'Tis The Season

starting two weeks before thanksgiving, byu started their annual christmas decorate-a-thon, putting up (literally) hundreds of christmas trees all over campus. i remember thinking how it didn't quite feel like christmas then. it didn't because it wasn't supposed to. the weather was warm, the leaves were changing and i was finding myself trying to impress a certain girl.

in a word, life = carefree.

then thanksgiving came, and so did the dreadful finals season. rather than focusing on the other season which includes the birth of christ, admiring beautiful decorations all over byu campus and playing in the newly fallen snow, i have spent the last two weeks focused on presentations, papers and projects. the carefree attitude was suddenly distorted to troubled and the anxiety of my senior work load became unbearable at times. harold b. lee, as well as about fifteen other regulars that i saw every night at the hospital are now my new best friends. and by best friends, i mean familiar faces that i will see on campus in the future that i will avoid talking to by casually pulling out my phone and act as though someone is calling. just to avoid awkward conversation. they're library friends. nothing more. nothing less.

when i left the library thursday afternoon and went to give my last presentation in the last class of the semester, i finally felt relief.

so what did i do to celebrate? i slept. for five hours. (ask any college student how they want to celebrate, and 9 out of 10 will say they just want to sleep. at least the lds ones).

when i woke up, i had the biggest desire to finally EXPERIENCE the christmas season.

that desire was fulfilled this weekend. i spent friday afternoon burning christmas cds and listening to them full blast as i ran errands with nicole. she is a convert (not a born in) and her blog is one of the funniest, well-written, and entertaining things that i read on a daily basis. she amazes me with her ability to carry on despite losing her dad just five months ago. spend an hour or so reading it. it's worth it. i was able to get a lot of christmas shopping done, and her opinion was very useful when it came to buying certain things. i spent the rest of the night alone wrapping most of the presents. anna was busy watching new moon and talking about boys at her girls' night out. blahhh.



we were planning on going to salt lake to the forgotten carols on saturday, but because of severe blizzard warnings, we opted to stay closer to home. italian dinner and a trip to the lights at thanksgiving point was our substitute date.

it was the first time either of us had gone to see them and it was a festive sight, complete with santa and parachuting reindeer. being able to stay in the warm car listening to christmas music, while taking dozens of pictures of ourselves was a huge blessing.



it was a memorable night to mark the best month and a half this past year.

and for once it felt like the christmas season was finally here.