i'm calling it, this is the most perfect december ever.

december has been behaving just beautifully this year. BEAUTIFULLY! everything that a december should be! one for the record books!

the semester ended a week ago (my last fall semester, weird!) and it already feels like ages ago. i promptly forgot everything i shoved into my brain in that last finals push and it is GLOOOORIOUS. after our last final on friday morning libby and i went to herm's for a celebratory brunch. which, by the way, is decked out for the holiday! so we were just sitting there with our huevos racheros, snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and wreaths on the walls, and it was snowing outside. i was just eating it up (literally AND figuratively, aha!) in all of its festive glory. 

last weekend scott and i went down to salt lake to see the lights on temple square, after which we drove up to my brother and sister-in-laws house and zonked out on their air mattress in about 15 minutes flat. poor brett and becky, that air mattress is becoming a permanent installment in their living room (we love you guys!!). the next day we had the henrie christmas party in which all the cousins exchanged gifts with one another which, adorable. also, i don't really know how, but these family gatherings make me both excited for kids and also so glad we don't have any yet. a time and a season :). 

between having to get my car registered and some unexpected tickets (some serious bad luck!) we weren't going to have a christmas tree this year and i was seriously mourning it because you only have one first christmas and darn it if we don't do it right! i was just entering the fifth stage of grief (acceptance) when scott came home on wednesday with an ADORABLE little 5 ft. tree and a strand of lights to save christmas! only half the tree is lit up but i am just over the moon about it. we topped it with a leftover monogram from our wedding (leftover wedding decor, the gift that keeps on giving!) and our apartment smells like pine and when my winter wonderland candle is lit, perfection (and by the way, if anyone wants to give me an endless supply of the winter wonderland candles from yankee candle for christmas, it's THE BEST). to put a cherry on top of it all, it snowed that night, nay, DUMPED a solid 8 inches and we've got MORE coming tonight and tomorrow (hopefully). how's that for serendipity??

also this week i discovered stove top popcorn, which, life changer. i was bummed about not getting an air popper for our wedding. in a moment of bravery though, i picked up some popcorn kernels to try popping them stove top, and WHY DIDN'T I TRY THIS SOONER?! for some reason it seemed really intimidating? for those that stand in the popcorn aisle at the grocery store trying to work up the courage like i have been for the last few months, DO IT. first of all, so easy. second of all, delicious. third of all, you will never have more fun staring at a pot on the stove. popcorn has become a permanent staple in my diet as of 3 days ago.

scott and i are particularly enjoying this time of year because this is when we met last year. i fell in love with beanie wearing/beardy scott and he fell in love with puffy coat/beanie wearing allie *swoon*. it is just fun to see each other now and look back on us a year ago, because what are we if not totally sentimental?

i can't call this a thanksgiving post since that's over

i'm sitting here after having made a long and color-coded to-do list of all that needs to be done in the next week or so, and i just thought, here i am. i didn't know how i was going to get here. and it was a crazy and tiresome couple of months but now i'm sitting here with one week left and everything is feasible. and i wonder how magnified this feeling is going to be next semester when i graduate. isn't it a surreal moment when your daydreams become tangible?

last week was thanksgiving, and i would like to publicly vote for every thanksgiving weekend to be the week before dead week because i don't think i've ever felt more subdued about finals as i have this semester (though, to be truthful, that may just be the senioritis talking ;)).
life is full of so many ups and downs. and in the past few weeks scott and i have had some run-of-the-mill bad luck that has made it particularly easy to fall into a mopey slump. but i sure am glad for the small beautiful moments. sometimes those are the only things that keep me afloat.

like every night after scott and i have said our prayers and settle into silence before we surrender to sleep i whisper "scott, i love you" and every night he whispers back "i love you too, allie."

or the road i drive up to campus that has the best view in town, i'm convinced. and even though it's brief, that glimpse i get, in the early morning fog, and the small bit of sunlight stretching to fill the valley, i look forward to it every day. that moment is never nearly long enough.

or sitting down to thanksgiving dinner, surrounded by my new family. love. bounty. happiness. well goll, it's just overwhelming isn't it?

pinch me.