Christmas Eve/Day

I decided to do a "follow me around" type blog. Although these are generally seen on Youtube, I thought it would be easier to do on a blog--with pictures.

Warning: This is a rather long post.

Here we have the stockings, hung by the chimney with the care. And of course, the nativity scene. I used to play with it when I was a little girl, but now I just like to set it up.

On my bed reside two holiday-themed teddy bears. 

I wish I could rotate this, but it doesn't seem to let me. However, this is our Christmas tree.

And we have the track with the train on it. 

On Christmas Eve, we have egg nog punch. The Santa behind it was filled with yummy goodies from an aunt.

Do you see the dress?

Of course, on Christmas Eve, we watch my dad's favorite Christmas movie:

White Christmas

This scene is from their "Sisters" song.

And this year, we decided to go see the light show. This blurry photo was taken while driving through the Candy Cane Forest. 

And this is another blurry, drive-by shot of the giant star.

Mom is making the sugar cookie dough (:

Christmas Tree sugar cookie cutouts!

My brother, Jack, and I are decorating the Christmas Trees in our pajamas. 

Christmas morning breakfast casserole with Mimosa!

The adorable gold christmas tree is one of my favorites (:

And here is the dining room table all set up for Christmas Dinner.

You can barley see the chandelier (is that what that is called?)...I wove a garland through it and hung gold ornaments as well.

And my mom and I stand for a pre-Christmas meal picture.

There were two more pictures, but I felt that they were too many to put in one post. However, this Christmas was really nice because I'm starting to appreciate family more. As this is my second to last Christmas as a high school student, it really makes me think about how much time I have left with my family. Sometimes, you take them for granted, but you never really should.

Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

Manners Matter

After having sat through a very long family dinner, and having an etiquette class last Saturday, I am slowly realizing that manners do matter. 

I am probably the last person that should be preaching the merit of manners. I am a horrible messy person, and on most occasions you will find me as the least-lady-like person in the room. Yet, when the occasion calls for it, I can be extremely lady like. I will not talk about politics, mention how much something costs, nor will I put my elbows on the table.  I will also put my knife on the plate, with the sharp side pointing towards me. 

And this leads me to my next point; a simple list of my biggest manner pet peeves:

       1. When people talk about how much money something cost.

                This is my number one for a reason. I cannot stress how absolute tacky it is to brag about how much you spend on something. The only reason it is ever done is to show off how much you have, when it does the opposite. It reveals what a shallow person you are that you let materialistic items define your worth to other people. 

         Example: "Don't you love this couch? I spent $1600 on it. A little pricy, but so worth it."

                         "Tell you're father that I have a tool he can borrow! It's a $200 dollar tool."

      2. Chewing with your mouth open. 

                I'm sorry, but if I wanted to see how food looked mashed up, I'd give it to my one year old cousin. I have no interest in how the turkey looks in your mouth, or waving around on your fork while you loudly yell about something. 

        Example: "And then *chewchewchew* he did that! *points with piece of food on fork*

      3. When people talk about politics or other controversial subjects and don't let the other person have an opinion. 

           I think this one is really self-explanatory. It's quite annoying when some tries to shove their views down your throat and refuse to listen to any other opinions. It's rude and boastful. 

In which I Bake.

For those of you who do not know me personally, you probably will not be surprised by this post. However, I am not a "baker." I also am not much of a cooker, either. Really, the kitchen is not where I go. In fact, my mom even face palmed when she discovered I didn't know there was a cooking aisle at the grocery store. Yet, I decided to attempt to make White Chocolate and Peppermint Double Chocolate Brownies from a recipe out of Real Simple.
I took pictures.

This was the basic brownie, the double chocolate brownie recipe. Not really that difficult to make or that messy to clean.

 And here we have the cut up white chocolate, which was surprisingly easy to cut.

And finally, the finished result. Of course, it is no where near as attractive as the picture in the magazine, but they tasted fantastic. They were so moist, and the peppermint candies add the perfect little punch.

Kate Spade Wish list

Things I want from Kate Spade that will most likely never happen:

How Cute is this? 

