimli, son of Gloin in the Lord of the Rings movies).

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug was an interesting movie.  The 2nd of a trilogy always feels the longest and the darkest I think, but although this one was long and dark, it was also visually stunning and had some great moments of fun.  I loved the barrel escape, I loved Kili and Tauriel's moments, and of course you have to enjoy Legolas snowboarding on giant spiders.  The dragon in the gold was very cool and life-like, and the Bard was just one more good looking man to look at.

This was actually the first time I have been to a MoTab Christmas concert.  Overall it was a great performance.  At times I felt it was a little slow and a bit too classical, but then John flew as the Ghost of Christmas present.  Awesome.  He was telling the story of how Charles Dickens came to write "The Christmas Carol" and there was a re-enactment.  Very cool.  The songs I enjoyed the most of Coventry Carol and when Soprano, Deborah Voight sang Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  I also liked something John said in a press conference, below is that quote and a picture of him flying that were featured in the Deseret News.

“It is a unique experience. … This community has a natural warmth and affection and outgoing kindness and consideration. It isn’t feigned, it isn’t put on, it isn’t designed specially for visitors. It’s rooted in that central thing of good manners and natural kindness.”

He said he sometimes speaks to young people about shyness, telling them it is quite natural. “But you have to understand, it is egotism. You walk into a room and suddenly there's all these people there. And you think, ‘Oh, they’re all judging me; they’re looking at me.’ Turn it the other way around and think, ‘I’m walking into a room full of very shy people, and my job is to make them feel at ease and comfortable in their situation. That is really the root of good manners: making the people around you feel comfortable. … You people have it in abundance. You have it naturally. It comes so easily for you.”

I like this quote because I believe that very much and think many of us fall into the trap of thinking others are judging us or they are just being nice because they have too.  That isn't necessarily true and instead of assuming that we should turn it around.  It is also one of the things I like about living in Utah. I know many people who would disagree and say that Utahans are very judgmental and fake, but in my 30 years as a Utahan I have never experienced that here.

After the concert we decided to walk around Temple Square and enjoy the lights, they are just so beautiful this time of year.

Baby Deirdre.

My sister Brynn had a baby and named her Deirdre (pronounced Dayr-dree) and she is cute and squishy. The name is Irish, but when you pronounce it correctly *which I rarely do* it sounds Scottish.