Christmas Questions

So an old roommate of mine had this posted on her blog so I decided to do it for mine too...so here it goes
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper...it's totally more festive than gift bags in my opinion...also it's much funner to unwrap something rapped in rapping paper.
2. Tree - Real or Artificial? I can't believe this is even a question...I am 100% for real trees! Also 100% for cutting down your own tree...I got to be part of this process for the first time in 4 years this year and it was fabulous!
3. When do you put the Christmas tree up?As soon as possible...usually about a week after thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? well after new years.
5. Do you like eggnog? I love Egg nog!!! I would say it's in my top 10 fav. Beverages...even my top 5....my problem as noted in a previous post is the whole "lacto" issue...so this year for my egg nog milk shake (we always have them when we decorate our tree) I had lactose free egg nog which was really great...I have yet to try soy nog.
6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes my Mom actually bought me my own last year...it's set up on the piano with the rest of hers (she has about 15...not all on the piano)
7. Hardest person to buy for?My Mom
8. Easiest person to buy for? my sister Brianna
9. Worst Christmas gift? I can think of a few...but I think it's better to just not talk about it. chuckle.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL! I love seeing how everyones families are doing at Christmas time. I however apparently am not doing Christmas cards this year...unless I happen to get them out tomorrow which is highly unlikely since it's now 10:45 and I have to work in the morning and then ...a Christmas bash to attend...oh well.
11. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas...but I really love Elf too!
12. Favorite Christmas song? It depends on the category I really love the hymn "I heard the bells on Christmas day" that's my fav. Hymn. I also love "oh holy night". The list goes on and on really. I just really LOVE Christmas music...example: today we had the school choir come into our classroom and they sang Christmas carols and for some reason I got all teary eyed...and I was like "what's going on?"
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Early usually but this year since I'm on a teachers pay period...there really wasn't much shopping happening.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I once gave a present a friend gave me to my brother...
15. Favorite food to eat on Christmas? Ham and my mom's special strawberry jello.
16. Clear or colored tree lights? Colored...especially the big old fashioned ones...that's the kind we always had on our tree when I was a kid
17. Travel during Christmas or stay home? Well when ever I'm away at school I always came home but now since I'm home I'll stay at home...but I would say one should be at home for Christmas as often as possible.
18. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
19. Angel or Star on tree top? We've always had an angle, growing up it was always an angle my Aunt Debbie made...but for the past few years it's been a Fancy pants angel my mom had....Anyway I'm going to say angel...but I must say the Cohens star, made by Mom Cohen herself is very nice and looks very festive (I hope Mary didn't change it.)
20. Open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Christmas presents from my Moms family on Christmas eve always...and now because my brother and sister-in-law spend Christmas with her family we open presents with them Christmas eve too. Christmas Day we open presents from our family (all of us at home) and then my Dads family latter that day.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Mean guys at the store who don't want to give you change for a 20 when you're buying a $.50 item...so snooty...bah humbug.
22. Best Christmas present? I always get GREAT gifts but I really loved my digital camera.
23. Favorite Christmas tradition? Cutting our tree down and eating egg nog milkshakes! I also love caroling to friends.

OK guys feel free to now fill this out for yourselves!

Merry Christmas

So I just realized I haven't posted in over a month....I got a job at the beginning of December and between getting into the routine and Christmas festivities I just haven't taken the time but I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas. This Christmas we've (my family) simplified things alot and it's really been great...very peaceful not worrying about buying a bunch of presents (not that presents have been cut out completely just cut back on). Also this Christmas I've learned that Christmas miracles do happen and that with Christ in our lives we can see miracles all year long!

