A Catch-Up Post.

Because I am so behind on here, I am devoting this post to recap everything I've been up to from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Well, not everything. Just the important things.

Bonus: This post includes step-by-step instructions on how to be cool while on vacation, fabulous Christmas party ideas, and a tip for buying Christmas presents right in front of the recipient without them ever knowing.

For Thanksgiving, my family and my grandparents went to visit my aunt, uncle, and two cousins in Alabama.

I love visiting them because they live on the lake in the middle of nowhere. It's just so pretty and peaceful out there.

You know how people make up hashtags for their vacations and stuff? Well apparently that's the cool thing to do, so I made up one for my trip, too. You know, to be cool. It's #kaylabama. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it was too perfect to pass up.

Here are a few pictures from my trip. To see the rest, check out #kaylabama on Instagram.

Isn't the view beautiful?

Reading by the fire. It's the simple things.

 Part of our Thanksgiving morning hike included climbing all the way up to the top of this.

 And, as you can see, it was totally worth it. I don't know why I look like I have two black eyes.

I'm on top of the world!

So that was Thanksgiving. My favorite part was our Thanksgiving morning hike. I actually love hiking and wish I did it more. It was quite the climb but totally worth it because the view was GORGEOUS.

I didn't like Thanksgiving being so late this year, because it felt like there was NO time to prepare for Christmas. This resulted in me having an exhausting week before Christmas.

Case and point: The week of December 15th I went to FOUR parties (two of which I was hosting), baked 11 dozen cookies and two dozen blondies, did virtually all my Christmas shopping and present wrapping, worked 21 hours a week, and saw a minimum of 10 people each day...which is overload for an introvert.

So Sunday after church when I had no plans for the first time in a week, I went home and laid on the couch and watched Christmas movies for 8 hours and then went to bed at 9 o'clock. And I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

Anyway, one of the parties I helped host was this past Saturday and I was in charge of all the food for it. The other party I hosted was the night before to help get some of the food ready. Here is a picture of some of the food:

 Santa hat white chocolate covered pretzels and Christmas tree cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, I just used a box mix and then made the Wilton frosting (stiff consistency). I colored the frosting green and used the Wilton 1M tip to pipe tall frosting in the shape of a Christmas tree. I then used little ball shaped sprinkles (they only had white available, though I would have preferred colors) for ornaments and a star shaped sprinkle on top. I had to stick each sprinkle on individually and one at a time which was tedious but they turned out so cute so it was worth it.

These santa hat pretzels are the easiest thing ever. Just melt some white chocolate, dip half the pretzel into it, dip into red sugar crystals, and top with half of a mini marshmallow. They are so cute and taste yummy -- these were a huge hit.

I also made cake batter blondies with Christmas-y sprinkles, Christmas-shaped sugar cookies to decorate, and I bought chips and dip and a fruit and veggie tray for the healthy people.

It's funny how much I love food when I hardly eat anything.

We also had a hot chocolate bar:

For some reason the border here looks blue. It is actually white so I guess it's just an optical illusion...? Ignore it.

I had three different types of hot chocolate mix (regular, dark chocolate, and caramel), marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, sprinkles, and candy canes to stir with. We also gathered up all our Christmas mugs to use as cups to make it a little more festive.

My co-host Meagan set up a photo booth, because no party is complete without a photo booth.

Now, onto actual Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent with my dad's side of the family. We spent the morning preparing dessert and fruit and wrapping presents, and then headed over to my aunt's house for a late lunch. After lunch, my uncle had put together a crossword puzzle based on facts about ourselves that each of us sent him. That was really a lot of fun and a great way to get to know the family better!

After that we exchanged gifts. I got a lot of cash plus a really cool cookie press I've been wanting.

That evening, we spent some time with the other side of the family at my grandparents' house. They have us over every Christmas Eve for snacks and family time and a couple games of pool.

But the real excitement happened around 6pm -- one of my good friends from high school got engaged! I am beyond excited for them and cannot wait for the wedding. :-)

Christmas morning we had a big breakfast (our tradition) and then opened presents. more than 50% of my gifts have to do with baking, haha. The only two that didn't, aside from a few stocking stuffers, were my two main gifts -- a new phone (FINALLY! I have been due for an upgrade and I'm sick of my iPhone 4) and a 24" TV for my room!

