Life's a pretty fast ride...

I feel like I have not had any time lately. My car looks like a disaster erupted in it. There's empty bottles, my school bag is still in there, plastic bags, etc. It desperately needs to be cleaned out before I take my car in on Thursday to be serviced. These past three weeks have been somewhat a blur.

I am FINALLY on break from school!! Praise the Lord! It has been a long, tiring three weeks for teachers and students. I can't remember the last time we had three full weeks of school in a row (so many days off due to holidays/the hurricane/Thanksgiving/etc) and by Friday morning, EVERYONE was just itching to go home. One of the teachers I normally work with for two periods (I work with four in total, 2 of them for 2 periods each) was on grand jury this month so I was her sub. One of her classes was probably the most difficult class I have ever dealt with. Their behavior was atrocious. When you're in 8th grade, I shouldn't have to shut off the lights and wait for you to stop talking before continuing the lesson. And they wonder why they complained they didn't know anything when they took a test two weeks ago. The assistant principal (also the department chair) came in the first week because I told her how they were and then last week one of the deans came in. The teacher is fully aware of how horribly they were for me and is reading them the riot act after vacation. It was not that I couldn't deal with them...they just were so rude & disrespectful.

I ended up giving them their Christmas vocab quiz (which how hard is it to fail when you have pictures AND a word box on it?!) and watched Elf. Easy day for me. A few kids brought me in chocolate and I got a few giftcards to Starbucks & Dunkin Donuts which was a nice surprise! I wasn't expecting anything.

My big plans for this Christmas break (aside from working a few days at CPK) is to sleep, get my car serviced and CLEAN MY ROOM!! Oh my word you have no idea how excited I am! Plus maybe pick up some movies and everything to add to my collection. I really want to buy Elf & A Christmas Story. 

Yesterday, I went out to brunch with four friends, Amanda, Jeannette (who was home from Nicaragua), April and Lauren. We've been friends since high school but I can't remember the last time I saw Lauren. Lauren was actually working on Mitt Romney's campaign and would've been working in/at the White House if he had won (pretty cool!). She just told us yesterday that she got a job working for the Governor of NJ's wife and starts in the middle of January. It's exciting. She was always a politician in school so she has had such great success in working in this field since we graduated college in 2009. It was nice to sit, catch up at brunch with unlimited mimosas! My kind of day!


I helped my mom finish Christmas shopping last night and now I get to wrap EVERYTHING! I love wrapping. Today we're going to my uncle's house in the woods (I'm not kidding...it is like in the boonies of Long Island but it's HUGE) and we'll be home early so I can finish wrapping. Tomorrow, my brother is having us over for dinner and we can just relax. It'll be nice! My mom was stuck as to what to get my brothers Eric & Brian....Eric wants everything thats expensive and Brian wants NOTHING. What do you give someone that wants nothing?! We ended up buying them a flat screen tv for their room since it was redone this summer and it's all Eric has talked about. Brian probably doesn't care (he'd return it if it was just for him) but I think Eric will be pleasantly surprised. My mom said I was one of the easiest people to shop for. I already got one of my gifts last night - sneakers because my mom can't pick them out without me. Can't wait to celebrate tomorrow.

And I am so excited to be going to see Taylor Swift on her new tour in Philadelphia! I am going with Shannon & her sister Meghan in July. We tried to get tickets for the March show in NJ but they sold out so quickly or on stubhub, the cheap seats were $150. We got FLOOR seats in Philadelphia so plan on making a trip out of it. Yay! 

I should probably get to showering/going to the grocery store quick for my mom and wrapping more gifts (my poor SIL isn't getting her gift - a scrapbook yet because I failed on having enough time for it). I just wanted to share the most precious people in my life. These three darlings are my pride & joy and I couldn't be prouder to be their aunt. Merry Christmas eve, everyone! Enjoy the time with your families & friends.

 

Chrismas Recap {Show Me Christmas}

Link up with Becky @ From Mrs to Mama and Aly @ Analyze This to show a recap of your Christmas festivities!

After going to bed at 3am Christmas morning after I finally finished wrapping all the gifts (don't get me wrong, I love wrapping but until 3am next year is NOT happening!), I was not going to get up early! No way Jose!

The lovely tree with my handywork of decorations and all the wrapping. I'm pretty sure the tree decided it wanted to be crooked this year. That's okay, it gives it more character!


After opening presents and having the traditional eggs, bacon, bagels and fruit breakfast, it was over to the bro's casa for more gifts. To say the kids are spoiled is an understatement. My entire backseat had 2 black garbage bags and two shopper totes FILLED with gifts. But when you think about it, there are three uncles and an aunt that have gifts for the kids plus Grammy spoils them. They didn't even finish opening their gifts because it was too much overload for the 5 yr old and 2 yr old. My goddaughter Sara was overjoyed that I found her the mini ladybug pillow pet to match her bigger pillow pet. She got me three charms for my Pandora bracelet to represent her & her siblings. One of my favorite gifts was the scrapbook my SIL made me from our Disney vacation! It was hysterical to relive some of the memories:



Went home and exchanged gifts with the boyfriend before I went to my aunt & uncle's house. He was excited for his new wallet, NJ Devils sweatshirt, sweater, cologne and Darth Vader gumball machine. So what did he get me? Since my Pandora bracelet is filled, he got me a necklace with my birthstone charm and two other charms. It was the last gift I opened and I was having a heart attack while opening it because this was COMPLETELY different from our first Christmas. He also gave me the two Victoria Secret perfumes in the set below. Heavenly Shine smells so good and I am obsessed. The Burt's Bee was from my friend Amanda!


Then we went over to my aunt & uncle's house...aka their brand new house which is massive. The boyfriend came and I thought he'd want to hit his head in a wall after spending the time with the family because of all the screaming but he had fun. He's a brave soul!

Mom & Emmy


My godchild & I


And the loot?! What did I get? The coveted Christmas present of 2011 goes to my brother Brian for giving me FABULOUS beauty. OMG I also died of excitement when I took it out. New favorite bag!


And got some other things like The Help on DVD, gold studded earrings for my second hole (which seems to always get infected), money, gift card to Vera Bradley store, charms for my Pandora bracelet, etc. I am just so in love with that MK bag my next mission is to find the matching wallet!

How was your Christmas?!

Happy Turkey Day!

Let's take a look back at some of my favorite Thanksgiving photos/memories:

Source: youtube.com via Emily on Pinterest

"It tastes like feet!"

Oh Joey scared of Monica dancing with the turkey on her head.

The one where Chandler was in a box!

Mocklate anyone?

"Now I'm a Koala bear!"

Oh season 5!

TOW Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs

Season 10...their last Thanksgiving episode.

Their first meal!

The "I Hate Rachel Green" fanclub!

Season 3. One of my favorite Thanksgiving episodes.

Oh, right. These aren't pictures of my family and/or friends. FRIENDS had the best TV Thanksgiving episodes.

Today being Thanksgiving, I am thankful for so many things: my education (to be 25 and have my bachelor's and master's degrees is amazing), my health (even though I have this hacking cough right now, so many people are much worse off in this department than I am), my family (love all my siblings), my mother for everything she has ever done for me, my friends who stand by me through thick and thin, my boyfriend who treats me like a queen (as it should be!), my nieces and nephew who I love to spoil, a warm bed to sleep in, a car that works to drive, actually having a job that I enjoy working with the people there (most of the time when they are not whining!), TV to lose my bad days in, clothes to wear, and a heart full of love.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Amidst stuffing our faces with Turkey (or fake turkey) and pie, let's remember what we are thankful for. <3