Merry Blissmas

There isn't one thing that I don't love about Christmas. It really is a beautiful, magical holiday, and one of the few holidays in the year when reflecting on the life of the Savior is natural and expected--Christmas. :) I love it. This was my first one since Italy. It was a little different....cause Kenz and I were the only kids at home, but it was also really wonderful. Here's the classic, "Smile for the camera before we let you come up the stairs and see the loot" pic taken Christmas morning. We obviously can't just stand straight and act normal... Santa gave Kenz a darling, trendy coat from a Bags that Fit. (It's a darling boutique that, since discovered, has done nothing but bless my life and enrich my wardrobe.) haha Santa didn't think I was naughty this year because I got a Bizzangin' GPS running watch that I couldn't be more stoked about. Is it silly that having a gadget makes me feel like I can ACTUALLY call running one of my hobbies now? haha It makes me feel more legit even if I don't run at lightning speed. (It's about distance right?) :)

And THEN I got a hamster!!That is a lie. But I just like this picture.

For some reason faces of boredom and uncertainty come natural when we're asked to pose for the camera. Hmmm....zero explanations.

This is my old comp S.lla Skabelund. We were comps in La Spezia and I killed her. (AKA I was with her for her last 3 transfers and I...got to finish her off so-to-speak). She has been home since February, got married to her love from before the mish and is now happily with child.

Aubrey. Ah, yes. Aubrey is one of the delightful girls that I went to Paris with. I can't believe it has been over three years and yet my eyes get all moist when I look at pictures and whenever I meet with lasses like Aubs (who went with me) we can talk and laugh about it for hours. There was a Starbucks in Paris right by where we went to school and Le Centre Pompidou where we hung out all the time. So we sometimes meet up at Starbucks and pretend like we're still at the one in Paris.

Ace and Bouley! This is Miss Stacy (though, she's officially hitched. So... do I need to call her Mrs Stacy?) She is one of my dear dear high school friends that I was able to get together with over the break. She was also wonderful.blogspot.com this summer in being my running buddy. I love this girl and getting to see her never makes me grumpy.

More Parisian pals!! haha Steph and Kate are two more dears that I adore the crap out of. We may or may not have met up at Kneaders robbin' them (except we paid) of their french toast because it is the only thing in these parts that bears the name. I hadn't seen Steph since before the mission and I'd just seen Kate at her wedding reception so it was lovely getting to play with them. Kate went back to paris while I was on my mission and did an internship there. Crazy cool right? Alls I'm saying is if I find a gradschool that wants to ship me to Europe for the purpose of gaining work experience in an internship, that wouldn't be the worst thing. I l-o-v-e these girls and our hilarious conversations togeth.

I don't know why I don't have a million brazillian pictures with my family. One reason perhaps is that I thought I'd lost my camera. I'd searched long and hard Christmas morning but with no success. I, therefore, went all of Christmas vaca using my folk's camera (taking pics with my friends above) and only when I was packing up to go to back to Blowgan did I find mine in my backpack. Smooth right? haha But we had a lot of fun with the fam. Kim, Glenn and Tate came out to play for a week. We did some shopping, everyone helped me prepare for a slammin' mission friend party (that pretty much no one showed up to because Mother Nature had a temper tantrum that night and snowed everyone in...I almost wrote snew for past tense of snow....permission to judge me), saw some flicks (a couple of which I could probably write a whole post about...though I don't think it'd interest anyone but me), LOTS of card games--which just happen to be my cup of tea, and some straight-up good chats. I love my fam.

Now I'm back in Blowgan and many interesting things have already happened. Can't wait to tell you 'bout it. Just keep in mind that nothing that I write on here is made up. ;)