a list of thanks

being home for thanksgiving

lovely roommates

always having enough food to eat

snow

the opportunity to go to school at BYU

a job

oatmeal

hot chocolate

the temple

mountains

the gospel of Jesus Christ

christmas lights

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you want some more reading, here’s a throwback to my Thanksgiving post from last year: obligatory thoughts on thanks

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other places to find me:

bloglovin’ >>> life and loveliness

instagram >>> @tessabrynnk

twitter >>> @tessabrynnk

pinterest >>> tessa kohler

beautiful things of today

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^^^random, slightly unrelated photo of my view from my chair in the library this morning

waking up to fresh snow on the ground, and tiny bits of it drifting through the air

walking up the hill in the dark to the temple, when the world was quiet and the snow glowed faintly on the mountainside to the right

early-morning peace in the temple

my cozy living room encircled with soft christmas lights

clarity in the scriptures while curled up on the couch in said living room

the hallelujah chorus on pandora

having my first class canceled

an impromptu almost-hour in the library

stepping outside into the shining sun, with snow on the ground all around

anticipations of home in two days

spending a ridiculous amount of time going through the archives of one of my favorite blogs

the feeling that there are good, magical, exciting things just over the horizon

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other places to find me:

instagram >>> @tessabrynnk

bloglovin >>> life and loveliness

twitter >>> @tessabrynnk

pinterest >>> tessa kohler

it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

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This evening has been magic. It’s been one of those evenings where the company is good, the food splendid, the atmosphere just feels like home. And I’m left just sitting here in awe of the rightness of the world.

Let’s just say that I have a wonderful, thoughtful grandmother who was perceptive enough to know that a bunch of college kids, away from home, would be craving some proper Christmas decorations around this time of year. Thanks to her, I had a box full of holiday goodness hand-delivered to my front door, just in time to cure our itching for tangible evidences of the upcoming season.

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So this evening we ordered Chinese takeout, as only the best domestic, housewifely college students do, turned on the Michael Buble holiday Pandora station, and dove into said box of decorations, plus some snowflakes that my roommate had stashed away. A Gilmore Girls episode happened in the middle of the party when the food arrived, and that Chinese was an excellent decision, indeed.

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^^^This is Santasaurus, our apartment mascot.

When everything was up and plugged in, and the overhead lights turned off, the four of us sat around the living room with homework and a dose of comfort food (hot chocolate for me…duh), and just soaked it all in. There’s just something about the soft, golden glow of strings of Christmas lights all around the living room, and the quaint row of stockings hung on the wall, and the multicolored tree in the corner, and the snowflakes in the kitchen, and the candycanes strung above the window…and guys, it’s almost Christmas! We may not even have gotten to Thanksgiving yet but who cares about that. This season is the greatest. It’s the time of the year where the world is overflowing with strings of lights, and joy, and anticipation, and magic, and I count myself lucky to have such amazing people around me to celebrate it with.

I say it all the time, but I am just so incredibly blessed. I have a wonderful family, wonderful roommates, a wonderful place to live, and so many other blessings. It’s on nights like these that I am filled with gratitude, and complete awe of how life works out perfectly. I go through normal life every day – school, work, sleep, running, etc. – and then every once in a while it’ll just hit me how truly beautiful life is. Sure, parts of it may not be pretty, but when you step away from the mundane, and the difficult, and the negative, the view is completely glorious.

It’s been a good day. Happy decorating, and merry early Christmas!

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other places to find me:

instagram >>> @tessabrynnk

bloglovin’ >>> life and loveliness

twitter >>> @tessabrynnk

pinterest >>> tessa kohler