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!

I'm On A Boat.

Well...I was.

A BIG one.

For realz.

Look how big:

 

Not impressed? How about adding some perspective. Look a little closer in the photo (like at the thing circled in red with the arrow pointing at it):

That's me! The little itty bitty thing inside the circle! Looks a lot bigger now, right?

So last week I went on a Caribbean cruise! I've never been on a cruise before...in fact, my family never really goes on vacation...but it was SO FUN. I shall now relive it so you can all rage with jealousy.

We left early Monday morning (and I do mean early) to drive to New Orleans, where the ship was docked. We got there around 2:30 and boarded the boat, which left around 4. Monday and Tuesday were spent sailing.

The cruise line was Carnival, which is known as the party boat. So there were constantly activities going on. Dance lessons, parties, contests, games, karaoke, shows to name a few. There was also a swimming pool, a water slide, a mini golf course, hot tubs, ice cream and frozen yogurt available 24 hours (!!!), and more.

The first day we didn't do much. We hung out in our room, explored some, ate dinner at the restaurant and went to bed. The second day, we pretty much did the same thing except we went to a comedy show before dinner, which was pretty funny.

Day 3 we made our first stop in Progreso, Mexico. There's not much to do there so we mainly just did some shopping. We also grabbed lunch and got a massage on the beach. :) That night, we went to a dance class and learned the moves to Thriller. We also went to a game show and the crew talent show.

Thursday was Cozumel and the beach there was gorgeous. In Cozumel we went snorkeling and...

 

...SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

And you know what that means.

Yep.

I get to cross off my first bucket list item of 2013.

That was probably my favorite part.

After we got back on the boat, we had a little time for R&R before heading for dinner and the guest talent show afterward. I actually got really seasick after boarding the ship again. The boat was moving A LOT and apparently my stomach didn't like it. But I ate some Saltines and all was right again.

Friday was another day at sea, during which we just chilled. I watched some TV in the room, ate some ice cream. They opened up a chocolate bar and I got a piece of chocolate cheesecake that was really gross so I didn't finish it. Now that I'm talking about cheesecake I reeeaaalllyyy want to go to the Cheesecake Factory...

We went to a different comedy show that evening and then to our final dinner on board. We also went to an "end of the cruise" show which was pretty cool. Lots of singing and dancing and a lady making us sit far away because she was reserving seats that nobody ended up sitting in.

Now please enjoy a few more pictures so you can get the full experience.

 

 

I hate formatting pictures on here. It never works for me the first time. It always gets messed up and then I try to fix it and it still messes up and GRRRR. So because I had problems, you'll notice there are no captions. The captions you can find below, in consecutive order.

1. Looking at the Caribbean at the front of the ship.

2. Kissing a dolphin. Best. Day. Ever.

3. The dolphins did something called a foot push where they push you by your feet and you fly.

4. Snorkeling with a fish.

5. At the comedy show, drinking a non-alcoholic daiquiri.

6. My dad's zombie pose for the Thriller dance. :)

7. All the towel animals the turn down service did for us! So fun.

I highly recommend a cruise and swimming with dolphins if you get the chance. It's a ton of fun. Next time, I want to do a Royal Caribbean cruise. Just do a google images search for it and you'll see why. 

Also, as a side note, I think I'm going to expand my bucket list. Because there are a gazillion other things I keep thinking of that I want to do that aren't on there. And I may throw a few on there that I've already done just so it looks like I've done some. :) So if you want to check that out...then just click the tab at the top that says "My Bucket List." It's really that easy.

Until next time.

Peace out, yo.

The Fabulously Spectacular New Year's Eve Extravaganza.

I am going to attempt to recap my New Year's Eve party in the quickest way possible, because I was just crawling into bed when I realized that I'm about to get on a ship for a week and won't be able to blog anything, and I didn't want my New Year's post to wait that long. It is also going to be fast because I have to get up at like 3am to drive to New Orleans where our ship leaves. Sooo yeah. Excuse me if this post feels rushed. It is.

In a nutshell, my New Year's Eve party was quite successful and a lot of fun. What we did was this:

1. We started at 7, and had all the guests bring food. Drinks were provided by me and my friend Meagan who co-hosted. The first hour of the party was spent allowing guests to arrive, set up food, mingle, eat, take pictures in our "photo booth," etc.

2. At 8, the festivities started. We gathered upstairs for a few announcements/rules and then the fun began. I had set up a "dart board" with 4 balloons on it to be popped each hour. Inside each balloon was a piece of paper with an activity written on it. We had a volunteer come up each time and throw a dart at one of the balloons on the board. Whatever the paper inside the balloon said was the activity we did that hour. (Thanks to Pinterest for that idea!)

