Goodbye 2010

(I'm sorry I could not get this photo larger but if you click on it you will see it just fine)

Another year is drawing to a close so I took some time to go through our year in photos. Wow we sure do keep busy here in Taylor Town! This year has been filled with so many good times, good friends, good food, visits with family, love and laughter.

I've reconnected with old friends and sadly had to say goodbye to some toxic relationships which is never an easy thing but often a necessary one.

We welcomed little Amelia into the world, and made new friends, I got a fabulous new job and lost 39 pounds. There were birthdays and holidays, outings and hours of playing games and watching movies.

I joined Layout a Day for the first time this year and then did it a second time and I'm already signed up for my third round! I joined ScrapHappy, I created, I took tons of photos, I wrote, I read, I ran, I did yoga, I decorated, and cooked and ate.

Overall I have to say 2010 was a pretty great year and in looking back I'm reminded that there was more laughter then there were tears, there were more hugs then cold shoulders and more moments I hope to always remember rather then moments I wish to forget.

Here is hoping that 2011 is filled with as much happiness, love and laughter. I wish you all my friends, family and faithful readers a happy and healthy end to 2010 and a beautiful new beginning to 2011!!

Tonight Mike and I are ringing in the New Year with food and movies - how will you be ushering out 2010?

More soon...

2010 Books & Movies

This year I did not read as many books as I usually do nor as many as I would like to - I could blame starting work but the real culprit is that I am struggling to get through The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice - now this will probably make me incredibly unpopular but this is the second Anne Rice book I've read and I am just not a fan so needless to say should I make it through Lestat I will not be reading another Anne Rice book.

There were however books I read and absolutely loved - now these are just a few top picks I read others that were enjoyable but these are the stand outs:

Fly Away Home - Jennifer Weiner - This quite possibly could be Weiner's best book yet which is saying a lot because I absolutely love everything she writes and that includes her Twitter and Facebook updates! She just really created rich characters, and took real life situations and ran wild!

The Shining - Stephen King - I'm a huge Stephen King fan I read more then one of his books each year and I've been madly in love with some and disappointed in others but regardless I can never deny that this man can write!! I LOVED The Shining! It is a lot different then the movie but not in a bad way at all.

A Few Good Eggs - Julie Vargo & Maureen Regan - This book was a life changer, it is all about the battle with infertility and it really opened my eyes to a lot of different issues, a lot of questions to ask doctors and it made me feel better knowing some of what I'm feeling is normal and I'm not 100% crazy. The one downside is reading all about the next steps in our journey it made me less inclined to continue the medical route - we'll see.

Ok let's switch the focus to movies! This year we watched a lot of movies via Netflix, we watched some old movies, some new movies and lots of TV shows but this blog is to focus on the 2010 films we saw which there we saw PLENTY of! There is no way I could talk about all the movies we saw in depth so like the books these are juts the highlights!

Turns out that Leonardo DiCaprio was in two of my favorite movies this year - Shutter Island and Inception. Holy cow do these two movies make you think! They were both well acted and there aren't enough good things to say about Inception one of the top movies ever! I have said for a long time that Leo is more then a pretty face (though boy is he pretty) these two movies for sure showed off his acting chops!

Toy Story 3 blew me away - you are watching an animated film about toys and yet you forget you are watching animated toys, I was on the edge of my seat, I laughed, I cried and just loved this movie. Another fun animated movie - How to Train Your Dragon, super cute! Of course don't tell Mickey Mouse I don't want to be fired! haha! We also just saw Tron:Legacy which I did not love but you can't love them all right?

Now you know I love my Twilight so of course we saw Eclipse - it was my favorite of the books and so far for sure my favorite of the movies. We also saw and loved Iron Man 2 and was totally caught off guard by how much we loved Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - WOW! Such fun and RED - totally loved that film.

I was one of the few people that I know of that loved the movie Remember Me, just an emotional movie and I truly enjoyed Burlesque - is it the best movie I ever saw? No but was it enjoyable?Absolutely.

Now there is a tie for my absolute favorite movies of the year one is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 - WOW did they nail this one or what? Brilliant! They put it together amazingly well, splitting the book into two movies was a great idea and they picked just the right split point. In fact the husband and I hope to watch all the Harry Potter movies and then go see Deathly Hollows part 1 again!

My other favorite movie of the year happens to be the last movie we saw Black Swan - haunting, beautiful, extraordinarily acted, and again you leave the theater thinking, working things out, talking about it and I love movies that generate conversation after.

So there you have it books and movies I loved in 2010! Happy reading and movie watching in 2011 and please let me know if you have any book or movie suggestions!!!

Merry Christmas!

Ok so this Merry Christmas Post is way late but I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas!

There was a lot of hustle and bustle here in Taylor Town as we hosted both Christmas Eve and Christmas day!! What fun we had! And so much food! My baby cousin Louis - who is no longer a baby was here for a few days with his girlfriend Jen, they were for sure among the best visitors we've ever had and we're happy they live closer now so we can have them here again.

We had the same cast of characters for both Eve and Day, we ate lots and lots of yummy food, we laughed harder then I've ever laughed before, we played games, we opened presents, we ate some more, we were treated to live violin music and we took photos of course! It was a pretty magical couple of days and reminded me how blessed we are to have friends that are becoming more and more like family so close by!

Now I had started writing this post yesterday but got interrupted by a knock at the door, I assumed it was a delivery of some kind but when I opened the door I found my cousin Kevin and his fiance Trisha standing on my door step! I was beyond excited - and I may have even yelped a little when I saw them! And those stinkers called Mike and set the whole surprise up in advance!!! We had a wonderful day enjoying some of the Christmas decorations at some of the Disney resorts and we ate lots of leftovers and just talked and talked and talked! It was so great catching up with Kevin and Trish in person!!

