CHRISTMAS

Josh and I have had the best week! We had a blast at a party with the extended Clarke family, with some competitive games of volleyball. The Tueller Family Party was on Sunday with lots of caroling to the neighbors. We also had so much fun with the Hawkins on Christmas Eve. We had a great meal, opened gifts, and played games. We loved seeing Jess and Jenn's families from out of state. What a treat! And Christmas day was wonderful with my family yesterday. And more parties are coming this weekend! What a great time of year, to be with family. Josh and I are SO happy to be married this Christmas! We'll add fun Christmas pictures when we get home to our computer.

Confession: my apartment is a mess

The last few posts were all about good things I'm doing..."Look at me! I got into the BFA program!" or "Look at me! I spent hours making cookies to give to others!" And I'm feeling a little embarassed about all your nice comments. So today I need to balance out those little braggy posts with a post that's a little more humble! :) I will tell you that right now my apartment is a mess! I have been so BUSY these last few weeks, that I haven't given it a good clean. My sweet Aunt Margaret came over yesterday and she hadn't seen the apartment before. I gave her a quick tour, but was so embarrassed by the clutter everywhere. Talk about humbling. I did do laundry a few days ago, but only because I was forced to: We were running out of the essentials! And I also haven't made dinner since Sunday. Yikes. I'm feeling guilty, but I've promised Josh I'll get back into the normal routine once finals are over. Luckily, even without making dinner we've been well fed. We went to a fun Hawkins Christmas party on Monday - which included a great dinner, my Mom provided lunch and dinner for us Tuesday, and my sweet visiting teacher brought us dinner last night. So we've gotten by just fine. But I'm not good at accepting favors, it makes me feel uncomfortable. I can't wait to get back into the regular swing of things, to be back on my cleaning schedule and having dinner on the stove when Josh comes home! The good news is I just have one more final left this afternoon, then I am going to jump right into the household chores. Man, I can't wait to get this place cleaned up.

cOoKiE fAcToRy

Yesterday we made batch after batch of cookies, to take to the families we visit/home teach, the Bishop, Relief Society presidency, etc. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into when I made all of the cookie dough! We figured out a good method, though. Josh and I each had little duties and we refined our technique until we had the "cookie factory" running very smoothly. It was a fun morning making all of the cookies, and it was a fun evening delivering them. One of my very favorite parts of the Christmas season is making little goodies and delivering them.

Josh was a real trooper. I pulled him along and he drove me around the area as we tried to find everyone's apartment. Finally, after an hour and a half of deliveries, we got home only to realize that I had lost one of my gloves along the way :) We hopped back in the car and re-drove our whole route. Of course, we found the glove at the very last home we had delivered to. Isn't that how it always goes!?

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert

Saturday night we went to the MoTab Christmas Concert with Jae and his date. It was really fun. I honestly LOVE Christmas concerts. I was so glad to be there, after missing all the concerts last year while I was in New Zealand. The choir sounded amazing, as usual. Josh and I especially loved "O Holy Night" and their comical rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". What a great night.

It was FREEZING as we waited in line to get in. I slipped my little black gloves on Josh's ears as a joke, but he actually kept them on...he'd take any warmth he could get. I loved it. No shame!

BFA Program

This will be a crazy week with FINALS, so I'll make a few posts this morning, then you probably won't hear from us the rest of this week. Here is my good news of last week: I've been in the art program since I've been at BYU, but a few weeks ago I applied to the Bachelor of Fine Arts program which is the top tier of the art program. You can apply once you've completed the certain foundational classes. It requires much more work than if I were to get just a Bachelor of Arts. A BFA degree is what you'd need if you wanted to get into a serious Master's program. A BFA also requires you to have your own final show before you graduate. Anyway, I just got notice last week that I was accepted into the BFA program! Yay! I was really excxited. One very nice perk about being in the BFA program, as opposed to the BA, is that I will get my own studio space on campus. It will be so nice to paint on campus, rather than keeping all my painting stuff in the corner of our front room. Josh has been patient with me, but now my art stuff will be out of the way!

My Cooking Life-Saver!

I got this Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook as a wedding gift and I have relied on it so much! It's my favorite. Since I'm still new at the whole cooking thing, I have questions nearly every night as I make dinner. My immediate reaction to questions that arise in the kitchen is to frantically call my Mom. But if I can't get a hold of my Mom (or if I'm too embarrassed to call my Mom about simple things like mashed potatoes or gravy), then I resort to the Better Homes Cookbook! It's awesome. It ranges from simple hints to fancy recipes with ingredients that I've never heard of. Tonight we tried a thick chili with ground beef, all sorts of beans, onions, green pepper, garlic, canned tomatoes, and various seasonings. It was SO yummy. We'd been eyeing it in the cookbook for a while and I'm glad we finally tried it!

Cabbage Patch Christmas

Cabbage Patch Kids,

So Laura and I went to mom and dad's for dinner this past Sunday (On a side note dinner was amazing!) and Mom gave me my own copy of "Cabbage Patch Christmas," courtesy of Jake. I was laughing so hard as mom played the CD during dinner. It lasted about five songs until 'Gimme, gimme gimme take take take,' when pops turned it off with a roll of his eyes. Nonetheless, the true spirit of Christmas was felt, and I remembered all the years growing up, listening to the tunes of the cabbage patch. Those little tykes sang it how it was. Thanks mom for having that CD in the first place, and thanks Jake for bringing it back. I'm sure Jason will always be playing his. :)

Anyway, what would Christmas be without the cabbage patch!?