I can rent a car now!!

In January, I turned twenty five!! I am now a quarter of a century old. It's kinda weird to be twenty five... I remember looking at 25-year-olds when I was in high school and thinking, "They're not kids anymore. They're adults!" I remember thinking that by 25, people were officially grown up; mature, responsible, sophisticated.  Now that I'm twenty five myself, that thought has gotten chucked out the window. Hahaha! Still, I'm excited to be 25. For one thing, now my insurance rates are cheaper. :)

For my birthday, I got just a handful of my really close friends together and we went out to Olive Garden for dinner. It was perfect. The food was amazing, and our waiter was awesome!

Creepy faces! Adam's creepy face is the best!

Here it is again, just so you can experience the full unsettling effect. ;)

Pat's a goon. :)

Preparing to blow out the candle.

Success! :)

Left to right: Sean, Anna, myself, Pat, Amanda, Errinkay, and Adam.

Goofy faces.

After dinner we all went back to my place to watch a movie, but we were having so much fun talking a laughing that the movie never even got put in. 

Bunbun joined in the partying. He's a party animal.

Errinkay is so hip.

My girls! :)

Anna cannot resist the adorable fluffy animals! :)

The next photos are the result of me leaving to use the restroom, and leaving my camera unattended. Immediately, my friends seized the chance to snatch up my camera and take many ridiculous goofy pictures of themselves for me to find later. In response, I'm posting them here. Hahaha! Here are my favorites.

This was definitely one of my favorite birthday parties of all time. :)

Holidays and Happiness

Kristin and James announced their engagement in the fall, and I couldn't be happier to add such a wonderful person into our family. I think there were a few weeks in October and November when no one wanted to talk to me, because all I could talk about was Kristin getting engaged. Hahaha! I did give everyone a break long enough to throw a Halloween party, however.

I was quite proud of my pumpkins this year!

Kitty cat pumpkin!

And a Totoro pumpkin! Kristin gets the credit for this idea.

Charlie left his hermit hole for once, and came to hang out. It made me so happy!

 Some of the best people on the planet. :)

I was the only one who wore a costume, but I refuse to grow up! I was a vampire.

In November, mom went to spend Thanksgiving with grandma Jones. Working in retail, I can almost never get time off around Thanksgiving. So I was not able to go with her. Instead, I got to spend the holiday with my best friend Anna, and her family. Anna's mom has always been really kind to me, and welcomed me in as part of the family. I had a wonderful time, catching up with Anna's siblings and eating ridiculous amounts of food. Unfortunately, I was too busy having fun and helping with the cooking to take any pictures. But here's a random picture of a turkey to make up for it. ;)

Last year I had a pretty pathetic Christmas. I got pneumonia about two weeks into December, and was too sick (and too poor, due to missed work) to get a tree or decorations. So this year, I was determined to go all out! Kristin and James came to visit for Christmas, and I got to play host for once! Mom lent me all our favorite Christmas decorations and ornaments, and it brought back such great memories! I went with my friend Darci and her husband to cut down a tree (a noble, of course!), and I had a lot of fun decorating.

Kristin and James flew in on the 15th, and James was to leave here for Chicago on the 20th. So, we had a lot of fun and sightseeing to pack in in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, James got food poisoning shortly after arriving. Though we had to scrap some of our plans, we still managed to fit in a good amount of fun!! We went to Portland Saturday Market, showed James some of the sights in Portland, ate Voodoo donuts (where, sadly, the food poisoning originated), saw The Hobbit with a group of friends, spent a day in the gorge viewing waterfalls, hiked around the historic part of Oregon City, and more!!

I'm a tree-hugger.

Best epic pose ever!!

I couldn't resist taking pictures of them behind their backs (literally). They're just so cute!

Trying on masks at Gifts from Afar.

Mom's so cute in a giraffe hat. Don't ask me why it has paws.

Anna joined in the fun as well!

These next photos are wonderful examples of what happens when you've been sick and stuck inside for a few days, and your boredom gets the better of you. I couldn't resist adding these in, they're too hilarious not to share. Hopefully James won't disown me. ;)

This one's my favorite! Hahaha!

Trying on hats at Freddie's.

So stylish!

After James left for Chicago, Kristin stayed for another week. Mom was pretty worn out after all the fun we'd had with James here, and so we spent most of the week just relaxing. My family has a tradition of seeing a movie Christmas day, and this year was especially good because Les Miserables came out on Christmas. So we all went and saw it together. I cried, it was so good! After the movie, we went and had lunch at mom's house and opened presents. We also got to Skype with Matt and Melinda, and Adelaide showed us her presents and sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for us. All in all, it was a really wonderful Christmas.