Happy 2012!

Hi friends, can't believe it's already almost a full month into 2012 - this past fall and winter just flew by!!

A few updates on what has been going on recently (or at least since I last updated!):

SUPER Scrapple! Taking the world by storm!

• Halloween happened - aka the greatest holiday of the year to humiliate your dog (whatever, he secretly loved being Superman for the day) and to have an excuse as a 26 year old to dress like a bumblebee. A couple of friends and I took Scrapple to a winery in the area for an afternoon of costume contests and wine tasting. We wound up getting too caught up in our wine tasting and girly conversation to actually ENTER Scrapple into any contests but he was absolutely the winner in my mind. Halloween was spent between two separate parties (and two separate costumes, obviously!) Any chance to see good friends is a success in my mind.

Happy Halloween! It's still up for debate on what Bill's Halloween costume was on this night of festivities...

• Not too long after Halloween it was the University of Delaware's homecoming weekend. I hadn't been back to campus in about two years and Bill had never been to a Blue Hens football game so we were due. It was great to organize a tailgate with Nicole, Michele, Toni, Ang, and Amanda and for us to all spend time together catching up. The icing on the cake was that UD won the football game!

Go Blue Hens! Kicking the morning off at our stellar tailgate

Tailgating planning partner in crime

Watching the game with the girls :)

• Somewhere in between Halloween and UD Homecoming one of my best friend's from high school, Jen, got engaged. She wound up planning the wedding in a two month time span due to her dad being deployed to Afghanistan for a lengthy period of time and her and Mike got married on January 6th. I was thrilled to be a bridesmaid in their wedding which was a blast. However, this meant a lot of time in the fall was spent researching wedding invites, shower favors, and airfares to upstate NY. For Jen though? Anything to make her day special.

The lovely bride-to-be and me at her bridal shower

Jenn and I ready to hit the town for Jen's bachelorette party!

Bill & I at Jen's wedding

The girls from the bridal party

• Somewhere ELSE along in there we celebrated Thanksgiving with Bill's family in Philly; celebrated Christmas with both Bill's and my families - split between Philly -->upstate NY --> Philly, and also celebrated New Year's with good friends in their new house in the DC area. Even though it created some interesting family conversations about how things would be in the future for both Bill and I, we were were both SO glad to spend the holidays together even if it meant a little more travel. I'm realizing there's a delicate balance that has to be walked in order to ensure one family doesn't feel like they are getting the short end of the stick with seeing us at the holidays and I think we did the very best we could. I will state, however, that this will be the last Christmas Day I spend riding an Amtrak train from one house to another (no offense to Amtrak, it was flawless - there are just other things I'd prefer to be doing on that day!)

There are lot more exciting things coming up in 2012 including my family visiting this weekend, Bill and I celebrating our two year anniversary in February, running my very first 5K in April, renting a beach house in Dewey this summer, and Bill & I moving in together shortly afterward. I'm sure 2012 will be a year full of changes and I couldn't possibly be more excited about it. Here's to a happy, prosperous 2012 to all! I hope it has treated everyone kindly so far :)

(P.S. Could you tell I recently discovered how to upload photos to my posts?!) :)