What I'm Thankful For Christmas 2013 Edition

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday season and are having a great end of December!

I've had a great winter break so far, and I can't wait for one more week of relaxing, happy, and getting things done before heading back to school to see my kiddos! 

I had a great Christmas with my family and had some fun relaxing and getting two big important things done this past week (more on that later!). So now this next week is about having some fun, my birthday (yay!), and getting some things done around the house.

Here are a few things that I am extremely thankful for this break that have made me incredibly happy :) 

My Family

Christmas Eve Bjorn and I went over to his parents house and spent the evening with his mom, dad, his sisters, and our brother-in-law. We always have fun appetizers, drinks, open presents, and have a lot of fun. It was a blast!

Bjorn's mom opening presents.

Bjorn's sister and our brother-in law with art from our friend Dug (DugMcUglyArt).

Watching some tv.

My new sweater! I love the llamas! It's so festive :)

My Christmas Eve outfit.

Shenanigan is too cute!!

Bjorn's parent's Christmas tree.

Bjorn's sister and Nanners.

Christmas Day we hung out with my mom at her house. We ate breakfast casserole, french toast casserole, opened presents, took naps, and then ate lunch (and had yummy wine chicken!). It was a lot of eating and relaxing!! 

 

 Rachael loves her Bella!!

Oops! Sorry, Rach! Didn't mean to choke you!

Me and my mom :)

Mom and Webster.

Rachie totally loves this!!!

This past weekend, I also spent time at my grandparent's house with my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my dad's side of the family. We had a fun night of food, playing Apples to Apples, and looking at some old pictures of my great grandma and also of my grandpa when he was in the Korean War. It was a lot of fun. I should have taken some pictures! But here are two things that I did learn while I was there: 1) Rachael looks a lot like Great Grandma Stella (especially her face shape and her eyes) and 2) I think we can see where I get my love of fashion from! Hello!?!?! Where is this hat? Man, Grandma! She looks beautiful!

Changes

I've made a few changes (big and small) in my life. Change doesn't usually scare me as you think it would someone with anxiety. I do like some things to stay the same: coming home to cooking dinner with my Bjorno, sitting on the couch with my puppies, having my students for three years, seeing my sissy every Friday for Zumba and our walk around somewhere (the mall, Freshmarket, Whole Foods, wherever!). But, I like change! It's fun and exciting!

Here are a few changes that I've recently made that have made me happy:

My Hair

I went red. Well reddish with some serious copper pieces, and I LOVE IT! The one thing I love to change in my life is my hair. My friend, Evan, who does my hair, and I always joke that we should start keeping pictures of all  my different hair styles because we've changed it so many times. We'd have a book! Well, I love my new hair. Don't you love how you feel after you get your hair done? It's amazing! Thanks, Evan!!

There I go!!

And voila!

My Car

This has been a long-time coming change! My car has been done; I mean, seriously done!! For awhile--like two years maybe! I've had it for 11 years, and it's hung in there, but it was on it's last leg. This year, it was it's time. For the past two, maybe three, years Bjorn and I have had it in the shop at least twice a year for serious issues. Gas fume smells inside while driving, problems with the gas tank, problems with the exhaust, blah blah blah. Well, it finally ended it's run with me last week when we could no longer move it out of the driveway. We've been putting off looking into buying a new car. But I looked at Bjorn last week and said, "I think it's time."

So my old car is no longer. My old, anxiety-causing car is no longer. I no longer worry about breathing in gas fumes while driving everywhere. I don't have to drive with the windows down because no one can figure out where the smell is coming from. I no longer have to worry about my car breaking down at random times like before.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Here is my new car, as Rachie calls it, the mustard mobile! It's fabulous! I am so thankful and happy that we decided to bite the bullet and get the new car. I feel safe and anxiety free!

Fun

I've had a lot of fun over break. Here are a few things that I've done that have made me smile :)

Zoo

We went to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. I brushed the goats! Usually I wouldn't do something like this because my OCD would tell me it's dirty. It was so much fun!

Going Out

Bjorn and I have been enjoying doing little things like watching movies and going out to eat a few times. Here we are enjoying some Asian!

Little Things

Just taking time to enjoy little everyday things have made me happy. Here's to remembering to always enjoy the little things in life!

The Sky

On the way to my mom's house for Christmas, there was a beautiful sunrise. I got a few blurry pictures from the car. 

Rufie got a much needed haircut. I love how much better he feels when he gets a haircut!

Thor has had a lot of history to overcome after we adopted him. This year is the first of the  3 1/2 that we've had him that we've finally been able to kind of pet him like a normal dog! It's so exiting! I'm so happy for him!

To read about Thor's story and how we adopted him, click here.

And there you have it!! There are some great things that I am so thankful for this break that have made me extremely happy! In the next week, I'll have a birthday post and a 2014 Blogger Challenge post up! Great things happening in the new year!!

Love and happiness <3 Holly