Christmas with the Kerrs

I feel I should explain why I'm publishing two seperate posts within an hour of each other. These following paragraphs were originally going to be attached to the bottom of the previous post, but I decided that that would make the post too long. Also, I figured the moods of the posts were different enough that they warranted separate postings (goodness, how many times can I use variants of the word "post" in a paragraph?). Either way, I figured I should publish something concerning the events of my Christmas day, so here we go.

I've often heard that "Christmas in the northwest is a gift God wrapped in green." Well, this year He decided to go a little more monochromatic (maybe He was trying to save on wrapping paper, but I don't know). As a result, I officially experienced my first (to my recollection anyways) white Christmas...ever. It only took about nineteen years and probably would have been more awe-inspiring about a decade ago when I wasn't as concerned with the condition of the roads, but I thoroughly enjoyed it none the less.

Christmas Eve night, the four of us (Mom, Dad, Jadon, and myself) did the traditional Christmas Eve program despite our smaller-than-average numbers (with all the siblings, spouses, and grandchildren, we usually have a group of around 22 people, so four is a ridiculously small number in comparison). We told the story of the nativity, sang Christmas hymns, and even did a little pajama hunt. Afterwards, at my dad's request, we watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas starring James Stewart. Despite its great message and happy ending, that movie always makes me sad (why won't anyone wish him a "Merry Christmas" back and why won't the carolers stay and drink hot chocolate with him?!?). Anyways, Jenni, Dane, Nyah, and Aislynne arrived shortly afterwards and spent the night so they were here to celebrate Christmas morning with us. After the traditional Christmas breakfast and opening of presents, we had a great day lounging around the house in our Christmas pajamas. In the afternoon, Dane and I played Guitar Hero (a Christmas gift from my parents to “the family”) and then we all watched Fred Claus (one of my Christmas gifts and an awesome movie by the way. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it). Throughout the course of the day, I also got to speak to Jeremy, TJ, Katie, Jon, Tara, Adalyn, Kelli, and Kassie, so that just made an already great Christmas even better. It was so nice to be home and to get to spend the holiday with family.

Merry Christ's Mass

I know the cliché of the season is to redirect attention from the gift receiving and focus it on the gift giving and other religious aspects, but bear with me (I have a few thoughts and what is the purpose of a blog if not to share them?).

Last year in my theatre history class, I discovered the origin of the term 'Christmas'. I had always realized that the key root word was Christ, but where the 'mas' part came from had always eluded me. Well, while studying medieval theatre (a time focused around religious works) I learned that Christmas was originally referred to as Christ's Mass in reference to the gathering of people for religious ceremonies, more specifically the nativity recreation, performed during the winter solstice.

Even though the holiday is coming to a close, I always think it's nice to use the final twilight hours to reflect on why these past few days were important in the first place. While the buzz fades and children calm, rather than fixating on the people who have been rude and harassed us this holiday season, remember the person we are suppose to be celebrating today and his sacrifice for us (and the sacrifice of His father). I know I've passed into the realm of corniness already and desperately need to step down from my soap box, but I would like to include the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas hymns (the third and fourth verses more specifically).

'I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day'

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on Earth," I said
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good will to men”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
"God is not dead nor doth he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on Earth, good will to men"

No place like home...

Apparently all the promises of updating my blog on a semi-regular basis were worth "diddly-squat" because this is the second time I that went for a month in between posts. I blame it on my frantic life the last few weeks. O well, better late then never.

Finals ended yesterday, and I could not be more relieved. Honestly, I was ready for the semester to be over half way through September (which is never a good sign). It's hard for me to stay motivated when all of my classes are general requirements, have nothing to go with my major, and aren't extremely fascinating in the first place. Don't get me wrong, I love learning new things (it makes me feel accomplished), but there are days when I'd much rather stay in bed. At the beginning of finals, my roommate and I were discussing how attitudes change as the semester progresses. At the beginning, everyone is gun-ho, has a great attitude, and constantly talks about how this is going to be their best semester yet; they'll work hard and get +100% in all their classes. By the end of the semester, however, you see students, all of whom have dark circles under their eyes, walking across campus with their heads down and arms overflowing with thick textbooks (and I swear I saw one guy actually crying). The motto of choice among students changes from "I'm going to do my absolute best" to "I just want to pass the class and get it over and done with." College just does that to you I guess. Anyways, like I said before, I'm glad that finals are over, but I can't stop worrying about how I did and whether or not I'll get a satisfactory grade. I keep reviewing the week's assignments in my head (two tests and four papers which collectively equaled a total of thirty-five pages) and obsessing over what I could have and should have done differently to improve my scores. It's a good thing that I'm now home and have family to distract me.

The drive home was pretty exciting as well. My sister, Kassie, and her husband are moving to Seattle over the Christmas break, so I drove with her from Utah to Washington. It's been snowing in both states (and pretty much every state in between) the last few days, however, so my mom convinced my dad to fly to Utah and drive with my sister and myself back home (the poor guy ended up driving us the whole way despite our intention to switch off). We left Friday around one in the afternoon and made it home around two in the afternoon on Saturday. Luckily, the roads weren't too bad (despite the snow) and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. Before we realized Dad would be joining us, Kassie and I had made plans to listen to music and sing along the whole way home. Not willing to part from the original plan, we simply informed Dad that he would have to put up with it. So, while driving through the mountain passes, we listened to the Carpenters, Christmas in the Northwest, and various Muse songs. Dad was such a trooper, and I secretly think he enjoyed it. I even got him to sing along with me and Kassie on a few Elvis songs. When we weren't listening to/singing along with music, Kassie read John Grisham's "The Summons" out loud to Dad and a sometimes conscious Karma (Kassie has a very soothing voice). I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book.

