Another night of sparklers. It is really fun. This was the best I got at writing my name.

This is the last post for this project. I finished one of my resolutions. And this one might have been the hardest, or at least one that I am glad is over. Taking a picture everyday is stressful. And you might have noticed that I didn't even take a picture everyday, hence the "flashback" segment.

But the end of the year is a time of reflecting. Here is all the I accomplished this year.

1. Losing 25 pounds. I didn't realize it was that much until now.
2. Chris and I made some Christmas presents for our family.
3. I played piano in sacrament several times. Never a solo, but for the choir. Which I think is harder.
4. I got better at photography and elements. Not where I want to be, but there is always this year.
5. I am a teacher. Which means I have a job with benefits. And a job that I love and I can't imagine doing something else.
6. I exercised 5 times a week up until August, than I started teaching. Almost accomplished.
7. I made half a quilt
8. I went to a craft fair and sold some things.
9. I realized that Heavenly Father has a plan for Chris and I. I think that is what I am most proud of. It is hard accepting that Heavenly Father's plan is different from mine. But it is His will and His timing that I am good with 97% of the time.
10. Project 365

Has this project been worth the time and effort I had to put into it? I have no idea. I was expecting this to go a little differently. I was at least going to get pregnant this year and I have one picture a week taken care of. We were supposed to do a lot of things that got pushed aside. But isn't that life? Sometimes you have to let go of the plan you have in your head. That is very hard for me to do. Now the plan is to do our best with our daily tasks and hope that there is a better plan we have yet to find.

I got a huge box of sparklers for Christmas and we started testing them out tonight. We also decided to take pictures. It took a couple of tries to get the settings on the camera just right, but it was fun. Chris is really good at making perfect circles with his arm.

Today we had a girls trip to Sweet Tomatoes and to do all our Christmas returns. We can't really go to Sweet Tomatoes without making a memory.

For example. today Charleah pushed a lady over just to get Mom an ice cream cone before me. How rude!

December 26

We played Clue on Sunday night. Sammie won the first round, then Charleah and maybe Mom? I don't really remember. I know that it was neither me nor Chris.

This is the new Clue which Charleah just loves. It is really fun. I don't think I could ever go back to playing the old clue. It just wouldn't be as exciting.

December 25

Christmas morning. In my family, we wake up and wait for Dad to shower. Although, now that we are older we all sleep in so Dad is up before us. We read the Christmas story, Mom and Dad open presents, the kids open presents,  then Dad cooks waffles. And we eat.

Christmas morning was not the same without Adison. He just makes everything better.

After we ate breakfast, Chris and I went to his parents house to open presents and spend some time with them. I need to get the pictures from Megan's new camera.

His parents left to go visit some other family, so we came up to anxiously await Adison's phone call. 2pm came and went and he finally called at 3:30 to say the phones weren't working properly and he would call at 6pm. So we all waited for 6pm. And he called. We got to talk to him for almost 2 hours. It was fantastic and only 5 more months until we get to talk to him again.

December 24

Christmas Eve was one busy day. Sammie and I woke up early to finish Christmas shopping. Then we came home and helped Charleah make cake balls. Then Chris and I finished making Christmas presents which we should not have pushed off to the last minute. But we wouldn't be us if we didn't procrastinate. Finally, we went over to his parents house for the Christmas Eve party. Chris's Dad made the best ribs I have ever tasted and we sang Karaoke. Chris's grandparents have a karaoke machine and tons of CDs, so if you can think of a song, they probably have it. Every year, the same songs are done. Chris's dad sings "Joy to the World" by 3 Dog Night. Chris and Megan sing "Summer Nights" and Mitchell sings some High School Musical with Megan and Chris backing him up.

