Favorite Christmas things days 2 and 3--Caroling and friend gifts

Nope, I didn't manage to post yesterday because I was too busy with Christmas celebrations!

Yesterday I successfully went caroling for the first time ever unless I'm forgetting a time! As I suspected, I loved it! It snowed yesterday, so I was all bundled up with a bunch of people in my ward, and we had a great time! We sang Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Jingle Bells, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard On High, Joy to the World, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas! I really like my ward. It was a lot of fun! And the snow made things exquisitely beautiful.

Also, over the past few days I've been delivering some gifts to some people, and it has turned into a lot of long and lovely conversations. Man I love people! I know I can give gifts at any time of the year, and I do, but it's nice to have a time of year where gift giving is encouraged, so I can have the chance to reach out to some who I haven't seen in a little while.

12 days of Christmas--Favorite things

There are 12 days until Christmas, and I am excited!

I want to post some of my favorite things about Christmas over the next 12 days.

The first thing I want to post about is Handel's Messiah. When I was young, my mom would participate in a community choir that would perform Handel's Messiah every December. We would go hear the choir sing, and we'd often go to the sing-in performance. This is where the audience can sing along with the choir on the chorus songs. It is glorious!

I participated for one or two years myself with my sister in the choir when I was in high school. It was a lot of fun, but those high notes and runs were definitely challenging.

For most of my college years and a few years after, I had kind of forgotten about those Messiah performances because they happened at the beginning of December before I headed back up home. However, three years ago, I remembered, and I really wanted to go. I invited some friends, and it was great fun. Over the past three years, I have gone to the sing-in performances, and this year I went to the one last Sunday up in Draper, but I also went to one on Monday in Provo. Is that overkill? No way.

Last year, Jordan and I went to a play called Joyful Noise that is about Handel and when he wrote the Messiah. It was amazing.

I don't feel I have adequately covered how I feel about this. Whenever I hear songs from Messiah, I smile. I feel like it's the epitome of joy. I think Handel was so inspired. When I hear the songs, I feel love and peace and hope and joy. Especially when I attend the sing-in performances. I just want to hug everyone in the world.

I love this time of year, and this year it gives me hope that maybe the world could be loving. Maybe there's a little something I could do to help.

Winter Plans

So, I'm not a winter hater, but I also sometimes struggle in the winter. But this year I've decided that I am highly excited, and I am writing a list of the things I want to do this winter! It's going to be amazing!

• Sledding
• Ice skating
• Cook at least 3 soups out of my soup cookbook and share with friends
• Cook one or two other new dinner recipes
• Bake lots of deliciousness
• Snowshoeing
• Star Wars!!
• Word nerd night (or 2)
• Provo temple open house
• Drink hot chocolate and herbal tea
• Read at least one book a month
• Visit Christmas lights
• Have a photo scavenger hunt
• Go to a musical performance or several
• Go to a play

Honestly, I don't even know if I'll manage to do all of these things, but they are things I want to do, and I am excited to do at least some of them! 

Mexican Quinoa with Butternut Squash

Oh hey there.

Today I had some veggies that I needed to use, and I decided to invent a recipe. It turned out pretty delicious, so I wanted to remember it! I figured that I'd type out the recipe here so that it would be easy to refer back to when I want to make this again in the future. I'm not a pro cook or anything. I just enjoy cooking and eating good food.

Ingredients

Quinoa
Half of a medium butternut squash
Bell pepper (Any color should be fine; mine was both red and green, and I got it from the farmer's market)
Anaheim pepper
Half an onion
2-3 small roma tomatoes
Coconut oil
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Garlic Salt
Oregano
Water


