Christmas Update

Christmas presents, after
Christmas presents, before
me and the christmas tree
This picture just made me laugh when I was scrolling through pictures.

So, I don't have an excuse for not blogging, school is done for the semester, I have a month off, and I don't do much but sit around and hang out with my family. So far I have gone to Omaha twice, Pawnee City twice, and gone to two movies. Apparently I like to do things in twos over break!

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree! Wie schoen sind deine Blaetter! I love decorating for Christmas! These are two of my favorite things...my nativity and my Christmas trees! All I need is one more star for the 3rd tree, and tree skirts. Minor details.

White Puffy Flowers

I was having a bad day yesterday, and Dave showed up at my house with flowers! I can tell you that my boyfriend has an eye for gorgeous flowers! I have no idea what kind they are, but there is a big, gorgeous white puffy flower as the focal point. The arrangement has a nice mix of flowers, berries, interesting greenery and baby's breath. He totally made my day!!! I could get used to this!

Urbanization in Turkey

Did you know that in Turkey there are settlements called "Gechekondu"? They are settlements that were built overnight as people moved from rural Turkey to the cities, such as Istanbul. I learned this because I went to an International Lecture/Potluck with Dave on Saturday. It was fun to meet his cohort and some of his professors. I also was introduced to a drink called "Hot Buttered Rum." It was give to us as a gift by the host and hostess. It seems like it would be very decadent, it pretty much consists of vanilla ice cream, butter and brown sugar all melted together. Then you mix it with rum. Don't worry, we can make the non-alcoholic version with hot water instead of hot rum. It will be our Christmas treat when we have the time to do anything other than school.

This weekend was also filled with lots of choir. I am in two choirs, University Chorus on campus (the non-auditioned choir) and The Heritage Singers, a choir that my friends Danny and Bryson created. They are both BYU grads and have created a choir with former BYU choir members, and other selected members---like me and Logan.

University Chorus had our final concert of the semester yesterday. The U of I has an annual Carol Concert each year in December. Every choir on campus sings a few numbers and we sing Christmas Carols as a large group. The audience gets to sing along. It is a lot of fun.

So, that was my weekend. Doesn't it sound like fun?

Lines for the Bathroom

Thanksgiving was great! I had an all time high of 7 out of 25 at the family turkey shoot out. Dave, not having shot since he was 9 beat me with 14/25. I was very proud of him. He did better than Logan and Caitlin. We ate way too much food, watched Hellboy 1 and 2 with mom and gave Dave a mini-tour of Lincoln. I was excited to eat chicken fried chicken at Lazlo's again, and to dip my fries in honey mustard.


On the way home we stopped for lunch in Cameron. Apparently everyone wanted to stop there, because there was a line of at least 15 women waiting for the restroom. I almost commandeered the men's restroom!