And Now, the Post You Have All Been Waiting For....

...my Christmas post!!

I know you are all just itching with curiosity and excitement to hear all about how my Christmas went. ;-D

Well, here you go!

I think I can honestly say this was the best Christmas I've ever had. It all started on December 24th....

Christmas Eve started out pretty crazy. My dad's family was coming over at 11 am for a brunch and gift exchange. BUT my mom woke up with a migraine...so the morning began with moving brunch to 12 and making a trip to Grandma's house to pick up some medicine. And then we had to clean the house and cook....and my aunt forgot she was supposed to pick up my grandma...so it was even later...haha, but, eventually we got everyone in the same place and were able to sit down for a wonderful meal and open presents.

My cousins got me Tangled on DVD, which is pretty awesome because that was actually something I wanted but never asked for. (Tangled is an awesome movie, btw). I also got a bracelet and a giftcard to Kohl's.

After they left I went into baking mode...I had a chocolate mousse pie to make for the following day, and chocolate chip cookies for my friend. AND I did some last minute stocking stuffer shopping....

That evening, Christopher's family came over because they had a Christmas present for me. A Christmas present that couldn't be brought to church....

 

 This picture was incredibly dark, so I tried to fix it. However, I suck at photoshop, in

case you thought it looked kinda weird.

Isn't he cute?? His name is Nemo. I've always wanted a bunny, and they have a couple to spare...so, now he's mine!! 

Anyway, after that we went to a movie (We Bought a Zoo) and then went home so I could finish making all the Christmas presents I hadn't finished making yet...haha.

The next day was CHRISTMAS!! Yay. My family opened presents early, since we had church at 11:30. Here I added to my possession a GPS. Which everyone finds extremely funny. Because I'm kind of terrible with directions. I personally just think Google Maps gives faulty directions half the time, but everyone else has a different opinion.

Also, my mom made me a beautiful quilt that she was apparently working on every time I left the house. haha Here's a picture:

It's so pretty!

This quilt basically combines three of my favorite things: the combination of purple and green, daisies, and blankets! It's awesome.

Then we went to church where we had an awesome Christmas service. I loved it, minus the candlelighting ceremony...because that always makes me nervous with the fire and the small children....

Also, I gave my friends their Christmas presents here. I made Ellen a...thing...I don't know what to call it...a poster? It's small though...I don't know, but it has pictures of us on it. :-) haha I bought Meagan a really cute picture frame and put a really cute picture of us in it. And for Christopher I made a calendar with pictures of friends for every month (which so does not compare to a bunny at all...but he's hard to shop for). As far as I know, they all liked their presents, which made me happy. 

Oh, Ellen bought me a scarf and Meagan got some really awesome smelling lotion and an iTunes giftcard.

And Jonathan (my illegitimate little brother) enjoyed his chocolate chip cookies.

THEN (it goes on...) several families got together after church for lunch and games. That's what my pie was for. That was fun. We played a giant game of Kingdoms, which was kind of ridiculous because I hadn't heard of half of the names. I didn't last long. lol

My family had to leave early to go have our last Christmas (for this year) with my mom's family. We had dinner and opened presents at my grandparents' house. My grandma had a fun little drawing for the girls where we each took two numbers and got to open the corresponding presents. It was just random stuff that she didn't want anymore, but I enjoyed what I got: a really good smelling candle and a GIANT tub of strawberry lemonade mix.

I also got some money and a really pretty bracelet from my grandma. 

Then I went home and cleaned my room...haha, I needed room for all my new possessions! But all in all, I had a really fantastic Christmas. I had a lot of fun putting together the presents for all my friends, and I got some things I've wanted for a really long time (a bunny, a GPS...lol).

God is awesome. 2011 started out pretty rough, but turned into one of the best years of my life. I'm going to miss this year...but can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me. I know I will make plenty of memories as I go into 2012. I know one thing's for sure....

I'M GRADUATING!!!

I felt that that deserved a really big font. :-)

Anyway, I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as I did, and a happy new year, too. Don't party too hard tonight!

Reunited At Last.

Is it just me, or does that sound like the title to some corny love song?? For some reason I picture Rick Astley singing it...I have noooo idea why. I just do.

Anyway, regardless of what the title may sound like, this post is NOT a sappy love story. Promise.

It is, however, the story of two best friends who were separated (by, like, thousands of miles...) when they were seven and then FINALLY, for the first time in several years, got to meet up due to the fortunate scheduling of a wedding in Kansas.

 

Yeah, I took a picture of a picture...so sorry about the poor quality....

 

This picture was taken when I was like, hmm...probably about 6. I am the one in the blue. The one in the pink was my best friend, Abby. We were pretty much the coolest kids around.

Abby's family is originally from Kansas. They moved down here for a few years so that Abby's dad could attend seminary. Once he graduated, they moved. To CANADA.

