Happy Monday! As silly as it sounds, I wish I could know how each and every one of you is feeling on this post-holiday Monday. Are you sad the holiday is over? Relieved? Anxious to get to the end of the week for a different holiday? Feeling completely stuffed from so many Christmas cookies? Happy with how everything went? Taking a poll now.

Usually I don't like the week in between Christmas and New Year's...In the past I have spent it bumming around and wishing that my favorite holiday wasn't almost a year away now. Last year I even wrote a post on shaking those "post-holiday blues" and even reading it back now, I am not really feeling it.  Even though we are only a few days post-Christmas, I think I can say that I have managed to evade those feelings...probably because December was such a frazzled month for me that I didn't have time to have all the build up to the holidays like I have in the past. Its kind of a catch-22 because if I am super excited/ready for Christmas, then I get really bummed out when its over, but if I haven't built up Christmas, then I am okay when its over. So I guess its either a win-lose or lose-win situation. Please tell me someone else feels like this or understand at all.

I don't mean to put you to sleep with my ramblings, so I guess I will do a quick recap of my holiday weekend! 

Thursday //

Christmas Eve was a typical one, with cleaning the house and finishing up the baking of the cookies in the morning, and John's family's Christmas Eve party in the evening. This was mine and John's 6th Christmas together, and the 5th year that I had been to his family's Eve party. Even though I have been going for the past few years, this year was the first that it really felt like it was my tradition too. Sounds weird, but I think I am just slow to adapt to holiday tradition changes! My favorite part of the day though, had to be when I got home from the party and sat with my parents and uncle around the tree, laughing and reminiscing. 

Friday //

Christmas Day was a good one...We hosted our extended family and had the best meal I think we had ever managed to make on Christmas. The day went by so fast and all I kept thinking about was how I would probably have to work next Christmas because I'll be a new nurse (and new nurses usually get the not so fun shifts!) I think my family and John were happy with their gifts...I was beyond thrilled with mine!

Saturday //

Like last year, John and I went to the House of Blues in Boston to see one of my favorite bands, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. We drove down a little early and had a great dinner before the show, which was so fun. I liked that we had been before so we knew where we were going and what to expect at the show..aka lots of crazy dancing and to watch out for some people that dance a little too aggressively (pushing and shoving)! The concert was also the perfect occasion to wear my new cross body bag...I feel so stylish with it! 

Sunday //

Just worked a shift at work. Not as a nurse yet...but as a tech (like a CNA or PCA or whatever you know nursing assistants as!) Can't wait to pass my boards so that I can start working as a nurse!

I hope you all had amazing weekend and easy weeks planned ahead. This week, I have nothing extra special planned except to unpack everything and do a massive clean out of my room. Good times! 

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Back from Thanksgiving Break

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had safe travels and were able to enjoy all the leftovers. Especially stuffing because thats my favorite...  I had two Thanksgiving dinners, one wth my family and one with John's family. I got to help my mom with cooking, which was so fun because I have really grown to love cooking over the past year and a half. On Thanksgiving day, John and I traveled to Massachusetts to be with his family, which was nice because I hadn't seen much of his family since his graduation party in June.

My dinner plate from Thanksgiving with my family...can you tell I don't like my food to touch?

I thought for this extended weekend wrap up, I would go over what I crossed off (and didn't cross off) on my Thanksgiving Break To-Do list.

1. Figure out what I am getting everyone on my Christmas list. I crossed this off so that I could feel accomplished, but I would say that I am actually 90% done!  I just have one more person to buy for and I have been scouring gift guides on blogs and on Pinterest for inspiration. I have been loving all of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales, especially from here! 

2. Read at least one book for leisure on this break. I read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn...which I liked for the most part. Since I have read Gone Girl and had a feel for Gillian Flynn's style of writing, I knew to expect the twists and turns so I felt like I wasn't very surprised throughout the book. I watched the movie yesterday, and did not like it at all...if I hadn't read the book then the movie would have made no sense! 

