I Can't Believe I'm Actually Confessing This To The Internet

When I come home for the holidays, it's always a whirlwind of activity as I try to cram as many people into two weeks as I possibly can -- and of course, I don't really ever have two WHOLE weeks, because, it being the Holiday Season, there's a lot of travelling to go see family and whatnot. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandparents and uncles and second-cousin-once-removeds and whatnot, but it means that I have less time for revisiting old high school friends and old violin friends and old church friends and the like.

Which means that I'm busy. Terribly, wonderfully, hectically busy. But the busyness does mean that I don't have to stay long in the house and puzzle over the enormous collection of nutcrackers that are threatening to stage a coup d'état and take over the household with their fierce painted-wood frames and their various assorted weaponry. You can see why I don't want to stay inside for long.

What I did right when I got back was to dash out the door (literally -- some people came over and distracted my mom, so I grabbed my swimsuit and ran out the door to Megann's awaiting car) and head over to Jenny's place. Jenny has a hot tub, you see, so it's basically the default hangout spot; we're not dumb.

I get there, and Aimee bombards Megann and I with a huge hug -- it's nice, because we haven't seen her in four months, and she's bundles of fun. Jen and Craig said hi from the kitchen where they were too busy with the pizza to grant us similar hugs. It's okay, we just know who NOT to buy Christmas presents for. Anyway, there was mushroom pizza (of course, because these guys know how to do pizza right), so I made my way over and grabbed some and snarfed it down. I loves me some mushroom pizza, and I'm too cheap these days to actually PAY for it. Not when I know I have free pizza just waiting for me anytime I can get myself to Virginia -- oh, the perks of knowing someone who works for Domino's.

After pizza, Sean came over and we all headed out to the hot tub. Very carefully. Because the East had gotten a huge ice storm a couple days before, and everything was covered in ice and snow, and the deck was not exempt from such conditions entirely. But we all made it and fell awkwardly into the tub, everyone shifting around to find their ideal spot. You can see how spoiled Americans are just in analyzing this one occurence. We were in a frickin' HOT TUB, enjoying ourselves and our winter break, and some of us (okay, me) refused to sit in a spot that was too deep, and others wanted the very deep, and there was much shifting and grabbing of snow and throwing it at the unsuspecting and whatnot. THEN. Then, haha, someone got the idea to make snow angels. So we tramped out in pairs (in our swimsuits, remember, because we were hot tubbing)and rolled around in the icy, crusty snow. It was a lot of fun until I woke up the next day and noticed cuts on my flesh from the sharpness of the snow. Oh, well.

We couldn't hot tub all night, so we went in and watched a movie or something. Once the guys left, the REAL fun began. Meg had brought marshmallows and chocolate and oreos, and we were going to try our hands at making oreo s'mores over Jenny's grill. There was a lot of catching marshmallows on fire, and I wish I would have gotten some pictures of the state of my face after eating several s'mores. I don't know what happened, but somehow I was talented enough to get marshmallow ALL OVER ME. I am just wonderful like that.

The thing was, it was cold outside where the grill was, and we got really cold. So we decided to get in the hot tub again, just we four girls. I hope you can see where my mind is going with this. So of course, we stripped down, wrapped ourselves in towels, braved the arctic conditions ("Eff, it's cold" was a phrase I heard a lot as we navigated our treacherous way back to the hot tub), threw the cover off, and removed the towels for some skinny dipping in 103º water. The secrets that come out when you're unclad in a hot tub with four of your best friends is quite remarkable. And that, folks, is what I do for fun.

You'll note, of course, that all of this was accomplished while none of us were intoxicated. It IS possible to have fun while remaining sober, and if anyone knows about that, it's the Mormons. Of which I am one.

The next day, I ran home to church, changed in record time (a skill necessary for all BYU students to know), and spent three hours wondering how it was possible for me to not know ANYone anymore. My mom loves me so much that for dinner that night, we had sausage corn chowder, which is one of my very very favorites, and I think we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol to get us in the mood for Christmas. And then I watched Grey's Anatomy to spoil that Christmas-y mood. So I had to come down then and look at the tree in all it's white-lighted, glowing glory, and I felt better.

After that, it's all sort of a blur. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go to my grandparents' up near Philadelphia, so I'm trying to cram everyone in before they leave for New York and Alabama and Hawaii and who knows where else. Jerks.

Oh, and also: I spent the entire morning wrapping Christmas presents. And I just wrapped two. Only two. I am the worst ever at present wrapping, with my need for getting the corners JUST PERFECT and my fear that I won't have enough paper, and the vast quantities of tape I have to cover each package in before I feel that it is secured enough. Wrapping presents is an exhausting task, and I still have no idea how my grandmother always manages to get everything to look so NICE. My mother tells me she uses a ruler and starts in July. I believe my mom on this one.

And now I'm heading out to go see "The Chronicles of Narnia" again. I'm watching this to get myself in the mood. I think I have it memorized by now, and I hope you all enjoy.

It's all about the Hamiltons, baby.