By the way, Canada is REALLY FAR AWAY. I know it's only like one country north of us, but trust me, it's quite a few miles. And it seems like even more when you're best friend is living there.

So, because Canada is super far away, I rarely got to see Abby after she moved. Sad, I know.

About 4 years ago, their family happened to be passing through town and stopped by. Here's a picture:

 

Us, the Conners, and the Myers. Remember this was 4 years ago...we don't still look like that...

 

That was the last time I saw her, up until last weekend.

Last weekend, Abby's older sister Sarah got married. And, because we were such good friends with the family, we decided to go to the wedding. (All the kids have graduated and moved back to Kansas now, which is where the wedding took place.) So, we packed up and went to Kansas.

And I got to see my best friend for the first time in 4 years.

Here's a picture of us today:

 

Me and my beautiful best friend.

Last weekend was a great one.

Please enjoy these other fun pictures from Abby's and my childhood:

 

Look how awesome we are.

 

I'm telling you. Coolest kids around.

 

Probably my favorite picture. Ever.

Okay, so I may have gone a little crazy with the pictures...but it was hard to choose!

Also, this weekend was also pretty fabulous. But I will post about that later (I'm not specifying a day this time since that didn't work out last time...).

So stay tuned if you want to hear all about the best Christmas EVER.

(Now you have to come back. I practically ended on a cliffhanger.)

Ever Wonder What It's Like To Be Me?

Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway.

I kid you not, all of these things have happened to me within the past week.

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At my church Christmas party last Wednesday night, we had a gift exchange. There were about 50 of us there and we all drew numbers to see what order we would go in. I was number 29. After the gift exchange, there was a pinata. The person in charge of the party (Stephen) told us to hold onto our numbers, as he would be calling them out randomly to determine who would get to hit the pinata. At this point, the following dialogue took place:

Me: (to Christopher) "I am totally okay with not getting to hit the pinata. I'm terrible at pinatas. I always miss or hit someone...or myself."

Stephen: "TWENTY-NINE!"

Me: "You have got to be kidding me."

Of all the numbers between 1 and 50. I totally missed the pinata, too.

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Thursday, I had gotten home from work and was working on some school work (yes I'm out of school...I still have school work), when I decided that I was hungry. So I made myself a nice bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk. When I had finished, I set the bowl (that still had some milk in it) on the table behind me as I didn't feel like getting up at the moment and rinsing the bowl.

About ten minutes later, I start playing with my hair. It's wet.

"Why is my hair wet...?" I say. Then I turn around. "Oh, because there's a bowl of milk behind me." Everyone started laughing at me as I ran to the kitchen to rinse my hair.

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That same night, I am getting ready to leave for my senior class Christmas party when I had this conversation with my mom:

Mom: "What are they feeding you for dinner?"

Me: "I have no idea."

Mom: "I hope it's something you like. What if it's lasagna?"

Me: "Eww...I hope not!" (For anyone who doesn't know...I hate lasagna. With a passion.)

I arrive at the party. 

Meagan: "Where's Ben? Isn't he supposed to bring the lasagna?"

I didn't eat dinner that night.

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Last one, I promise.

We all know that technology hates me.

This past Friday and Saturday I was in Kansas (I'll post about that later). I brought my laptop with me so that I wouldn't be bored if I had any random down time in the hotel. It's a good thing I didn't.

They gave me a code to access the wifi. Well, I start up my computer, try to connect to the internet, and it never asks for a code. So of course, it won't connect. After a few tries my mom calls the front desk to find out why.

After a loooooong time on hold and  lot of complicated questions from tech support, we figured out that the room we were in (of course, just our room) had an invalid IP address and we couldn't get the wifi. They were never able to fix it.

On top of all that, we should have still been able to use the wifi on our phones. My mom could. She connected, entered the code, and everything worked just peachy on her phone. But for me, did it ask for the code? No. Did it work anyway? No. I used sooo much data at that hotel...

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The good thing about all this stuff happening to me, is that it entertains everyone else. Which is the point of this post. So I hope you enjoyed it. haha

[Update:] So, apparently, there is a part two to this post from Christopher's point of view. Don't believe anything it says--it's all lies.

I Forgot How Much I Love Christmastime.

I knew I loved Christmas, but I honestly forgot how fun it can be.

Actually, surprisingly, I'm having the most fun giving gifts this year. Maybe it's because I'm making most of them this year, as opposed to the usual giftcard. But putting thought into gifts and making something that you think your friends and family will love adds so much more joy to the gift giving ritual.

I would tell you what I'm making, but I'll have to save that for after Christmas. Wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone... :-)

There's just a couple people left that I have NO IDEA what to get for them. And Christmas is in less than two weeks...I'm starting to get nervous about it. AAAH! Hopefully I will come up with something.

Last year I made about 100 cookies and gave them to about 20 of my closest friends. haha, I'm debating whether or not to do that this year...my best friends are getting actual gifts, but I feel like I should do something for everyone else too...hmm, we'll see! 

