Christmas Trees and Decorations

So this is our first Christmas married. Last Christmas we got our Christmas tree (yes a fake) together- well I bought it and Brad carried it. My mom said she knew he really loved me when he got up at 4:30 the day after Thanksgiving to carry my Christmas Tree. So it's our little joke that our Christmas tree symbolizes our love. This was the first year we decorated it and other parts of our condo with our few Christmas decorations. We had hot chocolate and listened to Christmas music while we decorated. What a fun tradition to start. Our Christmas tree is biased with my ornaments. When I asked Brad about having any he looked at me incredulously and said "Do I look like the kind of guy that would have ornaments." So as another tradition to start this year we will pick out our first ornament together and it will probably be a star for the top of our tree. What fun memories for our first Christmas!

Thanksgiving Memories

A good book

I've always wanted to write book reviews after I finish my books like my cousin Lynn and sister Angie. They however have majored in English and so this will be somewhat amateur but alas here are my thoughts on East of Eden. The concept of duality in man, or man versus self, is quite common in literature. Hugo, Dostoevsky, Dickens, and I'm sure lots others have explored this. However, in this book Steinbeck has been the first to personalize the idea to me and all people for that matter. The protagonists are painted as colorful characters with evil and good in them. The antagonists are painted more one sided with black and white type thinking all selfish and evil or all pure and good. The entire book is centered around the word "Timshalt " and whoever reads this book will never forget it ( though they might forget the correct spelling). I honestly did not realize I liked this book so much until the last page. Their are painful moments in this book where the protagonists disappoint you and you wonder who are you really cheering for. Yet in the end the magnanimity of man shines through with the strength and power to choose his character and destiny. I reccomend this book to all those who like books that make them think (this is not a light novel) and if you start to read it push yourself through the painful parts because in the end it will not dissapoint.

I have a new favorite musical. In my weekly venture to the library I thought of asking if they have any piano music. They did and I got The Best of Broadway. Lately I go through spurts of playing the piano and singing all the time and then rarely at all. Well when I found music I was interested in I hit the other end of my spurt. I was playing some of the music when I found a selection of music from Jekyll & Hyde. Everyone knows "This is The Moment" from the musical but there is so much moving music in this show. Most of the songs are written for a mezzo soprano which is my current voice range. I got Brad to sing "This is the Moment" and after I convinced him not use his pop voice (my choir teacher is still influencing me) he sounded amazing. I just love music that gives you tingles.

Election Day

"Election day should be a holiday," declared Brad on election eve, "It's like christmas eve." What? Well to Brad anyway. Every day since the primaries (seriously) I have been updated about candidates, who's doing well or not in the polls, and other election news. I don't think I would have a clue about the candidates or news if not for my funny husband. Good thing I like to be informed but don't like the homework. Anyhow Election Day was like a holiday for us and we went to a party to watch the results. I was impressed with both McCain's honorable speech and Obama's moving speech. It was fun to be so involved and apart of a historical night. Now dinner conversations might be a little boring, what will we talk about? Oh just kidding there is always political news.

Happy Halloween

What a night. Brad and I with the help of my wonderful mom created our costumes from scratch this year (well relatively speaking). I'm not exactly sure how I got the idea of Barney and Betty but it was early in October due to the fact that I work at an Elementary and kids start asking what you are going to be for Halloween in September. I've never made my own costume so it was a first for both of us. We went party hopping with Jon (the football player) and Laura (his cheerleader), sang the Flinstones Theme song on Ryan's green screen (Well I sang the right one, Brad unexpectedly sang the Homer Simpson Flinstone Theme Song). It was a hit! At another party we found a Fred but he didn't have a Wilma. We danced and sang karaoke all night. I told Brad he gets to pick out our costumes next year- he's threatened Homer and Marge so we'll see:)

Going South

For fall break we worked really hard and got a lot of stuff done Thursday and Friday and then we took our vacation on Saturday. We left 8AM and headed to Manti. We barely made the 11:30 session. And both of our phones thought Manti was a different time zone so we were very confused and thought it was daylight savings time. Weird. The temple was beautiful! We went to lunch in Manti where they had the best Motzarella sticks I've ever had. Mmmm. And we got some candy at the cute candy shop on Main. After lunch and dessert we headed to a little town called Salina to see Grandpa Dennis and Aunt Rochelle. Grandpa Dennis told us story after story from his 95 years of life. He seemed to me like quite the rogue when he was young. Aunt Rochelle loved her surprise visit and had cookies all ready for us. We met up with some friends in Springville for dinner and stopped by Mom and Dad Dennis's for apple pie and rolls to take home. What a busy but fun day!