And...break

Thanksgiving's with my dad's side of the family are enormous! They are always really fun and there are always tons of cousins to talk to and play with. When we were growing up there were probably like 80 people at this Girl Scout House in Torrance that we've gone to since I can remember, maybe even before. (I should probably point out that these holidays generally consist of the Van Wigg clan, my grandmom, her (8?) sisters, all of their children, grandchildren, and, in my grandmom's case, great-grandson, Lucas). So you can imagine my slight disappointment when everything I heard about being planned for Thanksgiving was just our family and the Whites (my greataunt, Marilyn, and her family). You can also imagine my great surprise and joy when I discovered that, in fact, Thanksgiving was to be at the Girl Scout House with about 40 people.

Since Wednesday wasn't that eventful and I didn't see Lucas, there really isn't much to update about, just that much family time was had...and In-N-Out.

So yah, Thanksgiving was a lot of people, mostly the cousins I talk to, too! I love catching up with everyone and my cousin Chris was there! We see him, like, once a year, if that, because he's working on his PhD at MIT, and it was good to see him. Lucas was cute as ever and the red-headed cousins (Ryan and Bradley), who are around Emily's age, liked playing with him a lot. There was tons of good food and lots of hugs to go around.

Friday was the best day ever!!! I drove the 1.5-2 hours home which was fun once my mom stopped criticizing my driving. Then, because Kaitlynn decided to go to Six Flags and be a 7th wheel, and Emily invited friends over to play wii I went to Erin's house to play with Lucas and spend time with Erin and Robert. Lucas is the cutest thing ever!!! He made me read like 10 books to him, 3 of them at least 4 times...so fun! Erin and I made this good apple crisp thing because we didn't want to waste apples that were about to go bad. Then they took me out to Black Angus (I'm salivating just remembering!). After that I went to see Australia with Sharon! Any movie where Hugh Jackman takes his shirt off is automatically a fantastic movie!

Saturday Kaitlynn, Ami, Ami's boyfriend and I went to this really good mexican restaurant on the 101, kind of pricey but Kait and I split something so it was OK. My mom and I went shopping after wards and I got some cute shoes and a couple cute sweaters. As a celebratory Becca's going away again, we went to Buca Di Bepop, ordered way too much food (like try 3 meals worth for the whole family), and met Kait's BF Nick who is really tall, skinny and we very much approve of. I was afraid cause his older sister had the complete opposite views of Kaitlynn (and our whole family) but he ended up having really similar views.

Then Sunday I came back to Provo...and started counting down till Christmas Break!

10 Things I'm Thankful for (in the order of whatever I think of first, not whatever I'm most grateful for):
1. Having parents who see me coming home for a few days around Thanksgiving as the only option.
2. Not having family in Utah. While this is sort of a thankful and not thankful for thing, it makes me going home for Thanksgiving more of a sure thing.
3. Lucas! Good job Erin and Robert
4. Knowing where I am (and everybody else is) going after this life. eg the Plan of Happiness/Atonement
5. My Christmases/Thanksgivings being warm and sunny, not white and cold.
6. My sisters. I know everyone says "Your poor dad" but I've never seen it that way. I don't know what we would do with a brother. I went with my mom to an ultrasound while she was pregnant with Emily and the Technician asked me what I wanted, and instead of wanting the obvious brother, I'm fairly certain I said I wanted a sister, even though I already had 2. I could have it mixed up, I was only 4 at the time, but I wouldn't trade any of my sisters for a brother. I do however, like brother-in-laws, well the one that I have.
7. Forever Families!!! :) <3 sort of goes with #4
8. Being at BYU. I know I got my acceptance letter almost 2 years ago, but sometimes I'm still baffled at how I managed to get in. It's just a testament to how I'm supposed to be here, meeting the people I've met/will meet, taking these uber hard classes and furthering my education of temporal and celestial things.
9. My really good friends, far and near, that I know I can count on no matter what. While I don't have as many as Emily, I could be (and have been) a lot worse off friends wise than I am now. Having friends who not only know what my standards are , but keep most (if not all) of them, too, is nice. Even my few friends that don't keep my standards, as long as they respect mine we're good.
10. Baking. While I might spend more time, calories and money on it than I should, it's a great release for me and I love developing my talent in it. I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but its a great, tasty hobby!

There are more...but it's late and thats good for now I think.