New Year’s Eve is always an extra party for my family because New Year’s Day/January 1st is my mother’s birthday. Ever since I can remember, my family always had friends over and we ate all kinds of junk food and stayed up till midnight. I invited Andrew and my friend Jacqueline over as well and we hung out in the basement with my brother Steven while the old folks stayed upstairs, haha.

Our hangouts are always pretty lazy for New Year’s. We all piled our plates with toasted raviolis, queso dip, meatballs, little smokies, and leftover Christmas cookies and candies. Steven got me Fight Club for Christmas – partly as a joke because I hate Brad Pitt – so we started with that movie.

Once it ended, we talked about high school and all the pranks we pulled on our teachers and how much Andrew and Jacqueline copied off of me for homework assignments and all the pranks he still does to a teacher that lives up the street from us. It was really fun but also a little nostalgic; am I really that old now to be talking about high school like that?

After midnight, we all started acting a little weird. Sometime around 4AM Jacqueline said she was stronger than Steven and leg wrestling matches ensued. Andrew beat everyone, which was hilarious.

But mainly we just talked – I can’t even tell you what about. Well, it was mainly Jacqueline and Steven that talked and me and Andrew occasionally interjected. I had had a little bit of wine and was feeling really sleepy. I must’ve dozed off because when I woke back up a different movie was in. I fell asleep again. I found out later they watched two more movies and didn’t go to sleep until like 10AM, haha. It was kind of weird seeing my friend and my brother talk so easily and openly with each other. There’s a five year gap between me and him, so my friends weren’t his friends and his friends weren’t mine. Then again, it was probably just the alcohol.

It was a fun night and a good start to 2014 being with friends and family.

Last year I had three goals for 2013: 1) to read 52 books, 2) to get a 3.5+GPA and 3) to blog more. I can happily say that I did read 52 books in 2013 and I got a 4.0 for both semesters. As for blogging more, I’m not sure if I blogged more, but I still blogged, so that should count, haha. This wasn’t a goal, but I actually lost weight and stayed pretty healthy, so that’s just an extra bonus.

I feel that 2014 is going to be a difficult year for me: Andrew will be staying in Kansas City this summer while I go home to Saint Louis, which is going to be very hard for me; I need to find an internship for the summer and fall (and hopefully throughout the rest of my college career); I’ll be entering my junior year where I should probably figure out what I want to do and my minors and emphases and whatnot; I’m a little scared.

I guess you could consider those things goals in themselves, but I feel they’re just life things, not something I need to write down and commit to for 2014. Either they’ll happen or they won’t. That’s life. (I’m sorry. I’m going to stop being cynical now.)

So. This is my goal for the year:

1. Read 52 books. I did it last year, so I know that I can do it again. Plus I love to read, and sometimes with school and work, I don’t make time for it and I want to make time for it. I’ve already finished Legend by Marie Lu – which was excellent and I would highly recommend – and am halfway through Prodigy, the second book in the trilogy. I love reading.

Happy 2014!

I had a wonderful Christmas this year.

It started out with our traditional family breakfast; I cooked the pancakes while my dad did the bacon, my mother the potatoes, and my sister the biscuits and gravy. My brothers still slept. We opened presents after cleaning up – I love being able to watch my family open what I had gotten for them. Some of my favorite gifts to them: a new pair of pajamas for my mom (who had been eyeing them at the store but didn’t want to spend money on herself) and a pillow, a Star Wars holiday sweater T-shirt (it’s all in the irony) for my eldest brother, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask for my (24 year old) brother (he loved it, btw), a new sweater for my dad (who never shops for himself so only gets new clothes for Christmas and his birthday), and my sister these sheets she really likes for her bed (not even honestly sure what they are called). I think my favorite though, is what I got for my best friend. I took a map and painted on it in dark blue, “Not all those who wander are lost.” We traveled to Europe a couple years ago together and both share the same love for travel. I showed her the map but I’m still waiting on the frame in the mail.

I think I outdid – and outspent – myself this year. It was a lot of fun.

I received wonderful gifts as well: The Mazerunner Trilogy from my brother, several Disney movies that were missing from my collection, a new sweater, scarves from my sister, the Legend Trilogy from my aunt, and some money from my grandpa to help pay for school.And of course various yummy candies. I also got this really cute sock monkey mug (I have a thing for sock monkeys) from my friend Jacqueline and The Princess Bride book from my friend Becky.

Ryan beat me this year – I normally wrap his present a million times so it takes half an hour to open, but I was lazy this year and didn’t do anything. Last year I had bought him a maze box that you have to solve to find what’s inside. I forgot to shake it up though, so it only took him a second to open it. He gave it back to me this year with a series of clues that I had to search for around the house. After about thirty seconds, I gave up and went to the garage to get a sledge hammer. One whack later and it was open. I will give it to him, it was all very clever. It took a while, but it was worth it for the Disney movie I found at the end.

Normally after that, we all just laze around in this sort of post-Christmas coma, but somehow Andrew convinced me a few days before to go meet his family and spend Christmas with them. So I showered and tried to look as best I could. I brought my presents over to his house and we did presents there. Since everything in our relationship for some reason is a competition (probably because we are both still 5-year-olds) he definitely won this year. He got me this beautiful jewelry set with a white sapphire heart set in sterling silver. It came with matching earrings and a necklace. :love: I haven’t taken the ring off yet! It is a bit big, so I’m going to have to take it somewhere to get it resized, and hopefully for an affordable price.

His family lives about forty-five minutes away, so we drove in his old crappy car (which I prayed the entire way wouldn’t explode). He’s selling it to his sister, but it needs a lot of work so his mom’s boyfriend, who lives down there, was going to try and work on it. His mom and sister came in his new car – which is very nice. I giggle almost every time I get in because I feel like I have a really hot, really rich boyfriend. I love him all the same though, even if he’s not super rich and just in debt.

It was just his aunt’s family there so there wasn’t a lot of new people I had to meet, thank heavens. We had dinner and afterwards played a game called “Pass the Popcorn.” It’s a movie game, where you guess what movie it is based on actors or quotes, or you guess the actor by movies. It was fun, but Andrew’s mom is a huge movie buff so she easily creamed us all. Overall, it wasn’t too awkward even though I was nervous to meet them. I’m just glad it’s over with. O.O

After driving back, Andrew came over for a little while to open the gifts my parents got him and to hang out. I stuffed my face with so many cookies, and I don’t have a single regret. It was wonderful to be with those that I love and to all celebrate the birth of Christ together. I’m just a little sad it’s all over!