Images from New Year’s Eve and Day

Happy New Year! Isn’t it crazy to think it’s 2015?
I have to say that I love New Year’s Day. It’s quite possibly my favorite holiday of the year.
I love New Year’s Day because there are no expectations. It’s a great day to sit around and do NOTHING with the people you love! I also love thinking. And New Year’s Day is a great day to ponder and dream and make plans and goals.

I started my day by journaling some of the changes I want to make in the new year and some of the things I want to try for the first time. I also just sat and reflected on how awesomely blessed we were in 2014. Of course, our biggest blessing of the year was moving into our new home. I wake up every morning feeling immensely grateful that we get to live here.

Last night, we were able to host a gathering with some of our favorite people. We have been friends with some of them for 14 years, which is a major blessing in and of itself. Our kids have grown up together and just to see them all running around — many of them teenagers now — is amazing. Our favorite thing about the new house is that we have space to invite people over. I love to host, and I think you already know I love to have parties, so it’s just a huge gift that I can do that more often now.

One of my goals for the new year is to be more intentional about documenting our life through photos. So, here I go with some images from New Year’s Eve and today.
So yesterday, as I was running around getting everything ready for the party, I decided it would be a good time to buy a new couch. That makes perfect sense, right? Only a few hours until my house will be full of people, and I want to go buy new furniture?
I’ve been looking at sectional sofas for a while now, and I knew pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I was at Costco shopping for groceries when I saw one that met all my criteria, and it fit into my budget, since it was sold at Costco and all. So, yep. I’m admitting right here on the Internet that we bought our new couch at Costco! I was thinking maybe we would buy it this weekend, but then as I looked at our empty living room, I decided it might be kind of cool to have somewhere for people to sit! So, we made a few trips back and forth to Costco and had it set up with several hours to spare before our friends arrived.

It’s super snuggly and cozy, and we’re all pretty much in love with the new couch.
I tried not to go overboard with the New Year’s Eve party decor since we’ve had so many birthday parties and family gatherings the past few months. But I did allow myself to purchase a few things, like balloons, blowers, confetti and sparkly garland. Here are a few images from the party set up.

I was pretty happy with this idea for a really cheap and quick centerpiece!



I used my cake pan that has the heart shaped cut out in the middle and filled it with candy “pearls” that were supposed to flow out like confetti when it was cut.

And I really don’t think you can have too many photos of lemon water, do you? I saw those lemons swimming around and they were begging to be photographed!

For some reason, I have decided that I want to learn to make artistic pancakes in 2015. I realize this is probably on A LOT of people’s lists of New Year’s resolutions. My first attempt was pretty much a big mess of half-burned Olaf faces. If you use your imagination, you can see Olaf’s big head.


Well, Happy New Year, everyone! I hope today is a great start to a year full of blessing and dreams come true!