Oh Hello 2012!

After touching down in Paris at 10:15am yesterday morning, hopping on the RER metro to get to the Austerlitz train station, traveling three hours by train to arrive back in Limoges, sleeping for twelve hours, practicing this morning, watching the latest How I Met Your Mother episode, and finally getting to see this season's premier of The Bachelor, I decided I should probably put my mind to some kind of use and catch my blog followers up on my life a little bit.

Apples to Apples

I was lucky enough to spend the last two weeks at home for the holidays, seeing a ton of my friends and getting to spend quality time with my family. I got to do a few of my favorite things which I mentioned in my, "The Countdown" blog, including: catching up with friends (some who are newly engaged (yay Rach!!!)), hugging my mom, laughing until I cried with my sister, playing games with my brother, walking my dog, seeing Monster swim in his water bowl, drink Dunkin Donuts coffee, seeing TCNJ play a game, driving down to D.C. to see Chloe, et cetera, et cetera...

The aforementioned list basically sums up my two week vacation, which is why I needed to sleep for twelve hours to regain any type of strength. Even so, possibly the most enjoyable night I had over my holidays was New Year's Eve, which I really wanted to spend this blog talking about.

Since I knew that I was going to have to hop on a plane on the 1st of January, I decided to stay at home for New Year's Eve this year and spend some time with my family (minus my bro since he already had plans with his friends). My sister, Mom, Dad, and I went out to an enjoyable dinner where we discussed our desert island scenario entertainment, including which books (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), movies (Remember the Titans, Ratatouille, Moulin Rouge) , tv series (LOST, duh!), and musicals (where I came up surprisingly short in options, but went with Les Miserables & Wicked) we'd bring with us if we were stranded on a desert island. After dinner, we went home and played Apples to Apples, which was a real treat since my Dad usually isn't a game-player. If you've never played that game, you should, because it is just hilarious. Since my sister and I basically have the same sense of humor, we knew what nouns to play for each other's adjectives, but what was really interesting and entertaining

New Year's Best (we're so funny)!

was seeing what my parents found funny, disgusting, nasty, or unique. After Apples to Apples was put to bed, it was basically time to start to New Year's Eve countdown. Naturally, Annmarie and I ran upstairs to ring in 2012 in our New Year's best, aka the oldest and fanciest dresses we could find in our closets. With both of us looking glamorous in dresses we'd bought back in high school, we counted down the New Year with my parents, banged some pots and pans, and toasted 2012 with some champagne.

The evening was simple, but fun-filled and enjoyable. I was surrounded by people I love and I knew love me. With goodbyes looming over the next day, I decided that I would not have wanted to spend my last day with anyone else (another desert island scenario perhaps). It was really nice to not think about all the stressful crap that clutters our lives on any given day, and to just enjoy the moment. So, for 2012 I resolve to a) enjoy the simple, and b) live in the moment.

 Happy New Year everybody!