The TV was a total surprise and here's how my parents bought it right in front of me without me knowing:

On black Friday, while we were still in Alabama, we were looking online at some deals on our phones. My mom found a cheap TV from Best Buy and asked if we needed a TV for any reason. I joked that I needed one for my room. My mom was all like, "You don't have the set up for a TV in your room" but really what was going on was she and my dad were using secret hand signals across the room -- while I was lying RIGHT THERE ON THE COUCH IN THE SAME ROOM -- and my dad told her to get it.

So now I have a TV! And I purchased a Blu-Ray player with wifi (so I can hook it up to Netflix, of course) on sale at Best Buy so I'm pretty much never leaving my room now. I'm also the ideal roommate whenever I move out because I come with a TV.

In the afternoon, my mom and I made some desserts and then decorated a gingerbread house. We finished off the evening with dinner and gifts with my mom's side of the family.

We should be on HGTV.

Oh my gosh! And my former English teacher got engaged on Christmas. So that makes 9 couples I know who have gotten engaged in the last, like, 4 months. 2014 is going to be a big year for weddings.

But that's totally okay with me, because I love weddings.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas as I did! I'll be back in a few days to talk about New Year's Eve!

The Third Decade.

I just entered my third decade of life.

Wednesday was my 20th birthday!

To celebrate, I:

Went to work, and was given this fabulous birthday tiara by two of my coworkers.

Please excuse how awful I look. It was early. 

 Was gifted the complete series of Friends on DVD (finally!), a cake decorating set & cake decorating lessons, and a few other small things.

 Presents!!

Went to the Cheesecake Factory with my parents and grandparents, and ate this delicious caramel apple streussel cheesecake.

That's right. Be jealous.

Spent some of my birthday money on a third ear piercing, because apparently I was lying when I got my double and said that I was done with piercings forever.

 I think it's really cute. Don't you?

Also, my growth group started on Wednesday which is always super fun! But I don't have a picture of that. Just know it was awesome.

I always get really sad when my birthday is over. I think the day after your birthday is one of the most depressing days there is. But if this year goes by as fast as last year did, I'll be 21 in no time.

Until then, I'll be looking forward to Christmas. Just 88 more days -- better start shopping!

It's a Brand New Year.

Happy January 1st, everybody!

Another year has gone by. And if you've been reading my posts all year, you know that I had some major disappointments earlier in 2012, but at the same time, so many great things happened in the year as well. To recap:

I participated in a mud run,

I went to prom,

I graduated from high school as valedictorian (also, here),

I went to San Antonio on a senior trip with my good friends,

I participated in a 3 week long training program with some girls in my youth group,

I started college,

I turned 19,

I saw Les Miserables TWICE (at the Bass Hall and at the movie theater),

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time,

I had a merry Christmas,

And a happy New Year (to be blogged at a later time).

2012 stretched me, challenged me, humbled me, encouraged me, made me cry, and made me smile in so many different ways. I crossed three things off my bucket list, I made some new friends, I joined the "adult world" for the first time. And I missed a lot of things about high school, but I still enjoyed my new stage of life.

This year, I earned about 70 college credits, putting me at a total of 84. (If I pass my test this Thursday, I'll have 90 and officially be a college senior). And I survived the end of the world.

I'm definitely going to miss parts of 2012, and I'm definitely NOT going to miss other parts. But I'm definitely excited to see what 2013 has in store for me. Some things I know will be happening:

• I'm going on a cruise next week!
• I'll be finishing college in May and graduating in September.
• I'll be starting and hopefully finishing getting my teacher's certification.
• I'm entering a new decade this year! 20 years!
• And then of course Christmas and New Year's are always something to look forward to.

I rung in the New Year by throwing the first party I've ever thrown in my 19 years of life...and I do believe it was a success. I will post about that tomorrow or another time this week.

But until then...I wish everybody the best in 2013. I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve, and here's to a brand new year.

P.S. I had the exact numbers of posts in 2012 as I did in 2011. I am way too consistent.

A Merry Christmas and Some Other Stuff.

Hey everyone! I realize that I updated my blog a couple weeks ago promising to post more...and it hasn't happened! So this is going to be one giant post covering the whole month of December, and then my New Year's resolution is going to be to post more. And also to get more followers. And to comment on other people's blogs more. Clearly I just need to make blogging my second job. I think I'd do it more if I got paid.

So anyway, did I ever post about Thanksgiving? I don't think so. I'll start there.

