Christmas 2010

Every once in a while, I get genuinely complimented on my blog. I'll have to admit that such compliments are my favorites. They make me want to blog more frequently.

Christmas this year was amazing. I would like to share with you why it was so good.

1) Time to unwind. I consider myself a pretty intense individual. I work hard and get a lot done. But I have noticed that when I am intense for too long of a stretch of time, I tend to go a little crazy. So starting Christmas Eve, it was so nice to just relax and not worry about stressful things.

2) Carrying on good traditions. We spent Christmas Eve at Amy's place, which involved fun and interesting activities. From reading the Polar Express, to reading the scriptures, to seeing the lights around Orem/Provo, I was introduced to some pretty great traditions that I would love to continue in the future.

3) Spending quality time with family. Amy and I were able to spend lots of time with each of our families. When you have families as cool as ours, this translates into a lot of happiness. It was funny how back and forth we were on Christmas, but it wasn't that funny considering our two homes are literally a half-mile away from each other. I felt very at home at the Burton residence and at least in my mind, Amy felt very at home at the Ostler's.

4) Meeting new family members. I have talked to Amy's sister Eli on the phone a couple times before, but never face-to-face. Christmas day changed that. I got to meet Eli and her boyfriend Jimmy. These were very intriguing people and I only wish I had more time to interact with them. Thanks to them, I was introduced to some vegan dishes that were not bad at all.

5) Getting good presents. Christmas should obviously not focus on getting presents, but good presents is definitely not a bad thing. This Christmas I got great presents that were well-needed and from the heart. Haley gave me socks, Graden gave me a Nordstrom rack Groupon, Ben Bernanke gave me an interesting mountain man book, and Amy gave me some rockin' shoes. I also got hooked up with cash from both parents. I. Am. So. Grateful. (I usually hate doing the sentence split up by periods, but it does add a little dramatic effect.)

6) Going on a run. I don't know about you, but I have been eating far too much garbage food lately. Obviously it's unrealistic to completely bypass such delicious food (especially when it is abundantly available everywhere you go). But it is realistic to burn away some of these calories on a nice jog to Will's pit stop. It was pretty cool going on this run also because a fog was setting in and I could see the fog-like wave formations coming down.

7) Watching LOTR. At first glance, Lord of the Rings may not seem very appropriate for Christmas. But with the context of Race calling me up late to see if I wanted to watch the Fellowship of the Ring with Scott, it was a perfectly appropriate way to end Christmas.

8) Amy. Amy and I will officially be family in just a few short days. This truth kind of blows me away. At least in the back of my mind, I have been waiting to find the girl that I would marry for quite some time. This year, I realized that I had found this girl and it was only a matter of time of waiting for the wedding date to arrive. But this date seemed so distant. Now it is not distant at all. Christmas was such a great day for us, me especially. When you are a thinker, such as I am, you sometimes let the gravity of marriage overwhelm you. But as with all seemingly-overwhelming aspects of life, you just kind of take things one step at a time. Christmas was great in that regard. It was an excellent illustration of how fun life is with Amy when we just enjoy things in the moment. I am so in love with this girl. We had plenty of funny moments today, inside joke moments, serious moments, and even moments where I beat her consistently at Othello. Best of all, as I've gotten to know Amy better, my love for her has grown. For me, that is the most impressive thing because love has historically been such a fickle thing. With love, things can fizzle, things can come to a screeching halt, or things can just not progress, for little or no reason, and on either end of the relationship. But this has not been the case with Amy, where my love for her has matured and grown. Ironically, it has become more difficult to express my love but as I better understand her personality, complement her, and get complemented by her, we climb higher and higher. I know I have a long ways to go in truly becoming unified with my sweetheart, but I am going to take things one step at a time. I feel very optimistic about this.