3. The first balloon held the "trivia game" activity. I had made a 2012 trivia jeopardy board with tons of questions about things that had happened in 2012. The categories were "Movies, TV, and Music," "Celebs," "Sports," "Facebook" (questions about Facebook statuses, etc. made throughout the year by various people), and "Your Lovely Hostesses" (questions about me and Meagan from 2012). We divided into three teams and each question had a multiple choice option for half the points, and a bonus question for an additional 50 points. I think everyone had a lot of fun being competitive and learning new things about 2012.

4. After that we mingled for a bit, and then popped the next balloon which was the memory game. As people were coming in, we had everyone write down a funny memory from 2012. This "game" was simply reading the memories out loud for a laugh and then trying to figure out who wrote it. Nothing too exciting, but it did provide some entertainment as we looked back on the year.

5. The Oreo contest. We took volunteers to participate in a contest to see how many Oreos people could fit in their mouths. The winner had 13. It was quite exciting. And disgusting.

6. The last game of the night was fishbowl. That's the game where everyone writes down three things on three pieces of paper, puts it in a bowl, and then each person has a minute to go through as many of the papers as they can. First round is like Catchphrase, where you can say anything to get your team to guess it. Second round you can only say one word. Third round is charades. Fourth round is sounds. It gets harder but everyone already knows all the words in the bowl, so in a sense it might even be easier.

7. At midnight, we turned on the TV to watch the ball drop. We supplied everyone with the appropriate noisemakers, and plastic wineglasses with sparkling grape juice. I also made a special midnight cake to kick off the New Year. And pretty much after that everyone disappeared. haha

So that was it! I will end with a few pictures from the photobooth so you can see what it looked like, and one of the cake, and then I'm off to bed cuz like I said...3 am. And feel free to steal any of these party ideas if you'd like...it's not copyrighted (and if you threw a party yourself, I'd love to hear what you did!).

 Guess who's in the middle.

 We had fun hats and accessories and stuff.

 

My family!

 

 My cake! (My mom decorated it).

Happy New Year to all and to all a goodnight.

See y'all in a week. <3

30 Days of Thankfulness.

Lately my Facebook and Instagram feeds have been filled with posts detailing things that various people are thankful for. One thing that you're thankful for, once a day, for the entire month of November. Not sure where it started, but I kind of think it might be the female alternative to Movember/No Shave November.

November: The month of thankfulness and beards.*

*Important note: not to be confused with thankfulness FOR beards. No woman I know enjoys the barbaric appearance of the male gender during the month of November. Or any month. Keep that in mind, guys.

Anyway, I wanted to be thankful, too. But instead of posting one thing every day and adding yet another thing to read on your Facebook feed, I'm going to post all 30 at one time. Right here, where you can choose to read it now or later or not at all. And so, without further ado, 30 things I am thankful for.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ and everything that comes with believing in Him. I am a sinner. I deserve nothing more than death. Yet my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ decided that I (and everyone else on Earth) was worth a second chance. He came down here and died so I could live. He saved my life, and He saved yours too. As if that isn't great enough, all He asked in return is that I live my life for Him. And though sometimes I fail, he continues to be merciful and forgiving. I am so not worthy, yet He loves me anyway. And for that, I am eternally thankful.

2. My family. No matter how loud, crazy, weird, annoying, imperfect, and embarrassing they might be sometimes, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

3. My friends. I'm an only child. Because of this, my friends have always meant so much to me. My friends have acted as siblings to me my whole life, and I'm thankful that they love me and don't mind being in public with me even though they know how weird and crazy I am.

4. My church. My church is awesome, y'all. The sermons are always applicable and they're like, super good stuff. Everyone is welcoming and they make serving fun. I have created so many healthy relationships and am consistently furthering my walk with God through my church. I'm also grateful that I have a church to go to, because so many people in other countries don't. 'Merica.

5. America. Even though the president that I believe would have been best for this country lost the election, I am still grateful, because it could be a lot worse. The fact that there's really no country that would be better to go to says a lot. I'm proud to be an American.

That concludes the serious/main/long items. The next 25 will be much shorter and random.

6. This weather. High is 82 today. Right now it's 68. I'm currently (I probably won't be when I actually post this) sitting outside on my college campus because I had a bunch of time to kill after taking a test. The grass is green, the trees are changing color, the sky is clear, and the breeze is just right. I could stay here all day, but I have to go to work in about 45 minutes...

 Imagine sitting in the shade of a tree, in 70 degree weather, and this bliss surrounding you.

7. Work. My job. I have an awesome job at a fantastic company with great people. I love it. And though it's not what I ultimately want to end up doing with my life, having a job -- especially one that you love -- is such a great privilege these days and I'm going to hold on to it as long as I can.

8. The guy who is currently studying in the next tree over from me, because he provided me great entertainment for me as I watched him greatly struggle to climb the tree. I actually think he got stuck. Poor guy, but it did brighten my day.

