The end of another year

It's been a real treat being back home during the holiday season.
I've had the opportunity to fill my time with plenty of good things.
Family. Lots and lots of family.
Tons of lunch outings with friends, gift exchanges, long chats, movies, and laughter.
Puzzles, eggnog, homemade pomegranate jam, and head scarves (who knew they made those?!)
Relaxation.
Music.
Having access to a piano all day, everyday (yes!!!)
Teasing siblings and having them follow me around everywhere.
Seeing how much they've grown and changed in the past 4 months.
Especially Johnathon. I thought I knew my own brother, but I don't know him as well as I thought he did... either that, or he's just finally come out of the shy stage, because he is all of a sudden more outgoing and talkative and... well... extroverted. He's still the quiet, shy boy I knew in some ways... but he's changed.

And now it's time to say goodbye to 2011... and I must say, it's been quite a year. My favorite yet. So here's to hoping that 2012 will beat it by a landslide. It almost makes me wonder where my life will peak... but that won't happen for a while, so I'm just going to enjoy it now.

For all of you who have seen Zoolander...

yes, I am trying to pull of the "Blue Steel" model look.

Happy New Year, everyone. See you next year!

Remember Him as you picture Christmas this year

Thus far, it's been a wonderful Christmas Day.

There will be more to come on my festivities in a later post.

But for now, I want to turn your thoughts to the One that we all should have been thinking about today.
The greatest Christmas gift of all was given hundreds of years ago in the town of Bethlehem. God gave us His Son... and it is a story that has been painted and filmed and reenacted over and over again. However, I'm sure that none of these depictions completely capture the serenity and peace that must have been felt by those who saw the star and the Babe that evening.

I love these pictures... the first two are photos taken by Mark Mabry and the second two are still shots from the movie The Nativity Story. Also, if you would like to see a short video depiction of the nativity, you are welcome to view the new video that the First Presidency came out with at the Christmas Devotional at the beginning of this month.

He is the greatest gift.
We celebrate His birth; there is no Christmas without Christ.
Take a moment to remember.

Picture a Christmas from the Primary Children's Songbook
Lyrics by P.K Graham

Picture a stable in Judea.
Picture a sacred, silent night.
And can you hear
The angels near
And see the stars so bright

Picture the kind and gentle Joseph.
Picture the mother, Mary, fair.
And can you see
So rev'rently
The shepherds kneeling there?

Picture the little baby Jesus.
Think of his life and words so dear.
Sing praise to him;
Remember him,
As you picture Christmas this year.

A little behind the season

Wherever you go in Fresno, you can tell it's winter...
The Christmas lights are up,
The trees are bare,
And in the morning, there's frost in the grass...

Except in our backyard.

Each year, our fruitless pear trees insist on retaining their leaves as long as possible
And so there are still plenty of colorful leaves all over the ground when I get home for Christmas Break... and the trees are only halfway done with shedding their loads.

Well, at least this means I still get a little taste of autumn in Fresno.

Even if it is the week of Christmas.

I miss Fresno autumns, I'm not gonna lie.

But Provo is gorgeous during the fall too... it just doesn't last as long as it does in Fresno.

I have a feeling I'm going to make a giant leaf pile sometime in the next day or two...

But for right now, I just love how the leaves make our backyard so bright and colorful. Maybe I'll just leave them there until Christmas is over. The colors make me happy.

Just Killing Time

I know I just posted 2 hours ago or something... but...

This is what happens when you stay up all night and you're killing time:

You pack... then you go on the internet... then you pack some more...

It's a cycle.

If you're a girl, then you check Pinterest during your browsing sessions.

And you find something that a friend or two might have posted.

And you add it to one of your boards...

Or if it's blog-worthy, then you decide to post it there.

So pardon my "blog-pinning".

It's good to know that there are girls who have similar lists as I do... because this is rather similar to mine:

Yep... you can tell I'm just killing time.

But a list of some sort was bound to show up on here eventually.

So why not at 3:23 in the morning?

DONE done DONE!!!!!!!

What a week.

Finals are always an interesting experience.

Usually, it is implied...

that during finals

I don't care (as much) about how I look.

Which leads to things like

super high up-dos

or giant milk mustaches

And a general lack of makeup

And wearing PJ pants around at all times in my apartment.

And now it's all over!

And I actually looked nice today because my last final required me to dress up

No jeans

Add some makeup and whatnot

And voila!

And now that it's nearly 1 AM, I get to go pack.

Because I leave in less than 5 hours!

So I'll just pack it all up,

finish off my milk via a cup of hot chocolate,

take a shower,

and then sit and watch Disney stuff with Donnie

until Haley comes to pick us up.

So yes, this will be an all-nighter.

I can sleep in the car.

(I've been staying up until about 3 all week anyways.

[How do I function like this??!?]

Last night I was watching some Doctor Who episodes from season 3...

I just couldn't break away.

Oh, and by the way...

Don't blink. HAHA!!!!)

Oh, the joys of going home!

Jenna used Mom's phone to text me

and said she was very excited about something

and she said I had to guess what it was.

So I called her...

And it turns out that she's extremely excited for me to come home.

Well, what can I say...

So am I.

time to start "pinning"

New reason for me to spend waste time on my computer.

Pinterest.

Check my profile out :)

Warning: if you're a girl, you might just get hooked too. And if you're a boy... well, there are boys on Pinterest. Many of them tend to be gay though. Not all of them... but many of them. Just saying.

