Grapefruit tree

As I was eating my grapefruit this morning I accidentally swallowed one of the seeds.

oops.

Totally brought back a memory of when I was younger and that happened. I thought that if I drank enough water, a grapefruit tree would somehow spring out of me. So far that hasn't happened.

Oh the things little children think of.

Lesson Learned

Today, I learned a valuable lesson. One that I hope all of you might benefit from. Most of you probably already know this and might think..."duh!" Well for some reason I like to learn things the hard way. Before I get to the "lesson learned" part, let me tell you a quick intro. So a couple of weeks ago I was home in PG, staying the night for something. Anyway, I had to leave early in the morning and it had snowed a lot. I thought it might be easier to pull my car into the driveway so I could quickly put my stuff inside. Well when I got back, I got a pretty stern talk from my father about what a dumb thing I had just done. I was so confused. Well driving my car across the fresh snow on the driveway was the dumb thing I did. Apparently I haven't had the experience of trying to shovel off that compacted snow. My brother just shook his head at me like "wow you are a retard! Everyone knows that!"

Well I decided that I would shovel my grandparents driveway tonight. They obviously can't shovel that huge thing. When I say huge I mean really, really loooonngggg! It was a pain in the butt, back, and neck. It was just me, out there all by myself, with the smallest snow shovel I have ever seen. However, I did get a great workout from it though. While shoveling, I realized what my dad and brother were talking about. Multiple cars had driven on the fresh snow and compacted it pretty good. It sucked. Mucho. I would rather wash a million dishes and do a ton of laundry then do that again. When I finally got to the end of the driveway, I walked up to find already another inch had fallen and made my hard efforts look like pretty much nothing. Exhausted, I put the shovel away and just layed in the middle of the driveway like a slug and watched the snow fall onto the ground as I cursed it.

Watching the snow fall was memorizing. So beautiful. I finally got cold enough and went inside.

Lesson: shovel the driveway before you drive on it. If you have time. Which I will make time for.

Green Monster

So I've decided that sledding is extremely fun!


Pretty sure I got a little air on a jump and landed just perfectly on a high bump, on my hip. Yes I now have the sickest bruise on my hip.



So we had this long green sled that we decided to put three people on and sled down the hill. First time it went awesome! They flew down that hill!The sled became known as The Green Monster.

Second time however....oh man I am just glad I got this all on tape. Watch it for yourselves.

Family

Today I got into the topic of Families and The Home with my roommate and my home teachers. We just talked about how Christmas is a great tool that brings the families together. That got me thinking. I've noticed especially this year how much that means to me. To have the family all home. To sit down together at the dinner table for a meal. My family is slowly starting to experience that time, when no one eats together any more, family home evening doesn't always happen, children are off at college, some in crazy places like Idaho, etc. This Christmas year was very special to me. I just loved every minute of time I was able to spend with my family. Not only to know that I can always come home to people who will always love me, but to know that my home is a place where the spirit can abide. I think sometimes I take that for granted.

Not everyone has that.

I'm so blessed to have a wonderful dad who is a worthy priesthood holder. Who loves his kids and would do anything for them. Who loves the Lord. Who loves....everyone. Unconditionally. Loves my mom. Speaking of my mother, I have a wonderful mother. A lot of who I am today is because of her. Even those dang emotions! I can talk to her about anything. She puts up with five crazy kids and loves us all. At least I hope she does! She is the glue to our family. She is my best friend. I also can't forget my siblings. These past two years I have become so much closer to them. I love spending time with them. Learning about them. Being able to share experiences with them. To teach them as well as being taught by them. I love them all so much and am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to be apart of this family.

Christmas

Christmas, even though our family didn't do our traditional Christmas tradition, went down very well. New traditions were started and we all just loved being together as a family. I hoped that we would all wake up to some snow since it's been a little on the weak side lately, but alas.

That didn't happen.

We did go for a little drive up the canyon where I was able to get a couple of shots of the most beautiful snow! I can't wait to play in it tomorrow. I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas with your families!

Breaking in entry Carolers

Yesterday was the annual Crosland get together for food and caroling. Oh how I love caroling with the fam. After we had stuffed ourselves with all the wonderful food, we all got bundled up in our warm winter coats and headed to the houses we usually go to sing to. We just had one last house to go to. We rang the doorbell and started singing. We could see the cute old man through the window just sitting there watching tv.

