2014 Year in Review

2014 was a a year filled with two different living extremes with the first half of the year spent in freezing New England and the second half being the return to the south to Texas.  I kickstarted the year off by celebrating New Year’s Eve in New Orleans.  

I enjoyed the warm break from New England and grad school before my return back to the snow to live with a real winter for the last time.

If there’s one good thing that comes with snow, it’s skiing.  In February, Chris and I took our first ski trip to Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock, MA.  This is one thing I regretted waiting so long to do.  I’m not going to lie and say I made it off the bunny slope, because I didn’t, but it was fun! I wish I could do it more often!

In March, we finally decided where we would be moving to after I graduated.  We knew for sure we wouldn’t be staying in New England where we were and that we wanted to go back south.  It was either back home, to Austin, or to Dallas for us.  Needles to say, Dallas won and the moving planning began.

I also celebrated Hailey turning 7 and my last Spring Break as a student.  Spring Break 2014 was in Nola, so of course the obligatory Jackson Square photo had to happen!

 

April is what I like to call the calm before the storm.  It was the last month before everything began to change.  After living in New England, I will now always think differently of the month April though.  In the south, April means poolside, but up north April means it’s still going to snow whenever it damn well pleases.  Our last snowfall was April 16, and it’s kind of sad that I remember that, but considering I’ll probably never see snow outside of my own yard again that late in the year again, it was worth documenting.

May 2014, the month I had been counting down to for the last 2 years, had finally arrived!!  May meant graduation, getting my Master’s degree, moving, and the next chapter.  Words can’t even describe the excitement I felt once this month arrived!  So many fun things happened in May!  Chris and I began crossing off our final New England bucket list.  We visited our first winery at Gouveia Vineyards in CT, I was invited to my first “legit” blogging event at the Taj Boston hosted by Kristin Yamaguchi, I celebrated my 1 year blogiversary, took my last New York and Boston trip, attended my first Red Sox game, showed my parents around NYC and Boston for their first visit, celebrated my Mom and I’s birthdays in NYC at a rooftop bar, and freaking graduated with my Master’s degree!  How’s that for an eventful month!?  Nailed it.

May was definitely the peak of my year, but June was the start of my new chapter.  June was moving month, the month I was just as excited for as May.  On June 15, Chris and I packed up our entire life and loaded it onto a giant 18 wheeler to be transported from Massachusetts to Texas.  The move to Dallas consisted of five days, 2000 miles, and 28 hours of driving. We barely, but somehow survived the solo drive in our cars and finally made it to Dallas, TX, our new home sweet home!

In July, Chris and I took a 4th of July trip down to Gulf Shores with my parents.  We hadn’t been able to go to the condo together for the two years we were living in New England, so this was a nice treat. It made us realize how much we love being back in the south and much closer to home.  Had we been in New England still, we would’ve never been able to drive to the beach to make this trip, or get crawfish.  By July, we knew we made the right moving decision!

August was a month of more celebrations.  Chris and I celebrated our five year anniversary and we celebrated Chris’s birthday! We also roamed Dallas and got more familiar with the area.  We tried some new restaurants and even gave a Texas snow cone a try.  I’ll stick to my Nola snow balls to say the least, but hey, the Mexican food is good!

We spent Labor Day weekend back in Louisiana.  The trip was filled with boating, beer, and bayous.  That’s life in south Louisiana for ya.  We returned to Dallas for some early Oktober Festin’ and to attend our first Saints away game vs Dallas with one of my best friends in town!

October made us official Texans.  From getting our own place to attending our first State Fair of Texas, Chris and I became officially offish.

In November, we were gifted a little treat I didn’t think I’d be seeing so soon.  It snowed in Dallas (if you want to even call it that)!  It didn’t last and I quickly forgave it when I remembered how nice it is to not have a real winter and enjoy patio weather during everyone else’s sweater weather.  I took full advantage of said patio weather with a trip to Louisiana to celebrate being home for Thanksgiving for the first time in two years!

2014 was wrapped up with a fantastic New Orleans Christmas week back home.  I indulged in all the cajun food Louisiana had to offer, visited with family and good friends, made memories, took full advantage of the drive through daiquiris, didn’t regret eating beignets, and never went hungry.  I also rebranded my Etsy shop, which has been a long time coming and began styling my office/blog/craft room!

Looking back, 2014 has been a great year!  I can’t believe how different my life is now compared to how it was the beginning of the year.  I basically live in a whole different world!  So many great things have happened this past year that I am beyond thankful for.  I’m looking forward to seeing what 2015 has in store!

How was your year!?  Is anyone even still reading!?  If you made it all the way to the bottom of this post, I owe you.  This has got to be the longest one yet.  Cheers to 2015!