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:) 

Thanksgiving Bliss

Over the past week with my family I've had some crazy adventures. I've chronicled them through pictures... So here's my week! 

This was a crazy game of golf that perpetuated throughout the entire week:) it started at the airport...

On the plane ready for take off!!

We arrived at the beautiful beach front condo... Do you like our view?

I hung out with cousins friends and family all week! We saw a few movies together. And hung out at the giant Christmas tree:) Restaurants were frequented, but the best part was being together!!! I love my Family!!!! 

Crazy faces!

Pose! My brother wanted to look disinterested, haha. 

All cousins, even the photo bomber peeping through!

Fun with my mom. 

Posing with my dad. 

Tired brother wanted me to look sad in the picture... I don't think I pulled it off too well but was okay with it!

Waiting for the Hunger Games movie to start!!!

Late night out on the town. 

Early morning out on the town. 

Beautiful momma fishing;)

Monopoly. Enough said. 

I must point out that in this monopoly game I lost, but was the only one that got three hotels!!!!!! That was the first time I ever had enough money to get one, and I got three! I am proud of myself and thought I'd share. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner:) my brother and Dad did the honors of carving the turkey and we shared the evening with family and pie, the best way to do it!

Then we decided to go fishing!!!! It was cold. We had to try two days to get anything, and then he fish were extremely tricky. On day one my dad posed with another guys fish... We tricked my mom who had already been defeated by the cold and retreated to the warmth of the car into thinking my dad caught it. On day two, two of my cousins and my mom came off victorious and snagged one fish each!

My brother taking the relaxed approach. 

Lovely hooked bait. 

Cranes or herons were close friends while we fished. 

My handy dandy fishing pole. 

Good eatin:)

And in any spare moment we were either in the pool, the hot tub, or out in the waves and catchin some sun on the beach:)

Isn't this water gorgeous!?

My brother found a dead crab...

On the last full day at the beach I officially turned twenty four! We celebrated with leftovers salad and this delicious homemade Oreo cheesecake. 

Of course, I'm still a kid:) and bummed that my vacation is over. Back to real life with homework, work, grad school applications etc. I made some good memories this week! 

Best Comment I Heard Today

My brother got up from the restaurant table and announced:

I have to go to the restroom. I don't know why they call it that... I do a lot of work in there...

Then he walked away to do his business. :)

My Vacation Began!

The first stop on the lovely road of vacation was Temple Square! 

This is the Salt Lake City Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was hoping they would have their Christmas display up, but it isn't lit until the beginning of December. The light display they have here is sooooo amazing!!! I've only been a few times and every time I am blown away with the beautiful lights and the focus on the nativity displays of Christ in the manger. So beautiful. It reminds me of the beauty if the season around Christmas and the reason we celebrate at this time of year. 

I met some really amazing sister missionaries that are serving on Temple Square as I waited to meet up with my family for dinner. We talked about serving missions, since I just got back in March from my mission. One of the sisters is going home this week. That transition is hard, and I told her about my experience and how rough it was transitioning to non mission life. But I made it! And I don't think I'm too weird:) 

Packing

The pre-vacation stress comes from my lack of motivation to pack. 

I usually like to pack clean clothes when starting out on my adventures... Which requires doing laundry. Of course, I have to put that off till the last possible moment- the night before I leave. Hence the photo of my bed covered in clean laundry and an open suitcase at midnight the night before I leave. 

Since I lack in motivation to pack, I obviously am taking a break to blog about it:) perhaps my motivation will return by the end if this post... we'll see. 

All this packing is reminding me of my mission. I wish I could visit my mission in the New England states. When I was a missionary I would pack up all of my belongings every 6 weeks to about 4 months and moved to a new city and state. I would go with a new companion and get to meet some pretty amazing people:) I served the people of New England for 18 months straight. Such a wonderful experience! I definitely believe that the more you serve someone the more love you have for that person. And I've got some deep seeded love for the people in the north east:). 

Unfortunately, this packing isn't preparing me for a glorious reunion with friends made on the mission. 

Instead, it is so I can have the lovely reunion of family all together for Thanksgiving and my birthday:). And if the weather is good I'll get to play on the beach in my new swimsuit!!! Which is a very good thing. 

An Enlightening Weekend

This weekend was enlightening on two fronts: spiritual and physical. Let's begin with the spiritual side of things-- General Conference. 10 hours jam packed full of spiritual guidance and uplifting talks by the living Prophet of God and The Lord's servants and Apostles. Best Ever!

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while! I asked my Dad to try and get me tickets to actually be seated in the conference center during one of the sessions.  But there weren't any tickets available for me and my three siblings. This is where God intervened and orchestrated several miracles. My roommate ended up not needing or being able to use four tickets to the Saturday Afternoon session. That's just enough tickets for me and my three siblings that we're going to be together. She gave me the tickets!! We scrambled to dress in our Sunday best and headed out the door to the conference center. As we were leaving I ran into a neighbor that was in need of a ride to the conference center. We had one seat left! She joined us and it was so great!!!! Such a tender mercy for all of us:) AND while we were waiting to get in the doors we ran into my uncle! Hadn't seen him in years. Isn't The Lord great?!!

Second is the physical side. I decided since my family was around I wasn't going to be much of a stickler with eating super healthy. I indulged in a milk shake, burgers, ton of breads, and not enough water. As a result my body revolted. Not right away though. I was losing energy at a steady rate and my body was getting sluggish. By Sunday night I am whooped. And I haven't done much other than watch Conference! Usually this would frustrate me, but I know the cause and it's alright. I will readjust my eating habits and gain more energy over the next few days. This is a huge blessing because in a few weeks I'll be with a lot of family and friends for Thanksgiving week and will need to be vigilant with obeying the laws of health for my body to have enough energy!! I thank my God for helping me realize my sensitivity to varying my eating habits now instead of then! It could've been disastrous if I didn't find out before that week.