harpy christmas!

December was crazy for the hubby and I!  He had intense finals, projects, papers, and presentations, and I had a bajillion harp events, concerts, gigs, and church performances.  Dustin survived another semester of business school with all A's and one B!!  And I survived another harp Christmas season.  Though it was a lot of work learning new music, having 6am rehearsals, and moving the harp everywhere in the snow, we both loved the spirit of Christmas that we felt in our hearts because of the music.  Music truly is powerful and can lift hearts like nothing else.  I am so grateful for my talent and the many opportunities and blessings it brings to both mine and Dustin's lives.

holiday diamond party!  i was hoping i might get paid with diamonds but sadly no ;)

harp & bells christmas concert.  

my students played with 4 other teacher's students totaling 40 harps on stage!

 seven harps! 

we accompanied the salt lake vocal artists on their two christmas concerts

 me and my boss/harp teacher/friend/mentor/wardie ShruDe

 a few of us accompanied the salt lake choral artists again at their assembly hall performances

my best harp mover husband 

we love weekends

We LOVE weekends.  Especially this semester.  Dustin has some pretty intense business classes that require a lot of time and work, so there are some week days we don't see each other until late at night.  The weekends are our time to relax, spend time together, and have fun.  Highlights from last weekend:

We hung out with our good friends TJ & Emily.  We all grabbed dinner at Rubio's (best fish tacos), then the boys hung out at our apartment, while us girls went to the U's gymnastics meet.  The U has an awesome team, as usual, and beat Arizona.  After, we made brownies and watched a cheesy movie on Netflix - "From Prada to Nada."  

One of my harp students gave her Suzuki Book 2 recital.  In the Suzuki method, once you learn all of the pieces in a book, you get to do a recital where you play all the pieces from memory.  It is a huge accomplishment and I was so proud.  I'm still learning a lot as a teacher, but I absolutely love it and want to start teaching more.

My student gave me these gorgeous hydrangeas! 

Superbowl Sunday!  We were invited to a party hosted by some good friends of the Harper fam.  We watched it in their awesome new theater room.  Although we were all cheering for the 49er's, it was still an exciting game.  I made pretzel bites and Reese's Rice Krispie treats.  Both recipes were a hit and we didn't have much to bring home.  Gotta love pinterest.