New Year's Resolution

 28 December 2020 - 3 January 2021

My new year's resolution for 2021 is to "meet Christ in the scriptures" and my gift to my Savior is to give Him my full attention.

Monday: I helped mom clean up the house in preparation for Aaron's birthday party in the evening. I also frosted some delicious looking cupcakes! For his party, we made up a ton of home-made pizzas for everyone who came and then Valerie was in charge of the games. She did "Tonight Show" games. She is great at planning and running events. Mom was really grateful for the help I gave. People stayed LATE at the party, past 11pm, playing spike ball outside!

Tuesday: I slept in late this morning. I guess the party wiped me out! Since mom got a new robot vacuum for Christmas, she and dad said I could have their old one! So she taught me how to empty it out and cleaned it up for me. Then we went to Deseret Book so I could get some new garments. Also, I needed to make a return of Aaron's present (he already bought himself lightbulbs that work with Alexa, so he didn't need the one I got him for his birthday) so I went into Kohl's to return it. After waiting in a line of about 6 people, I get to the front only to learn that the line for Amazon returns is in another part of the store! So I had to go and get in that line behind another 5 or 6 people. Oh well. Also, can I just note how much I miss AZ sunsets?

Wednesday: An idea came to me to create a "challenge book" for Lucy, Valerie, and my mom. They always like to start health challenges/diets and compare the number of steps they have taken. I thought it would be a great idea to have a book where the challenges are all positive (as in, "Eat 5 cups of vegetables today" as opposed to "Don't eat any sugar"). I also included mindfulness/self-compassion challenges and physical challenges. Mom really liked it! And Val thought it was cool too! I made banana bread and everyone scarfed it up! They thought it was so so yummy! It was also gluten and dairy-free ;). I think my brother Aaron was surprised that I knew how to bake such good things.

Thursday: I spent the morning working on a painting of Jesus Christ to give my mom. We also discovered that two baby chickens hatched out! They are SO SO SO cute! One of them likes to hide under the mom's wing and then peek her head out at us. I also went on a unicycle ride this week with Dad and Lucy to Zanjero park. Dad took us out to dinner at Garcias to celebrate New Year's Eve! The food was SO yummy (I maayyy have asked for them to keep on the jalapeno cream cheese on my steak fajitas). I played video games with Lucy but otherwise we didn't do that much else as a family to celebrate that evening. That was okay with me. It's been a busy couple of weeks, so having a relaxed evening was good.

 

Friday: It's been nice sleeping in over the break! In the afternoon, my dad drove Valerie, Lucy, and me to Discovery Park and we all rode around on the electric unicycles. The park was so crowded! The sun was out and it was a pretty warm day. Plus, people are probably sick of being stuck inside all day because buildings are shut down or restricted due to covid19. We had a lot of fun riding around, going up and down hills, and playing around. One girl asked to try riding on Lucy's uni, so we helped teach her. Then, my dad said I could bring up the unicycle I was riding on to Utah because it's an older model that doesn't go as fast and the other kids don't really use it. So when Jackson brings up my stuff, he's going to bringing me up an electric unicycle AND mom's Deebot (vacuuming robot). 

Saturday: I thought staying up late would make traveling go by quicker, but mostly I was just a hot, fumbling mess. Even the airport security guard commented on it and sent me to "line 1" because that's where he sent all the "people who are a mess in the mornings." Yikes, haha. Getting up at 4:30am didn't used to be so rough, but then again, I was going to bed at 8:30pm back in those days ;). My supervisor for BYU Online, Shelly, picked me up from the airport. She also had a sweet gift for me! A picture of Christ and a girl, a candle, and a heavenly-smelling bath bomb. I got to my apartment around 8:30am and went back to bed! I slept for a couple of hours, then got up and unpacked. I left that afternoon to go shopping, but my car refused to start. The battery was a gonner from the cold and not being used for over a month. I asked around, but wasn't able to get ahold of anyone with jumper cables. My friend Lacee offered to take me to the store in her car, which was a huge blessing. Then we talked after and I showed her my new Harry Potter code names game, which she loved! That evening, I a movie on my laptop. Then I saw that BYU TV has this show called "All-Round Champion" that I really want to watch with someone. I watched bits of a couple of them, and it's so cool!

Sunday: I bore my testimony in church today about the "becauses" behind why I am so grateful for my Savior today. Because of Jesus Christ, I do not have to be scared of falling short, of failing. Because of Jesus Christ, my future is full of hope and my daily life is full of faith. I still felt nervous going up there to bear my testimony, but I did it because of Him. You never know how many other people you will touch with your testimony, as imperfect as you feel it is after giving it, but most importantly, you are bearing your testimony for yourself. I don't have any roommates at home, so it's been lonely inside the house. I'd have loved to go outside on a walk or a drive, but it's been snowing all day! I did find a guy in the ward who had jumper cables, so he was able to come over and charge up my battery!!! I am so grateful to have a working car. I did freeze, though. Well, just my toes. But I tried out those new microwavable bean-sock/slipper things that my mom got me for Christmas and they were so heavenly! Lacee invited me over to play some games and jam on our musical instruments together in the evening.

Much love,

Emily Burnham