This weekend we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, starring The King’s Singers! Kami and Matt came down from Logan and invited us to go with them and it was great! it was really fun, and we were awed by the organ solos (their foot pedalling was amazing) and the decorations.  Afterwards, we tried to find a place to eat dessert, and since everything nearby was closed, we ended up walking around Temple Square and eventually down the street to the Gateway mall. My legs were frozen due to the 15 degree wintery night. But it was fun and we loved hanging out with Kami and Matt. Thanks guys!

 Saturday we babysat for Geoff and Rebecca, and I got to see my husband enthralled with a Fischer Price train set for 2 hours. The boys liked it as well:)

Sunday we had Dan and Rachel over for dinner and a football game. We watched Tony Romo throw away a win as he tried to impress his newest celeb diva, Jessica Simpson. We think he should dump her. Ooh, and Dan and Rachel brought over these cookies that were really good. I recommend them. They are Nestle Toll house Turtle cookies. Chocolate chip, caramel goodness in a cookie. Loved it!

This week we are getting ready to go home for Christmas break, so we have to start un-decorating our tree:( and packing to go home. But we are EXCITED!!! Texas and 65 degree weather, here we come!

So Andrea took the Photoshop class from BYU and loved it.  She has been playing around with Photoshop ever since.  I think it is neat because Photoshop skills are a thing that you can always use.  And if she can compensate for our poor photography skills that is great all in itself.

It is that time of year again when everyone is trying to send out a Christmas card as a year in review.  It is a difficult job to find a good photo of the whole family.  This year, Andrea took on the job of making my families Christmas card.  She touched up all the photos, and made us all look better.  Take a look and let us know what you think about Andrea’s first Photoshop Christmas Card.

Christmas season really gets me thinking about the people that matter most to me. This is partly because I am trying desperately to think of the perfect present for each person, but also because it is a time when family and friends celebrate together and spend more time with each other. I have been able and WILL be able to spend lots of time with those I love this month. Other things I am grateful for this month:

Christmas treats (thanks for the recipe email, Lisa:)

Library cards (books for free always make me happy)

Warm Clothes (it has been snowing on and off for the last week)

Thoughtful people who inspire me to be thoughtful myself

Christmas Music (I am hooked, I love it)

Displays of the Nativity scene to remind me that it’s Jesus’ birthday

Finding the perfect present idea, and anticipating the look on their face when they open it

I found this neat survey tool that asks you to answer some very basic and simple questions about political issues.  You start by placing points on issues that you feel are most important.  They you are given a simple quiz that asks you if you are in support of opposition to a number of policies.  At the end of these questions you are shown the results about the 3 candidates that shares the most simmilarities with you.  When you see the results, you can see what the candidates have said about the individual issues, and learn more about the candidates.  All in all it looks like a great tool.  You can take the survey at: http://glassbooth.org/.

I was supprised to hear that John McCain was the candidate which has opinions most similar to mine.  Mitt Romney came in a close second, separated by only 2 percent.

Well, this is my last fall semester, and in order to graduate from BYU on time I had to take a ton of classes that I should have taken my freshman year. These ridiculous classes were Biology 100, Physical Science 100, Music 202 and American Heritage. At the beginning of the semester I was not excited about these classes, but I have been pleasantly surprised by two of them. Music 202 has been amazing, and a great class, I would recommend it to anyone. In this post however, I want to talk about one of my favorite classes at BYU, American Heritage. I know this may be surprising because there are so many terrible stories about the same class but I disagree with this stereotype. I think this is because many of the students who take the class are freshman and college is simply different from High School and likely surprises many people.

I have loved the class and have learned tons about the history of America. Now American Heritage is not a typical American History class. It focuses less on dates, and more of the unique structure of the American political system. We talk constantly about the social contract, which is an unwritten agreement between the citizens and their government, and how it is constantly changing.

Today we talked about the Civil Rights Movement and how it was the last major reconstruction of the social contract. The lecture was great and the discussions of the details were moving. I am not going to go into the horrid situations which surrounded the country during these times, but we were shown a film that was moving. I know there are numerous details about the Civil Rights Movement that I do not understand, but this tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. really struck me and I wanted to share it with you.  Although this was not the exact movie we were shown,it is a similar video.

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2200231629186981454&q=Name+of+Love+Civil+Rights&total=44&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0[/googlevideo]

People don’t come to work at BYU for the money. Frankly, there are many other places to work that would pay more for the same type of work. However, the PERKS at BYU make it worth while to work here. These are the perks I have enjoyed while being employed at BYU.

• Free stuff. I work for the School of Music, which means I get free tickets to many School of Music events and performances. We have not fully taken advantage of this perk, but once or twice it has been nice to get to attend something that I would otherwise have missed because of the cost (once again, the salaries here are not huge).
• The environment. I have never once had a complaint about the quality of people I work with here at BYU. There is very little gossip or office drama to deal with. People work hard and get things done, and if they don’t, at least they are nice to work with:)
• Parking pass (and gate card). After four years of attending BYU, not once did I ever park closer to campus than a 10 minute walk. Until I got a job here. My parking pass allows me (and my student husband) to park as close as we want to any building on campus. We have to share a car, but it has worked out great so far!
• Tickets to the Las Vegas Bowl Game! While students have to put their name into a hat for a lottery to maybe get the chance to attend, faculty and staff get to buy real tickets to the BYU bowl game just because we are employed here!

There are other bonuses, like getting to watch BYU devotionals, taking classes (like the Photoshop one I’m in), and free tuition, but I don’t want to get too carried away. I just wanted to let everyone know about the hidden perks that working for BYU offers.