Ten for Tuesday: Best Moments of 2011

So, I haven't posted in about three weeks. Yikes. I guess that's what work overload, the holidays and a little baby nephew's birth will do to you. But I'll expand on that in a bit.

Since 2011 is almost over I figured this would be a good time for me to cover my favorite moments of the year. After all, this was probably the biggest and most exciting year of my life so far!

Ten Best Moments of 2011

1. Getting engaged and...

2. Getting married. Clearly some of the biggest life events I will ever go through, and I couldn't think of a better person than Drew to experience both with!

Of course, these are the reasons I started this blog in the first place, so I could share my excitement and frustrations with wedding planning and marriage preparation with my family and friends. But more than being able to write about these experiences was actually getting to experience them!

It's crazy to look back on 2011 and have it be the year that I not only got engaged, but got married too! Probably a shorter time frame than most people would go with, but Drew and I aren't much for conventional time frames (after all, at this point in the year we've only even known each other for just over two years!). I love that we're just at the beginning of our story as husband and wife and have so many more amazing years to spend together.

3. My first nephew's birth. That's right, I am officially an aunt! On December 8 my older sister gave birth to her first kid and my first nephew! Drew and I got to finally meet him on Friday, and he is honestly so adorable.

Baby nephew!

4. Moving in with Drew. I've already mentioned how exciting finally getting to live together has been (and how much I was looking forward to it), so I won't go into it again here. Suffice it to say we're having a lot of fun living together and learning more about each other each day.

5. Spending Christmas with my family(s). Growing up, my family spent every Christmas at my grandparents' house near Chicago. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make the trip for the last THREE years, but Drew and I finally made the trip this year! We spent my four-day break from work spending time with my grandparents, parents, some cousins and, of course, our trip to meet our new nephew!

Since we spent Christmas weekend with my family, we had to celebrate Christmas early with Drew's family. The week before Christmas we headed up to Saginaw for family time, presents and the new Muppets movie. Awesome.

Drew and I also had a little Christmas celebration of our own so we could exchange stockings. So I guess we technically had three Christmases this year. Crazy! Maybe next year we'll simplify and keep it at one or two, but I loved having a celebration with each of my families during my first year of marriage!

6. Our honeymoon. Now that there's snow on the ground outside, my desire to be in Florida and Disney World is even worse than normal. Good thing Drew and I got to spend our honeymoon there a few months ago! Check out my Wedding page for a list of all my honeymoon recaps.

7. Writing more & starting this blog. Anyone that knows me knows that writing and public relations are my top career goals. Although I am so incredibly far away from that in my current job (boo!). BUT, I have started to make more serious efforts in changing this in the past year, and I have a good feeling that my work will pay off in the next year. That sounds like a fortune cookie, but whatever. I'm trying to be optimistic.

Part of my re-dedication to writing and achieving my dream job has been starting this blog. No, this isn't anything I would put on my resume or use as a writing sample, but this blog has given me the push to write on a consistent basis and give me the practice I was lacking. When I first started this blog I felt like I had completely lost my touch with writing and using my "voice," but I feel much more confident about my abilities again. Next step: convince other people I know how to write well and get that dream job!

8. My cousin's wedding. Now that my cousins and I are all grown up and living all over the country, we don't get to see each other too often. Luckily my dad's entire side of the family was able to make it to my cousin's wedding over the summer so we could have a mini reunion!

I had so much fun catching up with everyone and, of course, celebrating and dancing at my cousin's wedding. What an awesome time. I love my family, and I can't wait for our next chance to (hopefully) all be together at another cousin's wedding in August!

9. Moving to our new apartment. This probably isn't exciting to anyone except me and Drew (and I guess our new landlord), but our new apartment is so much better than our previous one. More space, cheaper rent, better location and it feels like our place (as opposed to my apartment where Drew happened to live).

We still have a ton to do to make our apartment look and feel more home-y, but we've got a good start in the month we've lived here.

10. Having LOTS to look forward to in 2012! Seriously, I am so excited for next year and all of the changes that will happen. I have a good feeling 2012 will be at least as good as 2011, if not better. I've already started a list of things I want to accomplish in the next year, so look out for that next week. I am so ready to rock the new year.