CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I made it through my first semester of college and through finals week. And now that all of that crap is over, it's officially CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Christmas is my very favorite time of the year. Something about the lights, and the Christmas music playing everywhere, and the Christmas specials on TV, and the smell of pine trees...I don't know. Christmas is just magical. 

Luckily for me, this year, I get to have TWO Christmases. Why? Because my friends are super cool, that's why. Super cool, or super weird, depending on how you look at it. Let me tell you about my first Christmas this year. 

So the group of friends that makes up my "family" (see last post) decided that since we weren't going to see each other over Christmas break, we should have our own Christmas celebration, since we're so close and stuff. And that's what we did. My guy friends decorated their apartment, complete with lights and a tree and candles (electric candles. We aren't allowed to have real fire in the apartments) and stockings for all of us. We drew names for Secret Santa, and put the gifts under the tree. On "Christmas Eve," we had a big, fancy dinner. The boys cooked a ham and made some stuffing, I made some Chicken Enchilada Soup (it was really, really good. Hey, this is my blog. I can't lie to you), and Kelley and Courtney cooked some yummy potato wedges. The whole time we had some soft Christmas music It was a fantastic meal. Afterwards, we read Biblical Christmas story and had some pie. We finished off the night by watching Miracle on 34th Street in the basement in front of a roaring campfire. 

The next morning (ok, it was actually noon. We don't really do stuff in the mornings), we had Christmas. We were all wearing our pajamas and ugly Christmas sweaters. I looked completely disgusting, which is normally how I feel on Christmas. Christmas is one of the those days where you don't give a rat's fart about about how you look. At least, it is for me. Anyway, Tyler made peppermint milkshakes, which I heard were really good, but didn't actually try because I wanted a cinnamon bun and I can only eat so much sweet stuff at one time. The stockings were all sitting on the couch, stuffed full of treats from "Santa." (My friends are awesome.) We gathered around the couch and took a family picture, to immortalize the moment. Then, it was present time. You can see the pictures on Facebook. Some of the presents were meaningful (by that I mean that Kelley gave Ryan a cheese grater. Inside joke). Some of the presents were played with for the rest of the day (Tyler got a bow and arrows). Some of the presents were exactly what the receiver wanted (Nic gave Pete a lava lamp). A great time was had by all. After the presents were all exchanged, somehow we got on the topic of Christmas cards. Because we're a "family," and because we were all delirious and drunk on Christmas spirit (not to be confused with Christmas spirits, which they don't have a great supply of at BYU), we decided to make our own Christmas cards, to send to our family. Using the picture we'd just taken, Nic designed a lovely card that we printed on real photo paper. It looked very professional. That was all well and good, but then we had to go and write a family Christmas letter. This was a five-page beautiful disaster that seemed like a good idea at the time, but when we woke up from our Christmas delusion and realized that we'd sent a five-page letter that wouldn't make sense to anybody but ourselves to our families, we couldn't believe what we'd done. In the words of my mother, "It was great. Now all your parents have something to show your future husbands and wives on your wedding days." Yeah. We basically confirmed our parents' belief that we're completely insane. Not sure how we're all going to live that one down. 

Oh I forgot to mention how we sent the letters. A group of us walked up to the Wilkinson Center and went down to the post office in the basement. Of course, we were still wearing our pajamas and various other accessories. I had a Santa hat, Tyler was wearing a cape, Courtney was wearing boxer shorts with Animal the Muppets' face on them (that was her present), and Mike was wearing a very interesting sweater. (Again, see the pictures). I'm sure we must have freaked out some of the other people in the building, but it was fun. Acting like a freak is fun, once in a while. Or all the time.

And so that was my first Christmas.            

Now I'm going home. Home to my mama's cooking and my daddy's "Christmas Schedule" that always includes four hours of singing Christmas carols and not opening presents til 8 PM. Home to my baby kitties, who probably won't remember me. Home to my fantastic non-Mormon friends, who I've really missed. I know that, because I'm a stupid teenager, I'll probably start missing BYU and my "family" in less than a week, but all I can think right now is HASTA LEVISTA, PROVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BYU is an incredible school. I'm so glad I go there.

Christmas is a magical holiday. I'm so glad I get two.

I love marshmallows, Netflix, Neil Patrick Harris, and my grandma's pets. 

My next post will be fun. Stay tuned!

I love you all, and Merry Christmas.

Emily <3