THANKSGIVING!!!

Man I needed a break!!

Monday was a super crazy day! I had all my classes and then for FHE we helped decorate Main Hall for Christmas. It turned out most wards had the same idea and we overwhelmed the people in charge. This resulted in most of us just standing around not doing much!

On Tuesday, Ewa and I kept checking our phones willing an email from our boss to come saying that work was canceled. We went to our classes and worked on some homework and we both needed to pack! Our plan was to leave at 8pm after work. We started packing around 2ish and then we got the email! Work was basically canceled. If you were "here" you were suppose to work... so we didn't work! We packed up the whole car and drove down to dinner. We ate and then (after we went back to my room to get the fruit snacks) we left for DC! It was a pretty smooth drive till we hit traffic an hour into the drive. We were stuck for about half an hour and then it opened up. We got to the Garfeilds around 9ish I think, and the craziness began! Ewa, Raquel and I ended up talking till around 12:30. Then Ewa and I stayed up talking till past 2!

Wednesday we woke up early and got ready to go to the temple. We were meeting Andrea there at 10:30. We left somewhere around 9 and on our drive the snow storm hit! It had been raining all morning and as we drove it just got crazier. Once we were at the temple, the snow arrived there and it was beautiful! I am so grateful that we were able to start break off by going to the temple. The peace that is there always amazes me. What a blessing they are!

We walked around the visitors center afterword (Ewa and I also changed into warmer clothes because we had some adventures planned). Every year they have a festival full of manger scenes from all across the world. Raquel said that from December 1st on it is packed with people and you have to wait hours in the line. There wasn't a soul there! We got the whole room to ourselves! I loved looking at all of the scenes. It was awesome!

We then got in the car with Andrea and her friend Candice. They were going to drop us off in the city on their way home. We got in and they asked if we were hungry. I was starving! Candice then said, "Are you hungry for Cafe Rio?" Who does she think I am! YES! So we listened to disney and christmas music and headed to paradise! It was delicious but Cafe Rio on the east coast tastes different than the west coast. Even Andrea agreed! We then were dropped off at the Smithsonian. We went to the Air and Space museum first. We were there for probably an hour then we went to the art museum! We both took art history and are a lover of art! We stayed there for two and a half hours (till it closed) and we didn't even see it all!!! We were so sad, but happy we could see some of it. I just LOVE art! AHH! We navigated the metro to the closest station home, then Reid came and got us. We got back for a yummy dinner of homemade potato soup and hung up curtains. I must say they look quite good!

Thursday we woke up and played some games! We all just hung out and enjoyed the delicious smell of turkey, casserole, stuffing, and roles. We ate about 2:30 and because we had homemade cranberry muffins for breakfast at 11.. we didn't actually eat a whole lot. It was mighty good though! After we ate we went to go play dodgeball with another family in their ward. It was sooo cold! I had on so many layers and my warm coat and still froze! After that we came back home and ate pie! It was so good! We relaxed the rest of the night and enjoyed homemade wassail! It was the best.

 Brigham is my favorite!

 Oh I missed Slush!!

Friday we got woken up by everyone all the sudden in our room. We hurried and got ready and then headed to Old Navy for some great deals for black friday. Seth, Andrea, Ewa and I all bought a ton of stuff! What else can you do when the entire store is 50% off? It was packed and the whole experience was a bit crazy. I made everyone go to Barnes and Noble afterwords because its the best store ever! Then we got in the car and waited for Raquel to meet us so she could buy the stuff that Seth picked out. Once we were home we ate left overs for lunch. All of us ate way more for lunch then we did on actual Thanksgiving! We were stuffed! Andrea then drove Ewa and I back into the city. We walked from the White House to the Washington monument, then to the World War II monument, then the Lincoln. We then headed up to the Foggy Bottom metro station where we got hot chocolate and a croissant for dinner. Then we walked to the Kennedy Center and saw Sutton Foster! It was really cool to hear her sing with the whole national orchestra. She is perfect and I don't know why we arn't best friends!

We had a lot of fun shadow dancing at the Lincoln!

 I was super skilled getting this picture!

 Ewa called these the Splash Mountain seats!

Saturday we spent sometime in the morning just with the family. We ate a big lunch again and helped decorate for Christmas. We left about an hour after we wanted to... that was expected though! Another traffic jam happened and this time I put the car in park. For dinner we went and got frozen hot chocolate :) When we made it back home we unloaded the car and both got some homework done. Then we watched While You Were Sleeping to kick off the Christmas season right! (We also listened to the Pentatonix Christmas album the whole drive! Its soo cool!). 