December 23

Time to wrap presents. I am a last minute wrapper. And almost everything gets done near the last minute, so that pushes wrapping back even later. I was just going to wrap on present, but then there were so many sitting in front of me, that I just about wrapped them all. I was on a roll. Chris was funny when I found out I wrapped them all. He was in the other room wrapping my presents and I out-wrapped him 2:1. That is because he is a perfectionist when it comes to wrapping. So mine get done faster, but his look better.

December 22

This is our annual shopping trip with Dad. We go ever year to help him pick our presents for Mom. We were trying to remember the first time we did it, and I think it was in 2002. So we have been doing this for 8 years now. That is a tradition. It is always the week leading up to Christmas (because they is when every one is home) and it is so much fun. I hope we continue the tradition forever. Mom can stay home with all the grandkids and then all us siblings will go shopping with Dad.

Here, Charleah is modeling a shoe we bought Mom.

December 21

Can you see it? The cowboy hats? We were following this truck for awhile and I realized it was the picture of Texas. Drivin' a truck and wearing cowboy hats. They even have a Texas A&M sticker on it!

December 20

This morning, Mom, Charleah and I were out shopping and Dad called to meet up with us at lunch time. After the shortest nap in the world, we all met up at BJs. I think that place is so good, even though I only ever get a sandwich when I go. But there honey mustard is so good. Why can't you buy good honey mustard in the store? It was a nice little get together after all being apart for about 6 months.

December 19

And here is our new car. I think it is very pretty. I love the color and the inside is so nice. It drives nice too. Plus, it has cruise control! You wouldn't think you would miss it that much, until you realize that you don't have it.

You may ask, "What did you name your car?" And I would respond, "We don't name our cars." Well, Chris might, but I don't. It's name is the Kia Sportage. And that is it. We don't name inanimate objects once we are past a certain age.

December 18

Sometime you wake up one morning with an idea of how the day it going to go, and then something completely different happens. And I do not like changing my schedule.

Chris and I intended to get up and go Christmas shopping all day. But then he remembered that we were supposed to go to a car dealership so that I could look at the car he wanted. We leased the Jeep and the lease is up in February so we had to either buy it or get another car. (Never lease unless you plan on never driving the car.) We really didn't want to buy the jeep. It has been a good car, but in 3 years it would be worth nothing.

So, we looked at a Kia Sportage. We both really liked the car and after about 3 hours of talking numbers and negotiating, we finally signed our names to the car. ***Note to future self: Be more firm when talking numbers. I still feel like we didn't get what we were promised. Hopefully when we buy our next car, we will both do better.***

So, we went to clean all of our stuff out of the Jeep. It has been a good car. It never broke down and we only had that deer incident.

December 17

This is a picture of all the teachers and staff at Navasota Intermediate School. We took it after all the kids were gone, so do we look like we just through a party?

Today was our 5th grade Christmas party day. It was another half day at school so I only had to be there for 4 hours. That was awesome. I don't think I could have handled a full day of hyper kids.

I have little parent involvement in my classroom. I was expecting many parents to come to the party, and honestly that didn't bother me. I am not good at bossy people I don't know around. But, I am good at bossy Charleah and Sammie around. So they came with Mom to help me.

I honestly don't know what I would have done without them there. It was crazy, but not as bad as the Birthday Cupcake Fiasco. They were even quiet for a good 30 minutes while Charleah and Sammie played Bingo with them.

They all got to see what I deal with everyday. They may believe me now when I say one kids randomly screams. I don't know why, it just happens.

11:30 couldn't come fast enough. And with it, my Christmas break.

December 16

Charleah and Sammie are here! (This picture was taken in my classroom the next day)

They landed really late and didn't get to the house until after midnight. Of course, I was sleeping so I didn't get to see them until the next day. But they were in Texas and that is what matters.

December 15

We are a lot late getting the Christmas tree this year. But everyone has been really busy and hasn't had time to get it. While Chris and I painted Adison's old room, Mom and Dad got the tree. I think they did an excellent job picking one out. And it smelled fantastic.

Real trees are the only way to go. And it will always be that way. Hopefully our children don't have allergies.