what i did during christmas break.

1. watched the following movies:
the killers
a place beyond the pines
annie
begin again
the one i love
gone girl
the babadook
big eyes
into the woods
the imitation game
princess diaries
the trip to italy
miss pettigrew lives for a day
left behind

2. played the following games:
coup
ticket to ride
scopa
heads up
pit
rock band
karaoke, via comcast on demand

3. ate the following food:
just kidding there is no way i could list everything i ate.

4. attended my second ever basketball game.

5. wore the same clothes for at least half of the time.

6. gel nailed.

7. slept.

8. listened to all of serial and thereby became obsessed with podcasts (here's a goodie on babysitting).

9. rediscovered got beauty.

10. hmm, what else. oh yeah! i finished breaking bad with paige. just as good the second time around.

the best part of the holiday was daily shenanigans with this chic.

happy thanksgiving.

 

via sophie ledesma.

the year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. to these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of almighty god. in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the union. needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. no human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. they are the gracious gifts of the most high god, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. it has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole american people. i do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the united states, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last thursday of november next, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens. and i recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.

- president abraham lincoln, done at the city of washington, this third day of october, in the year of our lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the united states the eighty-eighth.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

read this the other day in preparation for my thanksgiving feast and LOVED it. that lincoln, #whataguy! wishing you the happiest of thanksgivings. may you always remember the original purpose behind the turkey with cranberry sauce and dressing with whipped cream topped pumpkin pie for dessert. god bless.

"happy happy birthday merica ..."

things i love about america:

- diversity! in people, in culture, in food. i love living in a salad bowl. 

- the cities, the plains, the mountains, the hills ... i love thy rocks and rills, thy woods and templed hills ... oooooooooooo beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain!

- we've got some great songs ^^^

- the art! warhol, hopper, rothko! fitzgerald, sinatra, dylan! the other fitzgerald, steinbeck, twain!

- 64 ounce drinks, burgers & fries, cronuts!

happy birthday america!

i'm glad to call you home.

for more fun click here.

image via.

peace and thanksgiving.

i'm peacin' out for a thanksgiving beneath the red rocks of st george. i thought i'd leave you with this christmas playlist:

happy holidays!

*please note that it is sufjan heavy (i can't help myself) and then check out his latest christmas album.

sweet land of liberty.

via fashionisareligion.tumblristhebible.

my country, tis of thee

sweet land of liberty, of thee i sing;

land where my fathers died, 

land of the pilgrims' pride,

from every mountainside let freedom ring!

my native country, thee,

land of the noble free, thy name i love;

i love thy rocks and rills,

thy woods and templed hills;

my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

let music swell the breeze,

and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song; 

let mortal tongues awake;

let all that breathe partake;

let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

our fathers' god, to thee,

author of liberty, to thee we sing;

long may our land be bright

with freedom's holy light;

protect us by they might, great god, our king.

- samuel f. smith

i really like that song. it says all i feel about my country.

plans for today include sleeping in, swimming, firework watching, and making lavender honey custard.  while in philadelphia last year, we went to longwood gardens, or heaven, as i like to call it. i bought a lavender cookbook while i was there and have yet to use it. a shame i know. this weekend i'm changing my ways. 

here's my fourth of july gift to you, the recipe:

lavender honey custard
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender (english lavender is fine)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise
10 large egg yolks (10! i know! but it is custard)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
in a medium saucepan, whisk together the milk, honey, lavender, and 3/4 cup of the cream. add the vanilla bean. heat, stirring often, until small bubbles start to form around the edge; do not boil. set aside to cool slightly.
in a large bowl, combine the egg yolks and sugar. beat with an electric mixer for 5 minutes, or the misture is a light lemony yellow and forms a slowly dissolving ribbon when the beater is lifted.
slowly beat in the milk mixture. pour back into the saucepan. use a paring knife to scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the pan. cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the misture thickens and reaches 175 degress on an instant-read thermometer (don't go above 180 degrees of the eggs will curdle).
strain into a medium bowl. place over a larger bowl containing ice cubes and cold water. stir often until cool. stir in the vanilla extract and the remianing 3/4 cup cream. transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions.

happy 4th!

odds/ends.

• i'm in the process of training myself to think this way.
• been really into simple gold rings as of late, loving these.
• my next l'occitane purchase is going to be this. imagine how great my life will be when i bathe in shower oil and lounge in shea butter. you'll wanna touch me.
• another great escape to by note to self.
• did i mention i've taken up watercolor? which strikes-out another of my 24 things.
• discovered a new fashion blog that i am really diggin, atlantic-pacific. tres chic. 
• cute cinco de mayo post. 

have a good weekend/feliz cinco de mayo!

