New Year, New Joy

Happy New Years Eve!

I can't believe that it's almost 2016. This year FLEW by, and I feel like it was a pretty successful and exciting one. Last night my family and I went to the beach and saw a beautiful sunset at Pine Island.

Pictures don't really do justice for how beautiful the sky was!

I feel so blessed by God to have been able to go places and do amazing things this year.

My Recap of the Year:

I went to Guatemala this year, went to my first legit concert(Taylor Swift), went to New York in the summer, saw Niagara Falls, went to a drive-in movie theater, saw inside of Google HQ in Ann Arbor, pet a kangaroo, and had a lot of laughs with old friends, new friends, and my family.
For New Year's Resolutions, I found a picture on tumblr that I thought did a pretty good job of summarizing what I want to accomplish.

Isn't this cute?

I probably wouldn't just buy a stranger coffee, but the rest sounds pretty good!

I think that this year I'm also going to try to be more positive. Less negative. It's so easy to get all caught up in the world and to think that this is it, there's no hope.  That's why THIS is my scripture of the year--

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Isaiah 40:31

This past year as been a great one, and I'm looking forward to all of the new adventures I'll have this year, and to seeing what God will do in the future.

Happy New Year! Make this year fantastic.

Christmas in Chicago!

Hello, reader!
Merry Christmas. I hope that you had a great holiday with lots of love.

On Christmas Eve Eve, my family and I drove to Chicago to watch the Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo! It was a beautiful sunset as we were driving past the skyline, and I got some great shots while we were driving.

We got there a little bit early, and so we had time to drive around town and look at the lights. We also took a quick walk down Lake Shore Drive at night.

The city all lit up!

After our little adventure, we walked back to the zoo and saw animals and all of the beautiful lights. Some of our closest friends, the Duplitos and Clementes joined us for the night.

This light show was set to Christmas music!

 We were SO lucky to see the jaguar come out from behind it's rock and be visible for us to see. It was so majestic and calm just sitting there perched on its rock.

The next day on Christmas Eve, my family celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family. We had an amazing meal with them, and opened up presents and caught up with one another. Then before we knew it, we were waking up at four in the morning to drive to Florida and see my mom's family.

We made it to Florida safely, and I actually just got back from watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens. WOW it was amazing. I am not a HUGE Star Wars fan, but that made me really excited for the next movie! BB-8 was adorable.

Anyways, I won't talk about it anymore so that I don't spoil any of it :)
I hope that you had a great Christmas, and that you have a great rest of the day.

❄Christmas Sugar Cookies❄

Hello friends,

I have been extremely busy this month, which is why I haven't been posting the past weeks. To make up for it, I'll be posting a lot more in the next week or two because my family and I are heading on the road again for Christmas break.

Today my friends Dhiya, Lars, and Sarah came over and we made Christmas sugar cookies!

Can you spot the panda cookie I made? 

I got the recipe from this website.

Dhiya and Lars are exchange students from Indonesia and Norway. Sarah moved to Ann Arbor this summer from Wisconsin. We watched Elf and made around 60  cookies on this rainy winter day.

Dhiya and Lars watching Sarah roll the dough like a pro.

All ready to go in the oven.

Our amazing edible creations. 

When we were putting the dough onto our sheets we made four little connected gingerbread people and decorated them as ourselves!  Left to right- Me, Dhiya, Lars, and Sarah. We laughed a lot making these cookies, and they turned out to taste amazing, especially with peppermint frosting!

Remember, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear! 

I'm Thankful for...

There is so much to be thankful for! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it brings people together to be grateful for what God has given them.

I'm thankful for my family. Every year, we all take a drive to downtown Chicago and watch the Thanksgiving day parade. Normally, it's freezing cold and windy, but this year it was a toasty 55 degrees outside! I am always so grateful that my dad is willing to drive us down to the parade every year. This is one of my favorite holiday traditions!

This is where we were standing. 

Typical parade Christmas dancers.

Tweety-bird, so cute!

After the parade, we went to my aunt and uncle's house and talked with our relatives. We also watched a ton of football(seeing both the Lions, and the Bears win-WOOHOO!), and had a nice family dinner.  

On Friday, my family and I got to see some old friends from Chicago. It was so nice catching up with them, we all miss them so much! I am also thankful for some of my super special friends in Minnesota, and last but not least, my friends in Michigan. 

Traveling to Chicago was fun, but I am glad to be home in Ann Arbor!

I'm going to end this with a quote I saw in Chicago on a parking structure:

"Be the change you wish to see"

Have a great night! :)

Joy

First Snow of 2015!

Hello reader, and welcome to my blog!
This is my first post. :)
I'm very excited to start blogging, hopefully I'll have a new post up weekly about activities that are going on in my life.
I thought that today would be a good day to kick off my blog because we had our first snow today in Ann Arbor! Also, if you're viewing my blog on a computer, you'll see I made little snowflakes fall down on the screen, I tried to be festive ;) .
 The whole midwest got snow today from the storm (which apparently they named, "Winter Storm Bella"). It was so nice waking up and seeing the snow, it was literally 65 degrees earlier this week! I think that this has helped some people get into the "Christmas spirit," quicker than normal, even though Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet. I lit a candle and did some homework, listened to Christmas music, and took some pictures of the snow. It was a very cozy day.

I took this picture in the morning...

And at the end of the day there was so much snow!

❄My backyard is a winter wonderland❄ 

Stay warm and safe in the snow, readers!
Joy