2014 Review in Pictures

I am a little embarrassed to say that when New Year's Eve rolls around I don't always feel particularly impressed or grateful for all that has elapsed in the past 365 days.

But this year is different. Last night I was laying in bed, thinking, "WOW! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and then it's a whole new year!" I've been spending my time off writing and catching up on my blog posts of things that have happened months ago. It has really got me thinking of what a truly amazing year I have had. I tend to be a bit skeptical come my birthday that the next year will be as great as everyone wishes for me. But as I stand on the cusp of 2015, I feel so lucky to have had so many adventures in these past 12 months. I have a bit of a tradition to be held to on this blog. 12 pictures for 2012, 13 pictures for 2013. It feels only right that this year is 14 pictures for the year 2014.

2014 in 14 Pictures!

1) January
Okay, Okay, I already cheated, this collage counts as one photo. January 2014 might have been my favorite month in the whole time I lived in Grenada. We hiked Mt. Qua Qua, which was an exhausting but rewarding adventure. And we traveled to the northern island of Grenada called Carriacou. If you can believe it, Carriacou is 5 x more beautiful than Grenada. If you offered to give me a vacation to Grenada I would debate it, but if you offered me a vacation to Carriacou, I would go in a heartbeat. We also built this little sand-snowman to rub in the fact that we live in a beautiful, sunny, sandy place.

2) February
This might be the most cliche picture of the year: Husband love on Valentine's Day. But when your spouse is in medical school, there comes a point when you stop expecting things or, you end up picking up your own gifts or goodies on your bus trip to the store. On top of that, holiday goodies are always expensive in Grenada. You can imagine my surprise when I came home from work to find all this! My favorite chocolates, and lots of other goodies.

3) March 

In March, my parents visited Grenada. You can read about the whole trip here. It was an amazing and blissful week. It was fun to have my family here to show them the beauty and nightmare that Grenada can be. We took hundreds of photos all over Grenada but I settled on one that is a little more unconventional. An unexpected activity while they were here was hand fishing up at Grand Etang. Pretty freaky, hilarious to watch. 

4) April 

Was a pretty simple month as the pictures tell. Kind of the calm before the storm, the second to last mile in a marathon (I would suppose). I chose a picture that depicts every day life in Grenada. Not a beautiful beach picture, or a fancy dinner, but waiting at the bus stop. I would venture to say that a great part of my Grenada days were spent just waiting for the bus (well and missing the bus and walking/running to the bus). I look at the picture and am struck with fondness and horror, I can feel the sun bearing down on my face and sweat gathering on my body. But even now looking back, it still seems so far away to me. Just waiting with Ross for a bus. 

5) May 

Our favorite place to eat in Grenada was Schnitzel Haus. As I was fed up and ready to leave the island, people would ask what I would miss the most. I would usually half jokingly answer with, "Schnitzel Haus." On this occasion we went out to eat with my friend Krystle who is more likely who I will really miss when I leave Grenada. Here we are with the owners of the restaurant. The most lovely, happy Germans maybe ever.

6 & 7) June 

June might have been the most jam-packed month. And I say that now knowing that moving and securing housing would happen. June was a month of visiting friends and family. Friends in Vernal, family in Utah, family in Kentucky, family in Tennessee. How could I possibly limit the photos from that month?! I already cheated with the collage so I will try to do this with only TWO. 

Could you find two happier friends (read about my Vernal trip here)? I think we are laughing at something Larry said. Most likely.

FOUR of us in one picture. That deserves a post, or check out my entire Kentucky trip here. 

8) July 

I'm starting to sound a little insane and self-imprtant when every month is the next "big" month. But I guess July wasn't BIG so much as it was ultimate happiness when this moment came. I can almost promise that I will never get sick of this picture. The moment when after two years, Ross could finally, and completely take a deep breath. I can't remember the last time I saw him so happy. Read about that moment more here. 

9) August

In August we got to road trip back to California with my grandparents. And as scary as the unknown is, how bad can it be when family is so close? I feel so honored to spend time with my grandparents. They are the coolest, funniest, most generous and caring people I know. 

10) September

As Ross and I settled in, we spent every spare moment with my sister or parents, or BOTH! One trip we took was to see a giant inflatable duck in the San Pedro harbor. We had lunch at the fish market. I still need to blog about it. Even with all the pictures we took with that duck, this one is my favorite. My mom hates pictures and I feel so happy when she agrees to be in one. I love my momma and I love getting pictures with her.

11) October 

I love doing a year review because (and as corny as this sounds) it is really humbling. I think part of that is because compared to last year, this year has been bursting at the seams with family and friends. All the stress and issues in my life fade when I can see I am so constantly surrounded by love.

In October my bestie and her fam forsook their comfortable home to stay in my tiny apartment for a night. It was a blast! I love that family with all my heart and hanging out with my godson brings so much light and life to my life. Being best friends (at least with this girl) means that we often have identical clothing. From our glasses to shirts to pants, we could swap wardrobes and not even notice. A bit ridiculous, yes.