9. The bee that has been buzzing around me for the past 20 minutes. He hasn't stung me yet. Thanks, little guy.

10. Ice cream. And sweets in general. My sweet tooth would seriously suffer if these things had never been invented.

11. My bed. If you have never laid on my bed...you're missing out. Everyone who has agrees that it is the most comfortable thing since yoga pants.

12. Yoga pants. Who invented these?! I must meet this genius.

13. The inventors of CLEP, DSSTs, and online college courses who are helping me obtain my college degree in just one year.

14. Thomas Edison State College, who accepts unlimited transfers and allows you to take online courses. Without TESC, I wouldn't be able to graduate this summer and/or have to move to New Jersey for a semester.

15. Sunsets and sunrises. Not only are they fun to watch, they're a great reminder of the Supreme Artist. God is so creative.

16. Summer. A break from school is always much needed after a long semester. And I do love warm weather.

17. Fall. Usually by the end of summer I'm ready for slightly cooler weather and fall clothes. And of course, Starbucks' salted caramel hot chocolate.

18. Music. Without music...I think I might die. I'm always listening to it. ALWAYS. I'm listening to it right now. I don't really know why I like music so much...I just do. It's a huge part of my life. And I'm thankful for it.

19. Children. Little kids have a tendency to make my day, no matter how bad it's been. I think they're cute and hilarious and I just love them.

20. My car. I would have problems getting places without it because my school is 30 minutes away from my house, and I go straight from work to school...and both my parents work, and there's really no one else who could take me. Also, I got a really nice car for a very affordable price. Also something to be thankful for.

21. Food. Mainly because I'm hungry right now.

22. Graphing calculators. Because as confusing as they are to me...I would not have passed calculus without one. (Though I might have done better if I knew what all the buttons did...)

23. Animals. I just love animals. Big, small, cute, ugly, indoor, outdoor, red fish, blue fish...you get the point. I would be lost without my pets. They mean the world to me.

24. Flexible professors, church leaders, and bosses who are willing to work with my busy schedule.

25. Laughter. I love laughing. I think it's the greatest thing since milkshakes. (Though I think laughing came first, so never mind). Imagine how much more boring the world would be without laughter.

26. Writing. Writing is my outlet. I turn to writing when I'm happy, sad, angry, embarrassed, nervous, scared, or excited. Imagine all that emotion bottled up inside me if I couldn't write...I would explode.

27. A house. This is in no particular order by the way. Because I'm definitely more grateful for a house than graphing calculators. But yeah. Really thankful I'm not living in a box on the street.

28. Crossword puzzles. A much more productive way to kill time than watching TV or staring at Facebook, because you learn things, too. It's a mini brain workout, and it's fun! Win-win.

29. Pop Tarts. One of the only ways I will eat breakfast, is if we have Pop Tarts. And my stomach greatly appreciates when we do.

30. Life. You know...I couldn't experience any of this if I didn't have life. If Jesus hadn't died for me, if my parents hadn't wanted me, if I was in a country where Christians are persecuted...yet here I am, alive. So many of us take it for granted when really it's probably the greatest privilege we're given. Go life.

And thus concludes my one day of 30 days of thankfulness.

What are you thankful for?

Nineteen.

That's how many years I've been alive, as of yesterday.

You may think it's pretty impressive that I've survived 19 years. But 19 really isn't all that impressive; it's the age in between the onset of adulthood and an entirely new decade. It's almost as bad as 17: the age between the age of legal driving and the onset of adulthood.

My birthday was pretty good. I mean, there was no way it was going to even slightly compare to my 18th birthday, but considering the circumstances, it was pretty good.

The circumstances being, despite it being my birthday, I still had to engage in my everyday life. Meaning school, work, and growth group.

I got up at 6:30 am to go to my 8:00 speech class. The best thing that happened in that class was that I did not have to do my impromptu speech yesterday--that would have been a terrible start to my day.

Oh, and my dad went out and bought donuts for breakfast! :D

Then I went to my logic class, where I got my test back. I got a 92! Happy birthday to me!

After school, I went to Starbucks to claim my free drink of choice with the birthday coupon they sent me. I got a venti double chocolatey chip frappucino, because no, I don't like coffee.

Then I got to work where I found a beautiful arrangement of flowers on my desk from my parents! For the next hour and a half, though, it felt like it wasn't my birthday anymore, until I got my present from the company. (What they do for birthdays is give you a $25 gift card to the place of your choice and pass around a card for everyone to sign). To be completely honest, I like cards more than presents...I think I read through what everyone wrote like three times before I even noticed the gift card attached to it. haha

I asked for an Amazon gift card, which I will probably be using to buy Christmas presents.