Thanksgiving

Not gonna lie. Thanksgiving last year was hard to top. It was so much fun. But Thanksgiving this year was still good. All my family was in town this year, so we all gathered at my grandma and grandpa's house for dinner around 5:30. We spent most of the day and the previous day cooking.

The previous day, actually, we were working on some desserts, and while I was making pumpkin pies we here this loud, obnoxious, continuous pounding on our front door. I was literally scared for my life; I thought someone was going to kill us.

Instead I just got kidnapped.

Turns out it was two of my friends "kidnapping" me to go see a movie that started in like half an hour. (Red Dawn -- crazy movie! Major unexpected twist at the end.) So the desserts got put on hold for a little while.

Thanksgiving day we made homemade rolls which were AMAZING. We went over to my grandparents' house and ate all the delicious food and then played a few rounds of pool. And then finally we went home where I had a couple hours before my friends came and picked me up for my first ever Black Friday experience.

Starting off Thanksgiving right with cinnamon muffins.

Our homemade rolls.

Food!

Black Friday

My friends picked me up around 9 because most of the stores were opening at midnight. We had a couple of friends who had been standing in line at Best Buy since like 4 to get some TVs (which they didn't even get). So we stopped to get them some food and then went and stood in our own lines. I waited at Kohl's (which was crazy long) with another friend.

We got soooo much stuff when the doors finally opened. It was crazy. My first destination was the shoe department to get some $75 boots that were marked down to $20. And I ended up getting two pairs because I didn't have time to decide which to get. Then I had to get some other stuff that my dad wanted me to pick up for my mom for Christmas. And it was very heavy stuff and they were out of carts.

Thankfully, everyone I ran into was really nice. A lot of people offered to help carry stuff. It was really cool. So my first Black Friday experience was quite pleasant.

Friday night, I went with a group of friends to see the "Parade of Lights" downtown. It's a fun parade with cars and stuff covered in lights and then after the parade, they light the big Christmas tree.

The line at Kohl's

One of the floats.

One of the 18 zillion fire trucks at the parade.

The weird looking downtown Christmas tree.

It's officially Christmas season! 

Holiday in the Park

Every year after Thanksgiving, Six Flags turns into a winter wonderland which they call Holiday in the Park. I'd never been and I heard it was really cool, so I really wanted to go. We went the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I think we spent more time waiting to get in the park than we did actually at the park. Apparently, the park didn't open until 2 and we didn't know that and got there around 12. But we didn't have to wait in long lines for roller coasters. :)

That one doesn't count for Holiday in the Park though, because it really starts once it gets dark and we didn't stay that long. We went again this past Saturday, and it was a lot of fun. Especially the light show. It was so cool. It was about 30 or 40 minutes long and all the lights were programmed to music. I always think that's really awesome.

Pretty lights.

Half of the group.

:)

More pretty lights.

 I SO wish this picture wasn't blurry.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Christmas Eve I had to do some last minute stocking stuffer shopping and you know what? It wasn't that bad. It was worse on the Saturday before Christmas. Anyway, in the evening we went to my grandparents' church for a candlelight service which was really cool. But I have to say, the candles make me nervous. Little children. Open flame. Carpeted floor. *Shivers*

Then we went over to my grandparents' house afterwards for some hors d'oeuvres and more pool playing. And I won a game, and almost won the next game. Except my cousin had a couple lucky shots and ended up winning, but it was close.

The next morning was Christmas. At 8, I opened presents with my family. Some things I got:

• A really soft Hello Kitty blanket
• A Hello Kitty flashdrive
• A purple apron with my name on it
• A new hair straightener
• A pretty scarf
• New boots
• $50 toward swimming with dolphins in Cozumel on our cruise next month (!!!!)
• The first two seasons of Friends on DVD, though those aren't here yet because they sent the wrong thing (Friends is my new favorite show, by the way, and I'm collecting the seasons now.)

Then we had a couple hours of cooking and cleaning for my dad's family to come over for a Christmas brunch. It was yummy! Then we opened presents, and as my family was leaving....

IT STARTED TO SNOW.

I live in Texas, y'all. It doesn't snow. Especially not on Christmas.

Now, I hate snow. But because it's a rare occasion, I did take a few pictures (below).

In the evening my mom's side of the family came over for dinner and presents. It had stopped snowing by then, but it was definitely still cold and the snow stayed for the next two days.

 Christmas Eve was the one year anniversary of getting Nemo.

