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2015 has come to an end. Hard to believe! But what a good year it's been. Full of family, friends, school, work and traveling adventures. I was looking over pictures and posts from this past year, and I had already forgotten some of the things that happened!
Here are just a few highlights to recap our year: January - discovered Long's donuts & our local library February - snowed in for a weekend March - spring break trip to Greenville, celebrated Loren's birthday with family April - First Easter, 3/6 of my sisters got together May - 1st anniversary trip to Chicago June - Birthday weekend & wedding in NC July - Independence Day weekend in Cincy, discovered a slice of Germany (Heidelberg Cafe) August - Family Vacation in Michigan, visited Crystal September - Colts vs. Bengals game October - day trip to Bloomington/Nashville, witnessed Brady's birth November - Thanksgiving in Atlanta December - Loren finished classes, I flew to SC for Joy's graduation & Dennae's engagement, Christmas with family And that's a wrap for 2015! Excited to see what 2016 has in store for us! Happy New Year! Merry Christmas for real! Grab a cup of coffee or something before you start reading, because this post is another picture-overloaded post with lots of Christmas Eve & Day happiness. Christmas Eve morning, Loren and I exchanged gifts before we headed to Cincinnati for more celebrations with his family. We kept it thoughtful and on the cheaper side {thank you grad school budget ;)}. I kept trying to guess what Loren was getting me, but I was totally surprised when it was finally revealed. He purchased my blog domain name! Currently, I am using a free website which has been great, and I am super excited about this switch & upgrade! So be looking for new & good things coming to my little blog. Ok, back to Christmas. I got Loren a leather billfold & money clip, which he was also pretty happy about. We ate a big breakfast while watching Christmas cartoons (maybe this will be a tradition?), then cleaned up & packed for our trip to the in-laws. Christmas morning rolled around, and the first event was Crisp "Kiddly" Christmas. This tradition started way back when Loren & Joanna were little and could hardly wait to open their gifts. So their older sisters came up with the idea to have a kid's Christmas party with games & snacks early in the morning to let their parents sleep/finish getting ready. The siblings always take turns hosting, and this year Loren and I had the privilege of hosting. We built a fort/castle out of sheets & curtains and strung icicle lights and snowflakes all around to create our "Christmas Palace." We sipped hot chocolate while Loren read the Christmas story, then played Christmas fishbowl, hot snowflake, guessing games and reminisced about past Kiddly Christmases. This was my second Kiddly Christmas, and it's pretty much amazing. Next up was opening stockings before a huge breakfast! We opened gifts after breakfast before we got ready for the day and then Emily & her family came over. It was a whole new party watching the little kids open their gifts. :) The rest of the afternoon was spent playing with the kids and relaxing before dinner. Later on in the evening, we watched a movie, then headed to bed exhausted and happy after a wonderful day.
And that was our full and fun Christmas! Merry {horribly belated} Christmas!! Christmas may be over, but I am for sure not done documenting it! As promised, here is a photo dump of what we did the Saturday before Christmas, as well as our Christmas party last week. We took my in-laws to a little town in Indiana known for it's small-town-Christmasy feel. Metamora has lots of little shops, eateries, lights and even a train! After we ate dinner at a little crowded diner, we wandered all around the little town, stopping in whatever shop caught our fancy. It was actually pretty cold that night, which only added to the Christmasy feel, and we made sure to get hot chocolate/cider to keep us warm while walking around. It was quite a lovely evening to kick off Christmas celebrations! Christmas Eve eve, we had a cozy little Christmas party at our apartment and ate snacks, drank hot chocolate & coffee, played games and exchanged white elephant gifts. It was quite the fun night, and we definitely want to start hosting a Christmas party every year! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!
I will {hopefully} post about ours before the New Year. This past week was full to the brim with adventures and traveling. I'm still catching my breath! Tuesday night we celebrated Loren and his classmates finishing their grad school classes with a well deserved night out in Bloomington. I am so proud of Loren and all his hard work this past year and a half and am excited for him as he started his externship yesterday. Wednesday after work, I flew down to South Carolina for a quick visit to see Joy graduate from nursing school. She has worked so hard for this nursing degree and I was so glad to be able to celebrate this special life event with her. After the graduation, I hung out with my cousin Dennae until it was time for her to get engaged!! Her boyfriend had planned everything thoroughly, and the surprise proposal was perfect. Dennae had no clue! I am so happy for them and am excited to see how the Lord will use them together in the future. So many wonderful things happened in one day! After the engagement, I visited with my Aunt for a little bit before heading back to Joy's for her graduation party. When everyone had left, Joy and I ran to Cookout for some late night fries and catching up after all the craziness of the day. Friday morning, Joy, Joanna and I had breakfast at the most amazing crepe place, Tandem, before Joanna and I started our 7 hour road trip back home. This was quite a whirlwind of a trip, but I'm thankful for every sweet moment with family and friends. And that was most of the week. Saturday deserves a post all on its own, so be looking out for that soon.
