My Favorite Things

Tonight Jon is at a Boy Scout camp out for church, so I decided to have my own 'spa night' at home. I took a nice long bubble bath, did a clay facial, and gave myself a manicure. I was also listening to Christmas music by the Cambridge Singers (which makes me feel quite homesick, but is probably one of my favorite Christmas albums - along with Andy Williams. When I was growing up I put a little fake Christmas tree in my room every December, pinned up twinkle lights all around my bedroom walls, and replayed the Andy Williams Christmas CD over and over and over again. I loved it!) So I started to think of all of my favorite things, and here are some of my lists (and in no particular order, I don't think I have a TOP favorite of anything, it's too hard to choose):

Favorite Movies:
- It's a Wonderful Life
- White Christmas
- Life is Beautiful
- Gone with the Wind
- State Fair
- Mary Poppins
- Leap Year
- Persuasion
- North and South
- Indiana Jones series
- Anne of Green Gables/Avonlea
- Pride and Prejudice
- Return to Me
- Jane Eyre (2006)
- An Affair to Remember
- Letters to Juliet
- The Sound of Music
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Growing up, we girls would reenact the dances and songs from this movie - and still quote it sometimes:

Adam: Smells good enough to eat.
Milly: Tastes good too, so they tell me.
Adam: Got any ketchup handy?
Milly: My stew can stand on its own feet.

Haha, those lines have been said to each other at least 100 times. Mostly around dinner time...

Favorite Books:
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- Fifteen (Beverly Cleary)
- The Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand - I read that a movie based on this book is coming out next year. I can't imagine how it will do it justice, by I am still looking forward to seeing it!)
- A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
- Harry Potter series (JK Rowling)
- the Narnia series (CS Lewis - mom read these to us growing up)
- The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)
- The Work and the Glory series (Gerald Lund)
- Heckedy Peg (children's book by Audrey Wood)
- various church/relationship books

Favorite Colors:
- grey
- blues
- black
- light yellow
- creams and whites

Favorite Music:
- The Cambridge Singers
- Harry Connick Jr.
- Taylor Swift
- Adele
- Nina Simone (I love how low she sings - and since I have a low voice, I can sing along with her most of the time! When I first heard her, I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman!)
- George Strait
- Sting
- Diana Krall
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir
- Maroon 5
- Frank Sinatra
- Madeleine Peyroux
- Il Divo (especially at Christmas)
- Coldplay
- the ladies, like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston
- Katherine Jenkins
- Marty Robbins
- soundtracks from Evita, Nashville, Dear John, Pride and Prejudice (2005 movie soundtrack), Phantom of the Opera, etc.

Favorite Quotes:
"Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." (President Uchtdorf)
"She understood who she was and whose she was." (Elaine S Dalton)
"There should be no yelling in the home unless there is a fire." (President McKay)
"I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learnt from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances." (Martha Washington)
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." (Walt Disney)
"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." (Karen von Blixen Finecke)
"If you live to be 100, I hope to live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you." (Winnie the Pooh)
"The greatest thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother." (Elaine S Dalton)
"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." (Emily Bronte)

Seasons/Holidays:
- every crisp, cool fall day
- Christmas
- 4th of July
- Valentine's Day

Favorite Foods/Desserts/Drinks:
- mom's homemade bread and rhubarb jam
- Chicken Bryan from Carrabbas
- Mint Pomegranate Lemonade (also from Carrabbas)
- No Bake cookies
- popcorn
- Honeycrisp apples
- oranges/clementines
- saltwater taffy (from Goldenrod in Maine)
- stuffed shells
- sweet and sour chicken
- zucchini and squash
- soup (lots of different kinds...)
- pasta dishes
- watermelon
- fresh peas from the garden
- bruschetta
- fruit crisps and pies (with vanilla ice cream, of course)

Animals:
- elephants
- giraffes
- zebras
- tigers
- Otis and Bo

Favorite Things to Do:
- playing games (word games, board games, dominoes, etc)
- cooking/baking
- going for walks
- going for long drives and seeing new places
- playing piano
- reading
- being with family and friends
- going to museums/concerts
- pinning on Pinterest
- 'spa' nights at home
- Indexing on familysearch.org

Favorite Places to Go (Someday):
- Portugal (Jon has always wanted to visit since his mission, so that would be fun to do together)
- Italy (all over!)
- Norway
- Prince Edward Island
- on a safari in Africa

Favorite Flowers/Trees:
- small white daisies (I always like when they are wrapped in brown paper - I think it's so romantic...)
- peonies
- sunflowers
- lilacs
- hydrangeas
- dahlias
- Weeping Willows
- Birch trees
- Maple trees
- Christmas trees :)
- Cherry blossoms

I realized while typing this that I have SO many favorite things, and I know I am missing many, also. I am so blessed!