1. Jack in the Box in Utah. I hate living here solely for this reason.
2. 24. Or Lost. Or the original talent / judges on American Idol. Or a Full House reboot. I'd take any of those.
3. My long dark hair. I'm so impatient and lazy.

*idea for this post stolen from http://hellogiggles.com/6-things-i-want-to-happen-in-2013-that-probably-wont

Since Christmas is only 15 days away (can you believe it????), and since I get to read what Christmas means to others all day long at work (I know, I have the most fulfilling job on the planet, you don't have to tell me), I thought I'd take a minute to share what Christmas means to me.

Christmas is my favorite of the year.

December means I get to enjoy Christmas lights, gingerbread houses, The Polar Express movie and soundtrack, mistletoe, presents, hot chocolate, snow (sometimes), the excited laughter of children and the long-missed laughter of old friends, Santa Claus, beautiful window displays, sweaters and boots, White Christmas, baking with my mom and grandma, our cat nesting under the tree, an excess of Mariah Carey, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble and Josh Groban, candy canes, hectic shopping malls, Charlie Brown, parties, caroling, holiday specials on TV and putting my birthday presents under our Christmas tree.

Christmas time is best spent with family and friends. There's nothing quite like being home with the ones you love and the ones who love you during the holidays. I love my family more than anything else in the world, and it's always a hoot coming home for Christmas. At our house, it always ends up being a collaboration of baking, sharing our favorite YouTube finds from the last year, eating way to much, poorly acting out the Nativity and sleeping in the same room on Christmas eve.

But more importantly, Christmas is a time to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's a time to reflect upon His life and love for us. He willingly and lovingly lived a perfect life on Earth, suffered for the sins and sorrows of all mankind, died on the cross and rose again - all so that we might be able to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. The Christmas season is a wonderful opportunity for the whole world to come together in love and friendship to worship the Master and contemplate the magnitude of His sacrifice and love for us.

And that is why I love Christmas.



Share what Christmas means to you and find out what other people are saying.

Let me just start out by saying that my family, both immediate and extended family members, is awesome.

It's really a miracle the universe doesn't collapse when we're all together from the sheer magnitude of coolness we exude.

My whole family on my mom's side (the Canadian side) got together to celebrate Thanksgiving this year in Park City.












I love food. I love my family. I didn't have to travel very far to get both. Those three elements together were bound to let me have an amazing week.

sometimes I don't love living in Utah.


if somebody wants to convince me / find an adorable boy to teach me how to ski or snowboard, maybe I'd enjoy this awful season a little more. for now, I think I'll just stay inside until May.

I wish I had pictures to document everything that's happened.

unfortunately, you'll just have to suffer through with a text heavy post.

so my car.

her name is Maggie. named in part after Maggie Smith. also in part after Maggie the little girl from Hook. in which Maggie Smith plays Granny Wendy.

even my dad, who I think is halfway morally opposed to naming cars, has started to refer to her as Maggie.

problem #1: about 3 weeks ago, as I was trying to leave for work, her battery was dead. out of the blue. no particular reason. I thought for sure I'd left a car door open or something, but nope. she just didn't want to wake up that day. my automobile knight in shining armor Jonny Day came and rescued us with a jump and things were fine after that.

except for the fact that sometimes she takes more than a couple seconds to turn over as I'm starting it. and my automatic car doors don't like to unlock. and my radio resets every time I start my car (you don't realize how important preset radio stations are until you don't have them!)

but whatever. minor details right? they're mostly just quirks and I can live with it.

then we went to laser tag on Monday night and she didn't start again. Jonny Day was there too, so as soon as I call him over to give me another jump, she decides to wake up.

she did the same thing this morning, too. Jonny was on his way over to us across our complex's parking lot when she decided to finally start up.


ughhhh car. why do you toy with my emotions??

so I now have an appointment with Pep Boys this afternoon to see what the problem is.

problem #2: last Friday, I drove down to Provo to go to the BYU vs. Utah State game with my parents and brothers. we went to Awful Waffle to visit my little sister Jaime while she was working there and I parked in the church parking lot across the street. as we came out of the restaurant, I saw the evil Provo parking man hooking Maggie up to his tow truck.

