December 26th has to be one of the worst days of the year for me. Actually, I don't really like the week following Christmas at all. It makes me so sad that for weeks, we are building up to the excitement of a few days and then they are just over in a flash. No more happy movies. No more jolly music. The stores are filled with leftover Christmas themed merchandise that just looks disheveled and sad. Relatives go home. The kitchen is slowly picked over, with the only remnants of the holiday being the leftover green bean casserole that is shoved to the back of the fridge because it just doesn't taste the same when microwaved. I feel like the holiday air has just been sucked out of the universe and life goes back to normal.

To shake off these post holiday blues, I kept the few first days after Christmas busy so I would forget that we weren't in the holiday season anymore. So, while I don't have a Christmas recap for you, I do have a weekend one. Although, I will say that this Christmas was better than the ones in the past few years...filled with lots of good family time and good food. 

On Friday, John and I went skiing to a small mountain about an hour away from us with John's brother and sister-in-law. While we were worried about the conditions, as it had been warm/raining the few days before, the morning skiing was fine. It had been about four years since the last time I had gone skiing and even though I had skied a ton when I was younger, I was worried I would get to the top of the mountain and not be able to get back down. My first run of the day caused me to sweat through my first layer of clothing (not from warmth, but from nerves), but it only took me a few runs to get a good groove going for the day. 

I fell in love with skiing all over again. I love the rhythm that my body falls into when making its way down the mountain and how my mind is working to stay upright in my skis, but also feels completely empty and serene at the same time. Even when my legs were burning on our last run of the day, I felt refreshed and less like the Grinch who hated the post-Christmastime. 

I was especially excited for Saturday, as it was the first of the dates that John had planned for my Christmas presents. He got us tickets to see one of my favorite bands perform at the House of Blues in Boston. It was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and I have been waiting to see them since I was in middle school. For those of you unfamiliar, they are a ska group, meaning they have typical rock band instruments (guitar/bass/drums) with some brass instruments thrown in (trumpets, trombones, saxophones). 

I could hardly sit still through the car ride, dinner, and opening acts, and when they finally took the stage, I was surprised by the tears that came to my eyes. For a split second, I had the ignorant thought that not many people cry at rock concerts, but then I remembered that girls sobbed over seeing The Beatles and Elvis... Once I was past my tears, I sang my favorite songs they played and couldn't take my eyes off the stage the whole night. I was in awe of how amazing they were! 

This is my favorite song by them, called "Where'd you go?"...Quality isn't great, but I wanted to include of snippet of their music!

On Sunday, I attempted to catch up on sleep as we didn't get back from the concert until after midnight, but my cats didn't think I should sleep in and what they say is the rule. Does anyone else have this problem of their cats running their house? 

I hope you all had an amazing holiday, and have a fun (and safe!) New Year's Eve!

My Christmas Traditions

It's not secret that I am obsessed with Christmas. I've been listening to Christmas music since November and had most of my shopping done before the first week of December was over. I love the decorations, and the holiday smells of cookies and evergreen-scented candles. I know that it'll surprise you that I love Christmas movies too...from family movies like Elf or How The Grinch Stole Christmas, to the slightly cheesy holiday movies on Hallmark. I will happily watch them all! Most of all I love all of the traditions that I have with my friends and my family. Here are a few of them! 

1. Christmas Eve Breakfast

Since high school, I have had breakfast on Christmas Eve with my group of best friends. We meet at one of our houses, cook breakfast together and swap gifts through a secret Santa. What I love most about this tradition is that I am a firm believer in the idea that friends are just the family you meet along the way, so its like having breakfast with my family!

2. Christmas cookies

My mom has made an amazing amount of Christmas cookies for as long as I can remember. Throughout the years, I have been able to help her more and this year we have cranked out 7 different kinds of cookies (My favorite are the sugar cookies, with gingerbread in close second!) I love this tradition because it is always great quality time with my mom!

3. Wendy's for Christmas Eve lunch

This is definitely the weirdest tradition that I have listed, and it started like 10 years ago when my family would clean our house like crazy the morning of Christmas Eve, thus resulting in fast food take-out for lunch as to not mess up the kitchen. Since then, we have gotten better about not waiting until Christmas Eve to clean everything, but we still carried on with Wendy's for lunch! 