Chatting with Brianna

So this past Monday when I got online to read my sister Brianna's email (she's on a mission in Romania...I think you all know that) and I saw that her gmail status was set as online...so I took a chance and said "are you online?"...turns out she was! We got to chat online for quite sometime and it was very refreshing. My sister Callie was home a the time so she came and sat next to me so she could join in the fun. We decided that since she will be home in 3 months we should decide 3 things we should do when she gets home here they are:
#1 Cuddle: I hate cuddling (I guess this shows how single I am...I'll revise it to I hate cuddling most of the time) but Brianna and Callie love it...now when they say cuddle they usually mean climb into my warm bed and stick their cold feet on me and not give me any room to breath...I don't know who would like that.
#2 Scrapbook: I love to scrapbook...although I think this links me with silly woman from Utah...I love it still...and so does Brianna...she said she's already thought of some ideas for pages she wants to put together when she gets home...I think Brianna, our friend Cindy, and I are the only young women without children who like scrapbooking...possibly on the face of the earth.
# 3 shopping. When Brianna and I shop...we SHOP...we go to each store and look at EVERYTHING...and take our time, having a great time doing it... we usually only stop when we're too tired and hungry to go on...I once tried to take Callie on a shopping trip like this since Brianna has been gone...she lasted about 15 minutes and wanted to go home...party pooper.

I'm so excited. By the way for all those who know her...she's doing great and sends hugs to all of you.

THANKSGIVING OVERKILL!

So I do realized that thanksgiving is still about a week away but I thought I'd share with you that I have already eaten 3 thanksgiving dinners so far this month. One was a birthday party where we all dressed up like pilgrims and Indians, which was a good time, I brought yams. I had never cooked yams before but they actually turned out yummy. Dinner number 2 came about when I attended an enrichment activity with my mom for my home ward where we learned how to make Thanksgiving dinner and then ate it afterward. Last was last night when we had a thanksgiving enrichment activity for my student ward. I made a turkey for this one. I had never made a turkey before...but it turns out that it's really not that difficult. Tonight I went with my parents to a thanksgiving party/variety show for my home ward... thankfully they did not serve turkey! I was careful to avoid any thanksgiving type foods (thankfully there was a lot to choose from since it was a potluck)...I'm hoping that by doing so I will be ready when the real thanksgiving gets here and it will be an enjoyable experience.

Tagged!

Well I've been Tagged apparently so now I'm supposed to share 6 facts or habits...so here it goes:

Habit: just like Hilary I'm an avid flosser...I have very weak teeth enamel and the dentist who I went to while on my mission told me I should floss after every time I eat...I'm not that good any more but I for sure floss more than 2 times per day.

Fact: I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I am a sucker for cheesy Christian romance novels....they don't have to be Mormon based I just love the romance of it all with out having anything inappropriate to mar the quality.

Fact: I am a lacto...meaning I'm lactose intolerant so I can't have dairy....and I'm really looking foreword to trying soynog this Christmas season...now I know it sounds sick but I figure if chocolate soy milk is good why not soynog too...anyway I LOVE eggnog so if soynog turns out to be gross and I have to take the pills and take my chances (the don't usually work for me) so be it.

Fact: I've been inside 11 different Temples: LA, Oakland, Fresno, San Diego, Salt Lake, Provo, Bountiful, Idaho Falls, Manhattan, Portland, Nauvoo... I also went to the open houses of Sacramento and Huntington Beach before they were dedicated.

Fact: I am not a cook but I have a few specialities which include: chocolate chip cookies, omelette's, and chocolate chip waffles.

Habit: I love to sing and thus I'm always singing...I always seem to have a random song I'm singing under my breath. Many of things are songs which nobody seems to believe are real ligit songs mostly because they haven't seen the about 100,000 obscure musicals that I have and also because sometimes Myriah and I just make up songs. Who can tell the diff really?

There it is hope you've enjoyed it!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend I took my friend Sara's kids to the pumpkin patch. The first thing they wanted to do was try out the corn maze...now I don't know if you've ever been in a corn maze but my first and only previous (a long time ago) experience with them wasn't a good one because it was super hard (my Mom will back me up on this, it really wasn't a maze geared toward kids but for some reason we did it anyway)...so a bit reluctantly I headed toward the corn maze. It turned out this one was geared toward kids and it was a good time, although not really worth the $, as you can see from the picture above which is Haily and I in the corn maze we did have fun.


Cute as pumpkins: here's Becka, me, and Haily trying out the pumpkin cut outs...they had a ton of these ply wood cut outs painted like halloweenish things.