12 & 13) November 

I could go on and on about all the fun things I've done each month, but I realize that is why I have this blog in the first place. I have to remind myself that this is just a review. November isn't often my favorite month, it tends to be filled with the mundane and stressful. But this November was the best month of the year. 

With all the pictures you take on a road trip across america, and all the family and friends you see along the way, I choose this one to represent. It was the longest day of the road trip. And pretty tiring. It takes a special kind of person to be stuck in the car with for a whole week, but lucky for me, I was "stuck" with my sister. My sister who can help me keep a smile on my face even after long stressful days. 

Even with how wonderful the month was, I choose yet another random photo. Because it embodies pure happiness. Ross bought me a large pink donut with sprinkles. My eyes are filled with joy.

14) December

The last month of it all. And on the first day of this month I started a new job. And excuse my vulgar language, but I am pretty damn proud of myself. Probably a little more proud than I should be for being a 25 year old with a full time job. I know that is simply what I am supposed to do, but sheesh it was a feat. And sheesh I am tired and exhausted at the end of the day. I will get the hang of it, but for now I am will keep this beaming smile through adversity. 

So there you have it! I can't believe this year is over. It seems like Carriacou in January was ages ago. It has been an incredible year filled with adventure and plane rides. 2015 has big shoes to fill, but I am excited to see how it can even exceed this year. Come at me bro! 

New Year's Eve!

With having so much family around these past couple of weeks, it is pretty odd to find such an empty house. I have to laugh a little when I say this because "empty" is still 6 people.

Earlier in the day we went to Bex and had some amazing food.



Including a burger larger than your head, and of course more food than any of us could ever dream of finishing. This included two tubs of garlic fries. While delicious, still about half-an-Idaho's worth of fries.

I talked myself in and out then back in to getting this amazingly soft and beautiful scarf. No regrets. Then I found this kids hanging out on the street, probably up to no good.



But before long Ryan and Jen had to catch their plane back to Tennessee. While mom and dad drove them to the airport, Ross and I ran to to the store to get some ingredients to make our favorite recipe.

Homemade Egg Nog.



We got to see a symbolic sunset. Because of all the sunset pictures I post on the blog, the final sunset of the year can be pretty significant.

We all pitched in to put together some goodies for our night of partying hard.



Probably looking a little something like this:

We Face Time'd with Ali all the way in New York to ring in the New Year with her. And no, she did not go to Times Square to see the ball drop. Why? Well, I simply had no clue about how horrific that ordeal is. All of her workmates were telling her how you cannot move or leave your place in line so people end up wearing adult diapers of peeing in bottles in the middle of the street.



I guess that is one way to ring in the New Year- with an adult diaper full of excrement. -No thanks.



After ringing in the 2015 with Ali, we still had three hours to go til we saw 2015 but we made it!

You can see Synge in one frame, then gone the next. I don't think he like New Year's countdowns like the rest of us.

So here is to a brand new year and all it may have for me & us!

Christmas Cat

This cat is weird. We had one of the Christmas wreath decorations down for repair and he decided it would be the perfect spot for a nap.

Multiple times.

Maybe the cat equivalent of being swaddled?

Anyways, Synge wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Break Outings

More kids = more fun. And since literally the whole gang was here this Christmas vacation, there was a lot of fun being had.

Here is the highlight reel.

Hanging out in Santa Monica at the Promenade.



My favorite part was either this tropical Christmas tree made of potted anthuriums (center, right).



Or when we all squeezed into a tiny Thai food place, or when mom and dad got us all matching matchie shirts from the Quicksilver store.

We also took a day to go to San Pedro and Long Beach. We started in San Pedro, partially because of the fish market. Although, I am sad to report the spicy corn just wasn't cutting it this time. Maybe the spicy corn chef is off on holiday vacation.



Also, I learned that the San Pedro Fish Market is, "Often referred to as the Disneyland of seafood." Wow. Who knew?

Afterwards we headed over to Long Beach to check out some boat venues for my engaged baby sister's wedding this summer.



We felt super VIP. Sometimes it is hard having a father with endless connections.

Another outing that could have easily been a huge chore or disaster, was obtaining a family photo. Once we learned that the whole gang would be in town, my parents capitalized and quickly mobilized to make a family photo happen.

This included many different wardrobe iterations. 11 people = a lot of clothes = pano required.

We decided to take the photos at the Arboretum, and spent most of the day at there. Again, my father's connections!



It was a beautiful and sunny day. We walked around and took a ton of different photos in a variety of locations.

Including climbing up in a tree.

The arboretum is such a beautiful place, I can't wait to see how the photos turn out.

Beautiful people in a beautiful place.

Cassie and Calvin also took some engagement photos while we were out and I bet those turned out great as well. 