For a christmas party? Yes, please!

This dress is beyond adorable. And the hot pink color is something that doesn't make me hate the color. And the bow? 

These. make. me. so. happy!

So, my shift key is not working underneath these pictures, but these are alll super cute (: New post about me baking soon

p.s. The baking post should be a total surprise if you know me in person at all. Cooking and I are NOT best friends. 

NaNoWriMo 2011

Well, it is here. National Novel Writing Month has finally arrived and I am PUMPED. I am writing a Sarah Dessen-eqsue novel, which is quiet rare for me, as romance writing tends to make me feel awkward. However, the ending I have planned will hopefully shock everyone, if it is ever read.

I guess it's time to say good-bye to my social life.

Total Word Count: 2004

Moments.

As a member of society of the female teen demographic, I am excepted to play into the hands of romantic movies and end up crying about the lack of good men and how "I'll never find anyone like him!" Only, my "him" is Rhett Butler. There is no reason to deny that we have ALL had this moment, regardless of how many "I don't need a man to complete me!" moments we have had. I happened to have one of those moments on Saturday.

I was sitting in a Papa's and Beer booth, waiting for my food to arrive, surrounded by three of my friends. Hali, Laudan, and Tiffany. Hali and Laudan were sitting discussing their boyfriends and the dates they had been on recently and all that jazz. Tiffany was sitting there, nodding along in agreement with their shared stories. I simply stirred my straw in my 27 ounce margarita, desperately trying to avoid the question that was bound to come next. "So, Alexis....what about you?"

The dreaded question. Since I am now 16 and a junior, it is becoming expected that I shall have some type of romantic interest in my life. Yet, this is not the case.
 "Well, I've never had a real* boyfriend, and I've never been on a date." I quietly sipped on my water.
"Oh, yeah..." They picked up back on their conversation.

Moments like this make me think back on my life and question how I am seemingly the only girl in the entire planet without a boyfriend. Then, I realize, I have set myself up for this. I have way to many friends of the male persuasion and I would rather wear sweats than a dress and heels at almost any given moment. Does this make me an unappealing tomboy?

Of course not! I like to wear mascara. I like to watch The Notebook and gush about how hot male actors are. I like to pretend that I am Scarlett O'Hara and that Rhett is coming to save me from a swarm of Yankees at any minute. I even used to do a bit of modeling.

Do I mean to brag about all this? No. My entire point is this-there will be moments when you feel like you desperatly need a man to make you feel whole. It's a lie. Look around at your friends in relationships, and I can garenttee you at least one is unhappy 50% of the time because of their siginificant other. Besides, if you're in a relationship, how are you going to unabshadly flirt with your cute Mexican waiter?


*real as in longer than two weeks- and middle school "boyfriends" don't really count.

Dying Slow

Rain makes me think about things. Today, it made me think about something that is always looming in the back of my mind.

Every single day you live, you are closer to your impending death.


Besides the obvious morbidity of the sentence, it made me think of something else. You really can't bide your time waiting for things to happen. You are only given so many years on this place called Earth, and you will never know if today is your last. Although this is clearly an overused statement, and maybe even a platitude, it still made me realize something.

Eloise, of Eloise in the Plaza, is a freaking beast. She takes life by the horns and just goes. I have decided that I need to be more like her. She may be officious, but at least she knows what she wants. And by golly, she goes after it. From now on, I'm going for what I want. After all, I'm only that much closer to dying anyway.

Good Feelings

Do you ever have those moments when you just are happy? I am in one of those moments where I am just super, duper, awesomely, happy. It's to the point where Mariah Carey and I are harmonizing about how I want you for christmas. (It's seriously one of my favorite songs.)

I mean, I'm starving, it's past midnight, I have chem homework that I don't understand (three worksheets of it) and I am really sore from yesterday's workout, but I feel awesome. I want to sing loud, laugh louder, and dance around in my underpants.

