It's That Time of Year!!

Once Upon a Time...

    Whenever a year draws close to it's end, it seems like that's when reflecting begins! New Years Eve is when people usually start thinking about what they did or what happened to them that made a mark on their lives. I mean, you see it all over social media and all that good stuff. To me, it's really weird when a year comes to a close. Have you ever thought about how the year only happens once? There will never be another 2013 and there will never be another 2014 after this next year! In my opinion, that puts a whole heck of a lot of pressure on us! If you only have one year to do something, it seems like you are forced to do something AMAZING and impactful!!! That's kind of scary...
Soooo I started thinking of what I did in 2013 and I came up with some that were "important" or fun... I did more, I just don't remember :P haha

THINGS I DID IN 2013:

• Graduated High School: Let's be real, this is a major accomplishment :)
• Went to Odyssey of the Mind World Finals and came in 6th place: This was SO much fun. If you don't know what OotM is, it's basically a theater thing where you prepare a 7 minute skit and perform it in front of judges at Regional, State, and World level competitions. My team was awesome and they're like my best friends!! We placed 6th- which is a HUGE deal!!
• Worked at a summer camp: I was every kid's favorite person, so that's cool...
• Began "real" college: Come on, this is huge, too :D
• Watched a ton of amazing movies: This is just fun, not really a big deal :) haha

And They All Lived Happily Ever After...

My Favorite Christmas Tradition!

Once Upon a Time...

    Although we have many more traditions, I'm going to stop at this one (which is probably my favorite).
     We have this Nativity set, right? It's this cute little plastic sculpture of just Mary, Joseph, Jesus and his manger. Now most Nativity sets have baby Jesus attached to his manger, but this one doesn't. He's removable. Ever since I was little, this was my favorite part. I LOVED that little Nativity set! We would pull the set out of the Christmas stuff and play with it. There was just one thing: baby Jesus was always missing! But, we were excited anyways. We'd make little stables out of shoeboxes and bring little sheep toys from LEGOs and stuff and set up the scene. On Christmas day, the baby Jesus would appear!! That was my favorite part of Christmas. My mom would said that I would run downstairs past all the presents and just go to the Nativity set, let out this excited squeal, and say "Baby Jesus is here!". It always amazed me as a kid, seeing Baby Jesus appear on Christmas. I'd carry him with me all day and, sometimes, I'd even put him on my pillow at night and tuck him in. Of course, now that I'm older, I know my mom hid him each year and made him appear, but still, it was the magic that came with Christmas. Through this small thing, my parents taught us to see what Christmas was really about. I mean, the gifts were always cool, but I never really remember what I got for Christmas... but I always will remember the excitement of seeing Baby Jesus in His little manger. This little toy represented the greatest gift of all. It represented Jesus Christ who was born in a manger and would end up sacrificing Himself so we could live eternally with God. I mean, what's a better gift than that!? No matter how many or how little presents we receive this year, next year, or any years to come, there is a greater gift out there- one that trumps any gift we could ever get in stores and that is the gift God gave us.

And They All Lived Happily Ever After...

The Tasty Part of Our Christmas Traditions!

Once Upon a Time...

     Here's another tradition! CINNAMON ROLLS!!!!

     Every year, on Christmas, my mom makes cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We would typically wake up on Christmas, open stockings, then go eat breakfast before diving in to the rest of the gifts. This is like the only day we'd ever get cinnamon rolls and (I'll let you in on a secret...) I LOVE CINNAMON ROLLS. My mom would stay up the night before and make them so they would've risen and be ready to bake the next morning. However, she would try recipe after recipe and they never tasted super super good (and she'll admit it, too, so it's not like I'm bashing on her cooking). We even used to get the ready-to-bake ones from the freezer section. UNTIL last year. Oh dear me. My mother got a recipe, decided to try it, made it, and it. Was. HEAVENLY. We all now will freely say that my mom is the cinnamon roll queen and has achieved perfection. I love this tradition because (1) I love my mom's cooking and the fact she mastered cinnamon rolls makes it sooooo amazing and (2) I LOVE CINNAMON ROLLS!!! :)


And They All Lived Happily Ever After...

Movie Traditions of Christmas

Once Upon a Time...

     OK, so my family loves movies. So daggone much. Christmas movies, although we can often get sick of them, are classics and we watch these movies quite often!!!

1. Miracle on 34th Street. Although there are a couple versions, we prefer the 1994 version. The whole video-tape "you forgot to sew up the turkey's bottom!" part is quoted a bit in our house :)
2. Christmas in Connecticut. This is a great movie. Though it is black and white, which can be a turnoff for some people, it is really "hunky-dunky!"
3. It's a Wonderful Life. Once again, another black and white classic. I like this movie. You should watch it.
4. The obvious Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and the other animated classics.
5. White Christmas. Good movie. Haven't seen it as much as the others, but it's still good.
6. Home Alone and Home Alone 2. Come on now, who HASN'T watched these!! "Merry Christmas you filthy animal..." haha they're so funny!!!

There are others, but those are the main ones we watch. :) You should check 'em out!!


And They All Lived Happily Ever After...

Christmas traditions

Once Upon a Time...

     I'm baaaaaack!!! At least, I hope I am. Well, here I am on Christmas break with one college semester over with! Kind of exciting :) My first semester was good, but I'm hoping next semester will be better!
     SO today, in the spirit of the Christmas season, I am going to tell you all about some of my family's Christmas traditions each day!! A new tradition each day! We don't really have a ton- what we do usually varies year to year- but we do have some that we love to keep, and I'd love to share some with you.
     Today's tradition is our Christmas Eve tradition! For as long as I can remember we have this Christmas Eve tradition of opening the presents aunts/uncles/grandparents/friends sent us. This is also the time my brother and I open presents we got each other. This was always a good tradition because my brother HATES waiting to open presents :) We always loved opening presents- I mean who doesn't?- and it was fun to have a little excitement before Christmas. My dad also would read the Christmas story (can be found: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-20&version=NIV ), which was nice, and then the kids were sent off to bed. Let's be real, though, and say we never slept. I mean, eventually we did, but we were always so excited it was hard to sleep!! One time, to "fix" this problem, my mom put on the Kenny G Christmas album... to this day, I hate hearing that. For starters, it kept me up instead of putting me to sleep. Secondly, because I was awake, I swear I listened to it ON REPEAT like 7 times. I was ready to chuck that CD player out the window.... Needless to say, the next morning I looked like a zombie and had a new hatred for saxophones...
    BUT ANYWAYS, that is basically our Christmas eve tradition. Tune in probably tomorrow where I share another!! I promise it won't be my story on why I hate tubas or something :)


And They All Lived Happily Ever After...