Merry Christmas for my family

This was my gift to the fam....watch if you're bored :)

fam digi 2

I've been tagged, its 1 am on a school night, the survey is long and pointless and I've got more important things to do, like homework....so naturally I'm game for the survey. Lets do this!

1. Do you like Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? I always think I'm going to like eggnog, all those new fancy flavors in the pretty cartons...but after one sip I'm over it. I could drink hot chocolate everyday for the rest of my life and feel fulfilled as a human being. I've been on a one-woman search for "white" hot chocolate but so far the search has proved unsuccessful. I'm willing to pay a hefty reward of, well, compliments and good tidings to anyone that finds some.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just put them under the tree? When I was growing up Santa laid out all our presents in our section of the room, be it part of the couch or chair, everything was neatly arranged with our names on it. Unfortunately, Santa hasn't visited me in years...so in my current case, neither!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I like white on the tree, makes it classy. My dad hates white lights, he says it looks like a used car parking lot. House either or, just as long as they are not dangling about, looking like your four year old put up the lights....I hate that.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Mistletoe? Where!?

5. When do you put up your decorations? I remember how we always put them up on Thanksgiving, mom cooking, Stacy and I dancing and twirling around the house to the Carpenters Christmas (the second half was nutcracker music and we had it all choreographed) Now mom just puts it up in bits and pieces throughout the season and takes em down in the same manner....some leftovers get left up all year round, mom thinks we don't notice that she thinks they fit in with the year-round house decor but this is not the case. In my opinion, when Christmas is over, as in Dec 26th, decorations come down. My roommate last year was quite upset when I stayed true to my word on that.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I long for the day that my mom will make caramel again....

7. What is your favorite Holiday memory as a child? Once again I'm going to refer to the choreographed routines and elaborate Christmas performances that Stacy and I put on. The Carpenters dance, and if you've ever heard the Ray Conniff Album you'll know a little song called "Santa make her my bride for Christmas". Yep, you guessed it Stacy was the groom, and I was the bride, we loved acting out that ridiculous song. There was one year in California that Stacy wrote a pretty good play that all the neighborhood kids starred in "The Elf that saved Christmas". Stacy was, of course, the elf who played Christmas while I made a cameo appearance as a mute child opening a present....in my stupid Christmas nightgown to boot, Thanks Stace.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? As previously mentioned on Stacy's blog, if I did that anymore, I would unwrap my entire Christmas present inventory. But its fun to watch the kids do it.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I have a teeny tiny tree in my room this year, no more than eight inches, seriously. Interestingly, there are ornaments small enough to hang on all of its two, three branches. But seriously, that things lucky to see any decorations at all.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I hate snow with every fiber of my being. If I were a witch, we would never have any. Kinda makes you wonder this year huh?......


12. Can you ice skate? I can glide around with the best of em I suppose. Although, and Stacy can verify this, I'm an Olympic gold medalist in the art of living room carpet skating :)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I love when my mom makes me blankets for Christmas, I can never get enough. I have an abundance of blankets on my bed now, year round. Thanks mommy :)

14. What is the most important thing about the Holidays for you? The fam, gotta love em.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Did you not read about the caramel? That's all I want, ever. And white hot chocolate...I know you're out there! (I know what you're thinking, vanilla is NOT the same)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Sometimes we go to Disneyland, I didn't get to go last year because, blast! I was stuck in Hawaii :)


17. What tops your tree? I think stars are best

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I love buying for all my sister's little brats, just kidding.....

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Well.....considering Christmas carols start for me around August...I'm kinda over them by the time the actual season rolls around. But I enjoy the Home Alone Album, Carpenters, Ray Conniff Singers, and of course Amy Grant....not "Grown up Christmas List" I hate that song...as well as Christmas shoes, get out of here!

20. Candy Canes? Eh

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? Sometimes but whatevs...can you tell I'm over this survey?

22. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf, Home Alone, some more that I cant think of right now.....

Im tagging Brandy, Kyla, and Stacey. But I doubt anyone even bothers with my blog anymore!

Seeing RED

Stacy and I used to take road trips to LA back in the day before she was you know.....married. (Trader.) Well against all odds (her.... ahem.... family, or whatever,) we revisited our old ritual. The plan was to leave at 1 o'clock pm on Thursday right after I was done with school. Well, true to the Emmons tradition we eventually rolled out around 4. With many a bathroom breaks on the way, our first "official" stop was Vegas. I wanted to eat at a place called Maggiano's Italian because I get 50% off there because they are affiliated with Chili's. After parking on the complete wrong side of what must have been Vegas's largest shopping mall, we made our way into the fancier restaurants dressed to impress, oh wait....we had sweats on and our hair was wildly piled on top of our heads. After oggling the ginormous portions of thick lasagna, delicious pastas, and fresh bread, we finally settled on grilled chicken, salad, and asparagus. Alas, we were on a diet.

We finally rolled into Cali in the early am. The first day we played at the beach.


Note the giant dog (We all know I hate dogs)

After a brief bit of frolicking the waves I was over it and made my way to shore.....

Where the idiot dog attacked me. Katie was only able to capture the hideousness of my face. This was disappointing considering I now had no evidence of this viscous attack which I of course would have sued the idiot owner of the dog who just stood there.


