Once Upon a December...

Here are some goings-on in December that I have been meaning to write about, but haven't:

1. I got an internship with the Church Publications department in Salt Lake City for next semester, meaning a) I'll be paid and b) I'm moving to Sandy in a shared house with four other girls for four months (but will drive home on the weekends).

2. I got a new car! Pictures, name, and part to fix the engine still to come, but thanks to my car-wise relatives (and boyfriend), I know it's a 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback. And it's RED. Forgive me, BYU. Which brings me to....

3. I graduated! Well, at least I finished all of my finals - the last one was a pizza party ;) Ah, college, I will miss you.

4. I became addicted to "Whose Line is it Anyway?" No regrets.

5. I became addicted to Wendy's small vanilla frosties. Regrets.

6. I finally got a paper published in the Americana Student Journal (been waiting on it since last year...) and got another paper (the "I Am Legend" one I wrote for my Gothic class) accepted for a conference in April, and finished grad school applications (all except for the one to BYU's master's program).

7. I went with Matt to his work party. It was at a HUGE resort place, in somewhere like Alpine, and it was a bit like a Christmas village with all the decorations and little shops and great big fancy buildings. We got to watch ComedySportz (they're really good! I kept meaning to go see them while I was taking my class on comedy, but never did - but should've) and there was also a magician (good; funny) and a hypnotist (we heard he wasn't that great and so stayed away to watch more ComedySportz) and lots of food (the lemonade was quite good; Matt only had one spicy bean/salsa/peppery thing to eat and for the rest of the night he smelled like that one thing - yuck).

8. December 10th was a special day. Besides being Sarah and Hannah's 17th birthday (!!!!!!!), Daniel had organized a Christmas choir to put on a concert of some original songs and a few arrangements. Sarah played the harp (one song), Matt sang, Mom sang (one song) and there was a fairly good crowd of people in attendance.

My best friend from Georgia, Emily Niedfeldt Smith, was able to come with her husband, Weston. It was very fun to visit with them and see them for the first time since the wedding.


This is the only good shot we got of the four of us together. The camera was unhelpfully dying every ten seconds or so, despite the fact that I swear its batteries had been changed between Thanksgiving and then. SIGH. One more thing to have to carry around in my purse.

After taking Emily and Weston back to Provo, Matt and I went home to take some family pictures while we were still in our Sunday best. Here's one of the five thousand that I thought decent enough to post:

Another one of the children.

Three wise - well, handsome at any rate - men.

I love this one! It's my new desktop picture (I'm actually starting to get used to looking at our red eyes, but I'm not so desensitized to it that I won't make a New Year's resolution to actually get these photos fixed when I have access to a computer with Photoshop on it).

He looks so cute that you wouldn't imagine he was really forcibly restraining me from grabbing the camera to delete the last five pictures taken in this pose, which I found a little too awkward-looking.

This, on other hand, is a keeper. Possibly my favorite picture yet of me and my sweetie.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the three of us together. Too bad Mary Alma wasn't there to complete the circle of sisterliness.

On the other hand, maybe she should be grateful she passed on the photo-op in this one.