3. Study the equivalent of at least 20 minutes everyday. I came up a little short and thats all I am going to say about that...

4. Help my mom with making a gallery wall. We bought a few more frames, but still need to pick out the pictures! 

5. Play this trick on my cats.  Not that it actually worked...they were so disinterested!

6. Go for a couple good, long walks with my dog. I always want to take a picture of her when we are on a walk because I love how she seems like she's smiling...but considering she chases after all the squirrels (and leaves) on our path, I don't dare take my phone out of my pocket because I need two hands on the leash!

7. Find a dress for graduation. Only crossed off half because I decided to go with a top I already own, but just need to find the right skirt! I also found out that I need a business casual outfit for a school event coming up so I tortured myself by trying on khakis yesterday, only to realized that I don't think I am meant to wear them...

8. Clean up and organize my room. I cleaned up and planned out how I am going to put my room together when I completely move back in!

9. Try at least one new restaurant or bar. I was super excited to check this one off! There are four "Room" restaurants in Portland, each with a different cuisine (comfort food, Italian, seafood and grill)...I had been to 3 out of the 4 so John and I went to the Italian restaurant, the Corner Room, since that was my last one to try. We went to the seafood restaurant (Boone's Oyster Room) for happy hour that night, which I love because its right on the water! If you are ever in Portland, these restaurants are a must!

Right outside the restaurant! 

10. Try to work on a content calendar for December. Didn't get as far as I wanted with December, but actually worked on 2016 a lot. So bad for the short term, but good for the long term I guess!

Some other bits I did this break...

~ Ate way too much dessert.

~ Dropped hints to John that I would love this and/or this for Christmas...

~Visiting with friends.

~ Enjoyed a lot of Starbucks! I even splurged on drinks that I wouldn't normally get (I just couldn't resist an eggnog latte)

~Talked and talked and talked about all things related to graduating (19 days now!)

I hope you all have a great week ahead of you! What did you do this Thanksgiving?

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Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you are all having a great week. I just wanted to pop on here today to quickly say that I won't be posting for the rest of the week so that I could enjoy the holiday without worrying about getting a post up. Since I won't be posting tomorrow, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I started my Thanksgiving celebrations Monday and can't wait for my other celebration tomorrow. If you are traveling, then I wish you safe and easy travels. I am thankful for each and everyone of you that reads this little blog. Your support means so much to me! I wish you all the happiness in the world tomorrow and I hope your favorite side dish is already calling your name. I am looking forward to getting back to business with posting on Monday!

We woke up to this snow on Thanksgiving morning last year...I am hoping we don't this year! 

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you have a great weekend too!

Shopping, Sunless Tanner, and Studying.

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all are recovering well from busy weekends and ready to tackle the week ahead. I had a great Easter weekend and I wanted to share some bits of my weekend with you!

Friday

Headed down the Nelson 151 trail, just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia that is home to a ton of  wineries, cideries and breweries. We went to two wineries, a cidery, and the brewery that makes my favorite local beer! I had too much fun and can't wait to go again to do more tastings!

Saturday

Started off the with a shopping bug and an email from Old Navy that dresses were $10 so I headed over there to check it out. I tried on a ton of dresses but found that none of them fit comfortable or looked right so I settled for buying a black tank that will be perfect for summer nights. Then, I went to Target and got myself lost in the beauty aisle looking for some new products! I ended up with two nail polishes, an eye liner and some sunless tanner. Then spent the rest of the day catching up on work and watching movies! Netflix picks to be coming soon!

Sunday/Monday
Woke up and realized that I did not apply the tanner right thus I looked like tiger because I had so many stripes on me. It didn't much matter though because I spent both Sunday and Monday in the library studying for a critical care test that I took this morning. Although, I did make sure to wear long sleeves and long pants because the tan stripes with that bad...

What did you do this weekend?

Shaking the Post Holiday Blues

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? 

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! 

via

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!