Yes, we fell off the face of the planet. But we're back!

Where to begin, where to begin. Well, since I haven't posted anything since the day before Thanksgiving, perhaps I shall start there. Thanksgiving was a lovely day. Seth and I drove up to my Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house for dinner at 1. We ate and ate (although the food was put away too early in my opinion,) Seth tried to get the antique tv to work so he could watch football, took a nap, woke up and ate dangerous amounts of my mom's chocolate mousse and frozen strawberry pies, chatted with the aunts and uncles, watched my baby cousins wrestle for awhile (best thing ever! I wish I had taken a video,) tried to talk over 5 screaming babies and toddlers, then everyone started trickling out. Then it was time to go see my dad's side of the family but apparently they finished sooner than they had thought so we just followed my parents to Pop and Babe's (my dad's parents) house. We chatted for a bit, my brother got into the endless stash of soda and candy, I started craving mashed potatoes because apparently that craving hadn't been fulfilled earlier, couldn't find any, finished up at their house, and we were on our way home. And it was only about 7 or 8! Everything went so fast; usually my family takes their sweet time but this Thanksgiving was very efficient. But we were ok with that because we got to head home earlier. We went on a quest to find mashed potatoes but alas, every grocery store in Provo was closed. Finally we found one box of instant mashed potatoes at Rite Aid. Then we went home, made the potatoes and, I think we watched a movie or something? I can't remember.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was the Holy War! (aka the BYU Utah rivalry game.) I had never been to a BYU football game before this year so Seth made sure that didn't happen again by getting season tickets. He is slowly trying to turn me into a football fan. (to be honest, I don't think it's my thing, but we have fun. And I like seeing him get all excited about it.) At first it looked like we would win for sure but then they cought up and tied the game at the last second, taking it into overtime. However, BYU came out victorious and we rushed the field along with a million other people. I tried to take a picture of the scoreboard to show my dad (a hardcore U fan) but it was shaky because people were going crazy! It was really fun though. Very exciting and, seriously, when would I have ever done something like that on my own? Thank you honey :)

The next Sunday at church, two exciting things happened. First, we actually made some friends! We love our ward but it has still been a little hard to get to know people. It's a family ward (not a byu married student ward) so there are a lot of families and older people that have been there for a long time, but there are also a lot of college students coming and going so it's sort of hard to get used to it and feel established. However, in sunday school, this couple started talking to us and asked us if we would want to hang out sometime. Their names are Mary Elizabeth and Adam and they were really outgoing which is good because I tend to be shy and have a hard time opening up to other people like that. We decided to have family home evening at their house the next day. It was really fun because fhe with two people can be a bit odd sometimes... plus they have an Adorable little boy named Kasan (sp?) who has the most expressive face. We watched an inspirational video about gratitude (watch it here, I love the guy with the long hair!) then made gingerbread (or graham cracker) houses. We made ours the two story dollhouse kind. Upstairs, sever gummy bears danced around a gummy tree but ended up looking like a cult. On the bottom floor, Seth created a lovely fire out of an orange gummy bear and three other orphan bears shivered around it in the barren room. What a lovely house.

Ok and the second thing that happened at church was we got a calling! It was very exciting. We are teaching the 12-13 sunday school class! We'll definitely be the coolest teachers ever. (candy bribery galore.)

When we got home, we decided it was time to put up our Christmas tree! Woohoo! Here is Seth with the tree.
This is what the tree did to our floor. All over the room. We got to have a lovely vacuuming party afterwords :) Usually I'm not a fan of the trees with fake snow but I don't think this one looks too bad because the snow is realistic looking. Plus, it was free! Thanks grandma.
And here it is all done up! Only problem: we live in a basement and our ceiling is very low. The tree barely fit (we had to bend the top branch down) so there is no room for my pretty star on top. I'm thinking maybe I'll make a pretty bow or something for the top but life is too hectic right now so we'll see if I get around to it. Just maybe, no one will notice there is no topper!
And here it is all lit up! I love Christmas trees..... ahh. So magical.
Here are some closeups of some of the decorations. Here we have the lion and the lamb. Aren't they darling?
Next, we see the lonely top branch of the tree and one of the big turquoise ornaments.
This is my favorite ornament. Such a pretty sparkley snowflake! And the glittery ball ornaments are pretty too.
Here is a nice sampling of the ornaments. Blue, green, silver sparkle, little wooden nativity, glass ball with sand and seashells, and pine cones.
And last is just a closeup of the picture before. I like the pine cone in this one. It almost looks like a drawing, not a real pine cone!
So that was great. I LOVE decorating (as anyone who knows me already knows) and our tree now casts a lovely majestic glow around our living room. Now all it needs is a topper and a few peacock feathers sticking out. We also got to put out our two nativities. The first is a tiny one carved out of olive wood (you can see it on the little table in the whole tree shot) and the other is the Willow Tree nativity. We got the first set for our wedding and hopefully throughout the years, we can collect the other pieces until we have the whole set. It Love it.

