December 2015 has come and gone, but by golly, a lot happened. I finished college and graduated, moved permanently to Myrtle Beach, celebrated Christmas with Mike’s family in Michigan, and had my family down to Myrtle Beach for Christmas and New Years. We did so much that I thought I should write up a little post to help us remember.
Firstly, my graduation…
I had already walked for my Associates Degree, so the hype and nervousness that students usually get on graduation day wasn’t there for me as much. I was very happy to share my graduation day with family and friends, and especially these three guys with whom I spent my last semester working tirelessly on our final capstone project. We had a lot of laughs and long days (and nights) of work.
Among the excitement of graduation and the stress of emptying my apartment into our Mitsubishi, Mike and I had time to visit Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids with his parents. They were featuring an exhibit called “Christmas and Holiday Traditions Around The World.” We loved looking at all the different Christmas trees and wandering around the sculpture garden. You can find our vlog documenting our adventures that day here.
After Mike and I drove back down to Myrtle Beach, we only had a few days to get ready for Christmas before my family arrived, and I surely had my work cut out for me. We had to empty the car and put everything away, buy and decorate a Christmas tree, think up our Christmas dinner menu, and finish wrapping last minute gifts. It was a bit crazy (as you can see all about here), but we got it done and I was very proud of our first Christmas tree. I wanted to go with a silver, gold, and sparkly theme, and I think it turned out great. I would have liked a larger tree, but we got our tree so close to Christmas, that all of them were half dead and we had to cut a lot off the bottom of it.
We had a lovely Christmas week with my family and I tried to accomplish all things Christmas. We had hot cocoa, watched Home Alone, made sugar cookies and molasses cookies, and ate lots of good food. It was weird having a Christmas without snow, but we still enjoyed ourselves. My family tradition is always to have quiche and blueberry muffins for breakfast on Christmas morning, so I made my first homemade versions of each and they turned out great! It was a little risky to try out two new recipes on Christmas day, but I knew my family wouldn’t care if they turned out amazing or not.
Something that I put a lot of extra time and effort into was a handmade, crocheted blanket I made for Mike for Christmas. He had been wanting one for a long time, but the particular pattern and size he wanted was a huge feat to take on, so I worked on it almost the entire semester of college, and barely finished it by Christmas!
I was super excited and felt so blessed to be able to have our first Christmas at our house this year, and can’t wait to see what we will be in store for us next Christmas.
Layna O'Connor 