Concerning an Earlier Post: Coming Home

I came home this break to most of my family having read my blog. That's not such a big deal except for the fact that I really didn't think any of them would have taken the time. I would just like to clear up a few things they got wrong. The post was really about Kelsi sticking york peppermint patties in my bears vest pockets and I just felt so loved when I got home. Now this is not a blog about Ethan Williams, how much I miss him, or how I am going to marry him when he gets home. It's been over a year and a half and we've both changed tremendously. We made the bear together at build-a-bear and so of course Ethan is his name sake. The fact that he has so many names is due to me letting my imagination get carried away far to often. Add to that a plethora of obsessions like superheroes and pirates and the outcome is... I can't even remember his full name. I also get nostalgic sometimes which makes me feel like mentioning the past. I'm sorry. I know it's annoying. I also know that girls that go on and on and on about their missionaries/boyfriends/Edwards/Jacobs/etc are just pathetic and I have very little tolerance for them. In fact I think if I read my blog on someone else's blog I would probably gag a good number of times.  Anywho, as most of us know, Ethan and I aren't even writing anymore so 'nough said.

We're flying blind man. Tell her we're flying blind!

If you haven't seen Disney's Prep and Landing, then I highly recommend that you see it. It was very clever and really quite funny. I'm even going to say that it is one of the best Christmas movies I have ever seen.

My family kicked off this year's Christmas season with our annual gingerbread house competition. My brother Jon and I teamed up and created the Provo temple. Out of gumdrops I sculpted the Angel Moroni, Santa and one of his reindeer, a ninja (complete with a katana crafted by Jon) and his bride, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Peeves, Moaning Myrtle, and the Grey Lady (These Harry Potter Characters were actually for the Hogwarts castle that never got completed...cough, cough...I mean Voldemort came and destroyed it. I also made Nearly Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron, but they were lost in the wreckage. Sadly I forget about the Fat Friar... I just plum forgot about him). In the end there was no actual judging, but if there had been ours would have won hands down. 

The Angel Moroni was my favorite. I really wish I had gotten a better picture of him.

A lot has happened over this very long Christmas break. My days consisted of waking up at 11...30... maybe 12... and going to bed much later. I've worked out a whole three times, had several green drinks, got ready a total of six times, and read a few chapters of Queen Victoria. On the 19th we had a family dessert party. I was in charge of two desserts so I made a tres leches cake and a cream cheese pound cake. Nobody really touched my pound cake... It was a little heart breaking especially since it is one of my favorites. The tres leches was a hit though, at least with my immediate family. I went on a real baking spree Christmas Eve that was a little more successful. I made marshmallows, fleur de sel caramels, caramel wrapped marshmallows, and, because nobody ate my pound cake, cream cheese cake bites. The marshmallows where extremely easy, the caramel was a bit more tricky time consuming, and there really isn't a whole lot to cake bites. Marshmallows and fleur de sell caramels are the big thing on foodgawker right now. I've been itching to make them all semester. French macaroons are also really big. I was going to make them. I was even really excited to make them, but I ran out of time and I couldn't get the almond flour fine enough. I also didn't have wax paper and that was a must so there wasn't even an attempt made for french macaroons. They were more like a daydream in the form of  a seeding dandelion in the midst of a soft breeze that slowly takes each seed away until they are all gone and nothing is left but a stem. Someday I will make them. I also tried making marzipan, but once again no almond flour. I made it any way and the whole mess hasn't even left the freezer... It scares me a little quite honestly. Someday I'll succeed at marzipan too. I must say that marzipan is one of my all time favorite candies. I absolutely love it to death times a billion trillion gazillion.

This is my niece Racharoo. She loves purses. Usually she will carry the cheetah and the black one around everywhere. Well I gave her two more and she carried all four of them around for days. It was adorable. Also if you ask her what Santa says she will go "Ho, Ho." And if you whistle around her she usually will try and whistle back. And when she gets excited about something, she will purse her little mouth up into a cheerio and go "Oooooooh. Ooooooh. Oooooooh" and jump up and down. She is kind of like a little puppy that is learning all kinds of new tricks. Most recently she has gotten into the habit of smiling really big and lifting her shoulders up so she has no neck and her face gets all squashed up. I call this her fat kid face. It doesn't help that she is a bottomless pit. She honestly never stops eating, but no worries she is still a tiny little thing and she runs it all off. AND I JUST LOVE HER TO BITS AND PIECES.

This Tale is Inscribed

To you, dear reader.
After many laborious weeks, nay even months, I have come to the end of one of the greatest book that I have ever read, A Tale of Two Cities. Oh raptures of my soul, it was beautiful. I do believe that everyone should read it.

My first Dickens book was a nightmare. Let's just say that reading Great Expectations  in a week + having to write a horrid paper about it + being in 9th grade + Mrs. Rosenlof = a very unpleasant experience.

I think my brother Matt had to read A Tale of Two Cities when he was in 9th grade. I don't really know. All I know is that my mom made us listen to the audio tapes on our one of our trips to California. That voice still plays in my mind... "It was the best of times, its was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." Stuffy, fake, high pitched, British accent. In other words, my Dickens experiences weren't very good, in fact they were quite scarring and it took A LOT to get over them. But I did and that's all that really matters. Maybe I'll even give Great Expectations another go...maybe. We'll see. I have a lot of books to read first.

Immortal Horrors or Everlasting Splendors

Last year, around this time, I read a book called Made For Heaven by C.S. Lewis. I would highly suggest reading it. It is very short and extremely stimulating. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the aforementioned (I really wanted to use that word) book:   

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption." 

Coming Home

I came home, back to Logan that is, to find this:

The Dread Pirate Spitfire Williams is a Pirate. He just likes to be a studly mobster on the side.

And Why not?

I am a firm believer in Ninja Pirates.

Well he is a Ninja of course.

And a Superhero.

Don't tell anyone, but he is the one and only Missionary Man!

And a Mobster.

He's like Ninja Pirate Superhero Mobster Bear

In other words he's a stud.

Oh did I mention that he's a dinosaur, a Utah raptur at that.

Ninja Pirate Superhero Dino Mobster Bear

And a Samurai Warrior...

And a Trojan Prince...

And an Egyptian Lord...

Really, he is anything and everything that I say he is.

Yep true story.

His full name is close, but not limited, to:

Missionary Man Dread  Pirate Spitfire Hatori Katsumoto Hector Sheftu Ethie Fats Razor Tooth Williams

 Anywho, little Ethie Fats, his mobster name btw, had  these York peppermint patties in his pocket.

 As I hope you can clearly see.

 If you can't then maybe you need eye glasses or eye surgery or something.

Or maybe you just don't have EYES!!!

I don't know.

That's not the point really.

The point is....

 I have the best roommate ever! 

I love you this much Kelsi!!!

(arms spread as wide <------------------------->as they will go) 

Thanks for being so awesome.

Also pictured is Fussi, another present from Kelsi.

She is the greatest.

Legit