Year in Review: October, November, and December

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! I am still on our Caribbean cruise, but I wanted to share the last three months before the start of 2015.

October
The highlight of October was the fall foliage cruise we went on to celebrate our five year anniversary. We had a blast exploring Boston before the cruise and visiting the ports of Portland, Maine, Bar Harbor, Maine, Saint Johns, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

November
Honestly, November was a tough month. Chris was gone nearly the entire month for interviews, and I confessed that it was hard to be apart for two weeks straight. Thanksgiving was amazing, though. Since all of my extended family is in Russia, we have spent Christmas and Thanksgiving with a group of Russian friends that might as well be family. Growing up, I had three close Russian friends. Everyone called us the Red Army. I got to see two of them for Thanksgiving, and we had a blast catching up with each other.

December
We had so much fun in December! Chris still had a lot of interviews, but I got to see him every weekend. We went to Baylor’s last football game of the year and got to see ESPN College GameDay on campus. We had several Christmas parties and went to a beautiful winter wedding. We capped off December by celebrating Christmas with friends and family…and now we are on a Caribbean cruise to bring in 2015!

Here’s to 2015!

Year in Review: July, August, and September

It’s been fun to think back on my year so today I am linking up again to share July, August, and September.

July
July is always my favorite month of the year because it include my hubby’s birthday, my birthday, and our anniversary….all in the same week. I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned it on my blog before, but Chris and I were born two days apart (less than that if you account for the huge time difference!). His birthday is July 21, my birthday is July 23, and our anniversary is July 25. We actually hadn’t planned for our wedding to be the same week as our birthdays. The original plan was to get married in June, but July 25 was the date that worked out. Anyways, this year was fun because we both turned 25 and celebrated our five year anniversary. We love giving each other traditional gifts for our anniversary, and this year we enjoyed coming up with unique ways to give each other wood. Though it can be exhausting to have so many big days in one week (we call it our “super week”), we always have a great time celebrating each other.

August
August was my best friend’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to a winery. It was also the month that I started this blog. I had been reading blogs for years and finally decided to take the plunge. I am so glad I did! I was also excited about the start of college football and wrote why I thought it was the best time of the year.

September
In September, we started narrowing down the hubby’s residency options. It was the first time that it felt like medical school was almost over. He applied to residency in the middle of the month, and the interview offers started rolling in the next day. It was so exciting to see all of the schools that wanted to interview him. He has worked so hard, and I am incredibly proud! Here's an update on the interview process.

Merry Christmas, friends! 

I will be taking the rest of the week off to spend times with friends and family. We will be cruising next week, but I will have a few scheduled posts up (If it takes me a while to respond, that's why). I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing week, and I will see you in the new year!

Year in Review: April, May, and June

I am linking up again today to share the next three months of 2014. Chris was in the thick of his third year of medical school (the hardest year) so it was a lot of long hours and sleepless nights. Here are the fun things we did in April, May, and June:

April
During the hubby’s Spring Break, we went to Vegas! Vegas is our choice for a fun, quick vacation. We get a lot of flack for it from friends and family, but there is so much more to do than just to drink and gamble. During our April trip, we went to Le Reve, ate at our favorite Vegas restaurants (post on Vegas restaurants coming soon!), and watched the Bellagio fountains out of our hotel room every night. We also visited the Valley of Fire State Park, which was so beautiful. It was a nice, relaxing trip before Chris started 12 weeks of internal medicine. After those 12 weeks, I am so glad Chris isn’t going into internal medicine (and I am not looking forward to the year he has to do of internal medicine).

May
May is a month of birthdays for us—Both of my hubby’s parents and my mom. We really enjoyed celebrating with our families.

June
My younger brother graduated from high school! He has grown into such a great young man, and I am so proud of him. I can’t wait to see what he will accomplish in the future. At the end of June, Chris finished his third year of medical school, and we rejoiced! He started fourth year the next day, but it really felt like there was now a light at the end of the tunnel.

Year in Review: January, February, and March

I am linking up today for the Review Extravaganza to share some of my favorite events from the first quarter of the year. Honestly, I am so glad I am blogging now because I had a hard time remembering what I did each month. It doesn’t help that my iPhoto Library decided to crash on me a month ago so I don’t have my photos separated by months anymore. That being said, I picked one major event that happened each month and am going to roll with it.

January
We celebrated New Year’s Eve Russian style at a party with my family. New Year’s Eve is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia. Russians couldn’t celebrate Christmas during the Soviet Union so New Year’s Eve became huge. There is even a version of Santa Claus that comes on New Year’s Eve named Father Frost. My parents love New Year’s parties, and we usually do it big (once, they organized a party in a clubhouse where 400 people showed up). This year, we went to a party at one of their friends’ houses, and it was so much fun. The party included dancing, a massive amount of food, contests, and many, many toasts. I am slightly disappointed we are missing it this year, but we are going on a cruise so I can’t complain too much!

February
In February, my younger brother turned 18. That still blows my mind. There is nothing like having a younger brother to make you feel like an old fart.

March
March brought another Russian party with International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is popular in many places in Europe (and other places in the world). It is similar to Valentine’s Day, except men purchase gifts for all the women in their lives—wife, daughter, mom, grandma, and even teachers they respect. It’s a fun tradition, and my mom usually likes to host a girls’ night for her Russian ladies. We also got a little snow! It usually just ices here so it was fun to take the dog out and play.