reunited and it feels so good + san francisco + tree decorating

1. a comedy of errors
that is what marcie called this morning. and i think that is appropriate. but let's start at the beginning. this morning, i got up at 5:20 so i could go with the mutzes to pick up cammie and her friend emily at the airport. i was sooooo excited. so we drove all the way to the san francisco airport, where we waited for an hour for their plane to arrive. they finally landed, and called us, wondering where we were. we wandered around, looking for them. marcie texted cammie and asked, "are you in san francsico?" wondering if maybe they were in oakland. cammie responded and said, "no...are you?" so we hopped in the car and drove to the oakland airport, where we found cammie and emily. oh, but it was hilarious.

2. zachary's pizza
seriously, best deep dish pizza that isn't in chicago. (sidenote: i've never been to chicago, so i'm not really sure...i'm just guessing.) so while we were still in oakland, we decided to stop at zachary's for some lunch. it was delicious, as always, and we stuffed our faces. i think the phrasing i used was, "imma pack it in," or something like that. PS i decided at zachary's that i really like emily. she told me that she liked my sense of humor, and would pay to come to my comedy show. we hit it off very well.

3. lombard street
so emily has never been to the bay area before, so we decided we needed to take her sight seeing. the one thing she really wanted to see in san francisco was lombard street, so we took her to the top and we drove down in the car. it was an adventure, that's for sure. i've been down it once before, but i guess i don't really remember it being so steep! it made me slightly uncomfortable, driving at such an extreme angle. we survived, though, and that's what matters. we took pictures at the bottom, and then we hiked the stairs to the top again so we could take photos up there. then we all fell asleep on the way home. it was a long day.

the bay bridge

emily: "the buildings are so tall! i didn't know they were that big!"

the three

emily happy on lombard

the view

it's kinda dark, but you can see the street a little. cammie has the photos of us all at the bottom.

the three at the top

again. couldn't get enough of the view.

golden gate

4. christmas presents
tonight the morgans and hughes' delivered some christmas presents to some people in the branch. lisa, olivia, and luke put together some hot chocolate mix and homemade marshmallows, and we made a cd of some really great christmas stories to give to our friends. we went to three different houses to drop them off tonight, and we got to visit with some wonderful people in the branch. it was quite fun. then we made the morgans watch the kid history video, and they made us watch this video:

5. decorating the tree!
tonight my family decorated the christmas tree. it was so fun. family time is the best time. we spent a good long while decorating, hanging ornaments, and laughing at our slightly lopsided, very tall unicorn tree. yes. i said unicorn tree. the tree topper is a little skiwompus, and we decided that it reminds us of a very christmasy unicorn. also, we got some really good quotes from my dad, like, "he's perfect in his mediocrity," and "oh, i just went right past perfection!" and "don't make light of my burdens unless you can make my burdens light." my mom and i were crying for a good portion of the evening.

daddy in a santa hat, putting the topper on the tree

david looking at a tree topper (did you get the reference to kim jong-il looking at things? go back to sunday's post to get it.)

my tree can pierce the sky! (office, anyone?)

well, i'm off to the bakery in the morning! i hope everyone is having the best christmas season. it really is the most wonderful time of the year! :)

also, i would like to report a funny thing that has me completely baffled. my facebook app on my iphone has been displaying my little thumbnail photo as a squirrel. really? why?! it just cracks me up every time i see it! it makes no sense.

SEE?! it's weird.

also please watch this video. i almost like it better than the first one i posted. both are awesome, though.

and on that night, good night! :)

who do you think you are, fred astaire?

1. going to the dentist
i'm grateful to be able to get my teeth cleaned every 6 months. i'm grateful for a very nice dentist who tells me i do a great job brushing my teeth. i'm grateful for parents who go with me to the dentist and sit in the waiting room until i am done and we drive home together and talk.

2. going to healdsburg with chloe, sasha, and jenna
so we had originally planned on going to jim town, this awesome little store/deli in alexander valley, but when we got there, they were closed. of course their new winter hours changed so that they would only be closed on tuesdays. of course. so we ended up going to healdsburg, and that was really fun. we went to this little thai food place and i got some really yummy chicken pad thai. yummm. then we went to powell's candy shop which is basically a candy store on steroids, and it was really happy, and they were playing music from willy wonka, and they were showing willy wonka, too, on the tv. that was a really great sentence, grammatically. just sayin'. it was fun to catch up with them all!

