It's a Christmas Hangover!

A side by side comparison of Sunday in Utah vs. Sunday in Maryland:

In Utah, I wake up at 10:25. Caitlin and I listen to Sunday music while we get dressed in the outfits we very carefully picked out the night before. We talk about who we should get a ride from. We usually leave our apartment at about 11:10 and get to church at 11:20, just in time for 11:30 church. At church, I wait until the Sacrament is over before passing out coloring books, crayons, and ritz crackers to whoever is sitting by me. When church is over, I take a nap, eat some food, play with my friends, go to ward prayer, etc. It is a wonderful and relaxing day.

Please see below for a picture of one of my outfits on a Sunday in Utah.

When I am in Maryland, it is a very different story. I wake up at 8:00 for 9:00 church. Someone is probably yelling. Everyone is running around frantically. There are hootenanny pancakes on the table. Will I eat them at the table? You can bet that I will not.

I drag myself out of bed and try to find an outfit to wear. I rummage through my suitcases, trying to keep them packed. I change my outfit three times, because I can't find tights, or a flower that matches, or my other shoe. I become frustrated with everyone and everything around me. I make some comment about how this house is a black hole. I throw my makeup on. I think about brushing my hair. I run around the house, looking for my coat. I finally find the one that doesn't match with my outfit. I run around the house, looking for my church bag. I run around the house, looking for my purse. I lose my coat in the process and have to find it again.

I pick up my plate of hootenanny pancakes and hand it to one of my brothers to take out to the car. I eat it on the way to church. I sit through sacrament meeting in the hard seats in the gym with my family. I'm not sure why, since one car got to the church twenty minutes before 9, when Sacrament Meeting here starts. After Sacrament, I go to Nursery to help out. I kind of just invited myself to work there, since I like it so much, but no one has kicked me out yet, so whatever.

This morning, I had an especially difficult time getting ready for church. Mostly because last night, snow was all over the forecast, and I actually thought that church would be cancelled. (This is Maryland, after all.) It was expected to start snowing early this morning and wasn't supposed to stop until tomorrow at about 4 in the afternoon.

Looking at the forecast, I imagined myself sitting on the kitchen floor with my brothers andsisters, sipping hot chocolate from my Disney Princess mug. Like we always do when church is cancelled, we would give little talks and sing Christmas songs in a makeshift church meeting. We would play Perpetual Commotion, make dinner all together and do a photo shoot in the snow. I was very excited.

So you can imagine how surprised and disgruntled I felt when, this morning, instead of waking up to a winter wonderland, I woke up to the scene I described above. And, although it might not be an acceptable excuse, it's all I have by way of an explanation for my appearance at church today.

Please see below for a picture of my outfit.

black headband: Forever 21.

black turtleneck tee: Papaya.

pink necklace: Club Libby Lu.

pink skirt: Target.

gray tights: Target.

pink and black argyle knee highs: Santa Claus.

gray boots: Julie's closet.

Oh, and that blue jacket? That absolutely does not match with my outfit, in any world, under any circumstances? That is the jacket I wore to church today.

This morning Sarah said, "I don't get why, for church, girls can't just wear like, jeans, and a nice top. Or something."

I said, "Well, it's just because we want to look our very very best. What if Jesus came to our ward this Sunday?"

Then I felt like a hypocrite because I didn't even touch my hair. I put it up in a poof last night and didn't have time to fix it any other way this morning. And I think I wore this shirt last week. And I didn't put on deodorant. All the people in my ward probably wondered if I was suffering from a Christmas hangover.

It was a particularly unhappy Sunday morning for me.