Festivities of the holidays.

Last night I was taken to the...



in Sandy, Utah. It was AMAZING. There were over 800 stunning Christmas trees decorated in various themes and a truly unbelievable Gingerbread village. These were some of my favorites:







As far as the Christmas trees go, I don't even know where to start. It was incredible. The themes were so creative and diverse! I kept walking around and thinking, "Oh! This one is soo Lauren." Or, "This one is soo Trent." I eventually just took out my camera and decided to make a blog post out of it, for the very best people in the world to spend the holidays with: my family. It goes like this:



This tree is symbolic of my crafty and resourceful mother. It's amazing what she can do with a sewing machine, some paint, and a little glue gun. I have yet to meet someone so creative. I'm pretty sure she has the same superhuman DNA as Picasso, Beethoven, Dali, and Chagall. She's a genius and I feel so fortunate to have lived in her home where every holiday is decorated like Christmas. It has constituted such a large part of my childhood.

I also thought this one represented you, Mom.

Wait for the close-up:

It's just like your freakish leprechaun I have nightmares of. Read this.
I've come to trust that this is a part of your genius creativity too...haha.


The BYU Football tree. You know where I'm going with this--my dad. He's obsessed! He flies up from California with my mom for nearly every home game, and has done this for as long as I can remember. If you take the time to ask, he can tell you all the statistics about the players and as additional reinforcement, he will load the Cougarfan website on his blackberry. I love my dad for his infatuation with BYU football. I've come to realize than in an unorthodox way, it's sort of romantic. (To this he would probably respond with some mild potty joke.)


This Utes tree is for my brother-in-law Craig, a die-hard fan of BYU's biggest nemesis. This guy adds such dynamic to Saturday game days. It's one of the reasons I respect and adore him so much. The entire family will be decked out in their navy blue and white Cougar jersey memorabilia, and then there is Craig in his unspoken red defiance. Despite the apparent odds of their respective superstar teams, Craig and my dad share a close friendship through other mediums: their easy-going personalities and a mutual obsession in another category of sports--golf.


I know this picture isn't great, but it's a tree adorned with jewelry. Adorable, chic jewelery to be exact, in honor of my older sister Danielle. She recently created Modern Vintage Boutique, an online store of super cute accessories and clothes. I sometimes get to see her inventory in person and just gasp at the pretty reflections made as the sun passes through her trendy trinkets. I love and am proud of the entrepreneur she has become.


I introduce the dessert tree, dedicated to my older sister Lauren. This woman is controlled by her enormous sweet tooth and love of sugar. She eats her glucose-enriched foods before/in substitution of a conventional entree. Her pantry is swarmed with such goodies, which is one of the many reasons I love stopping by (I admit). I don't understand how she looks so great. Where does it go?!


Okay so I know these are dirt bikes, but it was the closest I could find to my biking brother-in-law Ben. He's the next Lance Armstrong in my book. He loves, loves, loves his bikes and I love him for the knowledge I acquire from it. I went to one of his races in Park City this summer and learned all about Lotoja and the like. THEN, the next day I met the president of the Biking Club and sustained a ten minute conversation about it. I like to think Ben would have been proud..


This tree is in honor of my older brother Trent. Even after his "maturing" mission, he would beat and tickle me, claiming that someday when he made it famous, I would appreciate the hassle. He used this excuse a lot actually; he used it when forcing me to iron his shirts, make his bed, clean his car, do his college organic chemistry homework packets, etc. (You get the jist of our relationship.) I guess in a way he was right. He is now residing in Nashville and going to fancy-pancy events with the likes of such Hollywood icons as Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.



My beautiful sister-in-law Brooke has a thing for birds, though the ones she likes are more chic. When the Griffiths lived in Costa Mesa, they had the cutest apartment that had them furnished everywhere. I even think Anthropolgie copied her...because I'm noticing that nearly everything they have in their stock recently has birdies incorporated into it! I'm telling you, she has the best style and Anthropolgie.com agrees.

For my older brother Blake I have a couple representations.
Number one.

The Nightmare Before Christmas' music score was done by Danny Elfman, Blake's idol. Whenever I drove in the car with Blakie I'd make sure that this was the soundtrack that was playing because it was the only thing in his quirky music genre that I recognized. We bonded over it. This, and Ween.

Number two.

Blake is very artistic and likes avantgarde and eccentric things. He's a nonconformist. That's why I love him. I would imagine him to have a tree like this.

Number three.


Even though Blake is brilliant and has some major musical talent, he claimed for the majority of his adolescence that he was only applying to clown college. What a goon! Though he has confessed to his larger ambitions, he's still a clown at heart. He watches High School Musical with me and has a crush on Disney's Ashley Tisdale. He even still wears his spiderman boxers. Luckily, he exterminated his booger collection along with the clown school idea.




This is what I refer to as the beanie-baby tree (notice that they are hung as ornaments). I thought this was symbolic of my little sister Mackenzie. Though I haven't formally verbalized it, I still hold quite a bit of a grudge regarding these little treasures. You see, growing up Kenzie and I had to share everything as the "little girls"; we had to share identities, a bedroom, a bathroom, the sought after Spice Girl barbie dolls I would have given my arm for, and yes you guessed it, my prestigious beanie-baby collection. Back then I was the same person that I am now...a little OCD. I tried to take such cautious care of my babies, even placing them in their separate plastic boxes to be admired from a distance. I was convinced the beanies would make me rich someday....that is until I'd come home and find that Kenzie had ripped off some of their tags. Gasp. Tears. Heartbreak. I'm still bitter. Eventually we graduated to Pokemon cards where we no longer were forced to share. Can you believe she had the audacity to get the Charizard halligraphic card before I did?! Hmph.

There you go. My family in a nutshell. I can't wait to be home for the holidays!