3. going to the grocery store with mama
i love going to the grocery store with my mama. she is great. the grocery store is great. we're really good at this thing called "buying lots of ice cream." we got holiday ice cream. so excited. in our freezer we currently have some peppermint and some egg nog ice cream. i'm eating it all tomorrow. all.

4. dinner at the de limur's
every year before christmas, the hughes, morgan, umble, fellion, and de limur families get together for one grand evening of dinner and festivities and sitting and eating and laughing and having a good time all together. tonight was that night. we ate waayyy to many appetizers. we had a delicious dinner of chicken and roasted vegetables and potato pancakes and roasted vegetables and spinach salad. (i didn't mean to include roasted vegetables twice, but it works because two families brought them, so we're just gonna go with it.) we decorated christmas cookies for dessert. we told stories around the dinner table and relaxed in front of the fire. it was a splendid evening.

5. having funny conversations with my family
today in the car:
mom: it's like dancing on the stars!
dad: dancing on the stars? who do you think you are, fred astaire?
maybe you had to be there, but i just thought that was so funny. i laughed to myself for a while about that one.

i'm so excited to go to bed. i am sooooo tired. i'm not really sure why...i guess i just am. also, because when i wake up, do you know what is happening?! i am driving with the mutzes to san francisco to pick up CAMMIE MUTZ from the airport. and i get to meet her friend emily from hawaii. and i can't really wait. i haven't seen that girl in a year. this is going to be good times. gooooood times. let 'em roll.

i'm in love. with the napa valley.

hi. my name is sydney and i love where i live.

1. going to santa rosa with chloe and walker
today i went to target and ulta and juice shack and michaels with chloe and walker. that was fun.

2. eating taylors for dinner
i'm sorry...i know the name got changed to gotts...but i just can't seem to make the switch. it will always be taylors in my mind. anyway. i finally got my chicken tenders and garlic fries that i have been wanting for what seems like forever. really, once you've tried a gotts shake, things like wendy's frosties and dairy queen blizzards, though nice, just aren't really that impressive. (sorry if i've deeply offended anyone, but you would say the same after trying one.) i'm totally taking my roommates here when we go on our california road trip in february. it's a must. so to sum this all up, good news: i had garlic fries. bad news: i had garlic fries and will smell like garlic fries probably until next tuesday. oh well, i'm a happy camper :)

3. napsnapsnaps
i know this is a terrible routine to get into, but i seem to have discovered a talent called "falling asleep right before bed time and then staying up late because you can't fall asleep." and as bad as it is, i kinda like it.

4. sparkles
today at michaels, chloe and i looked at all the sparkles. it made me sooooo happy. have i ever mentioned how much i love sparkles? well, i like them a lot. i bought some awesome sparkles that are kind of this champagne gold color and they are so pretty. i'm going to put them on my nails. we came to the conclusion that martha stewart has the best sparkles, and she had this set of like 20 different mini glitter samples that i wanted to buy, but it was expensive, so i didn't. and then i found five dollars.*

5. living in the napa valley
i love where i live. i don't think i can say that enough times. i don't think people really understand how pretty it is until they have been here. i try and explain to people just how amazing it is, i really do, but somehow i don't think they get it. photographs don't seem to do it justice. i'm so excited for my roommates and i to take our road trip so they can see the valley in spring! they get to see the blossoms and the mustard and the beauty that is the napa valley. and they get to see the tree tunnel that dennis quaid and lindsay lohan drive through in the parent trap. bonus!

hi. i'm the prettiest sunset you've ever seen from sydney's front yard.

sunset with david's avatar tree things.

OH and PS!! my local news channel actually showed a video of a monkey riding on a dog tonight. it made me so happy. that never happens in real life. but it did.

the best day

1. church at the branch
i love my branch. as much as i try to explain it to people...you just can't understand how quirky the branch really is unless you've been there. it's just something you have to experience first hand. my favorite quote from today was from mona, saying "well, i don't see any strange faces this morning...just the usual strange faces!" classic. that is the branch in a nutshell for you. it was good to see all of the people i grew up with. it was weird to see all the little boys being not so little any more, but it was good to see them, too. like when luke saw me, the first thing he did was give me a hug. that made my day. i'm so happy to be home ♡

2. walker being ordained a priest
last week walker was ordained to the office of a priest. (for more info click here.) today was his first time blessing the sacrament. he did such a good job! i am so proud of him, and i'm grateful that he lives worthy to hold the priesthood. he's such a good kid.