I hope you all had a great week/weekend and are almost ready for Christmas! This weekend was relaxing and quiet. It was so nice to be home that I didn't even leave the apartment on Saturday! Friday {date} night, we started what I hope will be a Crisp family tradition: hot chocolate in hand, we hopped in the car and drove around town scouting out the best decorated and lit up houses. We had a loose plan of where we wanted to go, and ended up at this collection of houses that had the most extravagant set-up I've ever seen. Snowmen and little toy soldiers and choirboys and Santas spread out EVERYWHERE over a span of several lawns. Like I said, Saturday I didn't leave the apartment and it was the best. Loren studied for finals and I cooked some, cleaned some and read a lot in front of our cute little tree. Sunday was mostly the same after church and some grocery & Christmas shopping. And now I just want to take a quick moment to congratulate one of my best friends on finishing nursing school and getting pinned yesterday!! She has worked very long and very hard and I wish I could have been there for her pinning, but can't wait to go visit and celebrate with her later this week. Way to go, Joy! And that was our nice quiet weekend at home before the next couple of action-packed weekends. I sure do love this Christmas season!
Well haven't these past few weeks been busy! I love the time from Thanksgiving to New Year's, because this time is well spend with family and friends celebrating what Christ has done for us. Here is a little update from the past couple of weeks: For Thanksgiving, Loren and I traveled down to Atlanta to spend the holiday with my extended side of the family. It was great to catch up with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma, even for such a short time. I'll spare you food pictures, since we most likely ate lots of the same things. But mainly because I don't have any. Too busy stuffing my face! However, I will take a moment to note that my uncle smoked a turkey for the first time this year and it was AHMAZING. Friday after the good southern breakfast Aunt Bonnie prepared, we headed back to Cincinnati to spend a couple days with Loren's family. This past weekend, I headed down to Crystal's Friday afternoon to watch her kiddos while she coordinated a wedding. I had lots of fun with them, even when they both got sick. Sunday afternoon when I finally got home, we decorated our little apartment for Christmas (more on this another day), and drank the first eggnog of the season in front of our little brightly lit tree. So there you have the most exciting things that have been going on lately.
This week Loren finishes up his last classes for grad school (YAY!!!!) before finals this weekend/next week. More traveling for me next week (I'm coming for you, Joy!) before the rest of the Christmas festivities get underway. Have I mentioned that I love this season? I hope you have stayed healthy and happy so far this season! This weekend was relaxing, even if it was busy. Loren had another crazy intense week with meetings, final reports and who-knows-what-else to finish up before Thanksgiving break. But Friday night finally arrived and it was wonderful. I did some grocery shopping on the way home from work and scored a free Starbucks sample. Worth documenting, obviously. After a late dinner, we settled in for a movie, popcorn and hot chocolate. Sometimes a date night at home is just what you need. Saturday morning I did some baking while Loren finished up his last report before we headed to Dawn & Keith's for a newborn/family photoshoot. As we were driving, it started to snow! I didn't think it would stick, but it did! At least for a few hours. The photoshoot was crazy but fun. Sunday after church, fellowship and lunch, we headed to Cincinnati for dinner and a movie night with Caleb & Chelsea and didn't take any pictures. But thanks for another fun evening, guys!
And now we are finishing up this short work week so we can celebrate Thanksgiving with family. Can't wait to see everyone! Happy Thanksgiving week! Happy 1st Birthday to this little blog of mine!
When I started it last year, I honestly didn't know how long it would last. Now it feels like I've had it for forever! Can't wait to see you grow even more, little blog. Thanks to all you readers who have faithfully kept up with my random ramblings and posts. You all are the best! Here's to many more life, project and random documented years. Getting up is hard for me. But since I started working full time a couple of years ago, I think I have become more of a morning person. I never thought I would say that. But here is my routine which I think contributes to this morning personess:
1. Go to bed at a decent time. We try to go to bed between 10:30-11 p.m. Any later and it's pretty regretful the next morning. 2. Don't hit snooze. I often fail with this one, but when I do get up the first time my alarm goes off, I normally feel more awake than on the mornings I hit snooze. 3. Drink a glass of water. This helps hydrate and wake me up at the same time. 4. Open windows. There's just something about good, cold fresh air in the morning. 5. Work out. Sometimes it takes me a few minutes to get up the nerve to start my work out. But I never regret it after it's over! I've learned that if I don't do it in the morning, I never will. Working out in the morning gets my blood rushing and I have discovered that it helps me stay awake (normally) at work. 6. Take a cold(ish) shower. If I take a hot shower in the mornings, I tend to stay in the shower way longer than necessary and get sleepy. A quick, colder shower is key! 7. Eat breakfast. Usually coffee and eggs, fruit, pancakes, or cereal. I can't make it to lunch without eating a good breakfast. Also helps kick in my metabolism and gives me energy. 8. Pick out your outfit the night before. I fail horribly at this. But it always turns out well when I do pick out my outfit (at least in my mind) the night before. And now you have the tried and true formula to becoming a morning person. What are some ways you kickstart your mornings? |
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