Holiday Hustle and Bustle!

This blog post is very belated, but I have been busy enjoying and soaking up all of this time with my family and friends!


My Christmas celebration this year included our annual Christmas Eve family get-together and then the much smaller gift exchange on Christmas morning between my parents and I.



On Christmas Eve, my grandpa and his wife, Barb, were present, along with my uncle Jeff, first cousin Megan, and her adorable daughter Jayda, as well as my brother Jon, his wife Carey, and my nephew Caleb!





This was both Jayda and Caleb's first Christmas, so it was beyond exciting to see their little hands ripping open their presents and their little eyes gleam as they discovered a new toy. Absolutely precious, and we definitely spoiled them.


We had a lot of delicious food, a lot of joviality during the gift opening, and a fun yet interesting game of Apples to Apples. This game is our holiday tradition, but due to the time of evening and having two sleepy babies around, it was more of a balancing act of a bottle in one hand, babyunder an arm, while holding your cards in the other. Still fun, just an adjustment - but one I am very blessed to be making if it means having those two precious lives in our family.

******************************************
In pageant news, I have been simply relaxing this past week without much thought to pageantry. I think refreshing your body and mind is just as much of a preparation as anything else. However, tomorrow at 12:30 pm I have an appearance at GlennPark Senior Center here in Defiance. I will be performing a few of my favorite songs, and also speaking in between about my pageant experience, followed by some Q&A/fellowship with the residents. I am very excited, and I will most definitely have some pictures from that up in a few days.

Also, on Thursday evening of this week, I am meeting with my executive directors to discuss the judges thoughts of me in all of the phases of competition at this past pageant that I won. It will be great to hear their feedback. Also, we will be mapping out the next 6 months of my life in essence, to determine when I will be home for wardrobe shopping, appearances, and interview preparation. We may even be working on my Miss Ohio paperwork, as well.

I am so very excited and cannot wait to get started on this journey to Miss Ohio! This semester will be a whirlwind academically for me, but I am going to try to remain diligent in at least updating this blog every once in awhile to document my appearances and preparation for Miss Ohio.

In related news, I was looking into some of the Miss America contestants, and I stumbled upon Miss Vermont's personal website/blog. A very interesting post about her thoughts on the swimsuit portion of competition. It definitely rang true in my heart, and I know I am not alone in this. Good read for any girl, not simple pageant girls. (**Click on the link embedded above to read)

Take care everyone! Hopefully your holiday season was just as refreshing as mine. God bless!