Food, Family, & Football

Well bloggers, I'm back at it. After an extremely stressful week of finals that involved multiple nights of Mountain Dew Code Red, (which is the good stuff for helping me stay awake, reserved only for special occasions) staying up until 6 am to study and waking up at 8 am to go take tests, and having absolutely no time to even think about anything other than studying, I am finally home. And by home I mean Pennsylvania. I haven't been to Pennsylvania since I got married, about a year and 4 months ago. Is it horrible of me to say that the thing I missed most was the food? Cause it's totally true. Other than my family, of course. Since I've been back, we've been making the rounds between all of our favorite restaurants. For all of you out there that are reading, Old Forge, the town next to where I grew up, has THE BEST Italian food and pizza. It's unbelievable and I totally crave it when I have to resort to domino's in Utah. 

Other than food, we've been doing some fun things as a family. Since 5 out of the 6 of us kids are still in college, it's pretty rare when we're all together. This Christmas, we were all able to be in Pennsylvania for the holidays, so it has been pretty fun. We had a family game night a few nights ago, playing one of our favorite games, pegs and jokers, and by the time the game was almost through, we all hated each other haha. We get pretty intense when we play games. We've also kept up with some family Christmas traditions, like going to the movies on Christmas, opening a present on Christmas Eve, having our family Christmas party the day after Christmas, going ice skating, etc. It has been pretty fun so far. The only thing we haven't done that was the only thing I REALLY wanted to do while I was home was go to New York City. I am so bummed about it. I wanted to go see the Christmas lights, go to Serendipity, and go ice skating at Rockefellar Center. Oh well, there's always the next time we're here for Christmas. Hopefully that same year we can go to Times Square for New Years Eve... Crossing my fingers that I can get Taylor on board for that one so I can check it off the bucket list. 

And right now? Well, right now, the hubs, dad, and myself are eating boneless wings and watching the BYU vs Washington football game on tv. Really hoping that BYU comes out on top! Fingers Crossed! Merry Christmas bloggers!

Today I am Thankful

So I know this post is about 2 weeks too late, but better late than never right? I just wanted to share an experience that happened on Black Friday when I was at work. Right after we closed, I was sweeping. Under one of the tables was a notepad with a child's handwriting that said, "I'm thankful for the great life I have and just for breathing." It was just so humbling to me to read those words and know that a child wrote them. For children, it's so simple. I think adults need to have that kind of mindset. How often do we stop and think about the simple things, like being thankful for every breath that we take? If you're like me, a full-time college student, worker of 2 jobs, and a newlywed, probably not very often. Life is busy, but it's important to pause and be grateful for all that we have. So today, I'd like to take the opportunity to list just a few (in a very large list of things) that I'm thankful for.

Freshly fallen snow

Family

Friends

Good books 

Laughter

The sweet boy that I tutor

My amazing husband

Christmas music

The gospel

Oversized sweaters/ shirts

Boots

Scented candles

Netflix & cuddling

Hot Cocoa with marshmallows

What are you thankful for? Happy Monday....Well I guess Tuesday, everyone!