Instructions

1. Cut up the butternut squash into approximately 1-inch cubes. I wasn't super precise with the size and shape, but I didn't want them too small or too big. Kind of bite size was what I was going for.
2. Dice the onion. I wanted the flavor of the onion more than the texture, so I diced.
3. Dice half of the anaheim pepper.
4. Cut the bell pepper into slightly larger pieces. I feel like these ended up being about the same length and width as the squash, just not the same depth since peppers are obviously not that big.
5. Put coconut oil into a large frying pan. I think I maybe put in about a tablespoon, but I'm really not sure.
6. Start cooking the quinoa in a separate saucepan according to the instructions. I used the suggestion on the bag of how much to make, which was 2 serving sizes, or 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup of water. 
7. Add the onion, peppers, and squash to the frying pan and start sauteeing over medium-high heat.
8. Add some salt, pepper, garlic salt, and cumin as desired. (I have no clue how much I used.)
9. While everything is cooking, take a minute to cut the tomatoes and mix and crush them with a little bit of water in a bowl. 
10. Add a little bit of oregano to the bowl with the tomatoes. (Is it weird to have oregano with cumin? The oregano flavor didn't stand out too much, but I liked having it in there. Other spices could easily be used instead though.)
11. Once the quinoa is almost done, turn off the heat. 
12. Add the tomato mixture to the frying pan and turn down the heat.
13. After a minute, stir in the quinoa. 
14. Add spices as desired.
15. Cook until you think things are good! And voila! Mexican quinoa! It reminded me of Mexican rice, but I'm not actually a big fan of Mexican rice, but I liked this a lot. I feel like you could easily substitute whatever you want into this--add more veggies, use different spices, etc. 

Like I said, I'm not a pro cook, and I'm just typing this out for my own benefit for future reference. But if anyone makes this, and it turns out terribly or wonderfully, let me know! 

Ramblings

So, I feel like my heart has been on the tender side lately. And by that I mean that I feel like I'm sensitive, but I also feel like beautiful things have been really touching my soul, and I've been marveling a lot. I kind of feel baffled and amazed when people are nice to me. I also have been needing a lot of sleep, but that may be entirely unrelated.

I recently reactivated my Provo library card. I was so excited! I didn't get there until an hour before they closed, but I renewed my card, then spent time wandering and picking up random books off the shelves and reading the backs (or the first paragraphs) to see if I wanted to check them out. I had forgotten how much I love libraries. I held off from checking out all the books, but it was definitely a temptation. Unfortunately, I haven't even had as much time to read as I'd hoped, but I'm going to finish at least a couple of the ones I checked out! 

School. This last week was probably on the same level of busyness between school, work, and other obligations as when I was doing my grad program full time. How on earth did I manage that schedule for four months? And the nearly-that-busy four months after that? I'm finding it really hard to make the time for school. I feel like I work, and then I'm so done with computers and sitting around. Oy. But I'm going to try to do better this week. 

I'm going to be an aunt!!!!!! Yep, that's right! My sister is pregnant! I am so excited! She is so excited! This is just going to be really great! April is going to be the best. And speaking of children, my cousin's new baby is adorable. She was born very early and is so tiny. I have been so happy to see my cousin and her family more over the last few weeks. 

I really like October, and I am so happy for it to be this month. I think I'm going to a corn maze with some friends in a week or two, and I went to a play of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow this week, and I went to an opera! And I'm just really excited for Halloween and all of the upcoming holidays. 

I feel like over the last year, I've become a little more selfish, and that is not something I want to be. So I'm really trying to love more. I feel like loving others has become harder for me than in the past. I used to give love so much more freely. But I think I was trying to protect my heart for a while there, so I wasn't giving much love. But I want to be a bit better and love a bit more. Isn't that the focus of life? At least, I think it is. 

I think life is pretty good these days. I'm trying to simplify so that I don't feel so stressed, and I'm trying to love and open my heart more. I also am remembering a lot of the things I truly love, and I'm trying to incorporate those things into my life more. Because I remembered a couple weeks ago that when I am feeling happy, I'm better able to look outward and love and serve others. I think it's a funny line to walk, the whole taking care of myself thing but also not being selfish. If anyone has any tips on that, I'm very open to them. 

Well, that's all I'll write for now. But, happy October, world!

Edit: Also, apparently this is my 100th published post! I've only had this blog for years and years, but 100 is still exciting, right!?