"Dude he is totally ignoring us!"
"Lets sing louder then."

We all increased the volume. A lot. The cute little old man was still just sitting on his couch watching the tv. So my awesome grandma decides to just walk into his house to tell him we have come to carol to him! Hahaha I was dying.

"Grandma you can't just walk into his house!"

Well the cute old man turned off his tv to listen to us. I think he enjoyed it. He looked like he enjoyed it. Sorry we had to all barge into your house and interrupt your tv time! However, it is said that "the best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all the hear."

Tradition

Is it me or does it still not feel like Christmas yet? I never thought I would say this but I really, really want it to snow. This year is definitely going to be different for our family. The youngest now knows about the whole "Santa" thing so we can't really do our family tradition of hiding from Santa and watching him deliver our gifts. Seriously it was the BEST tradition ever. All of us kids were devastated when my mom said we were not going to do it this year. She does have a point though. I'm almost tempted to head over to our neighbors behind us and be part of their family for a day because they can still do the tradition! My mom looked at me and said,



Mom: "Well as soon as you get married and have a kid then we can start up the tradition again!"

Me: "Yeah mom....I'll get right on that."

I love my family.

Problem

So remember how I am a shoe fanatic? Well that still is very applicable.

However, I have another thing to add to my fanatic list. I love love dresses. Especially dresses with pockets. If it has pockets then I am totally sold. Finally got around to my Christmas shopping today and after I finished I found I had some extra money. So I decided that since I did such a good job on my finals that I would reward myself!

This is what I got! And....it has pockets!
You don't want to know how many dresses I have. It's embarrassing.

Twilight meets Singles Ward

Okay.

I saw this on a friends blog and just about died laughing! I had to share this with you.

Enjoy.

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

Celebration

Wait for it.....wait for it....

FINALS ARE DONE!!!

Oh man today is the best day ever. Finals always take it out of me and to say they are done is like a ginormous weight off my shoulder. It feels fantastic. Easiest semester I have ever had and probably will ever have. Sad day. Now I finally have time to do some Christmas shopping which I haven't even started. I know I am totally behind. Don't judge. I did get to go to my bro's high school Christmas concert with the fam which was so fun! Brought back so many memories and made me miss choir even more! I saw so many friends that I haven't seen in years. Some are getting ready to turn in mission papers, some are home from missions, some are engaged....some are working their butt off in school like me....seriously it's crazy. Megan gets home from Idaho this Friday so we will finally have the whole family together! Christmas time is the best.

Speaking of Christmas time, I've noticed that there are more crazy drivers around this time of year. Running red lights like no other! Relax people. You still have time to get that perfect gift. Or not so perfect gift.

Remember this with him?




After going to the MOTAB Christmas concert Thursday, (which was fantastic by the way) I went home and watched the last three years of MOTAB Christmas concerts. Starting with the lovely Sissel who was fantastic, next the Kings Singers, then Brian Stokes Mitchell. I forgot how awesome last year was! This song just makes me smile and makes me want to dance.

Love, love, LOVE his voice.

Warmth

If I could do one thing all Christmas break....

it would be this.

Sleeping in front of the fireplace is the best thing ever.

Ebelskiver

One of my last assignments in my "stupid" computer class was to make a 2-4 minute movie either making something or selling something. First of all I can't sell anything worth beans. So I decided to do a movie making something.

Making ebelskivers particularly.

Ebelskivers are a classic treat in Denmark and are light round pancakes that can be made like this....
this.....or this!
You can make them filled with jam, curd, fruit, or covered with yummy caramel syrup with powdered sugar sprinkled over top. I chose the last one because I didn't have time to fill it with yummy goodness. I shall try another day though. Oh how I love cooking. I think I found what I am going to do this next semester when I am not in school. Yes that's right! No school for me. For now at least. I am done with everything. Everything. I now have to just wait patiently until I get into my program.

Sickie

No worries. I am still sick from Thanksgiving and......

I woke up with a swollen eye this morning. Very cute.

Calvin and Hobbes

I think I have just hit that mood. Oh I can't wait for this semester to be over!

The Unthinkable

I was shown this a couple of days ago and about died. No way would I have ever pictured these two singing a Christmas song together. Ever.

Ladies and Gents....David Bowie and Bing Crosby.