2014

It would be pretty rude of me to skip right to 2014 without officially acknowledging the end of 2013, but I'm going to do it anyway. If you know us at all, you know how important 2013 was to us, so we don't need to touch on the details here. Just know that this Christmas was wonderful, just as all of our past Christmases have been. It was just a little more special sharing the same last name this year. 

If we are friends on Facebook, you also know I have been taking some pictures with my new camera. I upgraded from my point-and-shoot digital camera (that I actually kind of stopped using since I got the iPhone) and went with a Nikon my photographer friend helped me pick out (shoutout to Jim Coarse Photography). I spent my first week or so learning as much as I could about its abilities, and I think I've done a pretty good job of finding some really cool features. I'm excited to be able to take pictures of more things (food, people, eventual babies, holidays, parties) and hope that I can get good enough that it becomes second nature to me (I'm still a little wobbly and do a lot of the "ok, wait! Hold that right there!" type of thing). 

If you didn't see the Holiday Montage that was my collection of Christmas photos, here was one of my favorites that I took just a couple days after I got my camera. I figured I would start with something I was good at making look great in person look just as good in a photograph!

Now, onto the celebrations!

We've never been known to be party animals or do anything too fancy, so when we find friends who want to have a relaxing, fun night celebrating, we say "HELL YES" and embrace the board games and sweatpants. We did, however, start the night out a little bit fancy with a dinner at Mile High with some surf & turf. I had filet, and it was deeeeelish. 

These are our friends Tony and Colleen. Tony and Matt have been friends since childhood, and it's an added bonus that Colleen is really great!

After dinner, we quickly (and I mean within minutes) all changed into sweats and slippers, ate some snacks, drank some beer, and played Scrabble and Pictionary. 

And then, we had this lovely dessert that Colleen brought us! Mousse!

We rang in 2014 in style with some party hats, of course...

...and some champagne!

And, right after midnight, Matt was able to indulge in a donut, which he gave up for 2013. He loved every second of it.

Right after this, Matt declared he is giving up donuts again for 2014 along with pretzels, cookies, and Pop-Tarts (which we do not buy, but which he has been consuming lately during work hours because of their abundant presence, haha). We are both giving up ice cream and frozen yogurt (oh, Kiwi, how I will miss you).

This year, we have some pretty cool things happening. Of course, each of these will be documented accordingly on the blog in detail, but just to preface you, this is just a list of some of the things we have going on:

1. In February, the Colemans are paying a visit to PA! Although they aren't coming specifically to see us, we are hoping to get a day or so out of them so we can see our little nephew who has grown so much since we last saw him in June.

2. In March, we will be moving to a new townhouse in West Chester! We will still be renting since buying turned out to be a little scarier than we thought it was going to be, haha. Same(ish) area, but bigger space, another room, another bathroom, and a WASHER/DRYER! I'm so excited to stop buying rolls of quarters!

3. At the end of April, we will be traveling to Vegas for a leadership convention and then extending our vacation to make a full 10-day trip of the west. Places to visit include the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, and our favorite Utah residents! We will be road-tripping most of the trip, which we really enjoy doing.

4. We will celebrate our first anniversary, which is part of the celebration that goes along with the trip out west. We are going to combine the two rather than take another vacation in June.

5. Matt and I are both very committed to bettering ourselves. If you haven't noticed, Matt is all about personal development lately and it is absolutely amazing. He has morphed into a completely different man than the one I married, but it is 100% ok with me. His excitement for our future is so contagious, and I've been developing myself right along side him these past few weeks. It's incredible the things we've discovered about ourselves and our friends, and we hope to make 2014 just as great as 2013 but in different ways.

6. There is news coming regarding Lucky Duck Cakes, which will most likely be the next post. Look for that one next week-ish...

I know there are several other things we have lined up, but you'll have to stay tuned to find out what they are!

I will leave you with my favorite picture from last night. Right after we poured our champagne, Matt quickly set his glass down to run to the bathroom right before the ball dropped (I was yelling his name at 11:59 to hurry up!). He didn't even try to stage this, but I am so glad I glanced over and saw this. It was the perfect setting to end our amazing year (in the literally last 30 seconds of it), and it almost brought me to tears photographing it, since the moment only lasted a few seconds. 

Thanks, 2013. It's been real.