Happy New Years!

Feliz Ano Nuevo! It has taken me almost a week to recover from ringing in the New Year! (and from some extensive dental work, but we won't talk about that )
Anyway, New Year's was great. We had a wild 2 1/2 day party unlike any New Year's party I have ever seen. All of the hullabaloo included:

Endless sparkly beverages
60 party guests
30 baggies of confetti (that subsequently ended up on the floor, in the cd player, in people shoes and every where else you might imagine confetti would go)
20 party poppers
16 noise makers
1 midnight breakfast
1 midnight showing of Star Trek
1 lovely morning of sleeping till 11:00am
1 fancy pants dinner with my first successful homemade pots de creme
2 mattresses that ended up in our front room for a giant slumby
2 more VERY classy movies: Tristan and Isolde and (no joke) Crossroads (the 2002 Britney Spears hit movie)
About 6 Food Network show episodes that kept us entertained in our catatonic morning state

Let me just say that if the first two days of 2010 are any indication of the year to come, I am going to have one very stellar year!

More Merry Scary Christmas

Here is a local Christmas tradition that freaks me out. This is the University Mall Santa Claus.



I do not want to defame Santa Clause on the world wide web, but this guy is super creepy. I think it is because he wears a holiday shirt and suspenders instead of a Santa suit. It makes him look lazy, and very unlike Santa. I would not want to take my kids to see an old man who doesn't look like Santa. (Please read any uncomfortable thoughts into that last sentence, because that is how I feel.)

Goo, University Mall. Goo.

The Burberry Theif

I got a call from my credit card company last night. I didn't get the voice mail until 4 hours after they had called. All I heard was, "...account ending in 6***. Validate charges. $65.01. Charge described as, 'shoe store'". Shoes? I hadn't bought any shoes! I called the company and told them that I did not, in fact, recognize these charges. The lady started to read back the last few charges on my card.

Famous Footwear $65.01
Walmart $15.64
Burberry $161.72

Burberry?! Burberry?! I told her that I wished the Burberry charge was mine, but it was not. The Walmart charge was mine. Walmart. I felt ripped off and a great deal like a loser. Why wasn't I shopping at Burberry? Oh, yeah, becuase I can't afford it. This realization brought to mind another thought prokvoking realization. Apparently the person who stole my card didn't think I could afford it either. I think that it must be hard work to find something at Burberry that was only $161.72. So, I guess I appreciate that they didn't go hog wild with my card. A sensible purchase at Burberry and a sensible attempted purchase at Famous Footwear. ( P.S. How you would go from the one to the other is beyond me. If you are going to use my card, please use it with some class!) Anyway, my account is closed. Someone got a fancy present from Burberry and I got a new credit account, all will be well this Christmas. Chase is sending me another card that will get here tomorrow.

And, in the end, I am grateful for Walmart, even though it doesn't look like much when it is standing next to Burberry. It was my white elephant purchases made here at Walmart in Orem, UT, that tipped my credit card company off and we were able to stop the crazy Jennica's-money-shopping-spree in California.

Thanks Chase Bank, thanks Walmart and Merry Christmas to the Burberry Theif!

Happy Birthday Lou!

My baby sister is going to be 17 in just three short days. I decided to help her celebrate a bit early and got us tickets for the Ten Out of Tenn Christmas tour. Emily and I went to their concert in April and we loved them! Em's best friend Madi came along and so did Mom. The concert was at Kilby Court in SLC. We love the venue because it is VERY small and VERY intimate. It feels like a neighborhood garage band concert with your besties. Even though there were some sound problems, we had a great time and got to hear some awesome new music. Emily and I felt like we were seeing old friends. (We have now seen 2 of the artists from the crew 3 different times) On the way home we stopped by Hatch Family Chocolates and got some hot chocolates to share. If you have not had Hatch Family hot chocolate, you need to drop what ever you are doing this very instant and go get some. It tastes like melted candy bars, like the kind of hot chocolate they would serve on the Polar Express. It was a great night, and even though Lou is getting old, I am glad that she is not too old to hang out with her crazy older sister and her mom!

Merry Scary Christmas!

The grinch freaks me out. The old school, well beloved, holiday special. Like, I-can't-watch-the-silly-show-by-myself, freaks me out. I understand that to many people it is an annual tradition, a classic that helps families ring in the holiday with Christmas cheer, but to me, it is sheer terror. It is a frightening, chaotic, vomit-colored catastrophe. Every year, I try to stomach it. Every year, I try to believe that I am stronger and can enjoy this classic cartoon just like everyone else. Every year, I fail.

So, this year, I am just going to own it. I hate the grinch. I will not watch it on tv, I will not watch it, I decree! I do not like it, not the least. I do not like grinch or roast beast!

Coming to you from somewhere over Virginia...

Technology is a wonderful thing. Delta and Ebay have teamed up for the holidays to bring their customers free wi-fi. I salute them! Here I sit at 30,000 feet about the ground (a mere 100 feet about the summit height of Everest) and I am blogging! We are on our way home from a lovely couple of days in Washington D.C.

We went there for the National Conference on Student Leadership. Honestly, it was one of the best conferences that I have ever been to. Almost everything that I heard could be somehow applied to my job. I didn't even skip any sessions (I don't think I have ever been to a conference where I didn't skip at least one session).

Outside of the conference we had a blast! Because time was so short we crammed in as much as we could, as quickly as we could, We saw monuments, memorials, and museums, We went to Arlington Cemetery, the Library of Congress and even sang "I'm just a bill" while we were sitting on Capitol Hill.

My two favorite highlights were these:

On Sunday night I had dinner with my dear friend Erika. She was one of my very favorite mission companions and still one of my very favorite friends. Obviously (as she lives out here) we don't get to see each other much, so it was a great treat to be able to spend some time with her.

The other favorite moment was seeing A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater. The show was great, even though their Ghost of Christmas yet to Come was about the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my life. But after all was resolved, we left brimming with Christmas cheer. It was a perfect way to end the trip and kick off the holiday season!

Overall our trip was a wild success. The Three Musketeers ((or Charlie's Angels) or any other famous threesome you can think of) took on the town and had a wonderful time!

Miss Jennica Goes to Washington

In just two and a half days I am going to be on a plane bound for our nation's capital! Hali and I are heading up a new ambassador program at work and will therefore be attending the National Conference on Student Leadership. It is possible that Lindsay will be coming along for the ride as well. (Shh! Don't tell!) We are more than a little bit thrilled. The Three Musketeers will reunite! None of us have ever been to D.C. and I feeling especially stoked for this trip. D.C. is one of the places that has been on my list of things I didn't think I would ever actually see. (This list continues to get exponentially smaller) Anyway, if you have any suggestions of must sees or must dos, please let me know!