Good Bye Holidays-- Hello 20-10

Oh what a year 2009 has been. Trying to remember all the different events has been hard. It seems like just yesterday we were at the Hanzalik's celebrating the New Year. This year has brought trials and hardships, but I wouldn't trade it for the year. I think I grew up the most this year, figured out what kind of a person I want to be and tried to make other people just as happy as I am. I have an amazing boyfriend who treats me like royalty and I'm super stoked that we get to celebrate the new year together and hopefully make it the best year so far.

A new year is always always full of ambition, goals and new year resolutions. I don't remember any goals I set for last year (probably because if I set any goals I didn't follow through with any of them haha). But this year I know what I want to achieve...

1- Get a gym membership with Linds and Bre and actually USE it. (weird...)
2- Be a happier person all the way around
3- Make changes that will better myself as a person (and not change for anyone else)
4- Take Chloe Mop Top Moppit Head for more walks, poor dog doesn't get enough time outside.
Last but not least
5- Don't fight with people anymore, Life is too short to fight with the ones that make you happy.

Hopefully in 2011 I can look back on some of those goals and feel like I did some good in the year 20-10. Hopefully everyone has a Happy New Year! I can't wait to celebrate it with Derek, Lindsee and Taylor! I will be missing Bre and hope she makes it home ok!

Now let me move on to Christmas and how weird it is now that we are older. It doesn't even feel like Christmas anymore. Christmas Eve I went up to my parents. We had ham and baked potatoes which was the bomb, Dave and Annette (mommy) always make great meals for us. After we finished dinner Derek came over and played Rummikub with us. He got the joy of meeting Gloria who is an interesting lady, haha but we love her anyway. We then watched 4 Christmas's with Reese Witherspoon. After the movie I wasn't feeling to good so I ended up not staying at my parents. I could tell that my mom was upset about it (it kind of looked like she was going to cry) but Christmas just doesn't feel the same anymore.

Christmas morning me and Derek went up to my parents for a Christmas brunch. Justin and Daysha came up with us to eat and unwrap our gifts. All 4 of our parents made us DVDs of our childhood videos, and oh boy are they scary. I am going to lock them away in a safe so no one can ever watch them. Sadie and Chloe got a lot of gifts for Christmas, I think they even might have gotten more gifts then I did. Sadie was super funny with all her new toys and chewy's. She would put all her toys in her mouth and run downstairs to put them on her bed so Chloe couldn't get them. Those 2 dogs are too smart for their own good. Chloe didn't seem to know what was going on though, she just wanted Justin to scratch her stomach.

Christmas was fun, it was great to spend it with Derek and my family. My parents are the best people in this world, they are crazy and funny and such fun people to hang out with. I went home after I was done up at their house and fell asleep for about 5 hours haha. Derek and all the boys came over to the apartment to chill for a bit. Derek's dad and step mom stopped by the apartment to meet me and that was fun. They seem like great people. After all that I fell asleep and slept most of Saturday away. I was too tired from the night before, Chloe kept me up ALL night.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year. I'll be back to write again next year. Love you all! <3

'Tis the Season!!

Oh goll, where do I even begin to write this??? The past 2 months have been great, I have loved every second of it. I have to throw in that I have met this amazing new guy (Derek Colby who is now officially my 'boyfriend' not that that changes anything but hey you gotta take the next step eventually and since we are together 24/7 why not right??), and even though things with Josh and me are over for good and it was hard to say goodbye to the last 3 years of my life, I'm so excited to see what the rest of the world has to offer me. I've never been so excited to grow up and figure out who I want to be. Anyway, enough with being deep... This month is the month of Christmas and I'm so excited for it.

A couple of weeks ago me and the roomies decorated the apartment to bring out our holiday spirit. I'm not much of a decorative person, but Bre and Linds are for sure and they do a great job at it. After work one Wednesday (I think that's when it was) we all got together and went shopping for ornaments and other things. I already had a tree, but we just needed EVERYTHING else. First we went to Hobby Lobby but everything there was way too expensive for my liking. Since the Christmas tree is mine I agreed that I would buy all the ornaments for it, Brilliant Bre suggested that we go to the dollar store to look for stuff. Me and Linds both didn't think that was very promising but HEY we were wrong. They had the flipping cutest ornaments and all for only $1.00. I was stoked that we found some worth buying so we got a ton of stuff there. Don't ever under estimate the dollar store, they have pretty cute things sometimes.

I love how my friends know me so well, because after the dollar store we decided we were going to go to a couple different places then go to our favorite restaurant Callaways after. We got back to Hobby Lobby to pick out a star and other random decorations for the apartment. Lindsee could tell that I was starting to get hungry by the way I was lagging in the shopping department and getting a tid bit ornery. She was all, "Alright Ashlee is hungry lets get her food right now before we all regret not going soon enough (lol)". We hurried and finished up there, went to Callways and I was content with shopping again. We stopped by Michael's, got Lindsee her much needed Cranberry wreath and headed for home.

My Christmas tree was originally wrapped in colored lights and Linds wanted to put white lights on it, so we spend about 45 minutes cutting zip ties off the branches and taking off the 100,000,000 lights. Derek (Colby) was the professional entertainer for the dogs while we were doing all of this. We finally got the white Christmas tree lights on and Bre was ready to decorate. I'm very happy to say that my talented roommates and my bank account make a really good couple, because all the things I bought and their mad skill worked out perfect together.

Here are a couple pictures of the tree... I think its pretty bad ass...

Mop Top and the Tree

For Christmas Eve I have been suckered in to staying at my parents house. Don't get me wrong, of course I want to stay up there, but Annette told me the other day that I have no choice, I HAVE to stay there lol oh well. I'm excited for Christmas adventures. Usually we have a big feast on Christmas Eve even though its just Gloria, Dave, mom and me. Justin and his wife are too busy to come over. I might just have to make Derek suffer and stop by and play Rummikub with us. He would love to do that I'm sure ;) I'll make him sit by Gloria.

Anyway, Chloe is always invited to come over to the parents and sleep at their house Christmas Eve night. I think my mom gets jealous that Chloe sleeps with me and not her (even though she would never admit that). I hate having to sleep there with Chloe though because all she wants to do is explore throughout the night (and I'm sure poop and pee all over the place), last Christmas I didn't get much sleep because she would not settle down. Moppit always gets good Christmas gifts though, one from everyone. Its pretty nice how much my family loves her.

Derek and I went to the mall on Saturday to finish up our last minute Christmas shopping. He surprised me by buying me the cutes watch I've ever seen for my Christmas gift. Here is a picture of it.

Ahh so pretty. I love it. Derek is the greatest person I could have ever met. Best thing that's happened to me in a long time. (And not just because he got me a cute watch haha).

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Love you all!