Holidays in San Diego

Is it too late to talk about the holidays still? I hope not because I'm gonna do it anyway! This year we were lucky enough to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas in San Diego with my family. Sometimes it can be a lot to travel during the holidays, but I am so glad that we made the trips to spend this special time with those we love!

One nice perk about Thanksgiving this year was that my best friend who goes to college in San Diego decided to stay and spend that holiday with me and my family instead of going home to the Bay Area. I was so happy to have her with us and it really made the day extra special. During our visit there, I went to the zoo, had coffee with Morgan, took a walk on the beach on Thanksgiving morning, hung out with my dad, and had a fun little shopping & coffee outing with my sister. It was a whirlwind trip, but super fun nonetheless!

A few weeks after Thanksgiving, we loaded up the car once more to head down for Christmas! This was a much longer trip than the last, which was pretty nice and allowed us to relax a bit more. A couple days before Christmas, my siblings and their families all gathered at our dad's house and we had a Christmas brunch to celebrate a little early. It isn't often we get everyone together (and we were still missing my brother), so it was really nice to hang out.

On Christmas Eve, Dai and I went on a special date to a super yummy place for lunch and we even made it fun with a little champagne :) I went to church with my family, which was great since it is pretty rare that we get to do that together. The rest of the evening was spent curled up on the couch watching Christmas movies! Dai and I spent Christmas morning at my dad's and then later went to my aunt's for dinner and to stay the night. I got some really great and thoughtful gifts for Christmas, but one of my favorites is definitely the iPad Mini that Dai got me! I was so surprised and really love it!

The next few days were spent hanging out with more family and exploring San Diego a bit since Dai isn't that familiar with it. Dai sadly had to go home before I did, but we had a lovely time together! Once he left, I headed up to the mountains with my sister and her little family. It was so nice getting away to a place to simply just relax for a few days. I played with my nephews, colored with my sister, played in the snow a bit, and took naps every day. It was wonderful and I was so happy that my sister invited me to come along :)

How were your holidays? Did you travel anywhere or do anything fun? Did you get any cool gifts?

I know that all this holiday talk is a bit late, but I know that if I don't get it all written down that I may forget some details and this blog is, after all, the perfect place to keep memories :)

Our Christmas Cards + DIY Cards on a Budget

December is just flying by, isn't it? My last day of school is tomorrow and Christmas is already next week! Pretty crazy. Every year I think about sending out Christmas cards, but have always gotten a late start and pushed it to the wayside because of everything else I have had going on. Not this year though! This year I was determined to complete this goal.

After researching different sites to order my Christmas card through, I quickly realized that they were more expensive than I had thought and that the cards in the price range I would possibly be willing to pay were ugly. They were nothing special and I felt that I could design something much better. So that's what I did! 
I considered designing my own card and having it printed through Shutterfly, but that route ended up being more expensive than choosing one of their predesigned cards, which I definitely wasn't into!

Instead, I decided to design my card in Photoshop to be 5x7 inches and had it printed at Costco as a regular matte image. I then cut 5x7 inch pieces of card stock paper out and glued each image to a piece of card stock. This way the entire card itself was thicker and I could also write a personal note on the back of each card.
As a personal touch to my design, I actually wrote out the "Merry Christmas" on paper with a marker, scanned it in to my computer, and made it a white, workable layer Photoshop. This is probably my favorite part of the card! I also love the photos of Marly and me that Dai took! We just went to a Christmas tree lot, but I think that the greenery was a nice, festive background for our photos :)
I am so happy with how these DIY cards turned out and think it is a great way to get beautiful, unique cards on a budget! #brokecollegestudent

Cost Breakdown:
+ 40 5x7" printed photos - $15.50
+ 20 8.5x11" sheets cardstock paper - already had
+ Glue
Total Cost for 40 cards: $15.60

Even though it takes time to cut the card stock paper and to glue each photo, that price is definitely well worth it to me!

Now, I just need to finish writing out little notes and actually send them off before Christmas ;)

Do you send out Christmas cards? How do you do it?

A Christmas Playlist

The whole Bay Area is preparing for what is supposed to be a major storm heading our way. They say there are going to be hurricane winds and constant terrential down pour for the next couple days. Flood warnings are out, people are running around collecting supplies, and we are encouraged to stay off the roads. Schools all over the place are even closed, including mine! Lucky me because that means I will have some extra time to finish up my projects that are due next week. I think God was looking out for me on this one haha.

That also means that I finally have time to cuddle up on the couch and watch Christmas movies with my sweetie while we wait for the storm to begin! With that, I wanted to share a little Christmas music playlist with you all as something fun to listen to throughout your festive days :) I think I will definitely be listening to it at least a few times through tomorrow while I try to use my rainy day to be productive!

It was difficult to not fill this playlist with every Michael Bublè Christmas song, but I do highly recommend that you listen to his version of Feliz Navidad!

