Christmas

Christmas really is so much more fun when you have little kids in the mix. My niece and nephew are so adorable! I limited myself to only two presents for each kid and it's so much fun to buy for them. We had our annual Christmas eve party at my parents house where my mom's family comes over. Then on Christmas we went over and had breakfast at my brother's house! After breakfast my mom and I went on our annual Christmas trip to L.L. Bean in Freeport. I bought a really nice coat and my mom bought me some new boots! I'm very happy with everything that I got this Christmas and how much time I was able to spend with my family. I have had so much pie over the past few days that I don't think I could eat pie again for a very long time.

I am pretty sure that torture is writing a no more than thirty page term paper with the topic of accounting. I had a dream last night where I was able to see my cutie pie niece and nephew. Hopefully this weekend I can make that a reality. It's been fun, during my procrastination, to plot out what I am going to do with my free time that will be able to happen after 7pm today. I do have two more classes after the one I have to hand this monster paper in for, but they both consist of me only having to show up. Oh, actually I have three. The last one is at the Top of the East where we will be having drinks with the professor. I think that is a fitting way to end the semester.

I realized that I haven't even mentioned the fact that I went to Oregon in October to visit two of my best friends! It was a really grand adventure. I flew on JetBlue, primarily due to the fact that they advertise unlimited snacks. Turns out once I was on the flight I didn't even care about the snacks! All I wanted to do was sleep until it was over. Both flights were spent that way. I also managed to not even need to use the bathroom using my sleep through the flight strategy, which was good since I had the window seat. Here are just a few pictures from the trip.


The first day there my friend Alice and I went on this Tree to Tree adventure. There were zip lines and we had to climb up/over/around different obstacles. It was really fun. In the next few days we went to the zoo, Saturday Market and a roller derby bout. After the roller derby bout I went to Eugene to visit my friend Sarah!



We went to a pumpkin patch to "pick" pumpkins. The only thing actually required from us was to decide on whatever pumpkin out we wanted and then carry it. No actual picking was necessary. They had the tastiest kettle corn popcorn at this pumpkin patch. I wish I had realized how good it was while still there and bought five bags to bring back with me.
After a few days in Eugene I took the train back to Portland, Oregon. It was really beautiful. I snapped some pictures along the way and I really like how they turned out. I'm convinced my camera has taken one too many falls and also the windows of the train were really dirty, but that resulted in some pretty pictures.

Thanksgiving!

My family! (minus my Uncle Lincoln who was taking the photo) We had Thanksgiving last Saturday, which turned out to be a good thing since I am dealing with a horrible cold at the moment. Nick, my boyfriend, made dinner over at his apartment last night and it was really good! I managed to still have some of the honey orange zest butter my mom made for the family Thanksgiving and use it for the biscuits we had last night. It is so good. I was going to make a pie, but then realized yesterday I didn't have any ingredients to make it and all the stores were closed. I guess planning ahead is not something I can do while sick. Another thing that had to go was Black Friday shopping. There was no way I could see myself fighting the crowds to get deals today. I bought a few things online, but I'm going to save my money for:
http://www.picnicportland.com/

and
Shop-A-Do!

Buy local this holiday season! I'm pretty sure by the time those two events come I will be done with my Christmas shopping anyways, but I can just buy things for myself or find some more things that my mom and dad would like. Also, I've come to the conclusion I need a new camera. I think I dropped it one too many times to take nice pictures anymore (as you can tell from the grainy quality of the above photo).

Peaks! I went there for the first time last weekend and biked around the island with my boyfriend. He took so many pictures of me on my bike, probably because he doesn't believe I will ride it again with him any time soon. I complain, quite vocally, about how much it hurts my butt to ride my bike. I have been told to just ride my bike more often and after a while it won't hurt, so that is what I shall try and do! I can't even explain how much fun I had that day. We looked for sea glass on a beach and Nick found me a piece of lavender sea glass! I tried to give him a piece of a crab shell in thanks, which he politely declined. From that beach we had a nice view of Portland's waterfront with a gigantic cruise ship at the docks.

On the way to Vermont a month ago we stopped at a few places in the White Mountains. These ducks were so much fun! Nick had to buy food for them from a machine, because he tricked them by kneeling down to say hi and ended up with a whole bunch of hungry ducks around him. To make up for it he spent his last quarters to buy them some food. Vermont was so beautiful and warm. I walked down to the waterfront and read Artemis Fowl in the sunshine. I ended up with a nice burn on my left shoulder. I couldn't stop looking at the mountains that you can see in the background of this picture. They are so beautiful. The whole trip was full of such amazing scenery. The ride back was probably the best, since Nick drove and I could just look out the window at the countryside.

Willard beach is one of the top polluted beaches in Maine I guess. I read that somewhere online. I guess they don't close the beach, but sometimes they have warnings up to not go into the water. This makes me want to go to other beaches, but the fantastic thing about Willard is that you can watch the ship traffic! I love watching the tug boats pushing the gigantic ships out to the ocean. I swear the water was colder there than it was at Pine Point! The only thing that Pine Point has that Willard doesn't have is the most amazing ice cream place. I had banana soft serve there the other day and it was the best soft serve I have ever had.

Hiking at Dodge Point.

Morning bun from Standard Baking Co.

My niece, the future vandal.

Grilled Cheese Standoff

I went out to lunch with my brother, sister in law and Bailey (my niece). The waitress brought my lunch out first, a grilled cheese sandwich, because she thought it was for Bailey. At first Bailey and I played with the boat that it came on until she went for the grilled cheese. That was when I promptly decided that the boat needed to move out of reach so that my lunch would not become something I would not want to eat. Bailey didn't know how to react and sat there with that expression on her face for the next five minutes until her chicken fingers came out. It was hilarious.

Our snowed in porch. It is supposed to snow all weekend!

One of my favorite ornaments. I have had it since I was probably four or five.