Emmanuel, God with Us!

I love Christmas music! I'm so happy that it's that time of year to listen to Christmas music again (although I do occasionally listen to it throughout the year). :) This song is one of my favorite Christmas songs. One that I could listen to over and over again. Enjoy!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Today was fast and testimony meeting at church. In some of my wards I've been in throughout the years, on the first Sunday in December, we have a musical fast and testimony meeting. Meaning people go up to the podium and bear their testimony and then they choose a Christmas hymn and we sing one verse of that hymn.

Today we had this musical sacrament meeting in my current ward and I loved it! This musical sacrament meeting and the primary program are the best Sundays of the year (in my opinion). :)

I did not go up to the front, but I did think about what song I would have chosen and what I would have said if I had gone up...

There has been a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world recently. The Syrian refugees, Paris, Mali, San Bernandino etc. Sometimes as we see and hear about all of this scary stuff, it may be hard to find peace in our hearts and we may wonder why this is happening and will we ever live in a peaceful time.

The tune and words of the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" are beautiful and while thinking of all of the crazy things going on in the world, I think the last two verses of this song give us hope that one day, there will be peace on earth and that the Lord is aware of us.

"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.'" "Till ringing, singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day, A voice, a chime, a chant sublime, Of peace on earth, good will to men."
 

There are some beautiful versions of the song on youtube but there's nothing quite like singing or listening to it in person with an organ accompaniment.

I love Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving time. I love that it's a time to get together with family and/or friends and eat lots of delicious food and be grateful for that which we have. I also love that it's the beginning of the Christmas season and spirit.

We had lots of delicious food on Thanksgiving, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, brussel sprouts, and broccoli salad! (I made sweet potato rolls.)

And of course we had pie. What would Thanksgiving be without pie?! We had key lime pie, pumpkin pie, Lara's famous apple pie, peanut butter chocolate pie, and pecan pie. (I made the peanut butter chocolate pie.)

All of us ready to eat our dinner (minus me who was taking the picture).

It was a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with family! I am thankful for all of my family and to Lara and Glen for hosting!

The day after Thanksgiving which happens to have been yesterday, I went to work for a few hours and then I decided I wanted to go to downtown D.C. I mainly wanted to go to the holiday market (in front of the National Portrait Gallery) which opened for the season yesterday.

I walked around the market and since it was such a lovely day outside, I decided to take a little walking tour of the monuments. I walked over to the National Mall and made my way to the Washington Monument.

The Washington Monument was built in honor of George Washington. They first began to build the monument in 1848 but were not able to finish it until 1884 due to political and economic difficulties at the time. The monument is made of granite, marble, and gneiss and is over 550 feet tall. I believe it's the tallest structure in D.C. and I think it is a beautiful monument to a great man!

Next stop on my self-guided walking tour was the World War II memorial. The memorial was opened in 2004 and honors all of those people who served from the U.S. on the front lines as well as those who served at home. Each pillar at the memorial represents a state, territory, or commonwealth of the U.S. as of 1945, as well as the District of Columbia.  There are two triumphal arches at each end of the memorial.

The Freedom Wall is also part of the memorial and has 4,048 stars on it. Each star represents 100 Americans who died in the war.

There is so much more symbolism at the memorial but I will refrain from sharing on here.

After the World War II Memorial, I walked along the reflecting pool and stopped at the Lincoln Memorial. Can I just mention what a gorgeous day it was yesterday?! It was seriously so nice!

The Lincoln Memorial was built to honor Abraham Lincoln. Construction began on the memorial in 1914 and was finished in 1922 and was designed in the style of ancient Greek temples. The 19 foot tall statue of Lincoln inside of the memorial took 4 years to finish.

The inscriptions on the inside surrounding the statue are from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address as well as the Gettysburg Address. It really is quite the magnificent memorial to a great man.

Look at that view from the top of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial!

I loved this view with the reflection of the World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument on the reflecting pool!

The sky was just so pretty! It was such a lovely evening!

As I was walking back to the metro from the Lincoln Memorial, I saw a bunch of food trucks lined up along the street just waiting for customers. I decided to get a lamb gyro from a Mediterranean place and it was pretty tasty!

As I sat there eating my dinner, this was my view!

Although my purpose in going downtown originally was not for walking the monuments, I felt like it was a fitting way to end the Thanksgiving week. I am thankful for living in this area and being able to visit these monuments on a whim and to remember those who have gone before us and have given their lives, either literally in dying for our country or in serving our country throughout their lives.

Bring Him Home- A Beautiful Song!

