Menu +

December 27, 2017

2017 HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER

My dear blog readers, some friends, some people I haven’t met yet. Some of you may have gotten my holiday newsletter in the mail but for those of you who did not… it’s not that I don’t like you, it’s honestly because I ran out of stamps and envelopes and underestimated the amount I would need! I will tell you that I’ve been writing holiday newsletters since 2007 because when I started in college, I wanted to be able to tell my family what I was up to and I decided that it would be a good idea to keep it up every year because I loved writing them. So this year was my TEN year anniversary of writing these and I thought that was pretty rad! The first year I did this, I printed it on pretty snowflake paper and as the years progressed, I got more and more chatty (shocker!) and the pages got longer and longer and one year I actually wrote a 3 page letter (raise your hand if you got that version…). ANYWAYS, this year I wrote a one page letter (font size 10… lol… with no spaces, for real… one line IWroteLikeThisToGetThePointAcross that I was trying to squeeze in as much as possible so that it wasn’t two pages. BUT then I decided to do this supplement page of other things I couldn’t fit into the big part of the letter… SO I thought I’d share it with you. I present you the Things I did not like, did like, and things that made me LOL in 2017. If you got this letter – I still added in some new things so you don’t get “bored” reading it again. (You’re welcome.)

 

Things I did NOT enjoy in 2017

  1. Coconut La Croix… any flavor La Croix
  2. Getting sick over my own birthday and not being able to enjoy duck donuts bc I couldn’t taste
  3. Cats. Anytime. Anywhere. No no no no no. Why do like 95% of my friends own cats. (I’m super allergic but I also just don’t like them anyways… they walk in a litter box and then they try to walk all over you… k bye.)
  4. Missing the Coldplay concert because I was out of town. (It is a DREAM of mine to see them in concert. I swear if they split up before I get to, I. WILL. BE. CRUSHED.)
  5. Needing glasses for driving. (only sometimes)
  6. How expensive self-employment healthcare is. Went up $147 for next year. YAY!
  7. Basically dying in the desert at Red Rock Canyon and then getting stranded by uber for 1 hour.

Things I did enjoy in 2017

  1. Making new friends 
  2. Reading Morgan (my sister) stories from old People magazines when she had a concussion
  3. Listening to the Pride & Prejudice and The Holiday soundtracks while editing
  4. Clients knowing my love for gummy bears and kit kats and bringing them to me at their session
  5. 4am walks at Folly Beach with champagne talking about life.
  6. Biscoff cookies on American Airline flights.
  7. The Jon Pardi/Dierks Bentley concert this summer.
  8. Riverdale (#Bughead), Big Little Lies, and When Calls the Heart & Cedar Cove on Netflix. Lol.
  9. Going back to Hollins for reunion weekend!
  10. The best mexican tacos in Salzburg and the best italian food in Germany. Yeah, i was confused too.
  11. SWISS CHEESE FONDUE IN THE SWISS ALPS DRINKING JUNGFRAU BEER NEXT TO THE JUNGFRAU SUMMIT.
  12. Driving 45 min to make a pit stop in Entlebuch, Switzerland (the town where our dog Toby, an Entlebucher, originated) and getting to SEE two sweet little Entlebucher dogs!!!!!!!!! We cried. (Toby died last year and it was so bittersweet to be in “his” town.
  13. Making new Spotify playlists
  14. Expanding my candle collection. Welcome Lavender & Bay Laurel and Applewood & Birch.
  15. ERICA GETTING ENGAGED and asking Morgan and me to be co-maids of honor! Brb crying.
  16. Erica saying YES TO THE DRESS. Brb crying part 2. and celebrating on the rooftop and having tea at the Plaza!
  17. Reputation. (can’t wait to see her in concert round 2!)
  18. Brides who felt like friends or were already friends!
  19. Tagging friends in memes and getting tagged in memes.
  20. A picnic lunch by Lake Geneva on a really pretty day.
  21. Watching sunrise at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
  22. Halloweensgiving/Friendsgiving/Christmasgiving
  23. Finally visiting Sedona – my Grandma Dot’s favorite place!

Things that made me LOL in 2017

  1. Confusing Dashboard Confessional for Death Cab for Cutie and not knowing any songs at the concert
  2. Taking almost a year to redo my website! (it’s done, finally!)
  3. My mom’s hyena laugh. Text me. I’ll send you an example.
  4. Receiving the name PC in Charleston at Corrin’s bachelorette… politically correct for Pimento Cheese because I was eating it ALL THE TIME.
  5. Erica FaceTiming us from California while we were in Nevada after she got engaged and we were all SCREAMING in our hotel room and then I ran to the gift shop to get champagne so we could cheers and my mom was telling everyone ALL DAY that her daughter just got engaged. Literally everyone. the waiter, the concierge, the uber drive, the sommelier at dinner, the random people walking by, the bartender… literally everyone. 
  6. Everyone taking turns “trying on” Erica’s engagement ring…
  7. Driving on roads that were actually designed after the shape of pretzels in the Dolomites… like ARE YOU KIDDING ME with this road right now?!?! 
  8. Looking up the weather for the wrong city in Italy. Thinking it was going to be 98 degrees and getting to OUR city 45 min away in the mountains and it being 40 degrees. And all I had was a light jacket. However, once you started hiking… you got warm.
  9. Getting trapped at the top of a mountain in Hallstatt and having to walk downhill in the rain for 45 min then accidentally ordering an entire plate of mushrooms for dinner. To be fair… I LIKE mushrooms but I really didn’t know what the menu was saying in german until we were leaving the restaurant and I saw a PICTURE of a mushroom on the door.
  10. People seeing me in public and telling me they enjoy my Insta Stories.
  11. Buying matching hats in Germany. 
  12. Realizing I went to 24 different wineries/breweries/cideries in 2017 (I can send you the list if you don’t believe me. Here are examples.)
  13. Morgan being my life coach & motivator when I need her to be. (for real, thanks) (You can thank her for actually pushing me to press PUBLISH on my website when I was “waiting for no reason” to actually do it.) Actual text message thread of her on a run and then coming back home and sending me updates of where she was … eventually opening my office door and me texting her my published link!
  14. Dressing up as champagne for Halloween (and that photo making it into my top 9 grid on instagram… seriously LOL)
  15. Not editing this letter because I tried to finish quickly. So if there are mistakes… don’t point them out.

Thanks for reading, lemme know which one made you laugh the most! Tell me 3 things you did this year – one from each category!!!