Daysha!

Here's pictures of my niece. She was the only one around Christmas so she gets a special place on my blog. What a cutie.


Flossing her teeth.

Hitler reacts to BYU loss

So the BYU football season turned out to be much less than we were all hoping for. Here's a funny video showing some of the frustrations of the game against Utah.

Snow? In December?

So the weirdest thing happened when I went from Utah to Washington (no, not getting stuck in the airport for 9 hours). There was snow on the ground when I left Utah and it was still on the ground when I got to Washington. Not only that, but it kept snowing, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Everyone in the Pacific Northwest is very surprised. They get snow up in the mountains, but not here at sea level--maybe twice a year, but not a lot either. I haven't had a White Christmas that I can recall. Maybe it will stick around a few more days.

That's my home.


The forest behind my house.

Sister Hall's Christmas Present

Every year the members of the Men's Chorus contribute $5-10 each in order to get a Christmas present for our conductor, Sister Hall. The last several years instead of getting something for her, we have tried to do something for others. Two years ago I had an amazing experience when we did a Sub-for-Santa for nine kids in a foster home. We raised the money, bought gifts and a tree, drove out to Sandy to deliver it all and sing for them at their doorstep. We did this all without her knowing and then presented her with the DVD of it at the end of the semester. One of the top ten experiences of my life.

This year was another incredibly uplifting experience. Sister Hall's father still lives in Wales and hasn't been to the U.S. in over ten years. His health is getting worse and it's pretty hard for him to get out here. I don't know whose idea it was, but the Men's Chorus bought a plane ticket for him to fly over here for Christmas. (We had the help of Sister Hall's husband and family to make this happen logistically.) We've been sending e-mails to each other and planning it for months without her knowing.

Then on Thursday, December 4 we were down in the Marriott Center practicing for Christmas Around the World. At the end we handed her a sweet little card with all of our signatures and the signature of her father. This whole time her dad was sneaking up behind her as she read the card aloud, already starting to get emotional without even knowing the biggest surprise. We asked her to turn around and she gasped. She quickly embraced him as we all applauded. It was a beautiful thing to witness. He was able to attend the Christmas Around the World concert one night and Celebration of Christmas the other. She has told us repeatedly that it's always been one of her biggest dreams to have her father there to see her do what she loves so much.

To finish it off, after our MTC devotional on Sunday, December 14, we all met in a room as we usually do to say goodbye and have a little snack. With her dad there we sang a song we had been learning without her knowing called, My Little Welsh Home. What a great way to bring in the Christmas spirit.

Piano in the Wilk

You should only be allowed to play the piano in the Wilkinson Center terrace if you are good and have some music prepared to play. Just a thought I had the last few days as I've heard multiple people playing it. I'm not saying I would be able to play. If I did, I would need to practice a bunch beforehand.

That piano should have the feel more like Nordstrom rather than your own private piano.

Kevin's Wedding

For those who have not yet seen on the pictures from Kevin's Wedding on Facebook.
I think this is my favorite one. Jeff jumped in when I was about to take the picture.

Most people have heard of this picture by now. Nathan bet Jeff $10 he wouldn't go stand in the big family picture of some random wedding party (aka, we don't know them). After a little egging on from myself and Nathan, he stepped up right in the thick of it. It was hilarious. We tried not to laugh too much and give ourselves away.

The beloved roommates. Who knew five years after meeting freshman year we would all still be so close. He has a new roommate now and we're happy for them.

A short trailer for the new Pixar movie coming out in Spring is available for viewing.

Anyone that knows me know that I love Pixar and will be very excited to see this movie. I own almost all of the Pixar movies (I don't have Wall-E or A Bug's Life). I am really excited for this movie, but I was not impressed by the trailer. In fact, I've felt that way about a lot of Pixar's trailers. I became a die hard fan of Pixar after seeing Monster's, Inc. But the trailer actually turned me off. I didn't think it looked very good at all. The only reason I went was because a few weeks after it had come out a friend highly recommended it. I felt the same way about the trailers for Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and Wall-E.

I know that this is just the teaser trailer and a new one will be coming out soon. I'm just wondering since they make such amazing movies why can't the trailers portray that more. I'm gonna see Up because I love Pixar, but if it were just from seeing that trailer, I probably wouldn't.