Sunday Snapshot: New Year

Hello darlings! I’m back in the states and that means I can return to my old posting schedule! I hope you’re as excited as I am! Maybe a little bit more? Okay, I don’t judge you if not.

So I had a wonderful Christmas… Can I still say that even though I’m 9 days late? Well, I’m saying it anyway! I was incredibly happy just be home with my lovely family eating delicious American food.

On Christmas Eve my family always eats a white, meatless meal. I’m not sure if the white part is a Polish tradition, but I do know that the meatless one is. We usually break opłatek, but we actually forgot it this year. Oplatek is a wafer that loved ones usually break on Christmas eve. Each person gets a wafer and you go around the table breaking each other’s wafer and wishing them something for the new year. This is actually the first year we didn’t do it.

On my plate is cod, portabello mushroom filled with crab meat (Fun fact: I don’t like mushrooms so I just ate the crab meat), lobster, corn, and pierogies.

These are all of the ornaments I bought abroad. My favorite is the swan with the beautiful crown on it’s head! I got to feed swans in Prague and it just reminds me so much of the fairytale city.

These were two of my favorite gifts! I’ll be living in a townhouse next semester so I’ll be able to use this lovely crock pot and blender! Expect a few posts of delicious food posts from me. I’ll definitely be experimenting.

My mom worked very hard cooking the Christmas day dinner. We have the same thing every year and she always does a fantastic job. This extremely full plate has mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, and a roll. Between Christmas eve dinner and Christmas day dinner you can say I was very, very full. I can’t even explain to you how awesome it was to have turkey again.

The Porter family house actually has quite a bit of trees for the Christmas holiday. Currently, we have five big trees up and three little trees. We used to have one more big tree and one medium tree. Each one has it’s own special theme. Don’t worry we’re not ruining the ecosystem that drastically. They’ll fake. We’re not crazy after all…

We also don’t put ordainments under every tree. We only put them under this tree.

My mom decided, the two days after Christmas, that we needed another tree. That is when this snowman tree was born. I give it to her… it does look great…

That was the end of the Christmas craze. The next six days were fairly peaceful. I pretty much have done nothing. I seen my friends, spent a good amount of time pestering my dogs, tried hard not to eat an entire box of chocolate, and even went to the gym. My gym opens normal hours on the fourth and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ll pretty much be doing that until I go back to college on the 18th. I know, I have an exciting life!

If you ever visit Connecticut I highly recommend you get Munson’s truffled chocolates. I’m a huge Lindt chocolate fan (the best ones are My Name is ___ ), but Munson’s chocolates are like out of this world. They have this rich, creamy chocolate in the center that tastes like golden rays of sunlight. It’s like having those Lindt balls but a thousand times better. Day 9 and I still have more than half the box left… so high five self control!

Another chocolate that I have tried not to kill myself with are these Ghirardelli squares. I swear there is some type of drug in them. Like I’m really not kidding. The milk chocolate with caramel and the dark chocolate with white mint filling… oh goodness they’re just fantastic. Don’t put them in front of me because they will be gone in seconds.

Okay, enough about sinful chocolate! New Years Eve was rad. I got to see many of my college friends who are leaving to go abroad *insert crying emoji here.* Despite being sad that I won’t spend next semester with them, I couldn’t be more happy for them! I can’t wait to hear about their awesome adventures and see even cooler pictures. Here are some photos from that fantastic night.

Outfit: H&M skirt, TopShop shirt, Urban Outfitters high socks, J.Crew Shoes

2015 was filled with countless laughs, adventures, joy, growth, and lessons. I’ve learned many different things about myself and who I am as a person. I never expected this blog to reach as many people as  it has. It amazes me that it continues to grow. This blog has filled me with so much joy from your comments and posts. Thanks for being a part of my family! I can’t wait to bring you into another fantastic year.

As always,