The Biltmore Mansion

During our adventures over the break, we helped Nick's family start their move to Charlotte, North Carolina. While there, we took a day trip to Asheville to the Biltmore Mansion home to the Vanderbilt family. We saw a pretty cool tour of the place with giant Christmas trees and just the grandeur and majesty of the place. 

In front of the Biltmore Mansion

The view

Now this is a gingerbread house!

Winter Break

One thing I was really excited about when I started at my current job last January was that the office is closed from December 24 - January 1. This meant that I could take a nice break. I took a couple extra days off and spent them with my family in Michigan.

Walking on Woodward Avenue with the beautiful Christmas lights

The Detroit Opera House - Stunning!

Parents ready to see Wicked

We made "fairy princess crowns"

My mom bought a portable ping pong table for my dad for Christmas. I'm pretty sure she likes it way more than him!

Santa's helpers

The Holiday Spirit

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Is Christmas really in 2 weeks? I seriously need to finish shopping... I'm really bad at gift giving. I like getting people things that they like, but the pressure of doing it between November 15th when I start to think about it and December 24th when it has to be done is sometimes too much.

But this year, as Christmas approaches, I'm trying not to stress too much about gifts and I'm trying to enjoy the season and remember the birth of Jesus Christ. Basically the past 8 years (except 1) have been focused on final exams, so this year it's so nice to not have to think about memorizing [useless] facts and I can do start some traditions of my own in DC.

This past weekend I went to an ice show at National Harbor. The theme this year was "Shrek the Halls" and there were millions of pounds of ice and amazing ice sculptures carved with such detail that I couldn't believe my eyes. The only downside to the exhibit was the fact that it was only 9 degrees. Although we were provided with parkas, it was cold! But definitely worth it. 

One thing that really impressed me was at the end of the Shrek part, there was a nativity scene sculpted out of ice. I loved that it was just pure ice without any color and I also loved that every 3ish minutes, Shrek retold the story of the birth of Christ.

Even in a world where everything seems to be "PC" and Christmas seems to be more about Santa Clause and his Reindeer, this ice exhibit with its gorgeous nativity scene was able to remind me that it's ok to talk about Christ at Christmas. 

Although I've grown up celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas, and sometimes it is complicated to talk about religion and holidays, this really just reminded me that it's ok to celebrate and share things that are important to you. And to remember that Christ was born and that He lives.

They Knew the WHOLE Time...

Well, I didn't get a photo of their reaction or tonight's 12 "drummers drumming." I went over to my neighbors' house and gave them a box of 12 mini drumstick ice cream cones. (Pretty nice random gift if I say so myself). And they totally weren't surprised and didn't react. They knew it was me!

I guess when they gave the non-description to my roommate, they knew she was poking around for me and they didn't want me to know that they knew. Sad day. But it was still fun anyway. I think they still had fun because they had no idea what was coming. It was fun and creative, and it kept my mind off of finals for a few minutes each day.

I had a nice long chat with them about random stuff. When one of them told me that he was getting a big kid job and that he was just going to continue living the college life and make tons of money and then quit his job after a year or two and live off the money he saved and then get a new job and do it all over again. I promptly told him to grow up.

He said, "I'll get married when you get married."

What?! I meant don't act like an immature kid when you have to move on in life. I didn't say anything about getting married.*

... someone is afraid of commitment

*And it's not like I'm avoiding getting married, it's avoiding me.

They Still Haven't Caught Me

They left this note next to my Ten Lords a Leaping from yesterday. It made me smile.

They still haven't caught me. Apparently my roommate chatted with one of them and their other neighbor saw me and described me as "this tall" (apparently average height), brown hair, and a pony tail. Luckily that amazing description says nothing. Today, I almost didn't get a photo because I forgot to take one, and as I was walking away I realized that I needed to snap a photo. I thought I'd chance it. So it's not the greatest quality photo, but here are my Eleven Pipers Piping.

I'm pretty excited to see their reaction when they find out that it was me the whole time. It's going to be pretty amusing. Now, I just need to make sure I go by when they're all home...

Ten Lords a Leaping

I thought that this one was pretty clever and fun.

I tied thread around them so that they could be leaping. A little tedious - sure, but still fun.

I got about 50 firemen in 1 package at the dollar store. ... I should really check out the dollar store more often. It has some pretty cool things. :)

Figuring out Federal Tax...