Sunday we had all 6 wards combine because most everyone was still gone. It was fun to sit by all of our friends in the other wards. After church it was fun to see the whole campus come back to life. It was a great break.... now on to Finals!

Where did last week go?

What a crazy week!!!

Monday, It was so cold! I was wearing four layers! My sweater, SVU sweatshirt, my grey coat, and my rain coat! I was very warm and happy! We had FHE where we played Ewa's family in heads up. My family dominated again and won. I then came back and FaceTimed Alley!

On Tuesday I again wore four layers. A sweater, cardigan, Greece sweatshirt, and my grey coat. I discovered that gloves are pretty much the greatest invention ever!

Wednesday started the string of my clumsiness. Tuesday night I was getting down to say my prayers when I hit my knee on my bed side table! I have the biggest bruise. Then I went to breakfast Wednesday morning and I ate a muffin. Well in choir I was having a mini coughing attack so I pulled up my scarf to help muffle the sound. Well then I breathed in and inhaled a piece of muffin! That made me laugh/cough and it was bad! Then I went to Institute where they had hot chocolate and apple cider mix. I burned my tongue. It was rough! I did pull out my christmas blanket with the cute penguins and snowmen! If only it had sheep on it.... :) (I did also layer again!)

Crunchy peanut butter and honey has become one of my favorite snacks!

Wednesday night I told Ewa that Sutton Foster was going to be performing in DC when I was going to be there for Thanksgiving. We freaked out and then impulse bought tickets! We can't stop mentioning it to each other! We are freaking out!!!

We then went down and watched our women's basketball team play! They did a great job.

My school also played BYU on Wednesday! They were playing it in the SAC on the blow up screen. They had oreos, popcorn, and milk and half the school was there! Every time our team scored we would scream! There was so much support and it was awesome and so much fun! We all knew we were going to lose because our team is a different division entirely, and they are all about my height whereas the BYU team were three of me! I think my favorite part was watching the team and knowing everyone on it! We all loved saying, "oh I have English with Preston!" "Joseph is the nicest kid ever!" "Look, there's Austin!" It's so great to go to a school where you know almost everyone!

Thursday was my most unproductive day. Ewa and I went to the Hills on Fire concert. It was a lot of fun! We love their music and have gone to almost every performance. They are the nicest guys and its super great. That ended at like 9:30 and I told Ewa I didn't want to go home. So we hopped in my car and drove around Buena Vista. We found ourselves on some scary street where I thought a vampire was going to attack me. (I think this came to mind because I am currently reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer for a class... Its weird). After I figured out a place to turn we decided to head to everyone's favorite place, Sheetz. It's a gas/convenient/restaurant thing. We ordered their famous frozen hot chocolate. IT WAS SOO GOOD! We were both hooked! We then drove back home but sat in the parking lot till 11:30ish. It was a much needed break, but didn't aid in the school department.

Friday we had a really good Forum by David Martino. He talked all about priorities and it was really great! At lunch they had these AMAZING chocolate cookies filled with coconut! And they were warm! They were to die for! Literally... I think I would die for them.

About 4:30 I was heading back up to the lofts. I decided to check on who ever was working the current shift at the dinning hall (because it wasn't dinner rush yet). It turned out to be my RA Merissa! So I walked in and ended up sitting by her the rest of the night! After her shift in there she had to work the game room. So we went to try and get the key for the game closet, and that was a whole experience! Then we hung out up there till about 9:30. Then walking back, this nice guy going the opposite direction of us, pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride to the lofts. It was awesome.

Ewa then came back to my room and we hung out for quite awhile!

On Saturday I went to work and then dinner. After dinner we all went to our Winter Formal. We didn't realize how "formal" it was. We were wearing dresses but definitely not as nice as everyone else! The best part was we had the VMI jazz band play live music! We felt like we were in a movie! Our favorite part was during the slow songs, Ewa, Lanie (Another amazing RA), and I would pretend we were secret agents, breaking up happy couples, or interpretive dancing. It was great.

It was a super fun week and surprisingly really fast! We are very very VERY excited for Thanksgiving this next week! I am excited to be with the Garfield's, but it is going to be weird not being with family! Hope everyone has an amazing week! (And stay off the streets because Will's driving!)