Anyways, I apologize for verbally vomiting all over the page. It really is amazing how therapeutic blogging is. I really should do it more often. Anyways, the long anticipated moral of the story is simply this: "It's good to be home."

A Well Needed Update...On Ice!

Well, I survived my ridiculous load of homework this week, so I guess this means that I need to stay true to my promise and provide a well needed update of what has been going on in my life lately.

At the request of Mom, Kassie, my roommates, and everyone else familiar with my non-social tendencies, I have been attempting to attend almost every major ward activity this semester, one of which was the ward Halloween party, which actually took place the Monday before Halloween (we've already established that I'm really far behind in my postings). Unfortunately, dressing up for the activity (I was a pirate...I know, so original) was more fun than the activity itself, but I did get some good pictures of my roommates and various other members of the ward attempting to play twister. These may even be blackmail worthy.

The most recent ward activity was on Friday and took place at the local ice skating rink. Honestly, I don't care much for ice skating and about fifteen minutes and one embarrassing fall after the activity started, called it quits and spent the rest of the evening sitting on the benches with my roommates where we enjoyed drinking hot chocolate and laughing at various members of the ward "attempting" to skate. I have to say though, I don't know why leaders keep insisting on having these ice skating events because, without fail, someone ends up being stupid and then has to go to the emergency room. Last year, a boy fell and had to get several stitches in his head. This years lucky victim, after racing with one of his pals, crashed into the barrier and broke his leg (don't worry, he's fine). People never learn.

My lovely roommates and myself playing with the camera to pass the time. Anna couldn't skate due to an ankle injury and Becky, like me, just doesn't skate.

I don't remember this guy's name, but I just thought it was awesome that he wore a helmet.

Ice skating is really just another excuse for guys to grab each other without having their masculinity questioned.

Here is the proof that I at least attempted to ice skate. I have to admit, however, that the only reason why I even got on the ice in the first place was because of *sigh* a boy (this is Scott, by the way).

I'm still alive...sort of

Yes, I realize that it has been ages (and by ages, I mean about two weeks) since my last post. But, I find that nothing incredibly post worthy has happened in my life, or that there are no pictures to go with it...and what is a post without pictures? All right, feeble excuse, I know. The point is, I have not forgotten my promise to keep a semi-recent update of my life posted, and assure that I will be making at least one significant post this weekend (assuming that I survive the book report, case study, and statistics homework that needs to be done between now and then). It's times like this that I really wonder where the week has gone.

Corn-ophobia

Friday night Danielle and I decided to jump into the Halloween festivities a week early by going down to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. The attraction reminded me a lot of the Puyallup Fair actually. There were games (mainly tether ball-it's really not as much fun when you can actually reach the top of the pole), food, and three different mazes.

Right by the entrance was the 'Jack-O-Lantern Tree.' The pumpkin carvings were extremely intricate and very beautiful. If you look closely, you will see Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, the statue of liberty, the liberty bell, and Albert Einstein (just to name a few) immortalized in various pumpkins.

The first maze that Danielle and I went to was called 'The Creature' which was an inflatable beast that you would walk into through the mouth and then attempt to navigate to the end (which was near the tail, ironically) in complete darkness while employees dressed as half-digested monsters jumped out at you from various corners. On our first attempt, Danielle and I didn't even make it around the first corner. We were the only people walking through the maze and while I pride myself as being someone not easily scared by 'spooky mazes,' having your friend scream, dig her fingernails into your neck, and push you in front of her with all her might around a dark corner into the unknown is a little unnerving. We ended up running back to the entrance and waited there until a large group came and politely let them go in before us.

There were two corn mazes at Thanksgiving Point. One was "haunted" and cleverly named 'Cornophobia.' It wasn't so much a maze, but rather a long trail with chainsaw wielding Leatherface wannabes sneaking up behind you (sorry, no pictures of that...oh darn).

The main corn maze covered twelve acres and was shaped...wait for it...after the image of "Utah's very own idol," David Archuleta (you know, the sixteen-year-old Mormon kid who lost American Idol). The maze was actually a lot of fun, very confusing and slightly frustrating, but fun. It got even more interesting when Danielle decided she would try to be funny ('try' being the operative word) and run around the corner, get behind me, and scare me. However, she didn't realize that the corner she thought went in a circle and would therefore spit her back out behind me actually didn't meet back up with the main trail at all. She and I soon became hopelessly separated. It gets better...she wanted to leave her purse in the car, so I was carrying both of our cell phones and the car keys. Yeah. We were able to find each other about an hour later.

I Blame Insomnia

So, Becky and I decided one evening that we would steal our other roommate's (Anna) camera and film ourselves proclaiming our love for her. We didn't factor in our short attention spans and propensity towards random tangents, however. What was intended to be a short "We love you!" video turned into an hour long project in which we filmed ourselves several times doing pretty much the same thing, but from various angles and with slightly different dialogue. In order to give you a taste of my college life, I thought I would share one of those videos. I will state now for everyone to read that I cannot be held responsible for the content of this video. Watch at your own risk...

Introducing Karma's Blog

So, I finally gave in today and did the one thing I swore I would never do...create a blog. I have to admit that when I first heard about 'blogs' I thought it was just another way for today's youth to publish their complaints for the whole world to read. However, after following various family member's blogs, I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. So this is me...following the crowd. I promise you that I do have some original thought.

Therefore, I hereby dedicate this blog to myself and to you. May you read these posts and learn more about my crazy (and by crazy I mean extremely odd or thoroughly uninteresting) college antics. It is my promise to keep up a semi-recent update of my life and to stay in touch. Enjoy!