Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Year

Happy 2014! A new year, a clean slate, a long list of resolutions - however you want to look at it, we have 365 days of beautiful new possibilities, and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. I could get really sentimental on you guys, but I'll save that for another post. Meanwhile, I'll just share with y'all how I rang in the new year.

New Year's Eve

I spent a lot of yesterday morning and afternoon in the kitchen, preparing desserts to take with me to Friendswood to ring in the new year. Dylan was having some people over to his house, so he cooked, and I baked. I made some Cake Mix M&M cookies, brown sugar cookies, Pretzel M&M Hugs, and Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels that went undocumented (though I were told they tasted great, plus, they were extremely easy to make).


You guys have probably gathered by now that I love baking, so it was absolutely time well spent.

My last workout of 2013 was a 5.5ish mile run through my neighborhood, before I came home to shower and get ready to head out to Friendswood around 5:15pm. Though people weren't getting to Dylan's until 10:00 or 10:30, we he got everything ready, went out for a last meal of 2013, and watched that incredible Chick-Fil-A Bowl game. I'm probably going to offend a few of my Aggie readers, but I was hoping to see a Blue Devil victory last night. I have loved Duke ever since about the seventh grade, though even though I wanted Duke to win, I can't deny that A&M played one heck of a game.

For dinner Dylan and I went to Cheddar's, a place I pass on the reg in Houston, yet I had never actually been. It has a little bit of everything, so I was sure that I would find something that I liked on the menu. Not only did I find something that I liked, but it was one might consider to be a "lucky" New Year's Eve meal. I got the Tilapia with Mango Salsa - there's the lucky fish - with sides of broccoli and green beans - and there's the lucky greens. It was delicious, and though I ate every last bite (though my picture of it is unfortunately blurry), that didn't stop me from going back to Dylan's and eating way too much of the fruit that he was planning on putting in a Pioneer Woman-inspired fruit salad.

Dylan got the Dijon Chicken, and he also cleaned his plate (this is a serious trend for the two of us), so I'll go ahead and say that it was a successful dinner.


After dinner we went back to Dylan's, where he made one delicious fruit salad,


as well as some tomato slices topped with mozzarella, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Though I can't vouch for their taste, they sure smelled good!


Our friends Kevin and Megan came over around 9:30pm to help decorate, and Megan made a cute banner that was SUCH a hit. The banner and the confetti combined for one great photo shoot.











We kept returning back to the banner for most of the night, coming up with new poses to try, but we did make sure count down to midnight along with a replay of the Times Square ball and a glass of champagne. 


Glad to have this one by my side in the new year

The boys then made their way upstairs to play some really exciting zombie video game, and I was quickly losing steam by this point. I guess zombies just don't interest me very much. Who would have guessed?

I stayed in Friendswood for the night, because my parents didn't feel comfortable with me making the drive from Friendswood back to my part of Houston when there would likely be a lot of intoxicated drivers on the road. So, while I went to sleep, the boys stayed up playing video games and watching countless episodes of My Strange Addictions. Boys will be boys!

This morning, after sleeping in a bit, we got up and helped Dylan clean up his house, and then I made my way back to my side of town. After a little bit of relaxing and picture uploading, I took advantage of the quiet neighborhood and went for an early afternoon walk. Walking around my neighborhood is hands down one of my favorite things to do, so it makes perfect sense that I started out the year with one.

After my walk, I decided to brave the gym for my first workout of 2014. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't love that people are getting out there and getting active, because that's something I am extremely passionate about, but the first few weeks of the year at the gym are always a battle to obtain a treadmill. I didn't even go upstairs at the gym this time, instead, I headed straight for the pool to get in a swim. I swam my usual mile and a half, before getting out to sit for about ten minutes in the sauna. I'm not usually a sauna kind of person, but who can hate a little detoxification?

After my time at the gym, I went and picked up my favorite Wildfield Salad with grilled chicken from La Madeleine, and headed home to continue watching football with my family. 


Not a bad start to 2014. I hope your New Year's Eve was safe, fun, and full of the things and people you love. I'm going to go ahead and make a shout out to one of my sweet roommates, Haleigh, and her blog, as well as her New Year's Resolutions. I loved them, so I adapted a few of them as my own. I hope she doesn't mind!
  1. Laugh without fear of the future
  2. Live in grace; walk in love
  3. Live simply, expect little, laugh often, give much, and love extravagantly
Number three just about sums it up for me this year, y'all. Here's to making time to have fun, graduating from college, finding a job, and making 2014 the best year yet!

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind." - C.S. Lewis

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