{the most cinco-de-mayo-ie picture i have.}

lava hot springs, usa.

last weekend was our annual over-nighter to lava hot springs, idaho.

this is a wightman family tradition, never to be broken.

lemme explain:

1. lava hot springs, population: 700.

2. 30 motels, 1 sketchy hole in the wall place to get breakfast, 1 pizza joint, 3 bars, 1 convenient store.

3. i don't think there is even one stop sign in town.

4. everyone just walks around in their robes.

5. notice that i'm wearing a robe and towel turban in the photo above? it was 20 degrees. 

it is just the perffffffffffffff place.

see some of paige's writings on it here and here.

merry christmas.

{nativity, brian kershisnik}

i hope your christmas is merry and bright and christ centered.

love,

courtney

thanksgiving is upon us.

tonight, the night before thanksgiving, is one of the best nights of the year {perhaps THE best}. all my life, this night has been filled with jingle listening, bread drying, crust fluting, pie cooking, egg whipping, and pumpkin smelling. a time just before the hustle and bustle of the season for just the 4 of us to prepare for thanksgiving feasting. oh, just thinking about it makes me a little teary. i'm excited! probably because for the last two years i was street walking, guest greeting, book sharing, and family less.

last year on thanksgiving i woke up at 6:30am, studied my scriptures for two hours, then set out to deliver the turkey treats we had made the night before. one to a less active member in chevy chase, one to our member friends the menzels, one to sammy our investigator who worked at the apartment building on mass ave, and one to our homeless investigator at 18th and e. we also shared some with the sisters who fed us thanksgiving brunch. we had mulled cider and a "harvest crepe stack" {as they called it}, turkey shaped rolls, sausage stuffing, and pumpkin crepes with maple syrup and cream cheese spread. we ate again when we got to the visitors' center for our shift. this time we ate all the traditional fixins made with love by the senior couples. my parents had sent me homemade thanksgiving costumes, so we played around with those for a while. after that meal it was back to work, greeting the crowds of people who came to the temple to celebrate their thanskgiving night. it was so wonderful to kick off the season on temple grounds with 500,000 christmas lights and the christus watching over us. oh that spirit!

each year, i make a list of the many things i have to be grateful for. it's the perfect time to reflect and acknowledge what you've been blessed with. this year i am especially grateful for my family. for each and every thing that they are. for their love and support. and right now, i'm so grateful that i will be able to spend the holiday season side by side, with them!

in addition, i'm thankful for:

• salt lake city
• church employment
• my misson
• friends
• knowledge
• ikea pillows
• starbucks hot cocoa
• sleepy time tea
• yoga {especially when its with annie!}
• speaking of annie, GOOD FOOD!
• sufjan stevens
• technology {aka, my ipod}
• my scriptures
• my savior and redeemer, jesus christ
• prophets
• creative minds
• j crew
• cute little scions
• cute little {actually it's huge} city apartments

"therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our god forever. behold, who can glory too much in the lord? yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? behold, i say unto you, i cannot say the smallest part which i feel."

alma 26:16

i hope you have a spectacular thanksgiving filled with gratitude and pie.

favored fall facets by paige.

paige.

{sister/most hilarious person/future educator of young minds/cray cray/just everything wonderful in life}

fall is a bit of an identity crisis.  not only is it home to an entire holiday dedicated to dressing up like something you are not but deep down inside you actually wish you were {and this year i secretly, deep down, hidden in my soul, want to be a lawn gnome}, but there are GADS of other crisis {crises-es?} sprinkled all throughout.  girls pretend to know jake heaps' stats and what an offensive linebacker is as to impress the avid football fan man, people of all ages race to crunch a fallen leave, purely to hear it crunch, leaving them feeling like a giant super villain destroying the almighty leaf in a mere stomp of a giant step, and fashion becomes a mystery 'too late for shorts?  to early for a scarf??  what to do?!!'

courtney told me to write 5 things that make me a fall lover. so besides finding excuses to drink hot chocolate, wearing my coat prematurely, dedicating days to being terrified, and candidly beginning my christmas list, the identity crisis sums up my feelings for my favorite season of pumpkins and self-unsurity {new word-live it, love it, crave it}. GO AUTUMN!


