Christmas at the Anderson's

This year was a wonderful Christmas. Mark and I were lucky enough to spend a week at my parents house. We went to the Sweet Family Christmas party and had a great time visiting with my aunts, uncles and cousins. During the party, a group of us were sitting around the table and decided to write a letter to my cousin who is on a mission... one word at a time. As we passed the letter around, each person wrote down one word, adding to a sentence. The best sentence we came up with was: "Always remember, we always remember to remember that remembrance never forgets to remember". I hope he has fun reading that letter. Good times.

Throughout the week we mostly hung out, played video games, watched movies, and ate a lot of delicious. Christmas morning consisted of Mom, Dad, Mel, Mark and me there to open presents. Mark got an air compressor and various tools that we could use throughout our lives. I got a Bosch from my parents, a nice knife set from Mark and other various cooking items from other various relatives. I'm excited to get home and do some cooking! I think Mark is excited for me to cook too.

Today is the day after Christmas. We spent the morning sledding, and it was AWESOME! I've got some pictures to prove it. Also, none of these are photoshopped in any way.

This is me in my new snowclothes.

Mark and me on the sled.

A winter tradition in my family is called "snow kayaking". It's pretty cool. Check it out.

Mark in the kayak. Aaron on the snowboard.

Aaron in the kayak.

Aaron in the kayak, with Ginger in the background.

Mark in the kayak hitting the side of a jump

(and still getting some wicked air).

Mark, Dad, and Aaron in/on the kayak.

What are your wintertime traditions?

P.S. We sold my car. Hooray!!

The Trick

The trick to feeding a man is to not ask him what he wants or tell him what's for dinner. The trick is to just make it. Set it in front of him. Let him eat. He'll enjoy it if you don't give him a choice. Mark has always told me that it would work, but he's usually around when I'm cooking (which means he will disagree with what I'm about to cook, and we end up eating mac and cheese). Last night he was around, but on the phone. So I made a dinner of potato and cheese soup (thanks to Wendy's great gift). And he liked it.

And that, my friends, is the trick.

Sigh of Relief

Well, I feel pretty good about my final. As I've talked over it with some of the other students, I've felt more and more confident. When I think about the midterm and it's results I feel even better about this exam.

The rest of this week will be filled with relaxing, cooking, laundering, cleaning, bass playing, performing, sleeping, researching, proctoring and grading. And all of these things will be done with A LOT less stress.

It's going to be a good week.

Ketchup

Since the last time I wrote, two big events have happened. First, Thanksgiving. Since Mark had gone to Bryce Canyon and Escalante with his brothers, I found a ride to Salt Lake to spend time with my sister and mom. It was great! We had fun making noodles for homemade chicken noodle soup, laughing and chatting, and making jello "shots" and trifle "shots" for the Sweet family Thanksgiving. It was awesome to have time to just chill with the fam. It was also awesome that Gramma Sweet was at my mom's house for a few hours making the noodles for Thanksgiving dinner. I haven't spent time with her in a very long time, and it's just good to be around Gramma. Just to be able to hug her when I wanted was wonderful. I love you, Gramma!!
After spending time with my family, the plan was that Mark would pick me up and we'd head back to Logan on Wednesday night. Or so everybody else thought. Mark and I had planned to stay for Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Thursday, and I decided to keep it a surprise. The look on Gramma's face was priceless when she saw me Thanksgiving morning. I hope I never forget that face. She's beautiful. Anyway, it was wonderful to spend time with the aunts, uncles and cousins who were at the dinner. I miss those folks.
We left Salt Lake on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Logan around 6 or 7. Mark and I got bored and fell asleep at 7:30. Lame, I know, but it was awesome. We woke up at 6:30 the next morning, and we didn't go shopping. Weird, right? But we didn't feel we needed anything. So we just had a nice long morning together. Later in the day on Friday, Mark's family held their Thanksgiving dinner. That was also a blast. 4 of the 6 brothers were there (one was in Ireland and the other in Georgia). It was fun to be with all of the nieces and nephews.
I love holidays!

The second big event that happened was that I finished my grading of assignments and quizzes for the semester. You know what that means? This semester is just about over. Not only am I done grading, but I am done with assignments and projects for my classes. Just one final on Monday, then I'm basically done. How awesome is that?!

What's your favorite part of the holidays? Is it the sweets and treats? Is it the hot chocolate by the fireplace? Or is it just having the heat on in your house so that it's a nice cozy place to come to after playing in the (non-existent) snow?