4. Sibling gift swap on Christmas Eve 

My brothers are younger than me (13 and 11) so they have always been so eager to start getting gifts before Christmas day. It has turned into a tradition that the three of us swap gifts on Christmas Eve to get excited for Christmas Day! I re-upped their Xbox Live subscription this year so I am excited to tell them about it! 

5. Picking out the tree as a family

There is something about picking out the tree that makes me so happy! I love searching for that perfect one that isn't too tall/too short/too bare/too awkward and even though my family deliberates over which tree to get, its great family bonding time! 

6. John's house for Christmas Eve dinner 

Starting a few years ago, I was invited over to John's house for Christmas Eve dinner with his family. This year will be the third (or fourth? I don't know anymore...) year that I will head over there to celebrate. I love their Christmas Eve dinner/party because they sing Christmas carols and do a Yankee Swap! I remember being nervous the first year, since I was leaving behind some traditions with my family at home, but its been fun to make a tradition with John of spending Christmas Eve with his family and Christmas day with mine! 

I know some of these traditions are cliche (hello, cookies and picking out the tree!), but they are all special to me because they just make me so thankful that I have my family and my friends around me during the holidays!

What are some traditions that you have during the holidays? 

Best Movies of 2014

Do you hear that noise? Its the sweet sound of being done with finals. No more studying. No more quizzing myself. No more rewarding myself for a good study session with chocolate chips.  I always seem to forget how bad finals week is, between the lack of sleep and the stress of reviewing a whole semester's worth of information in just a few weeks. Fortunately, it is over and I did well! To make things even better, I am home and well-rested (and well fed)! It took a couple days to get it back, but I am anxious to put my blog mojo to good use! I have so much catching up to do...I am sad about how much I have missed the past two weeks in the blogging world! I am dedicating tomorrow to catching up on all the posts I've missed (and maybe wrapping some presents!)  

In my last post, I mentioned that I am a lover of all things related to TV/movies, so I thought I would continue on with that subject in this post. I love going to the movies, so I compiled a few of my favorites that came out this year! 

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

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I am not sure if I have mentioned this before on the blog, but I love superhero movies...especially Marvel ones! When I saw first heard about Guardians of the Galaxy was coming out, not only was I excited for a new superhero, but also for Chris Pratt, duh. I loved that his character formed a team of mismatched heroes and they totally left the ending opening up for a sequel! 

2. Neighbors

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When I saw the commercial for this movie, I laughed and thought that I had just seen all the funny parts in the movie. My school offered a free showing of this movie so I thought I would go, just to see if maybe there was more to it. I think I only saw 50% of the movie because I was laughing too hard to pay attention. I am a big Seth Rogen fan, and it was funny for him to play a "dad" character. 

3. Tammy

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So I saw this in theaters in the spring when it first came out and if I had been asked afterwards what I thought, I think I would have said "ehh". I really didn't appreciate the movie until I saw it again in the fall. Some parts are kind of cheesy and other parts make you feel painfully awkward for Melissa McCarthy's character, but overall its funny and heartwarming. I love movies that make you feel a whole range of emotion, and this definitely does that! 

4. 22 Jump Street

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Ugh, is this embarassing? Movies that make me laugh out will always rank near the top of my list! What I liked about this movie is that there was a lot of dialogue poking fun at the fact that is was a sequel and who doesn't love seeing Channing Tatum running around as an undercover cop?!

5. Gone Girl

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This is the only drama movie on the list, and I know that there should be more, but I like comedy okay?? I liked this movie so much because it stayed true to the book (probably because the author also wrote the screenplay). If any of you have not read the book, I would suggest reading it before seeing the movie! Actually, is there anyone who wouldn't suggest reading the book before seeing the movie when it comes to movies made from books?!

I know my list is cheesy and if you don't like comedies, then you probably rolled your eyes a lot during this post. But its okay, because I know I have a weird taste in movies! Let me know some of your favorite movies of 2014!

Who are you and what do you know? As told by Buzzfeed.