Besides all out outings there have been a bunch of comings and goings. In between the endless trips to and from airports, we have had fun just hanging out. A bunch of us put together this puzzle I got Ross. It took us a while and was at times a source of frustration.

But you can't beat the fun of putting together a puzzle and all the fun nicknames we came up with for the characters we didn't know. "Oh this is part of Satan's beard," or, "I think this is a bit of  Chaca Kahn's hair."

Just about when everyone was gone, we ended up starting the seasonal tamale sweatshop to make some delicious, delicious tamales. Maybe my favorite holiday tradition that doesn't always happen.



I love Palmdale!

Christmas Day 2014

I have been doing a lot of blog catching up lately, but I can't today.

Today, all I have is Christmas on the brain!

Christmas Widdison style is so absolutely insane, and I love it. It is definitely unique, and maybe stressful for first time observers and participators, but it's tradition.

Even now that we are older we still wake up pretty early to look at what Santa brought us in our stockings.

Yes.



Santa still comes comes to all of us and fills our stockings with goodies! I love how full the mantel is with all of the stocking hangers and stockings.

When we were little we would play with our toys from Santa while mom and dad went back to bed. But this year we almost immediately started with the presents. My dad gets fairly excited about presents (sound like someone you know?), and jumped right in for a gift for my momma.

It was good we got started though, because there were so. many. presents. I have seen a lot of presents under the tree in my lifetime, never as many as this year. Could have something to do with the fact that there are 11, yes ELEVEN people at my parents' house. I think we broke the present record this year.

We even had to clear a path so Santa could get to the stockings.

Opening presents on Christmas morning is the most beautiful chaos I have ever experienced. oohhhs, and ahhhhs!! jumps for joy, laughter, and all manner of happy and grateful expressions. This year we started slow, everyone getting one present, going in age order. That was about as calm and orderly it was and then we just needed to get going and pass out those presents.

My family is perhaps a little unique in that we don't draw names. We get a present for pretty much every member of the family. But it is special because we have always put the emphasis on love. It doesn't matter if you homemake a gift, or spend $30. You can combine and go in on a gift with another sibling, or combine gifts, it's all about the love and thought that goes into the gifts.

It is so much fun to give gifts. To see the happiness and joy on someone's face when they unwrap the gift that you put a lot a thought into.



As per tradition, mom and dad's gifts to us are usually saved til last. My mom confessed that she just couldn't stop buying gifts for us. Her and dad love thinking us the perfect things for us kids. This year the girls got matching Mexcian embroidered blouses straight from Olvera Street! My mom is magic because she got all the right sizes.

Sorry Cass, this picture was taken after you already left.

One of the funnest surprises came at the very end. Ryan pulled out a box from: Santa to: The Gang. With classic Ryan quizzical look, he handed the mystery gift to me to read the note.

I don't mean to brag, but I had a feeling about what was coming. Inside the box was 11 nicely wrapped gifts with names like "Rambo," "007," "killshot," "girl on fire," "bullseye." I of course, grabbed my name when I heard it, "Star Lord." We hurried and opened the gifts to find that they were nerf guns.

GAME TIME.



All of a sudden the tiny house was in a frenzy. People were loading up the guns and diving behind couches, behind doorways, and finding refuge in the hallway.



It was pretty fun. Lucky for us all Ryan and Jen actually got some extra nerf bullets for a present so there was enough ammo to go around. The hard part was scrambling to find them in the wrapping paper/ present mess in the front room.

Some people hid in the hall, while others built a wall of gift bags and boxes, and others preferred to go solo.

Yes, all the pictures are blurry because I was either running or laugh so hard I couldn't keep still. 

The best part was when mom and dad teamed up and dad covered mom.

The war was brilliant, and I am just really hoping this is a new tradition with bigger artillery next year. I'm talking semi-automatic. But those little nerf guns shot really well. They kinda hurt when they got your skin.

Let's see that solo shot again:

We made off with a pretty good loot this year!

So much love! 

By this point I don't think it was past about 10 or 11 am. We had fun hanging out and checking out all the gifts that were given and received.

Dad made breakfast and we just loafed around, some of us going back to bed while some of us got ready for the day.



Ross and I served some cheese slices, crackers, and summer sausage. Kind of a nod to his family's tradition of the Christmas Eve Picnic. Then we played the game Qwirkle.

More loafing around, and maybe some lunch in there somewhere. Grandma and Grandpa dropped by to say hello. I have such fun memories of then visiting Christmas Day when we were little. We would run up to them and show them all our Christmas gifts and how they worked. More or less the same now.

In the evening we had a delicious Christmas feast.



Christmas is always the longest day and the shortest day all at the same time.



I remember when I was little sometimes I would cry a little or pout when I had to go to bed on Christmas because it made me so sad that the day was over. Turns out, I pretty much feel the exact same way even 15 years later!