I really love moments like this. I feel like I'm on top of the world and no one can bring me down. Not only have I finally, 100%, gotten over one of those boy experiences that is mandatory before graduation, I can now even listen to certain songs without wanting to throw up. I even saw his new squeeze at this college thing (Duke, U Penn, Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown) and didn't want to throw up on her face.


Just to clarify, I would never ACTUALLY throw up on someone. It is just a saying to explain how I feel.

Here we go again, I kinda wanna be more than friendsssss.
Animal: Neon Trees

I really need to go before this turns in to a terrible ramble of a blog post.


Well, I'll recap tomorrow on how my Monday goes (: Everyone sleep well and remember....



Laughter makes you live longer.

Slacker

It's labor day weekend and I have accomplished NOTHING. And by nothing, I mean I have watched the first series of The Inbetweeners and am watching a documentary on Absinthe. I may have also watched part of a Jersey Shore marathon.

I'm still in my pajamas, and its past noon. In three hours, I'll be at my last day of work.


I still haven't done my homework.

I. Am. A. Slacker.

The Lake

Living in the upper region of South Carolina, the beach is about three to five hours away. However, neighborhoods are filled with pools and lakes are anywhere from 40 minutes to five hours away. Today, my family and I ventured to Lake Jocassee for my brother's Boy Scout outing. Literally, it is one of the most beautiful lakes in our area.

Lake Jocasse-this picture can NOT capture the beauty.

My dad and brother where supposed to spend the night out there last night, however, due to the weather and lack of parking, they didn't feel comfortable leaving the boat in the lake overnight, so they drove home. (Please excuse that run-on sentence (:) They left ridiculously early in the morning today. My mother and I left around 9:40 after a quick breakfast and much discussion over the directions.

We arrived to an area of full of fathers, sons, and a few mothers scattered about. I was the only female under the age of 40 in our group. I took this as a sign that I should study. I, having thought ahead, busted out my AP US History (APUSH) book out of LL Bean book bag and began to read/take notes. Three pages in, this boy starts to talk to me. (I can not, for the life of me, recall what his name is and I've met him twice.) He asks me what I'm doing and I say homework. He then asks, "Why? That's what Sunday's are for." I quickly inform him of the massive amount I have and that I'm working on Sunday. He gives me a weird look and says, "Nerd." Obviously.

Now, five minutes later, a man with a mustache who is a prominent leader in this troop tells me that "Homework is not allowed here." The same boy from before enjoys this idea and contributes to the theory by adding, "Hey! You grab her feet, I'll grab her arms."

I sigh, knowing it is all down hill from here. I am thrown in the water (thankfully, they thought to move my book/notes/pen before carrying me down to the water.) And let me tell you, I was not expecting the chill in the water. As a lifeguard, I am used to 80-90 degree water, not 70 degree water. Those ten degrees do, in fact, make a difference.

I then proceeded to spend my day in the water, slaloming, eating, driving a boat, and leisure reading. I went home, ran two miles, took a shower, ate left-over Thai food (red curry with chicken, brown rice, and vegetables), and am now deciding to get back to my homework.

Anyone else have a good weekend?

Like, really?

I have come to terms with that fact that I have a terrible problem. I have fallen into the trap of the Valley Girl. My daily language (when I'm not preforming) includes the word "like" after almost every third word. My AP English Literature teacher pointed this out the first day in his class. Not only was I mortified to find this out, apparently it was well known I spoke like this and everyone had been making fun of it since freshman year.

I turned around to ask one of my closer friends, Marie-Charlotte, why she never bothered to tell me I had such an annoying habit. She replied, "I thought you knew. That's just the way you talk." As though it was no big deal. As though talking like an air head was exactly the image of myself I wanted to convey.

I shall certainly be spending more time on my speech.

School-Junior Year

School started on Wednesday for me, and I'm already drowning in homework. Over the weekend, I was assigned a surprising amount of homework. Study skills that I never developed are quickly becoming a necessity. Last night, I stayed up till one reading AP US History chapter and doing my pre-cal honors homework. Today, I have a german song to memorize (Das Dumbflish lied-spelled wrong), 66 pages of chemistry to read, german songs to compare, Hamlet to read and Suits episodes to catch up on. 