I'm not really too hooked... it's just a fun way to be creative, and it's great for keeping track of things that I find online that I want to be able to remember. Just stick it on one of my boards and ta-da!

A little procrastination never hurt. Right? Um........

pro-cras-ti-nate
v. pro-cras-ti-nat-ed, pro-cras-ti-nat-ing, pro-cras-ti-nates
v.intr.
          To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness
v.tr.
      **To postpone or delay needlessly**

You know you're fed up with school when:

• You keep paying needless visits to facebook
• You play obscure songs on your Itunes that you never play otherwise
• You take naps
• You sit and ponder things that you've already thought about too much
• You consider studying, listen to the nagging guilt, then push it aside
• You watch YouTube videos
• You eat when you aren't really hungry
• You take a shower in the middle of the day
• You clean your room (what??!?)
• You decide to make a blog post about why you don't want to study
• You look up the word "procrastinate" on google
• You chat with roommates, family... anybody!
• You listen to the guilt again. Consider all of the time you've wasted. Then push the guilt aside once more.
• You find yourself willing to agree to any activity that takes you away from the books that are sitting there, calling your name...
• You have a countdown to the day you'll be done with finals
• When you finally try to start studying, you find that you can't concentrate because your mind keeps wanting to think about other things
• Do I really need to continue?
• I'm just doing this to kill time, after all.
• And time is precious. I shouldn't be doing this. Now I feel bad.
• Okay. I'll stop now.

Yeah. Enough said. I'm just ready to spend 2 weeks letting my mind empty itself.
It's a good thing I don't have a Pinterest account yet. That might be a bad distraction too.

Procratination's

The occupation

Of every kid across the nation

So heed these words we have to say:

Put it off till tomorrow

If it's not due today!

Here's a little something for you. Made me laugh:

I hope the rest of my weekend is much more productive than today has been. Because now I feel gross. And I don't like that feeling. Why can't I procrastinate in peace??!?!

Not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to

Yesterday, Tad R. Callister came to speak at our last devotional of the semester. I was SO excited to hear him speak because he wrote one of my favorite books about the Atonement ever! (I've mentioned it in previous posts, I believe... The Infinite Atonement). I was very glad for the opportunity to hear him.

The topic he spoke on was integrity, and I'd like to share some of the points I picked up from his message:

The 7 Principles of Integrity:
1. Integrity is the foundation of our character and all other virtues.
2. It doesn't mean just doing that which is legal, but doing that which is moral and Christlike.
3. A person with integrity makes decisions based on eternal implications.
4. Disclosing the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
5. Integrity knows no alibis or excuses
6. To have integrity, we should keep to our commitments even when it's inconvenient to do so.
7. Integrity is not governed by the presence of others: it's internally, not externally, driven.

Some quotes:
"Choose the right, not merely because God desires it, but because our character demands it."
"[Integrity] is not a temporary change of behavior... it is a permanent change of nature."
"...men and women of integrity are in desperate demand but in short supply"

I wish I could hear him give a discourse about the Atonement in person. It's one thing to read about it, and another thing to hear someone talk about it. And even better to actually discuss it with someone who understands it on a deeper level. What I wouldn't give to talk with an Apostle of the Lord about a topic like that...

Gotta love BYU... I've had the chance to listen to some pretty cool people here.

"May we all become men and women of integrity, not because we have to, but because we want to."

Empty my mind? Wish I could...

My last week of classes begins tomorrow! I can't tell you how relieved I am that classes are nearly over with. I've really enjoyed my classes this semester, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to know that I won't have to worry about them after this week (except for finals, but those aren't really worrying me...) It's just that point in the semester... I want to be done.

Also, can I just say how much I love Sundays?
Relaxing.
Rejuvenating, both physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Great time for reflection.
I feel like I think too much about my life on Sundays. I should focus a bit more on spiritual matters... but it's just convenient to work my life out on a day when I don't have to worry about a bunch of other things.

And I have too much to think about.

It gets in the way of falling asleep sometimes... I just can't turn my brain off.

You'd think that if I spent all day thinking about life, then I would be all done with thinking by the time I got in bed. But that's not so with me. I just find new things to contemplate, or I keep turning the same thoughts over and over in my mind. Looking for new patterns. Trying to make sense of something that I just can't quite understand, some puzzle I can't quite piece together. Of course, if I'm tired enough then I'll fall asleep despite my brain wanting to keep thinking.

I need to learn how to empty my mind.

Occlumency, anyone? Nerd moment.

Getting back to Sundays... they just make me happy. Going to 3 hours-worth of spiritual enlightenment and edification is great. Gotta love church. And now we're home listening to Christmas music. And I'm going to go to choir in a couple minutes. And we're having a bunch of desserts at 3. And there's a Christmas Fireside tonight. Yep, plenty to look forward to today.

Dear December...

Why, hello December!
It's nice to see you again...
And you've already been here for a day.
I'm sorry I missed addressing you when you first arrived yesterday.
I must say though, I'm a little bit surprised that you're here already.
Are you sure that all 11 of the other months got their turn?
Because it doesn't feel like 11 months have passed by since last time, December.
But I suppose that's what happens when you get older.
Time just has a nasty little habit of... slipping away.
And before I know it, December, you'll be gone again.
Just like that.
So I suppose I'll make the most of you while you're here.
Because I love you, December.
You help me create memories.
You give me a break from school.
You give the world an opportunity to celebrate the Savior.
You bring me back to my family.
So please, December... don't pass by too quickly.

Lots and lots of love!
Ashley