Welcome to 2009

I've been putting off posting a new entry for quite some time now, so I guess now is as good a time to do it as any. (Now that we're over halfway done with the month of January.) I'll try to run through the major points of what's going on in my life:

- BYU lost a very frustrating bowl game against Arizona. Very. Frustrating.
- Allen High made up for that - when I found out (while I was at BYU's bowl game that we were already losing at the time) that Allen won STATE, I was elated. The bowl game didn't really matter to me in that moment. My high school is AWESOME. I'm just super jealous of everyone who got to be there. (Cody was there with the band! Coolest thing ever. And yes Rachel, I'm looking at you. You know. Virtually.)
- Got home the night of the 21st, and slept on the couch. (Which doesn't bother me much - those couches are comfortable!)
- Woke up to realize I was 20. (And suddenly sick, as a matter of fact.) I've been anticipating being 20 for a little while now, but it's still mind-boggling when I really think about it.
- Had an awesome birthday - I got some great presents, but the best part was definitely having the whole family home.
- Had our usual Christmas Eve festivities, which include snacking on delicious foods, watching A Claymation Christmas, reading some stories we always read, and all of the kids playing Christmas tunes on our instruments together. (My horn had a crisis just beforehand, but with some help from Jeffrey, we were able to take care of it.)
- Christmas was great. Everyone gave and received some pretty cool stuff, and we all had a lot of fun together.
- I also had a lot of time to see my two nephews! Ashton is adorable, has grown so much in just a year, and was starting to walk when I was there (he's fully walking now). Knightley... well, let's just say, pictures of him don't do him justice. He's so super cute. I love them. ^_^
- We all got to spend a lot of time together before people starting leaving. It was definitely the best part of the break - being at home with my family, everyone being there at the same. Even though it meant that I slept on the couch and the floor half the time - I would sleep on the kitchen tile if it meant the whole family would be together for the holidays. I absolutely loved it all.
- I also got to spend some time with friends. It was great, though I didn't get as much time as I assumed I would allow for that kind of stuff.
- On the plane ride back, on one of my flights I sat next to the cutest little girl! Her name was Lily, she was two years old, and we played for the whole flight to Albuquerque. (Her dad seemed really nice about it all.)
- I got back to Provo on Sunday night (January 4th), and school started the next morning.
- Classes are all fine so far, and I'm hoping I can handle it all the whole semester.

I'm coming to enjoy being up at here more than I did at the start of my college years. (Not that I necessarily enjoy the actual school, homework, and test part of it.) I really appreciate the opportunity I have to be at BYU, and I love this school. I love every chance I get to be back at home, but I am grateful for the time I have here as well. I hope 2009 has a lot of opportunities, and I'll do my best to make it a great year.