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“If there’s even a slight chance at getting something that will make you happy, risk it.
Life’s too short, and happiness it too rare.”
A.R. Lucas
Happy Friday! I hope you had a lovely Christmas with your family and friends. I am still in Columbus, relaxing with my family. I return back to New York tomorrow, just in time for New Year’s Eve. My time home has been mostly spent with my family. It has been nice being home but am ready to get back to NYC… just not quit ready to get back to work.
Last weekend I attended one of my friend’s annual family Christmas party. It was nice to see some people I haven’t seen in years and to catch up with others. Christmas was lots of fun and I am so grateful I was able to spend it with my entire family. Christmas Eve we went to an early service at our church because of my niece. The 5pm service is known to have all of the young kids… it was wild. Kids running around everywhere, making noises, very entertaining. Afterwards we had a small gathering for dinner; just my parents, grandmother and me. My sister had dinner with my brother-in-laws family and my cousins did their own thing. After dinner my sister and I went to our neighbors annual Christmas eve party for a few hours. We had a blast! The party is always so much fun and this year was no different.
Christmas morning we first opened our stockings in the family room. Got num num’s as usual (see post here for explanation). Then we head to our living room to open presents. Watching my niece tear through the wrapping paper and freaking out about what she got was pure joy. Some of the gifts I have been enjoying like a tiny drum set and a small blow up fun house with plastic balls. I didn’t even care about my gifts, I wanted to play with hers. After we opened presents we had a big brunch, then spent a few hours relaxing until the entire family came over. We had our annual gift wrapping competition (hopefully you saw on my Insta Stories). The theme this year was favorite state that you do not live in. Mine was South Carolina since I am in love with Charleston. I spent 3 days prior to Christmas cutting, painting, and gluing together houses of the famous Rainbow Row in Charleston along with the ocean and tiny sailboats, and a carriage ride. I went into the competition pretty confident. There were some great competitors: my cousin variety of activities to do in North Carolina, there were a few scenic designs of Maine, Colorado, and Kentucky, some simple ones like my dads literal objects for Chicago (a bear and a cub for sports teams, etc). My uncle, however, took the cake with taping a big potato onto the gift for Idaho. The winner was my cousin’s long time girlfriend who did an elaborate scenic design of Vermont. I am a little bitter, but it only fuels the fire in me to up my game and create something better next year. We played a few other games. One is the saran wrap ball game. You are timed while unwrapping the saran wrap and certain presents pop out like gum, pens, snacks, chapstick, etc. But there were two grand prizes; one was a t-shirt that said “I survived the Beeson Family Christmas”. Beeson is my mothers maiden name. It was given to my brother-in-law, which is perfect. I got the other prize which was Doug Stone’s Christmas CD. For the past 20 years my entire family re-gifts this CD and whoever gets it we say they got stoned. It started when my uncle saw the CD at the grocery store, not knowing who Doug Stone was, and gave it to my dad for Christmas as a joke. The following year we regifted it back to them, and that started the tradition of getting stoned for Christmas. The other game we played was a Harry Potter trivia game.
Christmas was so much fun and I am sad to see it end! Besides the celebration I went to see VICE with my dad this past Monday. We were not really fans of it. I found it to be a little bit more entertaining than my dad did. I basically laughed at Steve Carell playing Rumsfeld throughout the movie with the best one-liners. But thought a lot of the comedic metaphors were unnecessary. Christian Bale did do an amazing job as Cheney– probably the only one who was spot on in portraying a person, everyone else felt like an SNL character.
Thursday morning I went to brunch with my entire family which was nice. We went to the local pancake house here in Upper Arlington. Good food and good people. This morning I met up with two of my best friends from childhood for an early morning breakfast. It’s hard getting together the older we get. None of us live in the same state. When I go home for the holidays or for a short trip I want to spend time with my family and am booked with family gatherings that I don’t always get to see my friends. The past few years getting together means a short brunch or dinner. It is easy on them as well because of having kids. No matter what we do, it is always the best feeling in the world to be surrounded by friends whom you grew up with.
Besides brunch dates and the holidays I have spent most of vacation reading, watching Hallmark movies, working out (a little), and just playing with my niece. It’s been great! Tonight I may go to a dinner and a movie with my cousin and her friend. Tomorrow night I am flying back to New York, then it is New Years. For NYE I am going to a hotel rooftop party in Brooklyn with a group of friends. I think the party will be lots of fun. I figured there is only so many more blow out NYE parties I can attend before having kids that I might as well live it up until then (read this spot-on article about NYE for young 30/older 20’s). I have decided to wear the same sparkly silver dress I wore last year. I will be with a different group and it brought me luck for 2018, so why not! Ring in the new year by saving money. Do you do any New Year’s Eve traditions or superstitions? I always put a penny in a shoe for fortune and good luck and wear something red for love and happiness in the coming year. Whether it works or not, it’s still fun to do!
Have a wonderful weekend and a Happy New Year xo
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