** i love her too much.

"dedicating days to being terrified"
now THAT is on my list of favored fall facets!


halloween, there is just nothing like it. when else is it socially acceptable to dress up like a mass murderer? i am celebrating this year, not by dressing up like a mass murderer, but by watching mass murderers in action.

the 13 days of halloween.that's what we're calling it. a time of dread and distress, a time when family and friends gather to delight in horror movies. to kick off the insanity, i've made a list of my all time favorite halloween movies:

1. drag me to hell
this is just a gem of a movie. very well made. very quirky. just a GEM!

2. the shining
the first time i saw this was my freshman year at byu. i was sick on halloween night and watched it on tv. my roommates and i quoted from it constantly for a couple weeks, until we came home late one night to see REDRUM written in red all over our front door. we were pretty freaked.

3. pan's labyrinth
oh the imagery in this film! it's beautiful. and nightmarish.

4. rosemary's baby
what a super creep idea for a movie. creepier, i'm positive that the doctor's office that she goes to in the movie was in my mission.

5. young frankenstein
the love that i have for this movie was passed down to me by my father. i'm pretty sure the hardest i've ever seen him laugh is during the "oh sweet mystery of life at last i've found you ..." part, EVERY TIME!

6. the orphange
i giggle with joy {and fright} each time i watch this. "SIMONE!" 
7. a tale of two sisters
one critic said this about this korean film: "never has a menstrual cycle been more terrifying." haha! my film major roommate in college was always bringing home such wonderful movies for us to watch, a tale of two sisters was no exception. hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

8. the ring
omg. i saw this on halloween day in a theater with only me and my friend emily {who forced me into seeing in and into staying when i thought i would die from terror}. i was so scared for 7 STRAIGHT DAYS!
9. ... hocus pocus
i had to add this. i just have so many marvelous memories of eating chili and watching this just before i would go out trick-or-treating on halloween night. more movies should be made about the salem witch trials.
10. the omen
the voice of the nanny yelling "look at me damien, it's all for you!" just before she hangs herself, haunts me to this day.


a horrorary mention goes to shudder island, the film that kicked off my post-mission horror movie watching.

happy haunting!

is it too late to tell you what i did for pioneer day?

good.

cause i had to tell you about:

-everyone in the salt lake city police department {including female officers} wearing fake mustaches in the parade {and if you know me, you know that this made my day}.

and

-dp cheesesteaks.

{mmm.}

we also:
-saw midnight in paris again. it was still good.
-took a much needed dip in a cool pool.
-ate ny style pizza.
-watched a modern marvels on frying {i just love the history channel}.
-enjoyed the now traditional circle firework show, which included fireworks with names like psychadelic mojo and jealous condor.
-took in our nightly castle addiction, which has apparently become 2011's summer smut series.

happy 84th sev.

july 11th 1927.

a day that will live in our hearts forever.

especially mine.

i realize i never wished you a happy 4th of july.

sorry.

i will now give you a briefing of how i celebrated our nation's birthday. there was none of this, as in previous years, but it was still swell.

saturday
-wake up early, too early for saturday
-go to farmer's market
-have the time of your life
-especially enjoy ruby snaps' almond white-chocolate chip cookie
-go to bikram yoga
-feel as though you might die
-feel as though you are the shiiiiiiiiii because you finished bikram yoga
-feel great, but really sweaty

-all of the sudden, feel as though you might die again
-blame it on the fact that you didn't drink enough water before you perspired half your body weight
-sleep it off
-wake up just in time to party with the woods
-party with the woods
-sleep

sunday
-go to church
-get really important things accomplished there
-eat a delectable meal afterwards
-lounge for too long
-drive 100 miles to the spiral jetty



-be afraid that aliens might abduct you in this strange land, far from civilization



-get home safely despite your fears
-skype mama walt for an hour
-laugh the whole time
-try to watch 500 days of summer
-stop watching 500 days of summer because your computer shuts down voluntarily
-be happy that you just bought an imac
-fall asleep
-dream about your new imac

monday
-sleep in too long
-think that it is probably because you went to sleep at 2am
-help mom with her blogging masterpiece
-be persuaded by paige to put on your swimsuit
-drive to grandma's to go swimming
-dance around in your new swimsuit for a while
-decide to jump in
-decide it is too cold to jump in
-jump in anyway
-regret it
-jump in again
-get out of the pool because it is raining on the 4th of july!
-go to the indoor pool
-go see the most abstract film you've ever seen
-love it because 1) it's pretty 2) it's at the broadway
-admire the sign at the concession stand that says "edamame: they make an independent film better"
-think about the movie that you just saw for hours on end
-eat a fitting meal for the 4th - texas roadhouse
-love that
-get home just in time for the circle firework show

was that long?

hey, happy 5th of july.

easters.

happy easter.

now go eat some cake. or something.