2009

2009 was full of ups and downs. As Joanna said in her blog, I feel like this is one of the most life-changing years of my life thus far.

Big Life Events of 2009:

- Getting in to grad school
- Graduating from college
- On that same note, leaving my Miami friends
- Moving in to a new apartment/living by myself
- Starting grad school
- Doing big girl things like taking out loans
- Me and Donny celebrating our 5 year anniversary

It kind of blows my mind how much I accomplished in 2009. Granted, none of it was SOLELY accomplished in 2009... graduating from Miami was a 4 year process, and graduating from OSU will continue on into next year. But I feel like a lot happened. And of course, there were other great memories of 2009... Green Beer Day, our senior campus/bar crawl, 05 CRUISE!! (and winning Quest), spring break in West Palm Beach, Megan and Micah's wedding, spending time with Donny in Pittsburgh (a new city for both of us), getting to see my family much more often than I did while I was in Oxford, watching my friends move on to bigger and better things... it's been a crazy year. I'm SO proud of all that my friends have accomplished, but I'm still so sad that a lot of people have moved away. Some of my best friends are now living in LA, Atlanta, North Carolina, Colorado... but I am still fortunate enough to have some great friends still in Ohio.

2010 is shaping up to be an even bigger year, with even more grown-up things happening. I feel like 2009 is like the training bra for 2010 haha. It's tried to teach me how to handle 2010... hopefully. 2010 will include all of the following (plus more!):

- hopefully moving into ANOTHER apartment... WITH DONNY. AHHH.
- graduating from grad school
- taking and passing the CPA exam (I'm being optimistic)
- starting my full-time job
- doing things like paying off loans, buying a car, etc.
- Megan and Jake's wedding
- Donny getting a job
- Spring break to Atlanta and Pittsburgh
- Hopefully taking an RV trip west to LA with Donny (and others?)

Crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I'm SO excited and SO nervous for the new year. I hope you all have a wonderful New Years Eve/Day, and GO BUCKS!

I love Christmas :)

I just love the holidays. I know sometimes I get way too stressed out over it all (mostly just being at the mall and trying to park and just driving at this time of the year in general), but when it comes down to it, I really love this time of year.

I'll try to do a year-end wrap up between now and New Years. But for now, let's see. We're having our annual family Christmas Eve dinner (immediate family only) tonight... steak and shrimp, yum!! Then we'll rush around for a few hours, wrapping like crazy. Then we'll get our yearly new ornaments from my mom, put those on the tree, attempt a few family photos in front of the tree, and open any presents from relatives that have been sent. Side note - it's extremely saddening when you no longer get presents from relatives because you're grown up. It's just... awful. Not the fact that I don't get presents anymore... just the fact that I'm old. Anyway, then we'll wake up in the morning (as we're getting older, we're able to wait and wake up later and later... YAY!) and open presents. We always come down, wait for my mom to start the monkey bread we have every year for breakfast, then open stockings and open about half of our presents. Then the monkey bread is finished baking, so we eat it, then come back and do the second half. And the kids all get the same number of presents so we can all open one together :) Aaand then it's off to shower and get ready for Grandma and Grandpa's! Donny is coming this year, which is REALLY exciting for me. It's the first time he's come to our Christmas celebration! Then he'll leave to go to his family stuff, and I'll eventually make my way over there - first time for me, too.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. THAT'S ALL.

Everyone that's traveling over the next few days, please be safe! And Merry Christmas!