I just wanted to share this beautiful and powerful version of Bring Him Home sung by Alfie Boe accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square!

Enjoy!

Utah trip!

Every year I make sure I get to Utah to visit my parents and my sister who lives there. This year I found a good deal on tickets for October and so I decided to be there for my birthday (although I didn't actually get to be there on my birthday because of a change of plans, we still celebrated my birthday before I left)!

My dad picked me up from the airport and dropped me off in Salt Lake City where I met my mom and my sister, Heather for lunch (Dad had to go back to work.) Of course, we had to stop by temple square. The Salt Lake Temple is beautiful!

Mom and I went inside the tabernacle and there was a man practicing the organ, which sounded amazing! We heard the tour guide say (although we weren't on the tour) that it is one of the biggest pipe organs in the world and that it has over 10,000 pipes. Holy cow that's a lot of pipes!

My niece, Cami is attending BYU and I, of course, had to go and visit her and take her to lunch while I was in Utah. I went to Provo and we went to eat in downtown Provo near the new temple! The temple isn't finished yet but it still is beautiful! I remember going to that building when it was still the Provo Tabernacle.

Cami and I ate at Bruge's Waffle and Frites on Center Street in Provo and it was delicious! Seriously I loved it! I got an Italian waffle sandwich and I really enjoyed it. We also got fries to share and our purchase qualified for a free waffle with strawberries and cream. Can I just say that dessert waffle was delicious?! The waffle was carmelized (or something like that) and then with the strawberries and cream on top, it was so good!

Tuxedo the cat. Tux is about 15 years old, which is pretty old for a cat. My parents have had him since he was a kitten. He's kinda cute. :)

 Tim, Tuxedo, Mamachka, Heather, me and Papachka.

For my birthday dinner, Mom made fried burritos and salad.  She also made a cake and we had ice cream. I haven't had fried burritos in a very long time and they were delicious! Happy birthday to me!

 Heather and I the night before I left.

 Mama, me and Papa the day I left!

My younger brother, Tim, moved out to Virginia a few months ago, but he left his car in Utah while he was searching for a job. Now that he has a job, he decided he needed a car. So he flew out to Utah a couple of days after I did and packed up a lot of his stuff in his car and then he and I drove from Utah back to Virginia. The picture above is from the very beginning of our journey to Virginia.

 We saw lots of windmills on our trip especially in Wyoming and Nebraska.

We had to stop at Little America in Wyoming and get ice cream cones. Growing up, we often stopped there when driving from Minnesota to Utah and got the $0.25 cones. Although the cones are no longer $0.25, it was still worth it as they were only $0.75. :) Oh the memories of road trips as a child...

 I believe this is somewhere in Wyoming.

Our first night we stayed in Lexington, Nebraska and this was the gas station we filled up at in the morning before starting our second day (which was also my birthday). :)

We kept on seeing these trucks pulling these wing-like structures and wondered what they were for and then realized they were probably windmill blades.

Look at those pretty fall colors we saw at a rest area in Iowa!

For my birthday, we stopped at Culver's for dinner and it was so good! I got a burger and a salted caramel pumpkin concrete and it was delicious!

The second night we spent just outside Indianapolis, Indiana.

When we got to West Virginia and Pennsylvania the fall colors were particularly vibrant and beautiful! This picture does not capture the vibrancy of the colors but just know that the tree-covered hills were gorgeous reds, yellows, oranges, and greens. I love fall time!

The third day, we made it back to Virginia. Yay! Tim and I were both very happy to be out of the car. Overall I had a lovely trip to Utah and I am glad I got to see my parents and Heather and Cami!

I'm hyper right now...

I loved general conference this weekend! It was amazing! (You can watch or listen to it here). I love my family and friends. I love listening to energetic classical music in my car with the windows rolled down. I love the cooler weather outside. I love that it's October. I love musicals. I love that I'm going to visit my parents and one of my sisters in a week and a half.

Amazing Grace

A couple of weekends ago, I went to New York City. While I was there, I saw three Broadway shows. I really enjoyed all of the shows I saw, but I especially liked Amazing Grace. The music was powerful, the set was amazing, and the story was beautiful.

The musical is based on the life of John Newton, the man who wrote the song Amazing Grace. John Newton was an atheist slave trader who found God and eventually fought against slavery.

I'm having a hard time putting into words how I felt about this musical. Basically I just want to say, that if you make it up to NYC anytime soon, you should go and see this show. You won't regret it. It is a sad and beautiful and amazing story of redemption and love.

And if you need another reason to see the show, Josh Young, the man that played John Newton, has a beautiful and powerful voice. :)