The IB Program is not working well with my procrastination. 

"You look like you just woke up!"

Refer to the title. This was told to me around 5:30 in the afternoon after dancing around like a show horse and belting out songs with lyrics like "Just like my brother is shananananna yippdy boom de boom." On top of that, I had been propelling my body around someone else's for an interesting take on Salsa dancing. However, instead of snapping back in the cynical fashion that was written in, I kindly smiled and uttered the words, "No Makeup March."

Most people know about "No Shave November."This is when guys decided they are too lazy to shave every day and put down the razor and cream and attempt to look ten years older then they really are. THis seems to be especially popular with high school guys.

"No Makeup March" is an extension of this, but for females. As the name would suggest, you don't wear makeup. I wasn't originally going to participate, but when I woke up on the first with a scheduled eye appointment to get hard contacts and the overwhelming desire to never leave my bed, I committed to a month of baring my face, essentially naked, to the world around me.

Best. Thing. Ever. Not only do I have 10 extra minutes in the morning to do with what I want (today it was running around my room singing Disney songs), my shower time has decreased. I never realized how much time it takes to get it all off. I'm not saying that I'll never wear makeup again, but this is the most time I've had in the mornings since I discovered the magic hours of 10-1 P.M.

I'm going to go scamper along and watch A Very Potter Musical and follow that with 30 Rock. Enjoy yourselves.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

Nail Color: Sally Hansen So Much Fawn
Sugar eaten today: Chocolate chip cookie, 1/4 of a crisp bar, giant handful of M&Ms and two Red Vines. (Red Vines= Best candy ever.)

Thursday child has far to go...

We've all heard the nursery rhyme that associates the days of the week with the life that child will have. I was born on a Thursday, meaning I have "far to go."

Some people claim this means that the Thursday child will simply go far in life. However, most nursey rhymes really have a sinsiter undertone, thus I believe this means the child in question has a lot to learn and needs to grow before they are fully responsible and mature. Obviously, I'm a teenager, which means I have years to turn into the perfect citizen. Yet, I may have many life lessons to learn before I can feel true empathy and all that jazz.

Maybe I'm over thinking this, but out of all my friends, I tend to be one of the bigger risk takers. I also lack that filter that stops comments from making it out of your mouth. This brigs me to the "far to go" part of the propchey-like rhyme.

Well, it's 12 am and I have to be up around 7 tomorrow. I'm going to sleep more and ponder this some more. (sorry this is so short)


Peace. Love. Happiness.

Greener song: Nur für dich by Wise Guys

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you...

As this is my first post, I suppose it would be nice to provide you with some information about myself. As the name would suggest, I am a high schooler. A sophomore to be exact. My inspiration to start this blog goes to both Hayley G. Hoover and The College Prepster. Both have amazingly awesome blogs, but are rather different in what the discuss. School wise, I am above average. I will start the IB program next year, (International Bachelorette) which is pretty much just a lot of advanced class. Obviously, I won't have the typical, "played out on TV" experience in high school, but hey. Education is important, plus, that's what college is for :P Anyway, here's a quick list of stuff about me:

Name: Alexis
Name I would Change to: Bridgette. (Super fancy spelling of Bridget.)
Hair Color and length: A little darker than honey, almost below shoulder blades.
Eye Color: Dark blue
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite song: Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, but currently it's Up, Up, and Away by KiD CuDi.
Favorite Movie: Cruel Intentions
Favorite Disney Princess: Sleeping Beauty
Future Job: Lawyer/Actress/Writer/Secret Agent/Broadway star/Senator
Favorite Musical: Wicked. <3.
Relationship Status: Single
Addicted to: Over use of commas.
Style: Preppy-sporty
Sport played: Tennis, basketball, and running.
Colleges I want to go to: Tulsa University, Washington and Lee, Harvard University.
Current Song Playing on iPod: Ignorance by Paramore (little to early in the morning for it...)

That's all I have for you today (:

Peace. Love. Happiness.