DAY TWO IN NEW YORK

Our second day in NYC was the only full day we had, in terms of not being on a plane at any point that day - short trip, I know.  We knew we had to make the most of it, and one of the most important things we wanted to do whilst in New York was see the 9/11 memorial.  When I was there last, it was still being built, so it was a first for all of us.  But of course, we also needed to hit up as many food spots as possible, so that's what we started with.

BERGDORF AND BROADWAY

As I mentioned, I recently jetted off to NYC with my mom and sister for my sister's spring break, and especially to go see Les Miserables on Broadway with Ramin Karimloo.  Of course, that was only the beginning of it!  And I must start off by saying just how frickin' COLD it was!  Cold is an understatement.  It was bloody freezing.  The wind was the worst part.  Ugh.  Spring clearly has not sprung in NYC - I've been spoilt by this Florida weather!

HAVE YOURSELVES A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS (or rather, I hope you already did)

Another Christmas come and gone, and I've got to say, it was a rather good one.  Whereas last year was ultimately wonderful, but also highly turbulent, this year was mellow, smooth, a bit on the lazy side, but still great.  We started Christmas Eve with a family dinner of my sister, dad, grandma, and myself, then followed that up with the late night carol-singing service at my dad and grandma's church.  Thoroughly exhausted, we came home and some of us (me) went right off to bed, whilst my dad and sister stayed up late to do some last minute wrapping of presents.

MY NEW FAVORITE HOBBY/the main reason I'll be poor from here on out

So I posted that last post about Greenwich Market in London on the day I left for Florida for five days.  I still have a couple London-y things I want to catch up on but I want to say a bit about this Florida trip first, because it was AWESOME.

I'll recap the majority of the trip in the next post, because I want to talk about one specific part - skydiving!

CANADIAN SKI-CATION

As I mentioned in my last post and have showcased on Instagram, I spent a long Thanksgiving weekend at Silver Star Mountain Resort in Canada with my extended family for several days of skiing, eating, skiing some more, and eating some more.  It was really fun to see my cousins and aunt and uncle, and to hang out all together with them and our grandma.  It isn't often that we all are able to get together since we live six hours apart and we're all at ages where we each have our own stuff going on, be it school, work, or in my case, being outside the country half the time over the previous two years!  So getting together for American Thanksgiving at Silver Star was really a treat.  

PRE-GRADUATION WEEKEND

 Once my internship with Pericles ended, I still had a week before graduation, and since my mom lives in Florida, I went down to visit her.  Little did I know that we were going to take a little whirlwind trip to Key West for three days to celebrate her birthday and my upcoming college graduation!  Surprise vacations rock, you guys.

GRADUATION

 Here are the truths of my reality as I write this...

- I'm sitting in Boston Logan Airport waiting to board my flight home to Seattle.
- I graduated from college yesterday.
- In exactly two weeks, I'll be in another airport, preparing to board my flight to London.

This does not feel like real life.  At all.  I mean, every time I think about all this and realize that this is actually the reality of my life, I'm in awe.  Literally, too good to be true.  I can't even.  And even just focusing on the fact that I'm now a college graduate...!!  I'm done with school.  That's ridiculous.  It feels weird, but in a good way.  I don't miss it... yet.  I'm sure I will miss some aspects eventually, but right now I'm just so caught up in everything that has happened, is happening, and is going to happen, that I actually don't have the brain capacity to think about anything else.  It's all overload.  So I'm just going to be here in my happy place until my internal hard drive clears up a bit.

...I'm done with school.

What?

my sister is 20 and I feel old

Before you say anything, I know that I'm really not that old, but when your little sister is no longer a teenager, and officially into her twenties, you sure feel ancient.  So pass the champagne because I need to drown that depressing thought in alcohol, but to hell if I'm not doing it in class.  :p

We celebrated her birthday by going out to dinner in Seattle's most delicious steakhouse (and in our opinion, the best steaks you'll ever have are here), JaK's Grill.  There was gift giving, photo taking, wine drinking, and a lot of eating.  I don't think I've ever gotten dessert at this place before, that's how full we are after the steaks - quite the accomplishment!

Happy birthday to my favorite sister!!

my sister is a rockstar

Yesterday morning my sister sang the National Anthem for the Annual Air Show at the airport in Friday Harbor - and rocked it!  She was told there would be anywhere from five hundred to two thousand people there, and still got up there to show her stuff.  Let me tell you, I can barely sing along to a song if there's anyone else in the car with me, so I am thoroughly impressed by her.  If I'm gonna be working as a stage manager on Broadway someday, I'm sure she'll be on one of those stages belting it out.

I snuck a video in, so everyone else can listen, too.

over the river and through the woods

.

Yesterday, my sister, my mom, and I drove two hours north of Seattle to Bellingham, where my grandparents live.  We celebrated my sister's birthday with them, indulging in a delicious home-cooked meal {nobody cooks better than grandmothers, I swear!} and some yummy cupcakes.  I always love going to my grandparent's house - it's so cozy, and beautifully decorated, and they have a big backyard with a pond and bridge, and their own little woods with paths going through it.  Going up there always brings out the kid in my sister and myself!

Now, we're home and I have to start packing.  Leaving for NYC tomorrow!!

the big nineteen

Today was younger sister's 19th birthday!  She's legal in Canada, people!

The whole fambam went out to dinner to celebrate...

... then proceeded to come home and open presents.

Of course, no birthday would be complete without our family dog.

What a cuddlebug!

The evening continued with watching Friday Night Lights on DVD {one of sister's gifts, and a new show for all of us}.  Popcorn and hot chocolate contributed to the evening, too, of course!  Happy birthday, sis!

I had originally planned on a new weekly {hopefully} post to begin today, and occur every Thursday, but decided to start tomorrow as the birthday took precedence.  So keep your eyes peeled and on the lookout for a slightly awkward and mostly awesome post tomorrow!  More on that then...