3. the french laundry christmas party
like i said yesterday: arguably the best day of the year. this is the day when the morgans and the hughes' all go to the french laundry to celebrate christmas with thomas keller and his 121249834701498 other closest friends (we're the closest, though, of course...ha). we get to dress up. the food is delicious. we shamelessly stuff our faces and take photos so our friends can see how much fun we have. we have it all mapped out, too. we know where all the stops are, we know when what is being served...we have got this down to a science. today there was a little kid walking around with his face painted (they do that for the little kids) and he had the biggest smile on his face, looking at all of the sweets. i turned to olivia and said, "hey, remember when we were like that? and remember how we're still like that?" i may or may not have burned my tongue on the hot chocolate (that is more like liquid chocolate with homemade marshmallows) and butternut squash lobster bisque, but who cares? it always has and always will be magical.

and now for the photo montage:

hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows

the ice sculpture. i call this one, "david looking at a thing," kind of like that website of kim jong-il looking at things. i feel it is a nice tribute to him, now that he has passed on.

chocolates. the round are peppermint, the square are peanut butter cups with a layer of jelly in the bottom.

the beauty that is one of the french laundry christmas party dessert tables

my dulce de leche pudding cup. i was in loveeeeee.

olivia and her smores cup.

obviously we are clearly excited. and not smiling with our teeth because we are busy eating.

luke taking a caramel chocolate thing.

walker creeping while luke takes his first bite...

q: luke, on a scale from 1 to 10 how happy are you? a: 62.

not the best photo, but it's the good dinner boy :)

4. napping with mommy
when we got home this afternoon, my mama and i decided to take a nap. i was on the couch, she was on a chair in the living room. then we decided to move to the big bed (that's what walker and i call my parents' bed because when we were little, it was really really big. it still is.) where we slept for a while. i think i was asleep for like two hours. but it was really nice to snuggle with my mama and be home.

5. christmas tree!!
so we haven't decorated the tree all the way...but we started today. our tree is huge again this year. i think it's probably 14 feet or something. advantage of having tall ceilings, friends. anyway, my daddy put up the lights (and i helped for like 7 minutes), and then walker and got our annual christmas ornament. every year, we each get our own ornament to add to our personal collections. they always have something to do with what has happened to us over the year, or something that has special meaning to our family. this year we each got TWO ornaments!! we both got a narwhal ("bye, buddy! i hope you find your dad!" elf anyone?), and then we each got a different ornament. i got a jewel bug, because my nickname is buggy. walker got a gnome because he collects gnomes. it was a happy thing.

i really like christmas, can you tell? and look at my ornaments! they are happy.

it's finally starting to really feel like christmas. it's such a happy time of the year! i love being with my family, i love celebrating the birth of christ, i love giving, i love shamelessly eating treats, i love everything about it.

i've included a little video for your viewing pleasure. it's the kid history christmas episode from youtube. if you've never heard of kid history...well just watch this. you will not be sorry. it makes my family cry every time. merry christmas! :)

bakeries + weddings + beans from even stevens

1. the bakery
i got to work at the bakery today. it was the happiest. i love the bakery. i love the food. i love the people. that is all.

2. taking a shower but still smelling like coffee
that may sound silly, but i love the smell of coffee. today i was on coffee duty, so there was coffee smell everywhere. i just smelled my hand. yep. still there. i kinda missed that. that and coming home and finding espresso beans in my shirt.

3. christmas lights
today i saw a lot of christmas lights. some were in my own front yard. some were in vallejo. my dad has taken inspiration from the tree-thing in the avatar movie--the one where they plug their braids into the glowing strands--and so he is hanging christmas lights from the tree. not like wrapping the lights around the branches, nooooo, they are hanging vertically. in vallejo there was a house that was pure christmas lights. it was crazy sauce.

this is my dad, making the avatar christmas tree. ava-mas tree? christma-tar tree? anyway.

and this was taking from the car (i was parked, don't fear), so it's really bad quality. but it basically did look like that. just pure lights.

4. miss jill wood is now mrs. jill olson
jill got married today. it was perfect. it was happy. she was glowing. i may or may not have been a tender heart and teared up a little bit while i was talking to her. i'm so happy she found her e.c. (eternal companion, that's what's up!) and that they are so right for each other. jill is the first of my really good friends to get married, so it was kind of strange to realize that she has moved on to a whole other part of her life, but i couldn't be happier for her. jill olson has a nice ring to it :)

ignore me. i look weird. but mrs. olson looks AH-MAY-ZING.