Here's a picture I took of the pumpkin patch with the corn maze in the background, it was actually a really cool place...very rustic. It so happens that earlier in the season (before everyone cut them all off) you actually had to take clippers out with you so you could cut your pumpkin from the vine. I think I'll go earlier in the season next year.

CAMP YEAGER

Camp Yeager is a camp on the central coast that our student ward rents once per year in October and the whole ward spends from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon bonding. For the activity on Friday night there was a variety of stations that were set up and we put put in groups and then rotated every 20 mins. My favorite activity was the 2 min scripture picture game, where we were given a scriptural story and then we had 2 mins to pose ourselves to look like that picture before the camera snapped here are a few of my fav's. The one above is my group posed as the tree of life vision (the girl on the left is Lehi, The two guys are the tree, I'm the iron Rod, the girl on the floor is the fountain, and the 2 people standing are the people in the building).


Here we have Abinidi and wicked king noah (the guy in the red is Abinidi, the two of us on the ground are the tigers, the guy in the hoodie is king noah, the girl holding her chin is Alma the elder and the 3 girls pointing are the wicked priests).



This is us being the people who trampled the anti Christ. It was a great time and I think our group did an excellent job if I do say so myself.

FHE Talent Show

Tonight was the first annual north county FHE talent/variety show! It was even more exciting than I thought it would be. Although we are a tight knit group, it was all very revealing evening. First we learned that our friend Bryan (pictured above) is an endless romantic when he played a song he wrote for his girlfriend. I revealed myself as an expert in several ways of whistling. Myriah revealed herself as a expert poem reader. Will was revealed as having a talent for making farting noise 3 different ways with his hands.


My sister Callie expertly played "starry, starry night". She's an amazing prodigy. Kylie played the piano expertly. The "returners" played a couple of their hit songs. KD showed us how she could touch her tongue with her noise. AND FINALLY....


Myriah and I shared our amazing Karaoke singing and dancing skills for the grand final act!

Pioneer Day

Since I haven't been in town for Pioneer day since 1999 (when I appeared in the parade as a belle, due to the fact that my family has been in the area for a really long time...thus making me eligible to be pioneer day royalty) I was especially excited for pioneer day this year. Growing up we always went downtown Paso for pioneer day. This year it fell on conference weekend so we spent the break in between sessions on Saturday celebrating Pioneer Day in the traditional style. First we watched the end of the parade, clapping and cheering. Then we got in line for free bean, here's a pic of Me, My mom (who's excited to have someone else at home who is excited for pioneer day), and my friend Myriah who came alone to experience pioneer day Paso Robles pioneer day.


Here we are getting closer (you can see the "Beans" sign in the background). Note: My Granddad use to come downtown at 4am ever pioneer day to help make the beans, back when the Lions club made the beans from scratch...they are now premade and warmed up to serve in the park.



Here's a man serving the beans from one of several big vats of beans.

Here's me, My sister Callie and Myriah enjoying our free pioneer beans. Note my really great cowgirl shirt, very pioneerish of me.

Here we are in the pioneer day museum replica of the old post office. Our pioneer museum has really improved over the years and it was alot bigger and had alot more hands on stuff than I remember. It was especially exciting to see pictures of my ancestors in some of the displays. It was a great time.

Freshman girls night out.

As a relief society presidency we decided to follow the tradition of the presidency last year and have a freshman girls night out, just to help the girls get to know each other and us. We ate, played a get to know you game, had a spiritual thought from our RS president, and just talked. As you can see there was plenty of fun, food, and laughter. Good times.

D.I. Dance

A few weekend's ago we had a "D.I." Dance at the institute. For those of you not Utah-a-ly inclined that's, Deseret industries, which is a thrift store chain in other places especially Utah but not here in San Luis Obispo county. Anyway here's my BFF Myriah and I in our really great outfits straight from the thrift store. By the way you can't see it but I also had on a really great purple skirt to go with this lovely rainbow top and Myriah's is a full Mu-mu(Sp.) which she kindly gave to me afterward because I've really been wanting a mu-mu! Thanks buddy!

Exciting news!