Since then, we've just been trying to finish up the semester, prepare for finals, make final arrangements for Christmas, and Christmas shop on our tiny budget. We're finding it can be a bit tricky to be sneaky when we both spend so much time together and have a tiny house with no place to hide gifts. But I'm managing :)

Now, we finally make it to this week. Sunday, we were asked to sit in on our new sunday school class combined with another one, just so we could meet them. Then we'll start teaching next Sunday. Sunday morning, we woke up to Seth's phone ringing at 8. It was his boss Edwin telling him that the snow had finally come to Provo and, guess what? He got to go in for snow removal! If you didn't know, Seth works for BYU Grounds and they are basically subject to being called in any time of the day or night (or usually wee hours of the morning) and any day for snow removal. So he left and I got up and got ready for church. Finally I realized he wasn't going to make it home in time so I left without him. After sacrament meeting, I called him and he said it was still going to be awhile. He worked longer than his normal shift and missed all of church which was sad because he didn't get to meet our class. It consists of three 12-year old boys. Mark, Christian and Christian. I don't think we'll have a hard time with names.

Sunday night we went to bed and were awakened at 4:30 by Seth's phone again. Guess what? More snow removal. I drove him down the dangerous streets (more so because we REALLY need new tires) to work and then came home. I went back to bed but realized I can't sleep without him because it's too cold. I ended up watching Lord of the Rings until it was time to get up. I went to school and gave the car to Seth so he could go home because the ceiling guy was coming to fix our bedroom ceiling (long story short: there was a leak in the sink upstairs and it soaked down through and our ceiling started sagging. Kinda scary.) Then, he came back to campus and we got our swine flu shots, then drove back home for lunch. After lunch, I drove him back to work for his normal shift because the snow still hadn't let up. It was a crazy day and we hardly got any schoolwork done. Not good because this is the last week of classes.

Yesterday, we were woken up at 4 for another day of snow-filled adventure. Usually I love the snow but this is getting out of hand. I miss my husband, I can't sleep without him, it's SUPER cold (-4 today) and I woke up sick that morning. I was hoping it was just side effects from the shot but I'm still sick today and it seems to be getting worse. Great. Luckily, one of my classes was canceled so I took the opportunity to stay home sick. However, I wasn't really at home much because after work, Seth and I went to get him a new phone and plan. He got a really cool new phone and it's his new toy. He's having WAY too much fun with it :)

Some big news came last night as well.... I got a new job!!! I will be working for BYU Broadcasting. I've been applying everywhere all semester but hadn't gotten even a call back from anywhere. However, this was the job I really wanted, and it's the one I got! I'm excited because I'm a Journalism major and, even though it's broadcast and not print, journalists today have to be extremely well rounded so I hope to learn a lot!

Today has consisted of: snow removal at 6, staying home sick again, trying to overdose on orange juice and anything with vitamin C, ceiling guy coming to work on our ceiling again, trying to take a nap but not being able to breathe=no sleeping, and now I'm just waiting for Seth to come home from class.

WHEW! That was a lot. I'm sorry if you read the whole thing, that was probably WAY more than you wanted to know. Sorry I just had to vent. Fun times. Now I think I'm going to start working on my Comms final and get some dinner going. Love you all and... CHRISTMAS IS SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT (not well however because my stuffy nose makes things taste funny.) We wish you all a happy season and, although I COMPLETELY understand that it's very busy and stressful, promise me you'll take some time to relax and listen to Christmas music, drink some hot chocolate, and give some good hugs.

Love Love Love,
*amber*