5. laying on the couch watching hgtv
yep. it's true. i spent the rest of my evening on the couch, watching frosty the snowman, wipeout: christmas edition, and various shows on hgtv. i was one happy camper. i may or may not have also looked at wedding ideas on my laptop, because, you know, weddings are so happy, and i was just at one...and i'm a girl. what can i say? i like weddings. and diamond rings.

tomorrow is arguably the best day of the year. it's the FRENCH LAUNDRY CHRISTMAS PARTY. i'm so excited i can't even stand it. as soon as church is over, the morgans and hughes' will be bookin it down to yountville to partake in the holiday festivities at the best restaurant in the world. (that was me stating a fact, it wasn't an opinion, by the way.) i'll be sure to update you all.

oh, by the way, i'm up to 1150 views. that is crazy. anyways. sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, and all that good stuff you say before bed. night!

for anyone who's interested, this is what my advent calendar ended up looking like. i didn't have enough room to bring it home with me, so i opened them all before i left :)

aaaaand this is beans arrongaron (spelling?) from even stevens. he is now a pink-haired elf, working for t-mobile, in case anyone was wondering what happened to him.

 

and just for fun, i'm throwing in the classic beans quote.

beans: does 'gassy' have two 's''s or three?

and on that note, i'm out.

two-for-one blog post of happiness!!

so...here's some elaboration on yesterday. since i promised that. ha.

1. i aced my last final
so it's going to sound funny, but i was actually really worried about my doctrine & covenants final. that class was absolutely amazing, but the tests were always really hard...so i studied my brains out. the next morning, i took my test and bam! aced it. merry christmas to me! :)

2. i tried dairy queen for the first time
so people (specifically joel...) have been teasing me about never having been to dairy queen. so yesterday i went with joel. and it was good. everyone said i had to get a blizzard...but i wanted a chocolate malt. so i got a chocolate malt. and i enjoyed it.

3. i saw so many friends on my flight home
seriously, not even kidding. so about a week ago, jalyn and i found out we were going to be on the same flight! so i saw her, obviously, and her sister stacy, and then i sat next to natalie dayton who lived in penrose with me, and then at the end of the flight do you know who i found?! jill and her fiancé jeff!! it was fantastic. so happy. so many friends.

4. i got to see olivia
on our way home from the airport, my dad and i stopped in berkeley and picked up our little olive. it was so great to see her again! we have been friends since she was 8 months old, and i was like 1 and a half. i'm glad she's my friend and part of my family :)

5. i'm home. i'm HOME. I'M HOME!!
it's so great to be home. i get to see my family. i get to sleep in my own bed. i get to sit on the couch and watch christmas movies. i get to eat from all of my favorite places. i get to work on my blog while sitting next to the fire. i get to not worry about homework. yes. it's the best.

ok and now on to today.

1. sleeping in
so...i guess at college i don't really sleep much. or something. so today...this is embarrassing...but i slept in until about 1. and then i layed in bed for another hour. sure i felt kinda gross afterwards, but it was kinda nice to finally catch up a little bit.

2. my own shower
this is also silly. but i've never been a big fan of using showers that aren't in my own house...so i'm pretty happy to be home in my own shower.

3. palisades deli
i have missed palisades so much. i love being able to go to palisades whenever i want and get my favorite sandwiches. so delicious. sooooo delicious.

4. going to santa rosa with my brother
walker and i went christmas shopping today. we got to wander around the mall and look at all the christmas decorations and santa and all that stuff. it was fun.

5. checkersssssssssssssssssssssss
oh my gosh. i love checkers restaurant. we ordered out tonight for dinner and i am one happy camper. mmhmm. yep. i am so happy.

i am also so happy that i get to work at the bakery tomorrow. HOLY COW. i missed the bakery. i am so excited. i should probably go to bed, since i have to be there at 6:30. am. early. but i'm excited. :)

I'M IN CALIFORNIA slash i'm breaking my own rules

so today i'm breaking the rules because it's 1 am in california (which means 2 am in utah)...and i'm kinda tired...so i'll post double tomorrow.

1. i aced my last final

2. i tried dairy queen for the first time

3. i saw so many friends on my flight home

4. i got to see olivia

5. i'm home. i'm HOME. I'M HOME!!

ok that is all.