for those of you who've never lived in Provo before, don't ever park anywhere you're not supposed to. those guys are like Liam Neeson from Taken - they will find you.

after lots of fighting with him, I very angrily paid the ticket and left.

yes this one was kind of my own fault, but it's still an annoying situation dealing with my car. and cost me $85.

problem #3: as I was driving down I-215 back to work after lunch yesterday, totally minding my own business, a gardening truck two lanes over from me kicks up a giant rock that hits my windshield and gives me not one but two massive rock chips.

because I've been in Utah long enough and I have the Technaglass rock chip lifetime warrantee (if you live in Utah and don't have this - GET IT. mine has paid for itself almost 10 times over), it didn't cost me anything, but I do have really ugly surface damage on my windshield and I'm not sure it's totally fixed. I'm sure it's just going to split one day and I'm going to have to replace the entire windshield.

waaaaaaaaaah.

problem #4: as I was driving to work after dropping my sister Erin off at the BYU Salt Lake Center downtown, just about to get on the I-15 South on 400.

I see a man on a motorcycle behind me and think it's funny that he's going in between me and the car in the lane beside me, because that's illegal in Utah.

except not for police men. that's when I realize I'm busted.

I honestly thought it was because I was in the carpool lane with just one person (I refuse to call it an HOV lane. HOV sounds like it's for hovercrafts), and I told him that when he pulled me over.

me: I'm so sorry officer - I just saw that this was a carpool lane (not really true). I know I'm not supposed to be here, I'm just, I'm not from around here (kind of true).

police man (with really tiny teeth): ohh that's ok, don't worry about the HOV lane, but you missed a speed limit sign down there. you were doing 52 in a 35 zone.

me: ohhhhh my goodness officer, I'm so sorry I didn't even see that sign I was just trying to figure out how to get on the freeway.

police man: that's ok, I know it's hard when you're not from around here. do you know where you're going?

me: well, kind of. I just knew I was supposed to get on I-15 (true) and just having a really hard time figuring it out (a total lie).

police man: well... (explains to me how to get out of the carpool lane once I'm on the freeway. duhhh.) .... can I see your license and insurance?

me: yes, let me find it.

lots of rummaging through my glove box for probly close to 3 minutes and not finding anything except for old registration and insurance cards.

(as I'm hunting) police man: so what brings you out here?

me: I'm just in town for the weekend, uhh, the week. I'm visiting for the week (biggest lie yet). I just dropped my sister off downtown (true).

police man: well, why don't you just give me your license so I can get started on that and once you find your insurance card, just honk your horn.

me: uhhhh okay.

at this point I was super shaky and nervous because I couldn't find it. also I'd never been pulled over before. I called my dad, he said he had the card and right then the police man came back.

police man: find anything yet? (he can very clearly see that I'm on the phone)

me: I'm on the phone with my dad and he has the insurance info.

police man: okay good well you just saved yourself a speeding ticket. explains the process to me of getting my insurance verified with the court and blah blah blah.

yes, I know two and four were kind of my own fault. but still - what are the odds that all of this could happen in such a short amount of time??

.... don't answer that. I hate Murphy's Law.

but she has had a very good long life. as much as I keep telling myself I want a new (or even halfway functional) car, especially after this week, I will probably cry lots of big fat tears when I have to sell her.

but this week, I'm a little ticked off at everything to do with automobiles.

two blog posts in two days!? what a novel idea!! I bet nobody's ever done that before.

heuh. sorry I'm not very good at consistency.

so last night I had the chance to be a part of the #GOPWatchParty in Downtown SLC with a few fellow Romney supporters. it was a blast and I will definitely be back for the next couple debates!

I spent the 90 minutes eating pizza and tweeting from my iPad.

here are some of my favorite tweets of the night.




(original tweets with links found here)

and then there's this.


if Governor Romney & President Obama switched hair.

made me chuckle quite a bit. and made me love Romney's hair even more (especially when it's on him).