That night I was to make my debut as LA's newest star. Stacy and I got to make guest appearances in the critically acclaimed "R.R.Red." We got to sing a solo then at the end we sang the finale and got be apart of the dramatic conclusion. I had a great sound check but alas the staying up till 3am every night prior to the trip caught up with me and I ended up performing with a husky and quiet voice....it was disappointing to say the least. :(

But at least I looked awesome in my wig!

Stacy sang the next night and opted for the wig I wore as well....she did not look as good though. And she herself pointed out she looked more like mom. You be the judge:

Stacy did a fantastic job on her solo though, she charmed and delighted the audience with her humor, as well as her voice....fully intact. Good job Stace.
More fun pics:


Here we are at the Grove, as Stacy observed was what the Gateway and Riverwoods were trying to accomplish: A fabulous outdoor mall complete with a farmers market. Its neighbors also include CBS and FOX studios.

We had a great trip and got to be apart of a great show. Literally one of the most brilliant shows I have seen in a long time. I laughed and cried and absolutely loved the music. If it ever comes to Utah it is a must see. In the meantime it is headed back home to The Big Apple.

I have to do it now!

Well....keeping a blog is required for my Education Media class at school...so I guess I can try to keep up my personal one now too....I just got back from Cali so I wioll try to upload pics in the next couple of days and gasp! Post a blog

DIE-it Attempt:#3

Allright, lets get one thing straight, I KNOW I'm not fat. So I'll save you the "You're not fat, you're just tall" comments. But lets be honest, I could lose a few. So here we go. The Smash Fat diet, attempt number 3.... this month. My first attempt catapulted my sister Stacy into the diet as well. The only difference is, she lasted more than the week that I did. And by week, I mean 3 or 4 days of good dieting, the other days cheating a few bites here in there, eventually turning into a gorge of a chocolate molten cake from Chilis. It was all downhill from there. You know how it is...so many special occasions. Not only was I using the whole "Diet starts Monday!" routine, but also "after this BBQ", or "after this party" Well folks, I have come to realize there will always be that special occasion around the corner waiting to prolong my trapped skinny bod. So I'm taking Stacy's advice (who is holding strong to the diet I might add) and posting it on my neglected blog to hold myself accountable to others.

So here begins the diet from hell. First stage: the cleanse, fruits and veggies with some scarce servings of egg whites, brown rice, and yogurt. Fabulous. The title is no typo, and so begins..the Die-it.

Let the nightmares begin...

So I got a new job. I'm going to be a server at Chiles. Long ago I worked as a server at a little -ole-place called IHOP. Don't make fun! Anyways, if you have ever been a server you may know about the "server nightmare." Picture this: A huge and unfamiliar restaurant, sometimes with multiple floors and a hidden kitchen, with millions of tables (okay that's an exaggeration...but there are a lot of tables) all full of people just waiting to order. And you the only server. For some reason you can't even manage to get even one table their drinks! You stumble over to the soda machine and fumble around. You're so freaked out by all the people that you eventually hide in a corner somewhere.

So I've chosen to haunt my dreams once again. But hey, at least I'll get to interact with other people other than children. Not that I don't love all my students, it's just nice to talk to an adult once and awhile, even if it the conversation consists of "Soup or salad sir?"

Wish me luck! I start training next week.

Back to Highschool

Stacy said it was time for a new blog, although the idea seems pointless seeing as I only have added two friends....the ones Stacy herself did. I don't get it, myspace is so much easier. Don't deny its true! Whether or not this blogging thing sticks remains to be seen.

Anyways, its back to high school for me....well, not really. But it would appear that at 25 years old, I never took the ACTs. So in order to continue with my Elementary Ed program at UVU, I must endure the 3 and 1/2 hour test of nonsense that high school juniors face. I bought a prep book at Barnes and Nobles, I paid a whole nine dollars for that baby! But it would appear that I can't seem to take as seriously as say, a certain famous fictional high school character from Bayside High. (Some of you...and by some I mean all two of you....may recall the serious-natured "Saved by the Bell" episode where Jessie becomes addicted to caffeine pills in order to perform well on her SATs.) This is not the case for me. I read about 6 pages of the prep book and lost interest. So for those of you that have taken the test, any words of advice would help. Now as previously mentioned, I lose interest at six pages, so a paragraph or two at the most will do :)

Jamie's Zodiac Year: The Dog?!

As my sister Stacy was helping me set up my new blog, we discovered, to my dismay, that my zodiac year was the dog. Now as some of you may or may not realize, I do not like dogs. I think they are dirty, annoying, and useless creatures. That's right! Judge me if you must. For the record, I think that people who have dogs are great people. Someone has to take care of these things, otherwise they might take over the streets! Then, what would we do with all the wild cats running around? Anyways, I decided to investigate this further and found out the traits of the "dog year." Does this sound like me?

• They care little for wealth but always seem to have money
• Keep other's secrets well
• Emotionally cold
• Distant at parties
• Good leaders
• They take everything serious

Now I think we can all agree that I was born in the wrong year. I mean, come on, care little about wealth but always have money? What a joke!
Alright, you're still hung up on the fact that I don't like dogs aren't you? You're thinking: "What kind of heartless, "emotionally cold" person doesn't like dogs?" The truth is I am not an animal person in general, so don't read too much into this.