it's happened, i'm officially old

I have been crazy busy lately and haven't had a chance, until now (a second snow day! with no snow and not much ice...I'll take it) to write about my birthday. I am officially in my 30's, which sounds way older than saying I'm 30. But it happened, and it happened in a pretty awesome way.

It started with sushi at this awesome place that also does karaoke on Thursdays. I went with some friends, and the night ended with this nice old man pulling me up to the front and serenading me. The nice Otis Redding song ended with him sitting my lap. It turned a little weird towards the end...

It continued with getting some super sweet art from my friend Judy Paul the next day...

And the big party Saturday night started with a surprise on my doorstep. Gluten free, dairy free cupcakes! I think someone likes me.

So all my super awesome friends came over to my place and we waited for the party bus to arrive. The driver had called earlier and said we were getting an upgrade on the bus, and I couldn't wait to see what that meant! The bus showed up to my place and I started laughing at how massively big it was, and pink, with 2 stripper poles inside. As Ryan said when we got on, "Why haven't we always been traveling like this?"

On our way to Ego's with my besties in from Houston!

 At Ego's we met up with some more friends, and enjoyed the redonk people doing their karaoke thing. We signed up to sing, but sadly weren't called by the time we left.

From Ego's we jumped back on the bus and rode it to west 6th to meet even more people, and have a super fun dance party on the roof at 219 West. 

 Wait, I'm how old?

There were a bunch of dudes there in drag and the birthday boy said it was his idea, getting old is a drag....get it? Anyways, we had a lot of fun being silly and dancing with them until we were ready to jump back on the bus and keep the party going.

I'm 30! Let's do this!

The bus was pretty amazing! We drove around for the last hour and a half that we had the bus, just dancing and singing and swinging around on the poles. Surprisingly, there were no injuries! I'm not sure what that says about my friends and I...

Without a doubt, it was the most fun birthday I have ever had! Surrounded by my super awesome and fun friends, dancing and singing while someone drives us around? Doesn't get any better than that. If that's how this year, and my 30's start, it's going to be a good year. I think I'm going to like being 30!

3 christmases

I know what you're thinking, and it's ok to be jealous. Getting 3 Christmases? It was pretty awesome. The first was in Austin with my girlfriends. We had dinner over at Allison's house, some of us dressed in our ugly sweater finest. Mine is legit, I found it in my grandma's house when we were cleaning it out last spring break. We also did our annual white elephant except with things we would all want. It was great! The next night we followed it up with Stephanie's party which was a blast!

The next Christmas was in Houston with my parents. Since we were doing a late Christmas in Chicago we did actual Christmas together. While Miles was in Houston for Thanksgiving, he got to get his own Christmas tree and decorate it. My parents kept it as our tree, it was a very Charlie Brown Christmas. We also all helped make our usual fancy lunch. It was delicious! I also made a really good gluten and dairy free pumpkin bread pudding. Super awesome! I also got to see all of my girls while I was home which was great. 

We then went to Chicago to celebrate Christmas with my sister and her people. Miles was obsessed with my mom which turned out to be great for us! Rebecca, Michael and I actually got to hang out for several days. We hadn't been able to do that since Miles was born, so I loved it! (yes I love Miles, but I've missed my sister time) We even got to see 2 movies! The trip started with our annual Christmas Eve tradition of making pizzas...

 and watching a Christmas movie.

Michael also chopped wood. Apparently this is something people do up north.

On "Christmas morning" the last present opened was something from my parents for Rebecca and I...

I can tell through the computer how jealous you are of these jackets! Again, another find in Marion and Joe's house. The best part about them? They are so old Russia is still the USSR, and it's made out of paper...we think. The worst part? It smells like their house. I'm currently trying different things to get the smell out so I can wear it for my Olympic opening ceremonies party. 

We played a lot of games and listened to the Mary Poppins record. (No, the polar vortex hadn't started at this point, but it was still about 9 degrees outside. No thanks)

I stuck around for New Years Eve and spent it eating lots of amazing food made by everyone,

hanging out with Rebecca's super fun friends, 

of course, getting to hang with this pregnant lady,

listening to the boys fight about football, again, 

stand up comedy from the guys,

complete with a champagne fountain!

The day before I left the insane snow storms started. I was luckily able to get out just before the worst of it hit. 

It was a great vacation with lots of fun people and great food!