So today I got a phone call from California State University DH and was invited to set up an interview with their occupational therapy department for admissions to their grad school program! I'm excited...this whole process just keeps exceeding my expectations...I keep thinking well I've gotten this far, I did my best...and then the next step falls into place. Isn't Heavenly Father wonderful?

Monterey Bay Aquarium

My friend Myriah got free tickets from her Dad to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and invited me to go along. I was excited since it's been a really long time since I had been there. Here we are in front of the Aquarium.


They have a ton of different types of Jelly fish. They look so beautiful floating there behind the glass.


Here I am learning about Jelly fish stings and what to do to prevent them, quite interesting as you can tell.


Here's Myriah's cousin Mary who went with us holding up a plastic container filled with junk found in the belly of one baby albatross (large sea gull looking bird). The moral of the story: these birds are huge also don't litter you could be killing baby birds.

During our visit we listened to a presentation in the kelp forest during which they talked alot about the bad rep of sharks (here's a tiger shark we saw in another part of the aquarium) and how they really weren't that mean and that's really too bad they got such a bad rap....the next day in the paper however was an article about a great white attacking a surfer in Monterey...go figure.

One of my favorite parts of the aquarium was this cool hallway you can go into and a wave splashes over the glass above your head and it feels like you're inside a wave. It was a good time. The aquarium has really grown over the years and it was really interesting and a fun place to visit.

Lake Day

Last Saturday my family and I went with some people from my home ward to the lake just outside of Paso. Some friends brought their wave runners and were really great about sharing so I got to take it out twice. Here I am on one looking hard core.


The Lake is way down this year due to our lack of moisture so there's lots of mud and it's hard to get to shore because of all the mud holes you could sink into at any time. There was only one on the shore near where we were camped for the day and this crazy girl had fun giving herself a mud bath. Yuck!


Here's Me, My sister Callie, and our friend Hillary chill'n on the shore enjoying the sunshine.

Even my Mom enjoyed the wave runners! Here she is riding in. It was a great day.

Christina

My cousin Christina came for the wedding and spent the entire week previous to the wedding with my family. Christina, My sister Callie, and I had the chance to totally bond over pedicures, watching chick flicks, going shopping, and lots of girl talk. We wished she could have stayed longer, it was sad to say goodbye but exciting to know we'll keep in better touch from now on. There's just something about family!

The wedding

A couple of weekend's ago, my cousin Tiana got married in the LA Temple. Here's the wedding party. Notice me in my cute dress (made by my Mom-good job mom) just to the left of the bride, in my official maid of honor place. We're quite the good looking bunch if I do say so myself.


Here's me with the bride. It was really fun being her maid of honor. I really had a special place of honor at all times and I felt like I was an essential part of the wedding party.


Greta, Me, and Timbry, the brides maids, with our gorgeous flowers. This was taken at the reception after taking brides maid pictures. Surprisingly we were still able to smile and look cute to spite the fact that we had had smiles plastered on our faces for about an hour previous to when this picture was taken.

Tiana's Bridal shower

My cousin Tiana asked me to be her maid of honor. Due to the fact that I had never even been in a wedding party I was a little nervous...what does a maid of honor even do? After I got my self together I discovered that my first order of business was the bridal shower. With lots of help from family and friends it all came together quite nicely. Here I am pictured with my baked goods I made for the shower.

Here's Tiana and I at the shower. Notice she's wearing the sash I made her which had a pin on it that said "bride to be", so cute.


Here she is getting a kick out the the lingerie my sister Callie and I got her. It was a great shower if I do say so myself, plus now I know how to do it for my future wedding party being in needs.

Midstate Fair and concerts

This year I went to the California Midstate fair to see a Collin Ray concert with my friend Myriah (seen here in the pic with me), my Grandma, My parents, and My Aunt, and my cousin Tiana. My grandma was so excited, because apparently he's pretty dreamy....I can't really see it, but the show was a good time anyway. I especially loved it when he sang, "One boy, one girl...". So Romantic. The next day My Mom and I went to Martina McBride! Little Big Town opened for her and they were fantastic. She did an amazing job! My fav. was "Independence Day", of course cause that's my fav. on Karaoke, and with her ability to belt it, I felt completely at liberty to sing along at the top of my lungs. Good times!