Enjoy and have a merry day tomorrow! :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year // Holiday Checklist

Since it is clearly the most wonderful time of the year right now, I thought it would only be appropriate to have a checklist of things to do to enjoy this season to its very fullest! It shouldn't be a problem to do all these things and I can't wait to get started with Dai in tow, whether he wants to or not ;)

So far, I can check off getting a tree! Woohoo! Also, I'm doing pretty good with drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate, and am nearly finished with my holiday shopping. Hoping this weekend we will decorate the tree and the rest of Dai's living room (as much as he will let me haha), and that I can get started on wrapping some lovely presents to go under that fully decorated tree. Gotta deck ALL them halls, folks!

And now, I am off to eat ramen (of course) with my love on account of the rain and getting off early from work on this fine Friday evening.

Have a lovely weekend, friends!

A Thanksgiving Break

I know I am a few days late, but Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends! I took this little holiday to disconnect a bit and enjoy some relaxing time. It was definitely a nice break! Let me fill you in...
Dai and I kicked off our Thanksgiving Day with warm cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate, and the parade on TV! It felt lovely to be curled up on the couch with a blanket and in my pajamas on a Thursday morning, instead of rushing to school.
This year, I was in charge of making the sweet potato casserole, my favorite dish! I love how it turned out and it was just too pretty not to photograph. You know, it's just butter, brown sugar, nuts, and sweet potatoes, so what's not to love?? I will definitely be making it for Christmas dinner as well :)
Dai and I headed over to my uncle's house to spend time with my cousins. Marly even got to come along to play with his doggy cousins. We ate yummy snacks and chatted over mimosas, while Thanksgiving dinner cooked in the background.
It was too beautiful of a day to not document it with some photos outside!

Missing one of my cousins and her husband since they live in LA, but I thought this was a really nice little family shot of my uncle (my dad's twin brother!), his wife, and the rest of the family.
Definitely thankful for this guy of mine :) Love his kind and generous heart!
We then spent the rest of the day with my dad and my stepmother's family. It was quite the gathering! At one point, there were probably about 40 people visiting and eating at the same time. Definitely a lot going on there! It was really nice spending time with my dad and celebrating the holiday together.

The next day, we did a little shopping and had a great time looking for Christmas presents for family. I also met up with the family I nanny for to do a little photo shoot for their Christmas cards. It was pretty fun and I am always up for the opportunity to get some photography practice in! Later that evening, Dai and I hosted a BYOP (Build Your Own Pizza) party with his friends, which was definitely a success!

Yesterday, I finished and submitted my college applications! Yay! There's still a supplemental application to submit, but I won't be notified about that for a while. We celebrated by heading out to the outlet mall to look around and continue our Christmas shopping. All I have to say is OMG Kate Spade. I may have treated myself to a little something little... Merry Christmas to me!

Today I woke up with a sore throat and decided to take it easy. I ran some errands and got some things done that needed to be tended to. I am starting to decorate a bit for Christmas and even hung two strands of twinkle lights up in my bedroom. I love them! I think they will stay all year. It really helps make it feel a little more warm and homey.

I'm working on plans for a tree and am torn between getting a real one or an artificial tree. It will actually be set up at Dai's house, which I am still trying to convince him is a great idea ;) I have always had a real tree, but I am considering possibly getting an artificial one only because Dai will never be able to say 'no' to getting a tree since we will already have one haha and I can put it up whenever I want without having to worry about it drying out before Christmas. Decisions, decisions...

Also... Tomorrow is the first day I will be allowing myself to listen to Christmas music! Woohoooo! It has really been difficult to resist these past few weeks. Happy to finally pull my Michael Bublé Christmas album out again! I really just want all the Christmas everything now.

Well, I think we are all caught up now! Just wanted to check in and let y'all know what I have been up to this past week :)

 I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend filled with family and friends! What did you do to celebrate Thanksgiving?

Have a great week! Hooray for the Christmas season!

Happy Independence Day!

Hello all! I hope all of you are having a splendid day, and that those of you in America are having a great 4th of July celebration! We've been barbecuing with friends and family all day, and are taking a walk to see fireworks later tonight. It has been a pretty great day and I can't wait to see what the rest of this long weekend brings!

Happy 4th of July to you from me and my pup (and my Dai)!

My other best friend, Kaitlin :)

Happy Fourth of July! Hope everyone enjoyed warm weather, family, friends, and food! It was freezing here once the evening came (as you can see from my sweater and winter coat!), but watching the fireworks was a lot of fun. I have lived in my town for 6 years now, and have never been here for the Fourth of July. We all walked down to watch them in the center of my town and they were so close.  I thought it was pretty dang cool. We took Marly, but once the fireworks started, he was not happy. He kept trying to leave and if I would have let him go, he would have ran right home. Poor pup. Guess next year he will stay home!