'Tis the Season...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And I'm loving it! I've been so overwhelmed with school, that I haven't really gotten a chance to take a look around, but it's definitely the holiday season now!

McKenzie bought me this hat at some house party sale...

And I later discovered that it is originally from Sprout's...haha, makes me love it even more!

 My favorite part...the Christmas lights!! :D

 There is this crazy old man in San Marcos (and by crazy, I mostly mean awesome) who, for 14 years now, has been having this crazy display of lights in his front yard. He starts October 1st and has everything ready by December where he keeps the lights on nightly until 9pm for families to come swarm his yard and admire his madness. He really is a sweet old man, but he must be crazy to do this much work EVERY year! And he never lets anyone down...

Right down the street (the competition), this family turns their giant maple? tree into a giant Christmas tree! It must be at least 60-70 feet tall. I have no idea how they do it. But I love it! I love driving through neighborhoods and looking at Christmas lights, even though not everywhere has as awesome of decorations as these two house.

I miss when my dad would drive all of us kids around the neighborhood to look at lights while we eat popcorn in our Christmas jammies, listening to Christmas music. Maybe I can convince him this year ;)

It's also time to start indulging in my new waffle maker. We've make waffles one time since I got it at Black Friday (and tried to make brownie waffles a second time...that wasn't as pretty).

Ignore the weird looking things I call sausage...the photoshop did something really weird with them in this picture and they look disgusting. Haha, I promise they weren't as bad as they look! 

I was babysitting my cousins last week and came across this awesome picture of my step-mom and aunts. We're having an ugly sweater Christmas party this week...think she'll let me borrow her sweater ;)

My next favorite thing is this new thing Dalton let me try for this semester. I called it going Christmas tree therapy-ing. During finals week, I was even more completely overwhelmed and wanting to give up. We have no money for a Christmas tree, and nowhere to put it anyway, we still bundled up and he still took me Christmas tree shopping (2 times!) so I could look around and let the Christmas energy flow! We bought colorful twinkling lights to put in the room. Still nowhere to really put it, so I just hung it on my fallen painting and lamp

See? Still pretty in my disaster of a neglected room ;) I think they call this nursing student problems...

Mini Desert Trip

So, my friends had been reminding me of "the desert trip" at the end of November. I would always half blow it off and just tell them okay I'll be there. Haha and because of me ignoring them, it popped up on me really fast! I never put 2 and 2 together that it was the same weekend Cindy was gunna be here. So, instead of spending the whole long weekend out in the desert like I planned, I just made a night trip to visit everyone.

My friend, Lindsey, was sweet enough to make a short trip out there with me too so I could get back to be with Cindy on her last day here. I can't wait for more desert trips now that I'm done with school for 5 weeks! A REAL trip this time ;)

 Haha, I just had to post this picture of Johnathan. His hair is usually about my color and it was SO DUSTY that day, everyone's hair was turning white and grey! 

Cindy's in Town!! :D

My favorite time of year....when my best friend comes to town!! I don't think she realizes how much I miss her all the time! I can't believe we've spent over 3 years living 750 miles apart in two different time zones. I can't wait until she moves back to California so we can visit each other more often!

She usually comes for a week or so during Christmas, when I am on break too, but this year she can't because her family will be gone in Brazil (lucky!) So I had to squeeze in some time from studying to spend most of the week with her.

She took me on my first Black Friday adventure. Haha it was really weird experiencing culture shock in my own home town. And it was also surprising how not-that-discounted everything was on Black Friday. I'd say the only place with worthy sales was Walmart, haha not like I had any money to spend there. (I did get an $8 waffle maker though)

On the last day they were here, Cindy's parents took us all to Knott's Berry Farm. I hadn't been there since I was in middle school! AND it was already decorated for Christmas! I loved it! :)

Her family got some beautiful Christmas pictures while we were there. I thought that was a really good idea..haha the best Christmas picture our family has ever made is on the stairs in our house. Knott's had such pretty Christmas decorations!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, my brother, Dalton and I spent the day at my mom's house. My mom apparently found some new "clean eating" recipe for the turkey (she was trying to be good for my cleanse rules...and it was definitely the best turkey I've ever tasted!! 

MMMMM! :)

Since I'm on a cleanse to clear out some stomach ulcers and any other toxins in my body that are slowing me down from school, my mom was awesome and made everything abide by my cleanse. Gluten-free, dairy-free, and all! It was sooooo good! :D

She also made this DELICIOUS chocolate lava cake (which is gluten and dairy free anyway) and I have no idea how she made it taste so good! Just like you find in restaurants! That's definitely not part of the cleanse, but she was so excited about it, so I shared mine with Dalton.

