It's been a slice!

Can we just take a moment to realize that in mere hours it will be 2016! 

2015 has left the building (almost)!

Since this year is coming to an end, I thought that I would share some of the wisdom that I have accumulated throughout 2015.

1. Be patient.

2. Be thankful for today and everyday. 

3. Live life colourfully. 

4. It is okay for things to not go as you plan.

5. Love more and be grateful. 

6. Stay curious. 

7. Stop planning and just do.

8. Never stop trying.

9. Think outside the lines.

10. You are weird. That is that.

2015 has been grand but I am excited to see what new and exciting things 2016 will bring! 

I hope that every one of you reading this have the most amazing year!
Happy New Year, All!

Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

As we seek Christ, 

As we find Him,

As we follow Him,

We shall have the 

Christmas spirit,

Not for one fleeting

Day each year,

But as a companion

Always.

- Thomas S. Monson

The very best day.

It's finally here! 

The best day of the year (other than my anniversary and birthday).

Christmas Eve has been the most exciting day of the year for me since I was old enough to realize it. Christmas Day is all fun and dandy but Christmas Eve was the day my mom would spend many hours cooking, my dad would be running the final errands (last minute gift shopping and missing ingredients) and I would normally help out with the cleaning. To be honest, I cannot remember my two older brothers on this day. They were with us (I think) but I have no clue what they were doing (most likely playing video games).

Once evening broke, the door-bell would ring and it would be my best friend since birth, Annie, and her family (my second family)! Every Christmas Eve, up until about 3 years ago, her family and my family would spend Christmas Eve supper together and we would exchange gifts and just be silly, crack jokes (and farts), and the house would be full of, what some might call, "holiday cheer". 

With growing up comes bumps in traditions. It sucks, and I miss it, but we grow, expand, and life carries on differently. The fun thing about tradition is that you can make new ones and adjust old one's. 

This year will be Mark's and my first Christmas not with either of our families or in the East. We have been making the most of it out here in Manitoba with our two pups and our cat. We have been trying to make new traditions of our own, like getting an ornament every year of our marriage, and keeping with some, like watching Lord of the Rings (who else does this?)!

To sum it up, this day is the best!

I hope that all who celebrate Christmas have the most magical day and those who do not, I hope that you have the most magical day as well :)

Means a little bit more.

"And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling

How could it be so?

It came without ribbons, it came without tags,

It came without packages, boxes or bags

And he puzzled and puzzled

'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something

he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought,

doesn't come from a store

What if Christmas perhaps,

means a little bit more?"

A Willing Heart.

 "Fall in love with someone who promises to make you laugh. Fall in love with the constant feeling of being anchored to someone who makes the crash of the waves bearable, someone who makes you stronger. Fall in love with someone who tells you that if they fall asleep waiting for you to call, they'll call you in the morning - but not too early. Be in love with something greater than both of you that defies your superstitions. Be in the arms of someone you can call your lover, someone that completes your heart. Be with someone who lets you be wrong and wades in the mistake with you. Fall in love and write down in your diaries, "we made it through", knowing there is more (good things) to come. But most of all, hold onto that love with clenched fists and a willing heart."

- Author Unknown

(Sorry for the sap but I love my husband too dearly not to share my feels for him!)

Everything you do.

"Your handwriting. The way you walk. Which china pattern you choose. It's all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand. Everything is a self-portrait. Everything is a diary."

-Chuck Palahniuk

(Photo taken by: Mark Buckle)

Many Firsts.

Christmas this year is going to be something new for us.

It will be our first Christmas not on the East coast and not with our families.

Another first for us was getting a fake tree. I grew up near a mini-forest of sorts. Every Christmas, my Dad, my brother Hudson, our dogs and I would find the Woodworth Christmas tree for that year. It is a tradition I will cherish forever and hope to continue once we live somewhere that we can just cut our own tree (and not have to pay for it!)

Our tree this year is a tiny 4-footer but we love it! It is simple and on-sale ;)

It is definitely going to be weird come Christmas Eve and Christmas morning but we are going to make the best of it here in Manitoba with our three furry munchkins and each other :)

Happy Holidays to you all!

The Other Day.

The other day, I decided that Mark and I needed "Christmas" pictures. So, I grabbed my handy-dandy tripod and we hit the open road! About 5 minutes later, we reached our destination. 

I did my very first shoot here and I am so thankful to the awesome family who showed me this beautiful spot. The abandoned lot which has a barn, house, garage and a shed, is the perfect location for any type of photoshoot you want. The only thing missing for our particular shoot was snow! But, we made it work :) (and hopefully we got the point across with our red and green shirts!)

The most wonderful time.

It is the most wonderful time of the year and I am incredibly lucky to have a guy like this to spend it with :)