it's the most wonderful time of the year

I need this, the holidays that is. They couldn't be coming at a better time. Halloween showed up so suddenly that it came and went too quickly for me to fully enjoy it and all of the Halloween festivities I had planned to do. This Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years I am going CRAZY. So if you don't like this time of year, stay away, because I am not letting anyone bring me down. Christmas has always been my absolulte favorite favorite favorite time of the year and since I've grown older, I've tried every year to relive the excitement I felt as a kid. Normally I fail at providing myself the same amount of anticipation and excitement, but this year, I will not. So everybody, if you care an ounce about me, please play along. I really need this more than anything right now. I got so stressed out about squeezing every Halloween thing into one weekend, I only planned a costume last minute and didn't even get to carve my pumpkin. But this winter season, I am excited for...

...making Thanksgiving pies without the help of my mother, shopping on Black Friday, making smores in the backyard fire pit, decorating a (real) Christmas tree to put in the "man cave", planning a Christmas party with White Elephant and a plethora of delicious Christmas baked treats and hot cocoa, playing Christmas music NON-STOP from the day after Thanksgiving onwards, watching every Christmas movie I can get my hands on (most importantly, The Santa Clause), ice skating, going to look at Christmas lights, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, making Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses, taking so many (good) photos to commemorate such an amazing time of year, drinking eggnog, helping my mama make Christmas dinner and pies, buying boxes of chocolates, shooting off fireworks for New Year's while drinking hot chocolate, making New Year's resolutions that we'll never stick to, having Andria (hopefully) come visit in Austin, and EVERYTHING ELSE I FORGOT.

Here are some photos from Halloween weekend (most of which Caroline took). It may look like I enjoyed every second, but it felt too rushed, and I didn't get to do EVERYTHING I wanted.