A Look Back at 2008

What I did this year

I started playing WOW, got up to 70 with tier three or so stuff, then quit. I took a new "real" job and sadly left my post "web developing" at the BYU Law School. I turned 22. I graduated with my BA in English Language because BYU can't get its crap together and start calling the program English Linguistics, which is what it really is. I spent a week in Florida and went on my first upside-down roller coaster. I moved to Denver and experienced real city life. I celebrated my 2nd anniversary with my AMAZING husband Tim, having dinner and a show in memory of the best two years of my life so far. I took my first business trip from Denver to Provo for a conference at my work. I moved back to Provo where Tim and I found ourselves a much larger apartment and filled it with new furniture from IKEA. I went to California to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday. I saw my best friend sealed with her family for eternity. I hosted a visit from my mom. I helped my sister-in-law cook her first Thanksgiving meal. I switched from Mac back to PC. I went to California and visited with my in-laws and my family. Whew. Long year.

What I did while not blogging for the last week or so

At the end of Tuesday, the Imagine Learning crowd had an office Christmas party—minus iPods, dueling parties, interventions—with lots of singing. As I mumbled along to "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," all I could think of was the traditional Holly Jolly Run I used to do with a couple of girlfriends. Thinking of the first annual Holly Jolly run, I remembered making terrible lip sync videos, learning Ashley's mental hospital dance, and that not-so-fateful trip to the airport with one Mark Mills.

Okay, I've obviously escaped 2008 entirely. What I meant to talk about was the amazing week I spent with my family. Christmas Eve we went to my in-laws' place and read the Christmas stories and listened to lovely music by awesome sister- and brother-in-law. (Do you ever notice that when I write that, it's very clear that I'm speaking of two people I'm related to by marriage, but when I say it, it sounds like I'm lying about having a sister?) Christmas morning came with presents galore, my favorite of which was a bodipod 21 from my mother- and father-in-law. You're all welcome to come to my apartment and sit on it, because it is the most comfortable thing in the world besides Tim. You are not welcome to sit on him.

We ate burritos with Ryan and a quite-pregnant-now Sarah, enjoyed a few movies and played games with the Gordon Clan, then headed to my folks' for our third Christmas of the week. I love my family. Being with my parents reminds me sometimes of why I am the way I am, and what I can do to use those traits to my advantage. I very much inherited my mom and dad's personality traits, including my mom's mild germophobia and intense passion for life and my dad's strange habits and extremely friendly outlook. If you know me well, you know it makes a strange combination, but what I'm saying here is that I have a darn good excuse for all of it: I'm just turning into my parents. And I have no problem with that.