When I got home, I had a couple more gifts waiting from me for my parents. The main one was one I knew was coming, because I had straight up asked for it: tickets to see Les Miserables at the Bass Hall!

Guys, this is the broadway cast in my very own town. Guys, this is on my bucket list. Guys! It's on Saturday!! IMSOEXCITEDIJUSTCANTHIDEIT.

Anyway, my mom also made me a book full of my prom pictures and two recipe books, one of my dessert recipes on Pinterest (and some others) and the cookbook we used at HEART which is incredible.

We went to Steak 'n' Shake last night, which isn't my favorite restaurant but we went to my favorite one the night before. Steak 'n' Shake is really good though, and it has milkshakes.

Then I went to growth group, which is like a discipleship group/book study. We had our launch party yesterday, so that was fun getting to know people better and learn about how the group is going to work.

And then I came home and went to bed.

Overall, pretty good day.

Oh! And then there was the party going on on my Facebook wall.

Guys, this is the reason I love Facebook. Do you know how much I love birthdays? More than Christmas. I'll talk about why some other time, but birthdays are like my favorite thing ever. Not just mine. Anyone's.

Anyway, when I woke up at 6:30, I already had 11 people write on my wall. By noon, I had over 30. And by the end of the day, about 60 people had wished me a happy birthday, on Facebook alone.

That's not counting the text messages, phone calls, and the people who signed my card at work.

And now I'm sad because it's all over...though I do still have Les Mis to look forward to! :D :D :D

The Class of '012.

Yes, I did realize I wrote "'012". I did that on purpose. "Class of '12" sounds like it's missing a syllable.

Sooo....I'm graduated! That wonderful day that you all heard me talk about way too much...it finally came! I graduated Tuesday, May 22nd, and boy does it feel grand. Cue the music... "I feeeeeeel good! *duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh* I knew that I would! *duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh*"

 But in all seriousness, I am so glad it is over. It has been so stressful the last several weeks, as you may have guessed from my lack of presence in the blogosphere. I have pictures, which I know you are dying to see...but if I put them in this post, this post is literally going to be a mile long...so, I will dedicate a separate post to them later, but here's a preview:

Oh yeah, things got crazy.

So, you may be wondering...now what? I think the question most commonly heard by new graduates is "So, what are your plans for your future?" Ah, the future. I am a future person. I have my wedding planned. Heck, I have my funeral planned. (Have I mentioned I'm a planner?) I like to think ahead. However...my future is kind of hard to explain....

"I'm going to be enrolling full time at UTA in the fall, because I was valedictorian and have a scholarship I can only use if I enroll full time. However, I'm also going to be testing out of various courses through CLEP and DSST and also taking some online courses. Then I will take all the credits from UTA, the testing, and the online courses and transfer them to this random state college in New Jersey that you've probably never heard of called Thomas Edison and receiving my diploma from there with a degree in liberal studies. My goal is to finish in two years, then go on to get my teacher's certification."

That's the true answer to that question. But what I actually say is,

"I'm going to UTA."

It saves a lot of time and I don't have to answer a gazillion questions about why I'm doing it that way or how we heard about the college or the tests or whatever. Occasionally, people ask about my major, to which I say "liberal studies" and then pray that they don't know that UTA doesn't have a liberal studies program because that just brings up a whole bunch of other questions that I really don't want to answer.

In the much nearer future, however, I have some exciting things going on as well. For instance, I am leaving in the morning to go to San Antonio with some of my best friends for about a week. We're going to Fiesta Texas, Sea World, and Schlitterbahn while we're down there. We're also planning on a fancy dinner at an expensive steakhouse and dessert in a revolving tower overlooking the city. Can't wait! :)

(Don't worry...we have parents going with us, they just won't be hovering.)

Then, a few days after I get back, I am leaving for 3 weeks to go live in/renovate a house with a bunch of other girls from my youth group. We will also be learning life skills like cooking, cleaning, budgeting, laundry, etc. It should be a lot of fun, though it will definitely be challenging as well. So just a heads up...I will be MIA for most of June as I can't bring a phone, a computer, or anything like that with me.

July, I plan on working more, and doing some school (I already have 27 hours! That's almost a year of college...and I just graduated! Woohoo!). Hopefully I'll still have some time for fun though...I don't want to be the boring person who works all the time... :) Anyway, I'm bringing my laptop to San Antonio so you may be hearing from me there. I am definitely most excited for Sea World. When I was little I wanted to be a marine biologist, because I love dolphins so much. Haha, can't wait!

 Oh, on a side note...my phone and charger mysteriously moved outlets last night. My parents said they didn't do it. I have come to the conclusion that someone in my family is a sleepwalker, and I intend to find out who. The culprit will NOT get away with this...unless of course it's me, in which case I forgive myself.

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!

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)!!

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.