What's your favorite part of Christmas? I honestly don't think I can pick just one thing...I love it all. :-)

Merry Christmas (a couple weeks early)!!

A Timeline of My Day.

A day in the life of me...please enjoy, and then thank the good Lord that you are not me. :-)

7:15 am: Get up.

7:35 am: Leave for work.

8 am: Arrive at work.

10:30 am: Power goes out and fire alarm sounds.

10:35 am: PANIC!

10:40 am: Firemen arrive.

10:45 am: The girls decide to evacuate.

10:52 am: We discover that a transformer exploded and all the power in the area is out.

10:55 am: Employees are sent to work at home.

11:15 am: Arrive at home.

11:30 am: Begin work at home.

11:40 am: Receive call from supervisor. Power is back up.

11:45 am: Leave for work.

12 pm: Arrive at work. Discover that power is on, but Internet is down.

12:37 pm: Internet is back up. Happy day.

12:38 pm: Resume work.

1:30 pm: Computer begins going slow.

1:35 pm: Computer is still going slow. I think I'll reboot.

1:36 pm: Computer is rebooted but won't let me log in.

1:38 pm: Reboot #2.

1:39 pm: No success.

1:45 pm: Let's try this again.

1:46 pm: Nope.

1:50 pm: Inform tech guys that my computer has once again failed me. Find out that others are having this problem as well.

2:40 pm: Computer still down. I'm bored. Decided to try out the Blogger app on my phone. It works.

To be continued...
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[Update:] My computer never did start working. I got off work at 4, having only completed about three hours of work (I was working 8 hours). Thankfully, nothing else went wrong the rest of the day. I was prepared for the worst at this point. lol

Also, please take note that I was not the cause of the computer malfunctions. I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG. This proves my theory: I am not technology challenged. Rather, technology is Kayla challenged. It just doesn't know how to handle me. I'm too cool for it. Yeah, that's it.

I Am Thankful.

(Note: I realize that in my post last week I said I would post about Thanksgiving "tomorrow or Sunday." Well, in my defense, I never did specify which Sunday...so the way I see it, I'm early. In case you were going to get on to me or something...you can't! Ha!)

My Thanksgiving was really great. It started out disappointing, because we had plans earlier in the year to travel to Alabama for Thanksgiving. However, that ended up changing, and instead of going to Alabama to celebrate with my family, we stayed here and celebrated with 20 of our closest friends! No joke...here we all are:

Back row, L-R: Cody, Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Simmons, Josh, Mr. and Mrs. Myers

Middle row, R-L: Me, Meagan, Kayli, Melissa, Mrs. Sanders, Cassia, Luke, 

Jessica, Mr. Sanders, Kaitlin, Mr. and Mrs. Nuckolls

Front row, L-R: Tyler and Jake. They were late for the picture, so we stuck them in front.

And this is what happened.

 

And can I just say that that is the longest caption I've ever written for a photo? That was the longest caption I've ever written for a photo.

Yeah, so funny story. It originally was not going to be this many people. It started out with 3 families, then 4, then 5. It was going to be a progressive dinner...but it got too big so the entire thing ended up at my house. 

 Our delicious food! And I do not know the girl in the pink tank top...

We ate lunch around 1, and everyone brought a dish that's a tradition in their families. Our contribution was 2 apple pies (which I got to make, and they turned out really good!) and buttermilk pies (which sound really gross but apparently aren't--tradition in my family).

 Eating. We specifically left one chair open on the girls side to see who would take it.

Tyler did. No one was surprised. And also, Luke looks like a creeper in the background.

The food was awesome. Afterward, all of us "kids" (ranging from 6th grade to college senior) played with an app on my iPhone that turns everything you say into a song. Haha, that was entertaining. Then we watched a play that several of us were in last spring called Is He Dead? Hilarious.

Watching Is He Dead? Tyler and I are not texting, I swear. We were playing Words With Friends.

With each other. (I won).

After we took the family picture, we played a giant game of Kingdoms. If you don't know, Kingdoms is a really fun game where everyone picks a name different from their own. One person compiles a list of all the names, but no one else knows what your name is. That person then reads off the list of names twice, and you then have to try to remember all the names and figure out who is who. If you guess right, that person joins your kingdom and you become a team. It's really fun. The funny thing is, the youngest person there was the winner. 

So all in all, Thanksgiving was really fun this year. I would take the time to list everything that I'm grateful for, but I think it's pretty obvious that I have a lot to be thankful for, plus I have somewhere to be in 20 minutes...and the list would for sure take longer than that. :-)

Best thing about Thanksgiving is that once it's over, it's officially Christmas time! And I love Christmas...I hate Christmas before Thanksgiving, but after Thanksgiving I love it. :-) I am listening to Christmas music as we speak. I can't wait to decorate and buy presents for everyone. Yay!

 I look awful in this picture, but I'm licking Meagan's face so it's all worth it.