Reason for the season.

I love being home. Because I get to see Christmas lights with my cute sisters. [We saw a Christmas moose, a Christmas dragon, and a Christmas moose. If they're made of Christmas lights, they're holiday animals. Ask Mary, and my mom.]

Christmas means family parties, and seeing this little cutie. I haven't seen him for three months, at least, and he's the happiest little guy I've met. He didn't let me put him down for a majority of the night, and I was perfectly okay with that.

Same family Christmas party, just a different view. All of the Bell cousins, making donuts, drinking hot chocolate, and opening presents for the cousin gift exchange. We even got Amy's family--who lives in Vancouver--in on the fun via FaceTime. Here's a mass of the small children, watching the Lay's open their gifts, and vice versa. My family is definitely cooler than yours.

Not really sure what this one is for, but we must be related or something.

I love Christmas morning, and this year? I got leggings to match Mary's. We rocked the matching outfits today, and my great grandma told me, "Those are the classiest pants I have ever seen." You better believe they are.

Then I was at the Kunzler's getting destroyed at Uno and Phase 10, and my mom told me to hurry home because Matt and Braxton had brought a present over for me. I came home to this little beauty, and you better believe it's going up in my room. I'm a lucky girl, ladies and gents.

Even though presents and games and dinners and cousins are great, there's more to the Christmas season. And as exciting as new toys are, it's important for us to remember the real reason we celebrate this holiday. 

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord...Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 

Our Saviour died for us, and he lives today; and He, not presents or candy canes or Santa Claus, is the reason this season is so special. 

Merry Christmas, friends. 

Keep on smiling.

I love being home. [Mainly because there's real food, free laundry, and my family.] Also because I get sushi dinners. For Emily's birthday, she wanted to have sushi for dinner and ride FrontRunner into Salt Lake, so that's exactly what we did. Six sushi rolls, a mango salad, and japanese ice cream balls later, we rode frontrunner to City Creek and then looked at the lights at Temple Square. 

[This was BEFORE Aubrey needed new pants, and my mom had to run with her across the parking lot and into Gordman's to accomodate.]

With a building this pretty, it really makes you wonder why people would want to get married anywhere else. Seriously. And even with what seemed like a million and a half people swarming Temple Square, the lights were incredible as usual, and the temple looked spectacular. 

We watched a...happy couple for a good five minutes, and then tried to take a picture of them. You can barely see them in the background, but the best part of the picture has got to be Emi's face. Pure luck that we caught that on camera, folks. 

After being in Logan by myself for two days, I came home right after work on Tuesday night. And decided to see the Hobbit with my family and the Jason and Bentley. [Maybe I'm just a hater, but I have never been more bored in a movie in my whole life. Seriously. And the fact it's only the first of three movies the same length...kind of makes me want to poke my eyes out. In other words, thought I might be a LOTR fan...not so much. The end.] The fact that the movie was in 3D meant a tool-time picture in the mirror was only to be expected. 

Seeing a three hour movie at 10:20 pm, does nothing good when you have to be up at six thirty the next morning. Yesterday was Bronson's birthday, so Bronson, Jon, Paige, Jackson, Jared, Kambria and I went snowboarding/skiing at Brighton all day long. After not being on a snowboard in two years, I spent a fair amount of time either flat on my butt or on my face. And I'm sore enough today to make sure I'm not doing that again for a litte while. But I got to spend all day with my best friends, and then we went to the Davis Viewmont hockey game too. [Which was probably the weirdest thing...sitting next to Bronson and Dylan when I'm used to watching them play. Good news though, we still lost. And Bronson predicted the score perfectly, right down to who would score how many goals.] Needless to say, yesterday was fantastic, and it was the perfect way to spend the last birthday for two years with my best friend. Happy Birthday, kid. :)

Give me a break.

In case you were wondering, finals week is just as bad as everyone says. Countless hours in the library, reading textbooks until you want to poke your eyes out, and eating very little food--if any--in between study sessions. And all of this for a test, that at most, lasts two hours. It's ridiculous, really.
But, I survived. Creative Arts? A joke of class, which means I should have expected that the final would be just as big of a joke. 20 multiple choice classes. Every single answer was A. Biology? Not even bad...besides, it didn't count on my GPA. [Which makes all my studying kind of pointless, but I was proud of my score.] JCOM wasn't bad either, and most of it was review. But it was stressful. And finally, Psychology this morning. Paige and I studied forever yesterday, and we'll find out shortly if it actually paid off.
It's been a long week. Because on top of finals, I had to work. And got my fifth flat tire of the last month. And had to say goodbye to way too many people.
So. After Paige and I got no sleep, took our last final, cleaned our apartments, said goodbye to Bronson and Jon, took my car in for new tires [Thanks Dad.:)]  and attempted to appeal her parking ticket, we decided we needed food. So we moped about until we went to lunch, and now I'm just waiting to go to work so that I can get out of here. I've never wanted to be home so bad in my whole life.
It's been a long 24 hours. And I'm ready for Christmas break.

BUT. I get to be home in less than 12 hours. And I get sushi for dinner tomorrow. We're going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert on Sunday. And it's almost Christmas. So even though life is stressful, and I should probably not talk to anyone today, I'm so grateful for what I have, for this semester up in Logan, and for the friends that I have. Friends that stay up studying with me, change my flat tires way too many times, wake me up for my final, and for friends that talk to me over Dr. Pepper and noodles, and sleep over so that I'm not alone in my apartment.


There was a shooting today in Connecticut, and 27 people--18 elementary school kids--died. So today? I'm counting my blessings that a flat tire and no sleep are my biggest trials. Hug your family a little harder, and be a little more grateful for the life that you have. Because we really have no idea what's coming next, and we are so lucky to be where we are with what we have.

Finals are over, I'm going home, and next semester shall be wonderful.
Until then? Merry Christmas from the Snitches of 102!

[Yes, we did devote a full hour of our lives to a photoshoot for this card. And yes, those are corduroy jumpers, turtlenecks, ugly sweaters, knee length tshirts, fishnets, and glitter bows. We're cute. Accept it.]