Christmas at Home!

I was able to be home for Christmas!! This was my first time spending this holiday with my family in a few years. It was nice to have the special traditions I grew up with celebrated again:)

Some of my favorite traditions were being locked in a room altogether as siblings. Or the homemade peanut brittle my dad makes. Or the way we celebrate my dad's birthday before we celebrate Santa coming. Or the way we all get pajamas as a Christmas Eve gift and put them on before reading Luke 2 and other Christmas stories.     

This year is the first year I've had to watch what I eat during this sugar infested holiday season. I made the decision before the festivities started to just throw out the smart eating and just chow down on all the sugar and sweets and white flour baked goods my family makes. That was a bad idea. Well, half a bad idea. I have learned my eating habits really do influence my aches and pains and energy levels a ton! So I've had the aches pains and sluggish body this holiday. I now have a great New Years Resolution! Eat right, ALWAYS!!!!

Games!

We love to play games as a family during the time we're all at home:) 

We get a bit competitive... Usually my mom wins. And anyone else is lucky to win. My dad just got a new game and we all played together. He won!! It was a big deal. Next game my brother won, then both decided to not play again because they were champions and didn't want to give up their titles:) 

Pain and Blessings

I am a great person! I tell myself this every morning. But when I can't get out of bed until it's in the afternoon and haven't showered in a few days because I can't stand up on my own, it's hard to believe I'm great. All I see when this happens is me being an unproductive slob, with multiple days worth of bed head. Not the greatest picture, right? 

This week has been full of slob days. I have been doing just enough to get by. The pain is overwhelming. The exhaustion is unending. BUT it's in these days I turn to my Savior Jesus Christ and get to count my blessings:) Despite the imperfect week I've had, these have been some of my many blessings given to me that have brightened my day:

1: I made gluten free cake with pudding frosting for a work party. Best cake ever!!! It was a perfect balance of cake to frosting and was so deliciously moist! The blessing here is that it tasted great, but better than that I had the energy to masks it! Here's a pic: 

2: I took an essay based final. Several will say that a final isn't a blessing. I agree. In this case it was timed and I ended up falling asleep in the middle of it. Bad. Then I was able to wake up and finish within the allotted time. And actually make sense in my writing, I think. 

3: I didn't pass out! More than once this week I had that closing in or fading feeling that proceeds me passing out. Every time I maintained consciousness!! Wahoo! No falling and getting a concussion. No falling and getting a broken bone. No slipping on ice! No blacking out at work or in class. That is a great blessing for me! 

4: My friends and roommates have been there for me a ton this week. They don't know what it is like to have fibromyalgia, but they do their best to help me with what I'm going through. They'll walk slower with me so I don't get left behind. They're willing to give me rides to campus so I don't have to walk as far. They help me out a lot:) and I love them for it. 

Such a terrible week. But also a great one:) My Savior has been lookin out for me. And that means I'm a great person, even with bed head.