New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I meant to come on here two days ago to wish you guys a happy new year before 2016 but busy life + tired took over! Which for me, quite honestly, is always a good sign! That typically means I’m feeling well enough to be on the go go go again! We had a GREAT week over here! A fun family day in Miami between Alex’s work madness. The house is sort of trashed (by our standards anyway), we’re all under-rested, we ate out a whole lot more than usual (tacos! pizza!), but we’re all super happy to just be enjoying life and each other.

Alex has been working like crazy. It’s season though, so we’re used to it at this point. #cheflife #tourismlife 13 days on. One day off. Going 15 hours on new years and not another day off for another week! Marlowe went off to my brothers yesterday, this New Years Eve where her and her cousins had a little kids celebration of cake and fireworks! And for myself? I did go out, at night, dressed in sequins with friends! Though I was a bit tired and SUPER lazy, I’m so glad I did go out. I had a great time. We didn’t plan anything special Dinner with Laura her boyfriend, Adam and my boyfriend, Alana. Then we headed downtown where I got to meet up with Kristine and Eric and run into a few other too. It was all pretty unexpected or unplanned, but fit together so well. At dinner, before we headed downtown I turned to my friends and said, “I just hope no one cries tonight.” (Debbie downer, right? Haha!) Where instantly, everyone turned to me and says, “Drea, if anyone is going to cry tonight, its going to be you!” —-and you know what, they were probably right. Haha. And to be honest— I did almost cry! I mean, I typically cry on New Years anyway– I get super emotional with big changes and happy things, its really just too overwhelming for me. I mean, I can hardly watch happy stories on the news or Ellen– no joke. And this year, I wasn’t really super nostalgic (like normal) and I wasn’t feeling the weird holiday energy that I normally feel— but at one point in the night when I was dancing with friends in the middle of the dance floor, I did almost cry! But only because I was just so happy to be out— having fun with the people I love and feeling good through it. It just all kind of hit me how hard and long this year had been. And that I was FINALLY in a place where I could feel good enough to enjoy a late night again. It was good. I danced for a good while with friends and I allowed myself TWO cocktails— but I actually had more like 2.5 😉 And I felt fine! I danced danced danced. And then danced some more when Alex got out of work to join us. Andd I stayed out wayyyy later than I would have planned, making it home at almost 5 in the morning! It’s been years since I’ve had one of those nights.

And while I’m of course as exhausted as I could be from it, I feel more charged and ready to take on this new year— I think the only thing holding me back is this messy house (I don’t work well in mess and clutter)— but a deep clean is on this weeks to do list 😉 My one and only resolution that I gave myself this year is not to die. Should be easy enough, right? (We should hope so.) Other than that I just want to be open and not fearful of this year ahead. I don’t want to stand in my own way, which is obviously pretty easy to let happen, but this year I want to make a conscious effort to step aside from fear and push forward. We always have so many plans and ideas and I just want Alex and I (separately and together) to be confident enough to move forward with them. I mean, every day is an opportunity to change, luckily we aren’t tied to only making changes today. Every thing or every plan I wished for myself for previous New Year’s still holds true. I just want to keep making changes, growing, and bettering myself each day. And well, we’ll just have to see where this year takes us! And I say it every year, but this time I couldn’t be more certain: this year will absolutely be better than the last.

I hope you guys had a great first day of the new year. And I hope each and everyday following is better than the last. Happy New Year, friends!

xoxo drea

ps. I’m totally going to go pull up all the rugs in my house right now (in prep to shake them out) to force myself to have to clean tomorrow. Is that totally weird? I’m doing it.