Well, I am 24! And what a year it has been...

On my birthday, Jake's mom sent me my horoscope and it said, "When you reflect on this year, it will be with a sense of deep satisfaction." I couldn't have said it better myself!

I accomplished almost all of my goals and I couldn't have done it without the help of my friends and family.

I really think having my blog helped me accomplish many goals. It held me accountable.

And without it, I probably wouldn't have done any of this:

Just looking through all these pictures make me smile :)

I am so excited for 2012 to start and I will be reworking the blog a little bit for this upcoming year...

I hope you all have an amazing holiday season and a great new year!

My roommate Abby is hosting her monthly book club meeting at our apartment this evening, and I thought I would share the book we read for it!

Abby was wise and realized how busy everyone would be during the month of December and chose a book that would be both fun, easy and a short read. The book is called Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. If you aren't familiar with Sedaris, he is a hilarious writer who tends to write from personal experiences.

In this book, he tells a few tales of Christmas that are absolutely hilarious. My favorite is the first about his time as a Macy's elf. I have had some bad jobs in my life, but wow.

The book is only about 140 pages long and makes a great last minute stocking stuffer or the perfect gift for that hard to buy for friend or relative with a sense of humor!

This book makes 10 books I have read this year! I really had hoped to read more, but the books I ended up reading were mostly for school :)

Our full day on our trip Liana and I decided to dedicate to getting as many of the National Passport Stamps as we could! You remember...

Well Liana was one of the first to get it and is the biggest supporter of collecting them, so I was excited when I found out there were 12 possible stamps that we could get on our journey!

We had planned on collecting a stamp in Newport, at the only remaining colonial synagogue, until we realized the would be closed for actual church services.

We shrugged it off and headed back towards Providence where we stopped at the Roger Williams National Memorial.

It was open and we were excited for our first stamp from the trip! We actually ended up getting two since the site was also part of the Blackstone River Valley National Historic Corridor. 

Liana became slightly obsessed with Roger Williams, mainly because at the ripe old age of 35 he had already started his own colony/state/invented the idea of separation of church and state. What did you do today?

That's ok, apparently a root ate him. Google it. (our just click my link)

We then decided to make our way around the outskirts of Boston and try for as many of the stamps as we could. Next stop, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site! Just look at how excited Liana is!

That is until we found out it was closed for the season.....

Then we called the remaining places and found out that many of the places were closed for the season....

Grrrr....

So we headed to the next open site, Minute Man National Historic Park! Dust off those cobwebs, and try and remember learning about Concord and Lexington... the shot heard 'round the world? Ok, Ok, it was the start of the American Revolutionary War people!!

And it was open for stamps!

We had a really great time exploring the park as well! History was made here people!

And of course we had to stop and take in the amazing local fare in Concord. This place was amazing, and my first time eating fried macaroni and cheese! But you can read all about that on Liana's blog :)

So this book was a total surprise read, and by that I mean I didn't even buy it for myself! Over the Thanksgiving holidays while visiting with Jake's family, we got into a discussion about really great books to read, The Hunger Games.

I had heard of the book, but honestly only because they are making it into a movie. T.V. show? Something. Anyway, Jake's mom was a high school English teacher, so she obviously loves to encourage others to read, and after I had returned home to Annapolis from Thanksgiving, a package was waiting for me at my doorstep. She had ordered me Hunger Games!

It sat on my nightstand for a while, mostly because I have just been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to read anything. One night last week I decided that I would just "read a couple pages" to help me fall asleep.

4 hours later it was 2:45 a.m. and I was finishing the book...

It was really well written and completely sucked me in. The storyline is great and actually a little more mature for the age group which I like. It goes beyond the love story (come on, there has to be a love story) into some interesting concepts about government and the human condition which was refreshing from most tween novels.

(Maybe I also shouldn't be reading tween novels.. you know because I am turning 24...)

The only part of the book that I didn't like, or just found overplayed and started to remind me sadly of the Twilight saga was the love story. The main character, Katniss, struggles with her feelings for another competitor, Peeta, and after a while it becomes a bit over done, and begins to remind me of the torture of reading about Bella's inner struggle between her vampire and werewolf.

(Yea, I definitely need to stop reading tween novels)

However, unlike Bella, Katniss actually has a backbone and is a strong independent girl who is essentially fighting for her life in this book, which I admire.

I am definitely a fast reader, but honestly anyone could put this book back in a day if they really wanted to. I can honestly say I would really like to read the rest of the trilogy, and will probably want to see the movie... T.V. show.. whatever. 

So, I bought a Groupon in the beginning of the year to try out a Pilates class, and am obviously just getting around to it! 

I walked in and I was honestly immediately intimidated. These machines look like medieval torture devices or something you would see on and episode of Sex and the City.

The first class I took was very introductory and walked through all the different moves. I didn't feel too much in terms of a workout, and was not very sore the next day. Tonight however was a different story.

We kicked it up a notch tonight, added a few new moves, and moved through them much quicker. I can tell you I am already feeling it in my inner thighs (one of my "problem areas") and my arms! I doesn't seem like much at the time, but trust me, it creeps up on you!

