I can't WAIT to go HOME!

I am SOOOOOO excited to go home and see my family and can I just say I have the cutest family in the world!!!

Reason #1: my dad had to call me to ask "permission" to move the piano and get a smaller tree for our house this year

Reason #2: my mom left me a message singing like Buddy the Elf while watching Elf and making cinnamon suckers and missing me :)

Reason #3: my brother Link couldn't contain himself when expressing his excitement about the Christmas present he bought me

Reason #4:my little sister is just cute!

Reason #5: my little brother Bentley started crying when he found out I wasn't coming home before the 23rd!

Cute huh?! I LOVE them!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

So for those of you who know me you know that the Christmas tree is pretty high up there on my favorite things about Christmas and I really like really big Christmas trees!
Seeing as I live in Utah now and trees are quite a bit more expensive here then they are in Oregon having a Christmas tree is a slight dilema. Allie's (my roommate) parents have Christmas trees on their property so we went and cut one down off of their property. Little did we know this was going to be true Christmas Vacation event as we hiked up a snowy mountain, chopped down our tree, and then dragged it down snowy mountain! By the time we got to the bottom I had too much snow in my boots to even pull them off! Although we were all freezing it was so much fun and we have a tree!

We didn't get any pictures on the trip but here are a few at home.

All decorated!

New York (minus the pictures...)

Life has been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get my New York trip up here! I do have all my pictures on facebook so check out my facebook for pictures. Here's the short version of our trip...

Thurs: we arrived in New York, the beautiful city! and can I just say contrary to popular belief people in New York are soooo nice! Everywhere we went people were always willing to help with direction, or if we looked lost they would just offer to help, we even had people helping with our suitcases up and down stairs or into the subway. It was amazing! That night we went to Serendipity and had frozen hot chocolate, so delicious! I love how alive the city is! We went around 11 but even being that late you would have thought it was dinner time!

Fri: It was Allie's birthday and unfortunately when we went to have her birthday breakfast it was closed! so we settled for 2nd best. We went to Community Food and Juice, it was delicious! I have a BLET (bacon-lettuce-egg-tomato) so simple yet a brilliant idea! Then Allie and I did a lot of shopping! We were stopped in Saks and had our make-up done at the Lancome' counter, that was so fun! That night we met Mindy in Times Square which was just as fabulous and just as bright and alive and it is in the movies! I loved Times Square! We also went to Junior's Cheesecake and I had a delicious pumpkin pie cheesecake!

Sat: We went to Chinatown which was very interesting! and to the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the day. Then at night we went to a broadway play. Allie and Mindy went to Wicked while I went and saw Lion King! It was such a fun production and was so well done! I loved it and would reccommend it to anyone!

Sun: We attempted to go to church but we had some malfunctions in the morning that prevented that from happeneing :( However we still had a great day. We went to ground zero and walked through a memorial showing the plans for the site and it also had videos and pictures it was really touching. Unfortunatly Mindy had to leave to get back to school. Allie and I then took a ferry ride to Statten Island (by accident haha) but it was fun because we got to see the Statue of Liberty and hang out at Central Park and do some people watching! New York is so fun! We also went to this incredible chocolate resturant Max Brenner's! Amazing fondue! That night we had some extra time so we jumped on the subway and went to Coney Island and walked on the boardwalk and had famous Frank's hotdogs!

Mon: We went to breakfast at the place that was closed for Allie's birthday and it was worth the wait, so good! Allie headed for the airport and I went and hung out in Central Park and did a little window shopping before making my way to the airport to head home.

It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad that we went! We had so much fun! it was the perfect amount of adventure and a break from life that I needed!

Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving I didn't get to go home but I've been so grateful for family! I was able to spend Thanksgiving at Dale and Sasha's and I was able to be with the Cook's for the whole weekend! Thanksgiving was great! Then Friday morning Sasha and I got up way way too early to hit up the Black Friday sales! Although it was very early in the morning and we were wiped out by the end of the day we had a lot of fun and it was good to have a shopping buddy! We also went to a couple of Mason's basketball games. Then Saturday I spent the day with Nana and Grandpa and Shane and Linda. It was Linda's birthday and we went and saw New Moon, had In N Out Burger for lunch, and hung out all day. To finish off the great weekend Nana made chili and scones for all of us on Sunday! and I even got to bring some home with me!

While they were putting up the Christmas lights Dallas came into the house dressed as a snowman! Too cute to pass up a photo opp!

Me and my favorite little cousin! Morgan has become like another little sister since I've moved to Utah. I love her!