New Dress

Ok so you're going to have to tilt your head to the side to see this one (new program, hard to figure out, nuff said) ....anyway here's me and myriah ready for the 80's formal dance it's not the best picture of my dress but it has tule underneat to make it flare out and it made me feel like a princess. I love it! Also my hair was crimped, with a really fine crimper, it took me about an hour and from far away it really just looked a little bit ratted, oh well though it was a good time and we extended the 80's feel to today by making it once again side-pony sunday!

Myriah's grad/homecoming party

Apparently it's the summer for me to plan parties, Last weekend I planned a homecoming/graduation Party for my BFF/roommate from college Myriah who is from here and finally came home. So the plan was to roast corn in sea water, something I've always thought sounded slightly questionable but I figured it was worth a try since the water is boiling after all, I arrived at the beach at 2:30 in the afternoon (the party didn't start until 6:30 since it was a bonfire) but all of the fire pits were already taken, so I was forced to claim a fire ring instead and thought we would have to forget about the salt water cooked corn...fate intervened however and just before the party was going to start a pit opened up right beside where I had camped out and we were able to do it right. This pic is the beans which were placed directly on the coals to heat for those that wanted to make their hot dogs, chili dogs. It worked out smashingly although I was a bit sceptical at first.


Here's Myriah, Amanda and I ready to drop the corn into the pot, it was really yummy and nobody got sick so if you're thinking about trying it, DO it. It was a great time, congrats Myriah. Here's to the summer of party planning.

THE HP PARTY!

To celebrate the coming out of the 7th Harry Potter book My friend Myriah, my sister Callie, and I went to the party at a Bookstore nearby. Here we are dressed and ready for the party. Note: Myriah and I were both dressed as Hermione although I told her that due to her jet black tresses she should be Cho Chang, she refused however because Hermione is so much cooler, I have to agree with her on that one...


Here we are at the party with a lady who had a very authentic costume of Professor sprout, she was actually carrying a basket with fruit and vegi's in it.


Here we are with Professor McGonagall we were very impressed by her costume but kind of freaked out when she walked by and said "hello, sister's it's been awhile"...but we took a pic with her anyway, it was like being at Disneyland.


Here's the boxes of books being pulled up to the registers, I stepped on a woman's foot to get this pic. Notice that it says "do not open until July 21st, 2007" on the tape holding them closed. So cool. It was a really great time and for sure worth staying up for.

After starting off our 4th of July with our stake flag raising ceremony, we took our traditional trip to visit my granddad's grave where we left some flags.


After a BBQ at Grandma's house we had a big water fight, here's my brother Matthew and I sporting our guns!


The BBQ was also a party to celebrate our graduations. All 5 of us graduated within the past year. Matthew (Columbia Film school), Carrie (Cal State Northridge-Child Development), Me (BYU-Idaho - Health Science), Callie (High school), Katie (high school). GO US!

Carrie, Kathy (her sister) and I chill'n in the shade -- trying to keep cool in the 100 Degree weather.

Last weekend my family and I went down to southern California for my brother's graduation from film school. Here we (Me, Matthew, and Callie) on our way to the graduation.


The best part of the graduation trip for me was the fact that I discovered that DUMBLEDOR IS NOT DEAD! He is very much alive and well and even MC'ed my brother's graduation. It was fantastic.


Matthew and I after the graduation, both of us graduated within a little over 6 months! Go Griffith kids!

Fresno Temple Trip

Last Saturday Our Student ward took a trip to the Fresno Temple. Here's our group infront of the Temple. I'm right behind the girl in the front row wearing the jumper.


Afterward we went to the home of one of the girls in our ward and swam in her pool and had a BBQ. Note Peter in his old man gardening hat walking away.... LOL. It was a beautiful pool I loved the waterfall!


Here's a picture my sister Callie took of all of the soda we drank.....very artistic and a very obvious sign that it's a "Mormon" party.




Here's me and Rhett (one of the guys in my ward) ready for the crazy fun filled ride back home which included yelling(a slight breakdown by the drivers co-pilot, taking a detoured to a po-dunk town for gas, and lots of laughter!