I only have one "real" final this semester and I go in bouts where I feel prepared and bouts where I feel like the subject is completely foreign to me. Federal Tax is pretty dense stuff. It made sense when we talked about each topic in class, but as I'm reading my notes about reversionary interests, like-kind exchanges, and capital gains and losses, it all just seems to be Greek. My final is at 8:30am on Monday, so I'll have to be ready for then. I had high hopes of a 3.8 at least earlier this semester. But I think I'd be content with 3.5/3.6...

As for my 12 Days of Christmas prank, this is what I left for my neighbors:

I had actually written another little note that said something about leaving out the 'cross-dressing' princess (Mulan), but I thought it was funnier in my head than what it really would have been when they read the note. So I refrained. (I do have a filter, sweet!) I also wanted to write something about the skinny jeans controversy because I felt that I could have worked it in somehow, but I am just not that witty apparently.

I'm excited for tomorrow's item. I just hope they don't catch me setting up...

A Christmas Miracle

So today, I tried to do the delivery like three times, but I suspected that they were watching for me. I know they are probably not hanging out in their cars when it is 19 degrees out, but I could hear talking, so I decided to hold off.

I really have no idea if they know that it's me. I kinda hope they don't because it's more fun. And if they do know it's me, I hope that they would tell me that they know so I wouldn't have to be so sneaky about it.

I gave them eight packages of hot chocolate with marshmallows.
And wrote, "they were brown cows." I think it's cute.

Swan-ish

This morning I dropped off seven "swans" a swimming. I really like this one. I was going to put them all in one bowl, but I thought it would be more dramatic with seven bowls.

It took a little more time and I was concerned about getting caught, but it seems like they weren't paying attention at 7:45 am.

Time needs to slow down

I can't believe it's already December 6! Where is the time going? I need more time. I want it to go fast and slow at the same time. It's complicated. I need more time to study, but I'd like to be done with the semester. Life is pretty fickle. In 8 days I will be home with my family! Crazy crazy! Just 1 major final, 1 small final, and a paper stands in my way.

On day 5 of my little 12 days of Christmas adventure, I left 5 ring pops with gold ribbon tied around them. I of course forgot to take a photo again...

But today, day 6, I took a couple photos of my "six geese a laying"

Jam-Packed Sabbath

Today was a pretty crazy day.

First, church was rough since it's fast Sunday in a YSA ward. I led the irreverent charge during sacrament meeting and ended up walking out in the middle of a ridiculous testimony about "sock man." But it wasn't all a loss because this guy told me I was one of the most beautiful women he knows. It was a little awkward, but I'll take the compliment.

After church, I come home to change into my jeans and to my surprise I find a field MOUSE in my closet! Are you kidding me?

I thought I was a pretty tough cookie. Nope. I screamed like a little girl. Like 15 times. After 45 minutes and frantic calls to my home teachers and land lord, they eventually caught the mouse and let him go somewhere.

It was a pretty intense afternoon.

Later on, we went over to my neighbors/home teachers' apartment to watch the Christmas Devotional with them. Unbeknownst to them, I'm the one dropping off the little 12 days of Christmas items on their doorstep. So when we go over tonight, I drop the stuff off, and when they answer the door they do not realize it's there.

When another roommate comes home an hour later, he makes it clear that they had failed to catch the culprit because the 4th day of Christmas was on the doorstep.

I left four air planes and I wrote my phone number on them. (four calling birds) BUT, I wrote each section of my phone number backwards, so it's not so straight forward.

It was really funny for them to show us all of the 12 Days of Christmas things and say that the "culprit" is really smart. They were impressed with the note I left on the nursery books yesterday (the note said "some of it might have gotten lost in the French translation). And today, they were pretty impressed that I thought to leave a phone number to tie in the "calling" part, and to leave a clue.

So now they're trying to rack their brain for anyone they know in Oklahoma. ... they haven't figured out the code yet. We'll see if they ever do.

I forgot to take photos of my day 3 of the 12 days of Christmas. I left 3 childrens books - Chicken Little, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Hares (yes hares). It's a fun little thing. I wish that I had picked up real chickens though. That would have been hilarious... Another time... maybe the opportunity will come.

Today was amazing though. I got to see the lights at Temple Square. It was a bit crowded and chilly for my taste, but I enjoyed the evening. Here are some photos from my adventure.

Cross Culture

I remembered to take a photo today! Hurray! 2 turtle doves! :)

I celebrated Hanukkah today with some friends just because I live in Provo, so half the people have never even heard of Hanukkah despite Adam Sandler's attempts otherwise. And it seemed like a fun thing to do. I also decided to celebrate the 8th day of Hanukkah, because it's more aesthetically pleasing.