As I am in the middle of finals week, I took a study break to share with you one of my favorite study break past times-- Buzzfeed.com quizzes. I have definitely shared a few on here before, but I thought I would collect a few of my favorites and share! 

1. Which Pitch Perfect character are you?

Fat Amy

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2. How well do you remember One Tree Hill? 

14 out of 15

3. Which Orange is the New Black inmate are you?

Morello

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4. The Ultimate Disney Trivia Quiz

14 out of 29 (Guys, this was super hard...please take it and tell me what movie #26 came from because I have no clue!)

5. Which character from The Wizard of Oz are you? 

Glinda

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6. How many of these great '90s movies have people born in the '90s actually seen?

54 out of 99...I watch too many movies..

7. Can you match the "Clueless" quote to its character?

12 out of 15...I repeat, too many movies. 

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8. The hardest National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation quiz you'll ever take

8 out of 14 (I don't know, Margo!)

I am obviously a big TV/movie person so all of these are related to that, as you can see. If you take a quiz, let me know your results so we can compare! 

PS. Big thank you to Buzzfeed for getting me through my finals. 

PPS. Many more posts to come next week, along with endless comments on all of your blogs. One more final left and two days until I am home! For all of you in the same boat...we got this! 

How much turkey can I eat before becoming one?

I first went to write this post while simultaneously trying to study for a test that I don't know how to study for, getting caught up on other blogs, figuring out what I am getting my friends/family for Christmas gifts, and cleaning off my desk. This horrible attempt at "multi-tasking" lasted about 20 minutes before I got so frustrated that I just decided that I should stop everything and just watch Love Actually on Netflix in bed. While this didn't solve the studying issue or the cleaning issue, it did help me get into the Christmas spirit and I think thats way more important (right??). 

ONTO THANKSGIVING!

The day before Thanksgiving, we were snowed in by the storm that hit most of the east coast and being in Maine, we got a lot of snow! While it was pretty, it made a mess of the roads so I didn't dare leave the house. 

I have posted this picture already, but I love it so much that I'm posting it again...

This was the view that I woke up to on Thanksgiving morning. I believe about 10 inches of snow fell and it was interesting to have a "white" Thanksgiving...I'm hoping this isn't in place of a white Christmas! Also, picture me standing out in this in my LLBean boots and pajamas at 8am to get a picture before the dog/my brothers ran around in the snow and messed it all up...this is what blogger dedication looks like right?

My mom and I started in on the cooking early, but not before watching a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Watching the parade is one of my favorite Thanksgiving day activities because I love the Broadway show performances, the floats, and the balloons. Although I think I could do without the marching bands...

We made enough food to feed a small army, even though there were only going to be 7 of us (my parents, brothers, and grandparents!) at the table. Fortunately, leftovers never go unused in our house so we ate well for the next few days (and when I say we I mean me). I liked our small Thanksgiving because it was comfortable and not overwhelming. The idea of having lots of people over is nice, but from the amount of tweets I saw from my friends quoting their relatives on obnoxious questions, inappropriate comments and fighting over the last of the mashed potatoes, I was thankful to have my quiet dinner. 

After digging into dinner and dessert, we played a family favorite game, Scattergories. I wish I could say I won, but John and my parents kicked my butt. So I could brag about winning against my brothers, but they are 11 and 13 so its not much of an accomplishment. I had hoped that we would end the night with a Christmas movie to get us in the holiday spirit, but my family didn't agree (I must live with grinches). Instead, we watched 21 Jump Street and even though it wasn't very festive or Christmassy, I enjoyed it! 

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Friday night, my friends and I went to Portland for the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The website said that it would start at 5:30, and foolishly we were out there in the 25 degree weather at 5:30 when the tree wasn't lit until a little after 6:30. 

We were obviously freezing and I am still confused as to why the organizers thought it would be a good idea to have people waiting outside for so long. Once it was all lit up, we hurried to take pictures (Instagram it or it didn't happen, right?) and got our frozen tushes out of there.

I left home Saturday and I am now back at school for two weeks for finals. I am anxious to get them over with and get back home as winter break is my favorite break of the year!