Dolphin coupon :)

My new [purple] straightener.

My new pretty scarf :)

Modeling my apron!

Fun in the snow with the dog who thinks I'm trying to steal her bone...

 SNOW!

Overall, pretty good Christmas. Not the best (like last year's) but definitely a good one. Hope everyone else had a good Christmas, too.

So now I have my New Year's Eve party to finish planning, and then after that, I only have about a week until our cruise. So many exciting things are happening soon! And I PROMISE, I will post about them in a timely manner. Pinky promise.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Not Dead.

Contrary to what I'm sure is popular belief, I'm actually not dead.

I've just been super busy with like...finals...and working on two plays...and...you know, watching Friends reruns...

I promise I will blog more regularly over the break (which, by the way, I am officially declaring started as of now). But until then, some snippets:

• I finished my first semester of college with a 3.5 GPA. Not bad for the first semester, so I've heard.
• I was in a musical this weekend at church, which went really well. My mom also directed a play at my old high school this weekend (that I helped with), which also went really well.
• I went black Friday shopping for the first time ever! It was a successful shopping trip. Got everything I wanted. Except for one pair of boots that I had to get in a bigger size because they didn't have mine. And they're too big, so I have to exchange them. And when I went to Kohl's to do so, they still didn't have my size. So I need to go check a different store.
• I am SO IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT. Christmas is in, like, a week, y'all. YAY.
• I'm almost done with Christmas shopping. Just a couple more people to go. I'm so excited to see everyone open their gifts (I'm really rocking the gift giving thing this year, if I do say so myself).
• I started this new training thing at work this morning which requires me to get up at 5:30 EVERY MONDAY MORNING. Therefore, I'm tired.
• New Year's Eve party = so happening. Invitations have been sent, but plans have not been made...I'll work on that later.
• I'm going to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags on Saturday! Woohoo!
• I won Bingo at my company's Christmas party and got a $30 gift card to BJ's, where I have never been. Cool. (I never win stuff, so it's exciting).
• I made Christmas cookies and gingerbread men and they were a hit! I will be making them again. 
• You can see pictures of all these things if you follow me on Instagram, @kholiday25. Do it!

I think that's it for now. I have a gazillion unpublished drafts I've been working on, so maybe I'll post one or all of those in the near future...we'll see.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012.

It's a new year. I hate that 2011 had to end, because I enjoyed it. A lot. It's gonna be hard to top. But I know God has some pretty spectacular things in store for 2012, and I can't wait to see what they are.

Please enjoy my top 5 moments of 2011. (Click on the photos to read the story behind them...I got all techy and figured out that you can put links into photos. I found this exciting.)

5.  My mission trip to Canada.

Note: I never wrote an official blog post on this, but the link that's there will have to suffice.

4. Buying a car.

 

Another note: I also never wrote an official blog post on this, so the link for this one will show up again.

3. Seeing my childhood best friend for the first time in 5 years. 

 

2. My 18th birthday party.

 

1. Christmas.

Another thing that I didn't have a blog post or really a picture for, but was definitely a highlight, was all the new friendships I made. Not new friends. New friendships. I didn't really make any new friends this year, but I did get a lot closer to several existing friends. That was definitely a highlight of the past year, because having friends who I trust and who I know will always be there for me is priceless. I thank God for putting these amazing people in my life. :-)

Okay, now on to 2012!

Here are some things I am looking forward to this year:

• GRADUATION.
• LOTS of 18th birthdays.
• (Hopefully) Making it through half of my college sophomore year.
• Senior trip!
• Summer. I have no plans yet, I just love summer. :-)
• Getting to vote!!
• Buying a new laptop. Hopefully a Mac.
• The end of the world.
• Okay, not really. I just had to put that one in there.
• GRADUATION.
• Anything else that God has in store for me this coming year.
• Oh, and graduation.

As far as new year's resolutions go, my resolution is not to have any. And that's not because there's nothing I can change about myself or whatever. It's because every year I write them down somewhere, forget about them until New Year's Eve, then I go to look at them to see if I happened to accomplish any of them, and I can't find them anywhere. Sooo obviously that method doesn't work for me. haha

Hope everyone had a fabulous new year, as I did. Drop me a comment and tell me your favorite memory from 2011, what you're looking forward to in 2012, or your new year's resolutions. I'd love to hear it!

Here's to 2012, and may God bring you the best in this new year!

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!