I thought this looked pretty cool with the last light hanging on and the wax buildup from the other candles.

Overall it was a fun night. But I'm exhausted. 8 hours of studying and 2 hours of frying latkes, and then 4 hours of hanging out with friends... I'm beat! This is why I don't plan parties... too much work! I like having people over, but it needs to be like 10 people max, or it has to be potluck, or no food. That's my future party plan.

Happy December!

So a couple of years ago my roommates and I did the whole 12 Days of Christmas for a Secret Santa project. I wanted to do it again, so I started it tonight. I dropped off a Partridge Family cd and a pear on the doorstep of my home teachers.

I meant to take a photo to document. But I forgot.

So instead, you get to look at a photo of llamas. Some group on campus does "Carollama" where you go Caroling with Llamas. They meet in the law school parking lot. So when I was walking home tonight, I think they were packing up and I decided to take a photo. I really wanted to take a photo with me and a llama. But I was worried that I would get chastised. So instead, here are the llamas that go caroling.

Happy December!

12 drummers drumming

So being our 12th day of Christmas to drop off our secret Santa gift each day, we had to come up with something big. Like I said, we didn't really have anything, We were toying with the idea of marshmallows. However yesterday, we came up with a brilliant idea. We'd get 12 people and bang on pots for our 12 drummers drumming.

Good thing we're in college, or else this probably wouldn't have worked. So we went around to a few apartments to round up people. And within 10 minutes we had 12 people with their pots in hand. We did a little persuading. It would only take a few minutes, and how often do you get to bang on a pot for no apparent reason? Worked like a charm.

It was really fun. It would have been better if more that one person would have been home when we went by. We were going to write a note on yesterday's thing, but we forgot... Oh well. We video taped it, so they can see the amazing 12 person pot-banging 12 drummers drumming extravaganza!!

Christmas Fail...

My ward is doing this secret Santa thing for Christmas where we get another house and for the 25 days (or however long we're in town) we can do little things for another house. So my apartment got a house and we (meaning I) wanted to do something funny. So we brain-stormed the funny 12 Days of Christmas. For example, day 1 we did a cd of Partridge Family songs and a pear and a cut out Christmas tree. Pretty funny I thought.

Day 2 we did 2 bars of dove soap with a drawing of a turtle on each. (Dove soap is really strongly scented just FYI).

For Day 3, we did 3 slices of French Toast with a note saying (in French) that the hens never had a chance to hatch.

Now for my fail. On Day 4 we were supposed to each call one of the guys in the house and make bird noises (chirp chirp, tweet tweet, etc). Well, I wrote the guy's number down wrong, so I called some man all day who was very angry that he was getting weird prank phone calls. It was really embarrassing. (My friends, whose phones I used, got angry phone calls from some man demanding explanations.) So, I called him back and left a message explaining what it was I was doing, and I think he'd have to get over it. I mean, it is kind of funny, don't you think?

Fail #2: For Day 5, (5 rolls of toilet paper wrapped in gold ribbon) we totally got caught. It doesn't help that 1 of the roommates knows everyone, so it's hard for her to do covert-ops. So they were waiting for us. One of the guys was just outside walking around. Then he stood by his car. Once he got in his car and drove away, we went up to the door to drop off the stuff (they live upstairs which is really inconvenient) and the people in the house screamed "caught you red handed" so we bolted. But stupid me, I still had one roll of toilet paper in my hand. So we threw it at their door as they exclaimed, "that's where the 5th one is" and then ran home. Well, remember the guy in the car, well he was driving around in circles waiting for us, and followed us back to the apartment (in his car while we were running). We booked it into different apartments - yeah, I totally broke into someone's house and ruined a date night (SORRY!), but he just waited for us to come out. One of my roommates left too early and he caught her, so the jig was up.

What fun is it now? Couldn't they have waited until like day 10 to try to see who it was? Kinda lame...

Anyway, in case you want to know what else we have planned for the 12 days here it goes:
6 rubber chickens that "poop" out an egg (kind of pricey so we're doing 1 with some eggs)
7 rubber duckies in 7 bowls of water
8 packages of hot chocolate with a note saying they were brown cows
9 stickers of girls (we wanted to do Disney princesses, or some kind of girly 'action-figure' but they were expense or non-existent in the stores we went to
10 action figures on strings tied to the stairs so that they're leaping (action figures are really cheap!)
11 toy flutes (party favor-esque)
12 --we're still working out this one. We're thinking marshmallow drums. We'd like to do drumsticks, but again a little pricey.

Merry Christmas!