All the trimmings

One of my favorite things about Christmas is setting up all of the decorations. Last year, Matt and I kind of missed out on that stage because we moved into our home just days before taking off to Utah for the holiday. Needless to say, I was really excited to get my house all gussied up for Christmas this time around!

Due to my business trip the weekend after Thanksgiving, we weren't able to dedicate one single day to decorating like I had wanted. Instead, we worked on it bit by bit whenever most of us were home and finally finished last week. At first I was bummed that we didn't get to have the traditional set-up day, but we ended up really enjoying our extended decorating period. Over the course of many days, we watched Christmas movies (I can never get enough of Elf this time of year), ate cookies (and cookie dough, of course), and drank countless mugs of hot chocolate as we transformed our house. With PERSEC in mind, I'll keep the outside pictures to myself, but here's a little glimpse at the inside of our home this December.

(Yes, I have a wreath on the inside of my front door as well as the outside. Is that weird?)

(Flashes are not friends with Christmas trees, obviously.)

When it's 75-degrees and sunny outside, it's awfully hard to believe that Christmas is really in 12 days. We love that we can step inside our home and get right into the Christmas spirit!

Spontaneity and Anberlin

It was late on a Friday morning, and we had tentative plans for that evening. But when Matt called and told me Anberlin was playing in Los Angeles that night, we threw those plans right out the window! See, I'm a total planner and hate not having any plans, but I definitely don't mind upgrading plans when a better alternative presents itself. In this case, one of our all-time favorite bands was playing at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip, and since attending a concert there was on our LA to-do list, it was like killing two birds with one awesome stone. Just five hours after that phone call, we were standing in line at will call on the Sunset Strip.

We had accounted for traffic that was magically not there, so we arrived nearly an hour before the concert started. That gave us plenty of time to scope out the venue a bit. It's such a cool setting and is extremely blue, naturally. I'm actually not really into concerts because I rarely think they're worth the money, and if I do go to a concert, I prefer country (I've seen Tim and Faith, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, etc.) because A. the singers are actually talented, B. you don't leave smelling like second-hand smoke, and C. you get to sit in your chair and enjoy the music without having your personal bubble invaded by sweaty strangers. Gross.

The lack of "B" and "C" is what I have most definitely not enjoyed at non-country concerts in the past, and I was a bit wary of what the House of Blues would offer. Thankfully, it's a very clean, upscale venue, so "B" was not a concern, and we found the perfect solution for "C" -- a little nook about 1/4 of the way back, right in front of the sound/lighting people, and fully equipped with a "seat/stand," great views of the concert and a rather large personal bubble. Hooray!

The first band that opened for Anberlin was Civil Twilight and we fell in like rather quickly. As in, from the second they opened their mouths and said in full South African accents, "We're Civil Twilight." With accents like that, who cares what their music sounds like?! Except, their music was amazing so it was all the better. It was really funny, though, because my little sister Heidi had told me literally the day before how she found this great South African band and needed to show me their music when I came home. Yep, Civil Twilight. Heidi always finds the coolest bands first.

Matt and I weren't terribly fond of the next band, so it made Anberlin's appearance on the stage all the more welcome. They kicked off the concert with "Paperthin Hymn" and followed it with favorite after favorite after favorite in a very well-chosen set list. The first note of every song had us smiling because we'd hoped they'd play that one. Matt was a little worried beforehand that Anberlin wouldn't be as good live as they sound recorded and would therefore damage his perception of his favorite band. He's loved Anberlin for a long time, and it's kind of nostalgic since he'd listen to them before football at the Academy. Thankfully, his fears were entirely unfounded. They sounded absolutely incredible and delivered an awesome concert that still has us listening nearly non-stop to Anberlin today. (Seriously, all we listen to right now is Christmas music, Anberlin, Civil Twilight, more Anberlin, a whole lot of Taylor Swift's Speak Now, and more Christmas music.)

Moral of the story? Anberlin rocks. Proof below.

Picture a stable in Judea

Every year, our church hosts an elaborate creche festival for the community, featuring thousands of nativities from around the world. Matt and I took the opportunity to attend this Sunday morning and were so touched by all of the beautiful representations of that special occasion.

That afternoon, as we were sitting with our primary class (we teach Sunday school to a group of 10 four- and five-year-olds), the primary chorister taught the kids the song "Picture a Christmas." The words are as follows:

Picture a stable in Judea. Picture a sacred, silent night.

And can you hear the angels near, and see the star so bright?

Picture a kind and gentle Joseph. Picture the mother, Mary, fair.

And can you see, so reverently, the shepherds kneeling there?

Picture the little baby Jesus. Think of His life and words so dear.

Sing praise to Him, remember Him, as you picture Christmas this year.

As we were singing, I thought of the thousands of nativities I had just seen, and the testimonies that each of them bore of our Savior's birth. What a beautiful thing to picture during this holiday season!

This German nativity above was one of our favorites. Matt and I were thisclose to buying one just like it in Germany last year but then didn't because we couldn't figure out a way to cart it around Europe with us. Now we're kicking ourselves for not just mailing it home!

The creche festival had more types of nativities than you could imagine. There were cute, playful ones, like this one dedicated to my beloved Veggie Tales...

... and all sorts of crafty versions ...

... but my favorite thing was seeing depictions of that stable in Judea from so many different countries.

It's so wonderful that our Savior's birth is celebrated all over the world!

A little bit of snow

It's hard for me to believe it's really the holidays with all of this sun and warm weather! To make it hit home a little more, we headed off to the slopes the day after Thanksgiving. Sure, there were only 12 inches of snow at our SoCal ski resort (which we visited last winter), but seeing that little bit of snow made us smile. Maybe it is December after all!

It was bright, sunny, and 55 degrees that day at Mt. High. We didn't even need our coats until the sun went down on the other side of the mountain and put us in the shade. Who said snowboarding had to be freezing cold?

Since my 17-year-old brother of a snowboard instructor was two states away and we already learned that husbands are not meant to teach wives, I bought a beginner's package and made my first visit to Winter Sports School. For less than the price of three lift tickets, I got the lift tickets, rentals, AND a two-hour group lesson each day. This turned out to be an even better deal when my "group" was just me and one other girl. Needless to say, it was a rather effective lesson! I can now go both heel side and toe side, and am working on my turns. Baby steps, you know.

(PS: It turns out my instructor fully agreed with the whole "boyfriends/husbands shouldn't be teachers" thing. She was cracking me up every time we'd go on the chairlift, because she'd hear a boy give a girl instruction and then yell down and say, "No, that's not right! Do X instead!" ... from forty feet above.)

After my lesson, I graduated to higher runs and showed Matt all of my new skills.

I can make it all the way down the mountain at above a snail pace without biffing it! This is obviously a major accomplishment, and Matt was very impressed.

Of course, he's always three-upping me with his fancy tricks and such. I love watching him have so much fun. Unfortunately, I only got this one blurry picture before the camera died. I guess we'll just have to go back soon.

We stayed at the resort for a little night boarding before taking off to Fresno, where I covered the state cross country meet in pouring rain that Saturday. And just to document our trip to the middle of the California, where we may never go again, here's one of the pictures I took for the paper:

It was a great holiday weekend!