i knew your name

video from Buskin Cuffs CD release show.

so so wish i could've been there.

holy crap. my little brother is such a STAR.

o little town of bethlehem

hi amber. i totally stole this pic from your blog. sue me.

After megan and I decided to sing "what child is this" for the family on christmas eve, somehow i convinced jacob to learn a song to perform on his guitar. however, i don't think it really took much convincing, but really, just a little encouragement. (i think he secretly wanted to do it anyway.)

I found a really cool arrangement of "o little town of bethlehem" and he started practicing away. It was a really nice piece, but challenging. I took a whack at learning it, and gave up pretty fast. The chords were all over the place! I was so proud of Jacob for learning, memorizing, and performing it for everyone. 

Lately it seems we are often too busy to pick up our guitars and other hobbies as much as we would like to. still, this year i really want us to develop and share our talents more (goal?). In-laws, that means more christmas musical numbers in the future! hope you're okay with that. 

remember when it was fall and it was beautiful?

Some pics jacob took on our way home from october conference. 

(we took the scenic route to see the fall colors and do some exploring)

In the thick of winter, it is sometimes hard to believe there was a time 

when utah wasn't covered in snow, and even looked this glorious!

oh i miss it i miss it.

unicorns and other matters

On my daily commute to SLC, I have been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia, and I am loving it. 

How is C.S. Lewis so erudite and so charming? 

I love the world he creates in this series.

And as Jacob works diligently on his engineering homework, I curl up next to him and read "The Last Unicorn."

It was recommended to me a awhile ago, and so I recently picked it up from the library. 

I'm only a few chapters in, but already intrigued. 

What the heck?! When did I become such a children's fantasy nut?

I've never really got into fantasy literature, even as a kid. I guess I have always been more of a realist?

But I have to admit that I find myself getting absorbed in this stuff. 

Shout out to me if you have any recommendations for my fantasy reading list!

the happiest new year's on earth

Reminiscing on this day, I can't help but think, "Wow. me and Jacob are CRAZY!!!" with a bit of awe and satisfaction. We literally got up at 6 am, drove from Stockton to Anaheim (about 6 hours), and went straight to Disneyland—arriving there at about 2 pm and dragging ourselves out of the park, completely drained from new year's craziness, at about 3:30 am. We didn't know that this was going to happen. We didn't even know we were gonna go to Disneyland. We just did.

And I have to say, after making this very illogical and spontaneous decision, we walked through the gates of Disneyland feeling like a million bucks. And the rest of our new year's looked a lot like this...

Scared faces in line for the Tower of Terror.

Jacob was nice enough to go on this ride with me, even though it makes him a bit queezy.

Of course, we had to watch the show at the Golden Horseshoe. We were thrilled that they were still playing Christmas songs. 

this is one of  my favorite places at Disneyland. 

3-D glasses for the new Star Tours ride.

the Haunted Mansion was decorated all "Nightmare Before Christmas" style

         

we were super stoked that they still had all the Christmas decorations up. 

Besides the magical atmosphere that already pervades the park, all was jolly and bright. 

the countdown was both completely insane and completely awesome.  SO MANY PEOPLE! 

the last ride of the night on Space Mountain.

Highlights:

+ making a very spontaneous decision and walking into Disneyland like two giddy children.

+ the Golden Horseshoe Christmas show

+ Splash Mountain was open again! Every time I go, it seems to be closed.

+ Captain EO, OF COURSE. I mean, Michael Jackson + George Lucas + Disney = how magical can you get?

+ All the lights and decorations made Christmas linger a little longer

+ the new and improved Star Tours ride

+ Getting to see the World of Color show for the first time. AMAZING.

+ the countdown at the castle! super insane, but super fun. lots of dancing  + music + i got my new year's kiss.  Unfortunately, the fireworks were a little weak because it was really, really foggy. 

+ Riding all the rides after the countdown. The park really cleared out after midnight, which meant we got to run on all the rides! woo hoo!

+ The park was closing in about 10 minutes and I convinced Jacob to run to Space Mountain for one last ride. We made it just in time. In fact, we were literally the last people to ride it! after us, they shooed everyone away to close the park. 

We went home so insanely tired. I can't remember the last time I was ever so tired, but so satisfied. I don't think taking a road trip to spend your day in a crowded park on one of the biggest holidays of the year is everyone's cup of tea. But I guess me and Jacob really love Disneyland. Besides the fact that Jacob wants to be a Disney imagineer someday and it is my dream job to be Sorcerer Mickey—we were due for a crazy adventure.

my christmas present

for christmas, jacob gave me a cute lil' pineapple-shaped ukulele. 

i used to play my roommate's ukulele all the time, and have been wanting one of my own for so long!

guess it's time for me to learn some new songs.

friday night

wanna go to the library and goof around?

 

feeling like big kids after getting our first provo library cards.

point vicente + lacma

While visiting my grandparents in southern california, jacob and I went out exploring for a day. We didn't really have specific plans—just a few maps and some binoculars. We went wherever the wind blew us.

 we started at point vicente to see the beautiful lighthouse and look for whales.

For this purpose, my grandpa lent us his binoculars.

and lucky us! we actually saw some gray whales passing by on their migration to mexico. 

It was pretty surreal.

After whale-watching at point vicente, we headed up to L.A. for some museum action. We started at the la brea tar pits museum (AKA the museum they visit in the movie Encino Man) and then we headed over to one of my favorite museums, the LACMA. 

we strolled through a number of galleries and found ourselves playing in some of the art.

 It was a great time to enjoy the heat + sights + culture + be completely carefree before heading back to Provo for a new semester.

exploring in southern california:

+ whale-watching at point vicente
+ gray whale/marine world museum
+ L.A. for La Brea Tar Pits/LACMA museum
+ dinner at Gulliver's english pub
+ bella terra to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie

the one that i want

I never cared that much for the musical, but this might be my favorite song right now...

oakland temple + san fran day trip

+ session at the lovely oakland temple
+ lunch in san fran chinatown  (new hong kong menu)
+ legion of honor art museum and saw Bernini's Medusa
+ racoons jumped all over our car while we were parked at a lookout point—totally freaked me out!
+ listened to the new buskin cuffs album on the way home:

the classy man

for jacob's christmas present, I put together something called

The Classy Man: Starter Pack

This starter pack (guaranteed to make any husband look classy) is complete with classy robe, classy cardigan sweater, classy socks, a book called "the lazy intellectual," and a classy bubble pipe. He loved it—especially that robe! No kidding, he wears it all the time.

as you can can see from the picture above, the pack has already begun to work it's magic. What a handsome devil—and classy too.

christmas pavlova

this was my third year making pavlova on christmas eve.

yes, the sugary, fruit-topped, melt-in-your-mouth, meringue dessert from down under.

i hope to make this a tradition.

24

+ Jacob surprises me by picking me up at my office in SLC, so i don't have to ride the bus on my birthday. I literally screamed when I saw him! I couldn't believe he came all the way out to salt lake to get me. 

+ dinner at the Banana Leaf for Sri Lankan and Singaporean Cuisine: I had avocado juice and masala curry with roti paratha. Jacob ordered the Sri Lankan beef kothu. we loved it. 

+ Jacob surprises me again by taking me to see The Nutcracker, performed by the utah regional ballet. definitely the best Nutcracker I have ever seen.

+ cake and candles at our house

It was the first time me and Jacob have been able to spend my birthday together, and it was a lovely lovely time. just the two of us.