Nifty Gifty Christmas Cards

And a merry Christmas to you.

Let's be honest; Christmas cards are ruhdicuhlusy expernsive [read as GloZell] [if you don't know GloZell, youtube her stat].

It's hard to keep it cheap when you want to put together a nice "year in review", pictures, the perfect design, and so on and so forth.

So, we did all of thee above. And sent 12 cards for $3. Which is one quarter per card. [Now I'm craving a quarter pounder]

Felt great. Does the wallet good. 

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

I love this classic American Christmas story. 

Zane and I have started a tradition that we will carry each and every Christmas. If you don't know this story, you need to! With real intent, an adorable young girl asked a local newspaper if Santa Claus was real and was given the most wonderful response. I can't wait until my children ask me the same question. I don't care that I'm twenty freaking three. I believe in Santa Claus and I always will. 

This is one of my very favorite Christmas quotes from Kris Kringle in the 1994 Miracle on 34th Street, and it has a similar message:

"I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. You know, I-I- I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives. If you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt."

 I am providing the "Yes Virginia" letter as a free printable that I made. I couldn't find this letter that looked good without paying major coin. So hear ya go; free.99 y'all. We are going to put this in a black frame each year near the tree. Read this letter. It is beautiful and will make you smile and feel all those tingly Christmassy things :]. I suggest going to Kinko's to have it printed as an 11 X 14 document and not a picture at a 1-hour photo. There is a picture of the printable below; the doc is so big that it looks a little squished; I can't attach PDF's to this blog. Respond to this if you want this and I'll email it to you.

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus."

What do Michael Jordan's jersey and I have in common?

Everything. 

So I guess you could say Mikey J and I are BFFL. 

Twenty to the three twenty three! [This is the only way I can feel that I'm only getting cooler and not older. Like the opposite of Miley Cyrus.]

I decided to share some valuable information with all of you avid readers. There are seriously like a billion [not seriously] major events in the history of the world that happened on October 24th! 

1531- Bavaria joins Schmalkaldische union [try pronouncing that].

1593- A cray cray dude named Gil was teleported.

1857- The world's first soccer team was founded in England.

1861- World's first telegram was sent from SF to DC [as you read this on your phone while I'm in Flarida and you're in… other places]. 
1882- Robert Koch discovered the germ that causes tuberculoses. Biiyaah!!!
1901- First woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel [seriously WHY LADY].
1904- 1st NY subway opens [not the sandwich kingdom].
1926- Harry Houdini's last performance [tear].
1946- World's first photograph of Earth taken from space.

1979- Billy Martin punches a marshmallow salesman [no clue who Billy is, don't care, but I love picturing a Ron Burgundy-esque dude slo-mo punching a portly marshmallow man].
1990- The cat's pajamas entered the world, ready to conquer [said while pointing thumbs towards myself].

Now some more important factual evidence that I'm [really not that] cool.

I was born on a Wednesday.

My birth flower is Calendula [who the heck decides this and WHY].

I was born in the Chinese year of the Horse.

In dog years I am 161 years old [hot].

I am 8,402 days old [gross].

Here is the summation of my most wonderful birthday:

It was a very very busy and hard day for +Zane; he had two tests! And even still, he took so much time to make my day special and perfect :]. I woke up to my favorite weather; FALL WEATHER! Cool and crisp with some fog and wind :]. I came to find our kitchen filled with yummy chocolate chip cookies, a sweet letter, my most favorite chocolate soy milk and gifts galore. He took a couple of breaks during the day for me [he is so wonderful]. We played Rummy, opened gifts, ate Chick-fil-a for dinner and had dessert :] and watched Michael Scott's birthday. Hilarious. He set up a massage for me! My dearest friend +Haleigh threw me a little get together with some of my closest friends and it was the perfect way to end my b'day. 

+Cath gave us delicious organic brownies!

My sister +Catherine and my mom +Peggy gave me the sweetest gifts I will always cherish them! Thank you to all who made my day wonderful, especially my best friend +Zane. 

Babysitting and Birthday

I had a wonderful week in Washington, babysitting my 16.83 year old brother. [And yes, he needed it. I mean check him out.] I loved spending time with the moms and ma dad before their San Francisco trip :]. 
So many days in my mom's garden, picking peppers, tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers all around the pumpkins! Thomas, +Peggy, +Brad and I saw Prisoners which is AMAZING. And I just loved spending some much needed time with Becca, Bryce and their three perfect boys!