Afterwards, Dalton and I went to his family's dinner late that night. Haha I always end up having way too many Thanksgiving dinners. At least this year I only made it to 2 instead of the usual 3 :/

I saw some of the cutest desserts this year! I loved this turkey cake (even though it probably tasted awful with all that food dye all over it). Haha, but it was still cute!

A couple days after Thanksgiving, my friend had these leftover at his house. I have no idea who did this, but I give them huge props! I would never be able to sit down and make bunches of these so intricately. This definitely looks like a Pinterest baby to me, haha

Jayce's 21st Birthday

In the beginning of November, Jayce was the last of our friends to turn 21. Given that this is probably the last 21 birthday we would all celebrate together, Jayce made it a big celebration. He rented a party bus to drive us to dinner at the Ocean House in downtown Carlsbad, and then to downtown San Diego for some dancing

It was such a fun night. For the first time in a long time, ALL our friends were able to make it, so it was perfect :)

Birthday creme brûlée 

The next morning, a few of us went on a mini hike with our pups at Daley Ranch. It's just a mini mountain with a couple scattered ponds and lakes. It was a really pretty day out!

Aren't the puppies cuuuuute?! :)

 My friends really have been the best this semester. I have felt like such a LOSER having to say no to all the fun things they get to go do while I'm at home memorizing drugs and sterile procedures. They did make their best efforts to go out on nights where I could squeeze in a few hours of no studying, and alway inviting me anyway, even though I had to say no 80% of the time.

They were my saviors this semester. Because if I kept myself crammed in my room these past 3 months, there's no way I would be surviving nursing school right now!

Halloween (x3)

This year, I celebrated Halloween...3 times!! Haha I was so happy. I was starting to get sad thinking that I'm gunna have to lay off Halloween a little more since I'm getting older, but it's my favorite holiday! So, somehow, we ended up having 3 Halloween celebrations! :D

The first night was Friday (a week before Halloween). My friend, Eric's sister was having a Werewolf Barmitzva dance party at their house. They always through the cutest parties. Earlier this year they had a Valentine's Day "prom" at their house and it was so much fun!

So, I threw together my first costume...80's aerobic instructor

On the night of real Halloween, my friends and I decided to go to downtown San Diego and explore whatever was going on down there. It was PACKED! But it was a lot of fun seeing every one flood the streets of downtown walking around in ridiculous costumes.

On a side note, we saw a drunk guy get barely get hit by a car! He flew up in the air SO high and landed on his head. Goes to show how much of an impact a car can have on a human body...and this guy was going 10mph tops.

The best part was he was hit right next to 3 cop cars with at least 10 cops hanging around...nice job.

So, I found some 99 cent cat ears at Walmart after a day of studying and threw together a kitty cat costume! :) 

A couple days after Halloween, McKenzie and I threw a Halloween dance party at her house. My friend is an "up-and-coming" DJ and we had him practice his skills for us that night. It was a lot of fun!

I'm seriously a Halloween freak! I love it too much!

This time I grabbed my dad's cape (not sure why he had one) and created a superhero out of myself ;)

Yeah...my boyfriend was an Asian school girl samari this year. I have no idea where he got that idea from. Maybe it's because he likes weird ninja movies too much...

Even a few of my nursing friends were able to make it! I love that they're always willing to do something to unwind with me and every one else...especially after a long week of classes!

On top of having the opportunity to celebrate my favorite holiday THREE times, I only spent under $8 for all three costumes. 99 cent cat ears and a $6 cat tail, plus some tax! That's what I call a deal!

Big Bear Lake

Because of the weird schedule of my nursing classes, Tuesday afternoon through Thursday morning has become my new "weekend". My friend Eric has a time share on Big Bear lake where him and his family go fishing for a week every fall. Once again, I was in desperate need of an escape from school, so I made the quick 2 hour drive up the mount to spend 2.5 days up there watching them fish on the lake with all the cute old people :) 

It was perfect timing because it was right before it got too freezing cold on the mountain, but it was still pretty and snow free! It was really peaceful up there...

Haha Eric won some prize for catching the 3 biggest fish for the week

In high school, I would go snowboarding almost every weekend in Big Bear... I haven't been coming as often recently because I have so much more school, and much less money! I forgot that there is the MOST delicious Mexican food place up in Big Bear. We grabbed some to-go and I don't remember the last time I ate something that delicious! MMMM!! I can't wait to go back this winter! :)

 Beautiful sunrise before driving back home to San Marcos to go to school...

The closest thing I got to seeing snow, was the frost on my windshield! Haha