Resolution Update

With the start of a new year, comes the opportunity to reflect.  One year ago, Josh and I made some goals or resolutions.  I thought it would be fun to see how they went.

• Find our first "home" where we will stay for more than a year

We did find a great place to live, but with cutting a few corners and saving extra money, it looks like we might be able to purchase a home shortly.  We are planning to speak with a realtor and get pre-approved for a mortgage as soon as possible.

• Manage to move in the least stressful way possible

We did a pretty good job of this, but I do have some advice for myself for the next move.  Just wait and do everything in one day.  We made many trips over the course of a few weeks (using our cars) which made the process seem so much worse.  I think it would have been better to just load everything in the moving truck instead of making it such a drawn-out process.

• Get a puppy

Done.  Avery is a full-fledged part of our family!

• Start saving to buy a house

As I said before, we are well on our way to this.

• Start saving for a "big" trip

We are also doing this.  We are planning to go to Hawaii this fall and hoping to go to Europe the year after.

• Go to Florida, Duluth, and Chicago

Made it to Florida, but not to Duluth or Chicago.

• Go to "the lake" at least 5 times this summer

Unfortunately, we did not make it up this many times.  I would say there's always next year, but with another move coming, I'm not sure it will work!

• Graduate and get a job!

Woohoo! Made it :)

• Run a 10k in the end of April

To date, I have just not been able to get into running.  Josh and I joined the YMCA recently, so I'm hoping that will help.  So far, I have tried fitness yoga and zumba.  And it sounds like I might be attempting a 5k again in April...

• Continue to grow my hair out

I did cut my hair back in August.  It was super cute, but I have noticed that I am not very creative when my hair is shorter so I tend to get bored.  Combined with the weddings I have coming up, I decided to start growing it out again.

Overall, not super great results, but everything worked out great for us!  Can't wait for another exciting year!

Christmas

Family photo time

Celebrating makes Avery tired

The whole gang

Chase teaching Avery about Santa

Making waffles on our new Norwegian waffle maker

Second annual cake pop making

Josh and I also exchanged gifts yesterday, but we didn't take any pictures.  We are looking forward to his cousin's wedding today and a special New Year's Eve celebration next week.

I am brainstorming all the things I should work on during my last few days off.  So far, I have created our family yearbook and I am thinking of going through my clothes.  Any suggestions?

Festivities Are Officially Underway

We have been in full-swing holiday spirit over here for quite a while now.  We had our first (hopefully annual) Christmas party on December 6th.  Followed by a family Christmas gathering on December 7th.  Josh's parents were in town the next weekend, so we had fun trekking all over with them.  Now we are headed back to SW Minnesota for another Christmas celebration this weekend.  We will be going to Moorhead for Christmas and then heading back to SW Minnesota for a cousin's wedding on the 28th.  We will definitely be making our rounds of the state.  I feel like we should throw a trip to Duluth in for good measure!

Our Christmas party was a hit! It was so fun to see everyone and I was shocked that we were able to fit everyone in our tiny little duplex.  For food, we had a few kinds of Christmas cookies (chocolate covered cherry, cherry shortbread, gingerbread, cranberry pistachio, and peppermint meltaways), spinach dip, caprese skewers, and strawberries (these were supposed to be Santa hats, but it was a pinterest fail).  For the first time ever at a party I have hosted, we ran out of food!  Everything was a huge hit.

Crammed in the kitchen

Cookies

Caprese and Strawberries

Note to anyone thinking of making the strawberries, the whipped cream melts almost instantly.  You might want to try piping cool whip, but that might melt too.

The Gehl family Christmas party in Marshall was a good time.  It was Hawaiian themed this year.

On the way down, we stopped at the Dairy Queen in Olivia and they gave Avery a doggie sundae.  She liked it so much, she could hardly contain herself.

Almost all of our gifts are wrapped, and even though I am not looking forward to spending so much time in the car, I am looking forward to time with family.