One of my Vancouver days was just so miraculous: Mom and I noticed a new Panera that hadn't officially opened. Walked up to the door, found out they were having a trial run before opening day, and they gave each of us $15 dollars for all the Panera we could get! Uhmayzang. I love fall in Washington! Doing crafts with my mom and my gram was really fun and helped me feel the fall spirit... considering we won't be having that here in Florida :[. 

+Peg came back a day early to see me off. See's came with the parting gift of course :]. We ate our last dinner at our local and hipandwithit bistro. NW, I miss you. See you at Thanksgiving.

As soon as I got back to Lakewood Ranch the party for +Zane began! On Saturday, we had a very simple slash awesome gathering with close friends filled with volleyball [of course] and pumpkin cupcakes [yes they were amazing]. The recipe: one box of sugar-free yellow cake, one 15oz can of 100% pumpkin. I added some walnuts to half of the batch. THAT'S IT!

Sunday was the big birth day! And also... Fast Sunday hah. I had planned on making Zane his favorite breakfast, which has now turned into his favorite lunch :]. We had an amazing dinner and dessert, full of our traditional favorites: Homemade Carrot Cake and Roma Spaghetti Squash. Our squash dish was FULL of veggies from my mom's garden [yes I packed my suitcase with produce], and a couple from Costco's garden :]. +Malori saved the day for me today! I was making Zane's Carrot Cake and I realized I had zero carrots. Minor detail. I called +Mal and low and behold she had the perfect amount. +Malori FTW! 

I love my husband and I love when I have an excuse to [force him to] hang out and shower him with food and little nothings.

Cheers to my favorite 27 year-old :] 

Postscript: EGG NOG IS BACK!!!!!!!

For Zane :]

Just in case you were wondering, I love +Zane. :]. And I love him for so many reasons. 

We had just the best 2nd anniversary a little while ago, and it made me realize what I was celebrating!

He is hilarious. Aaaaand he lets me attempt to be hilarious, too :]. 

He can bust a sweet move or two. 

Don't tell him that I told you, but he's a bit of a cuddler. 

He sees the big picture, especially when I can't. Which is always.

Um, yeah. The obvious one. He's a babe. And a half.

He is my best friend. 

He is the most selfless person that I know. He goes through crap with me. And somehow he sticks around :].

He is brilliant and is the definition of dedicated to his work.

He lives for family, he loves family, and he is my family.

He is taking me Home to our Heavenly Father :].

He writes me the sweetest notes... too precious for this blog anyhow :]. This will be my little note to him.

I love my +Zane, and I got to make sure he knows it.

The Best and Last Summer

And now we bid farewell to the summer of '13. Life has been CRAZY! Best summer we've ever had. There is way too much to write about. Incase no one has noticed during the past 22.8 years, I am always copying my sister haha. She is perfect in my eyes and is everything that I want to become :].  +Catherine pulled some brilliance and made a video of her NYC trip instead of just photos. I realized that that is a much better way to preserve the memories you've created and to show them to your friends and family. I'm not able to upload the two videos on my blog; go to my Facebook to watch them :]. Zane and I went to Utah to visit his family, send his sister Emily off to her London, England mission and to be a part of +Sarah's wedding. It was jam-packed with VOLLEYBALL 24/7 [which we are addicted to], adventures in the mountains and the lake, and card games of course. Washington was aaamaaaayyyzaaang.  We traveled all over the state, from the San Juan Islands to Seattle and Vancouver. Amazing food, Snoqualmie falls, Mt. Hood, USA soccer game and Red Sox game, 4th of July in the Fort, need I say more?!  Since we've been back in Florida we've spent as much time as possible with our closest friends; +Zane starts his second year of med school tomorrow, which means that social life is over. My dad, +Brad, came to visit us for the third time! We had a blast at Downtown Disney; we are so blessed that my dad gets to travel all the way across the country and find time to see us :].  A few days ago we had a CRAY CRAY adventure at Chick-fil-a. Way too much to type to fully express the awesomeness. Basically, we won a year of free Chick-fil-a. Sorry for the kajillion pics, but they're worth a glance :]! After a great day at church today, we had a potluck at Jenny & Josh's with our best friends! Great food, wonderful Sabbath and a perfect way to end our best and last summer. 

 


Bring it on, med school.