So now I'm trying to get up and running on all of my year end posts before this year ends so stay tuned. Will also have a few more Celebrating the Season page updates so keep an eye out for those as well!! Merry Christmas!!!

Celebrating the Season Pages Update

Oh goodness where have I been? I've been enjoying the season of course! Well that and working but to be perfectly honest, work has been awesome and doesn't feel like work I have projects and to do lists and notes (Lots of notes) but I LOVE doing it! Just got a brand new desk and I've set it up and got it organized and I'm starting to take ownership of some of my responsibilities! I can't go into too much detail about my job - haha makes me sound like a spy right!! But let me tell you I have never felt like such a part of something so darn special and dare I say Magical before!! That being said I'm currently home on Christmas break until January 3rd and I'm equally excited about that!

Ok so this is a long overdue update on some of the pages for my Celebrating the Season Book - I have been taking so many photos and capturing some very special moments. Looking through these photos I am reminded how super lucky we are and it eases the feeling of that something missing that I tend to feel. We are just living a very full life right now!


How sweet is this?

of course I have to capture the cookie making process!!

Wrapping presents!!!!

Our complex holiday party!!!

Can't wait to hear how you are all spending this holiday season!!

Ice, Ice, Baby!

We are really experiencing all of the fun events around Orlando this holiday season and we are sharing them with some of our nearest and dearest!

Saturday night we headed over to the Gaylord Palms resort for ICE! with Monika and Dave! We do this every year and have so much fun in our stylish blue parkas we walk through the chilly exhibit taking pictures and giggling.

After ICE! We headed for some dinner and then for our present exchange here in Taylor Town. It was a super fun night with super great friends!

Magical Memories

Friday was truly one of those perfect days - we did some shopping very early in the morning, I had lunch with a friend that I really have to make sure I see more often and I got some stuff done around the house, so at the time of picking Mike up from work I already felt accomplished and I was in a very happy mood.

Now our plan for Friday night was to take a walk around Epcot which would have been pretty nice but when Mike got in the car he informed me that a co-worker had two tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that she couldn't use and gave them to us! I was beyond excited I had been asking Mike for weeks if he thought we could go to to Very Merry but we had decided to skip it this year and that kinda bummed me out so I was thrilled to be getting to go!

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom, ate dinner at our favorite counter service restaurant Pecos Bill's and then we set out to enjoy the party! My absolute favorite part of the evening was meeting all 7 Dwarfs in one place at one time!! It has been something I've wanted to do for a few years and was like a little kid waiting in line. We enjoyed hot cocoa and sugar cookies, we watched the fireworks and the parade and a couple of the special holidays show. We walked around and enjoyed the snow on Main Street and even did some of our Christmas shopping. It was super duper fun I didn't even mind that I was freezing to death! I think the cold made it feel more like Christmas time!

Celebrating with Friends

Things have been hustling and bustling here in Taylor Town, we have been decorating and planning and going out for fun holiday outings with some of our favorite people! I'm still adjusting to working while not letting home life slide and I'm getting pages done in my Celebrating the Season album. It has all be going super well most of the time!!

Since the last post we had a fabulous evening at Hollywood Studios with Lacey and Claire to see the Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights! It was so much fun and I loved getting out with Claire and Lacey I hope to have a lot more fun outings like this one in the future!!

We also did a huge amount of Christmas shopping over the weekend. Wow was Downtown Disney busy! I love me some shopping but I am not a huge fan of the crowds but we got lots done. Also this weekend we went to the Celebration Farmer's Market we met up with Cynthia and Marie and watched Aimee and Claire play some Christmas music on their violins it was beautiful. We bought more goodies too - now I know why I don't bring Mike to the Farmer's Market more often I think he bought baked goods at every booth that offered them haha!!

Now for an update on my album pages! Hope you like them! I am loving this project just as much as I did last year and really trying to keep it simple and tell stories of the season - how am I doing?

Celebrating the Season!

Wow Christmas has exploded here in Taylor Town! We are really going all out decorating this year. My poor husband spent two days getting the lights on the little porch tree to work but he did it and now we have two decorated trees filled with ornaments, bells and bows! I love pulling out the tree ornaments, unwrapping each one and remembering where they came from, the stories behind them and the memories linked to each one. I find perfect spots on the tree for each item and I will now spend the rest of the holiday season staring at my tree, savoring every moment that it is up.

As if a tree on the porch wasn't enough Mike also put up lighted garlands, which he added more lights to of course and he added flowers and then the item on the porch I'm most excited about - The Animated lighted Deer we bought today!! So cool!! It was a weekend long project but well worth it I think now we just have a few final touches to put up inside the house!!

Yesterday aside from all the decorating we also spent the evening at Sea World with Monika and Dave. It was so much fun. They have amazing Holiday activities going on! Great shows, and their Sea of Trees which is beautiful and then my favorite the Polar Express ride! It was so much fun! We of course took lots of great pictures and had a wonderful evening all together!

Today aside from the decorating I enjoyed a lovely girl's afternoon with Claire, we had breakfast and browsed the Farmer's Market where i picked up some Christmas gifts so I'm excited about that. Then when I came home Mike and I headed out shopping for more decorations and some little gifts! We are definitely making progress!!

And now a look at the first two days of pages in my Celebrating the Season scrapbook. Yesterday got extra pages because it was so full of goodness. I will do today's page tomorrow sometime and be sure to share them with you as soon as possible! Until next time won't you share with me how you are Celebrating the Season?