I have my next class next week, and I am excited to see what it brings!!

Have you tried Pilates reformer classes?

Ok, I will be completely honest and will probably not make any friends with people from Rhode Island with this statement, but, before I went there all I thought of when I heard Rhode Island, was Family Guy.

Not just this clip, but Family Guy has many clips about Rhode Island, and I am sorry, but that is all I think of.

So I was ready to be pleasantly surprised by Rhode Island, and I definitely was!

Liana and I started off our morning bright and early. I was still feeling the effects of our night full of refreshing "libations", so Liana gracefully took the first turn driving and showed me around Newport, RI.

We drove up and down the mansion drive, which was unbelievable. I mean, people actually live in these houses!

We then drove up and down Ocean Drive, a very scenic route along the coast of Rhode Island. We obviously had to brave the cold and take some awesome pictures; including jumping ones!

Newport was so amazing, but we had to head out after our driving tour. We had so many other things to see!

So this is basically how this happened:

Me: Well, I guess there are a few things I will not be completing on my bucket list before my birthday..
Liana: Really?!? Like what?
Me: Well going to two states I have never been to...
Liana: Omg! Have you been to Rhode Island? How about Connecticut? Massachusetts?

And it took off from there...

I really have to credit Liana with this entire trip. She was really the push for me to complete my "visit two states I have never been to before" bucket list item. She had been to both, but really wanted me to complete it, so a huge thank you to Liana!!! :)

Our trip started off on Friday morning. We rented a car (which was an adventure of its own) and we were off!

We talked, laughed and chatted about life until we got up to NYC! It was the first marker on our trip, meaning we were about half way to our destination.

After getting through NYC, we stopped in Greenwich, CT! The first state I had never been to before. Luckily, my friend Andrea lives there and we stopped to see her for lunch! Sadly, I am an airhead and completely forgot to take a picture of the two of us.. so here is one from college that I love:

After our quick lunch and hello, we continued along our journey across the entire state of Connecticut to Providence, Rhode Island.

During our trip research, I had found out that Rhode Island was known for its grilled pizza, and that a restaurant called Al Forno was responsible for its creation. Liana and I being the foodies that we are couldn't pass up this opportunity!

We chose the pumpkin pizza! It had cheese, tomato, green onion and pureed pumpkin on top of the grilled dough. It almost tasted like pizza on the Indian bread naan. We also ordered a small sample of their house-made lemoncello. Whew, it was strong! I think it almost killed Liana too. We were so proud of ourselves for sticking to our budget while still enjoying a great meal!

After we had finished, we drove down to Newport, RI where we would be staying for the night. After quickly freshening up we headed out to the downtown area for what Liana would call "libations". We met some very interesting people, including this guy:

After a long day, with about 8 hours of driving under out belts, we turned in for the night! The real adventure would begin the next day on our quest for stamps!

Thanksgiving. One of the reasons why I could never be a vegetarian. I love this holiday. My favorite of them all by far! The turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing... oh the stuffing.

I always find that with all this food coming the next day, what should we eat on the day before Thanksgiving? Most people order out I think, since they are so busy preparing for the next day. I found a recipe that is just as easy as dialing up the local pizza place, and it wont make you feel as bad about having that 3rd piece of pumpkin pie the next day.

Peel 5 potatoes

Sauté the chopped leeks in some butter until soft 

Once the leeks are soft, pour in the vegetable broth and add the potatoes. Don't worry, the potatoes will break down as the cook for about 45 minutes. Halfway through you add the seasonings and ta da! Potato Leek Soup! Topped with some broiled gouda on french bread. Amazing!

Make sure you make this soup as the weather starts to change, it is the perfect thing for those cold winter nights ahead! 

So I am very excited, and sad, to say that my friend Matt has taken a position with Samaritan's Purse in Boone, North Carolina. While I am very sad that he is leaving, he is going on to work on some amazing projects that are doing great work around the world.

Samaritan's Purse is known for helping build schools, freshwater wells, and bringing food and supplies to millions in third world countries. One of their biggest projects is Operation Christmas Child. Volunteers put together gift boxes in shoe boxes and send them off to children around the world. In honor of my friend Matt, I made two boxes to be donated to a 10-14 year-old boy and one for a 10-14 year-old girl.

This was the starting point for my search for great goodies for my shoe boxes! You cannot go wrong with dollar bin finds..

Loaded up! For the girl I go a lot of awesome pens, notebooks, hair pins and games. For the boy, they had these great bouncy balls, playing cards and even a slinky! I also bought them each a book from the classics section at Boarders.

There were drop off locations all over the country, and one just down the street from me. Collection days are over, but you can still donate to help Samaritan's Purse ship all these great gifts!

Do you volunteer around the holidays?

I honestly could have had a whole gallon of this delicious soup. The best part? It was so easy! Literally 10 ingredients, all very simple and you probably have most of them around your kitchen already. Well, if you are like me, you don't carry heavy cream very often in my fridge, but this was so worth it.

Perfect with a nice grilled cheese sandwich!

Check out this great recipe on Everyday Occasions!