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Happy New Year's Eve! I'm one of those people that absolutely LOVES New Year's! A holiday dedicated to celebrating the past year and looking forward to the year to come. Last night I watched New Year's Eve in order to prepare myself for tonight :)

For the past 11 years, my family has celebrated New Year's with my best friend, Christina, and her family. It is a great tradition that I look forward to every year. I feel I am an expert at this holiday, so I've put together some must-haves for a killer New Year's:

1. Spectacular outfit-- I found the best shirt at Forever 21 yesterday. It is black with gold sparkle words "Learn from Yesterday, Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow." I was looking for something sparkly to ring in the new year, and this shirt was the perfect balance of cute and inspirational with the quote. I am going to pair it with blue jeans and I'm still deciding between my black heels and black booties. I am also going to paint my nails a black color with gold sparkles, that I got from Urban Outfitters for Christmas.
2. Some bubbly-- We all know that I am a big fan of Champagne; so of course this will be my drink of choice tonight!
3. Friends and family by your side-- Who better to celebrate the New Year than with your loved ones?
4. A camera-- Last year, New Year's was at my house, and I set up my camera in the corner as we counted down to midnight and set the camera timer to take pictures! It was so fun to look at them after.
5. A TV, set to New Year's Rockin' Eve-- Not only do I love it because we get to watch the ball drop, but it's held in Times Square, one of my favorite places.

Here is a quote I wanted to leave off with from the end of New Year's Eve.

"Sometimes it feels like there are so many things we can't control, earthquakes, floods, reality shows. But it's important to remember the things we can, like foregiveness, second chances, fresh starts. Because the one thing that turns the world from a lonely place to a beautiful place, is love. Love in any of its forms. Love gives us hope, hope for the New Year. That's New Year's Eve to me. Hope, and a great party." - Sam, New Year's Eve

This is the perfect quote for me because I have such a hard time of letting go of fear, and living. This is something I will continue to work on in the new year. I will be back tomorrow with a list of my New Year's Resolutions!

What are your plans for the evening?

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

Christmas Outfits

I promised I'd post specifically about my outfits from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so here it is!

Christmas Eve, my sweater and skirt came from TJ Maxx! (You should go ;) ) My booties were from Aldo a few years ago I believe.

For Christmas Day, I got a new shirt from Francesca's and wore my black jeans from Old Navy. I wore black heels from Payless.

What did you wear for Christmas this year!?

Xoxo,

Brown Eyed Girl

Christmas Celebrations Recap!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmases! Mine was truly enjoyable this year.

Christmas started early for me. On Sunday, I got together with my best friends since high school. We went out to dinner and after, came back to my house to hang out and exchange Secret Santa gifts. My friend Sam had me for Secret Santa, and got me the cutest Kappa Delta phone case and key chain. I absolutely love it! We had originally hoped of going into the city to see the tree, but the rainy weather kept us on Staten Island. I still had such a great time!

On Christmas Eve, my family and I went to mass and then came back to the house to prepare for my dad's family to come over. My dad only has only one sibling, but there were tons of cousins that add up! We had lots of Italian food (yum) and then opened gifts later in the evening. Christmas eve always ends up being a late night, and then when everyone left we stayed up to finish watching White Christmas :) We even took cute pictures by the tree. We finally got to bed around 3 am.

AND THEN...

We were crazily awoken at 4 am by our house alarm going off. We had a little glitch and didn't set something properly so it resulted in it going off. Definitely scared us all-- and made us very tired on Christmas Day.
But we all went back to sleep and woke up later on ready to open gifts and get our Christmas Day started! We opened gifts in the morning and had our traditional muffins for breakfast. Then we all got ready for my mom's brother and his sons to come over. Can't forget about Abuelita! It was her 80th birthday!! It was a great day with a lot of laughs :)

Yesterday I stayed in my pjs all day! Talk about relaxing.

Here are some pictures from my Christmas celebrations:

Me and my "Six"

My perfect Secret Santa gift!

Christmas Eve!

Puccio family

Pictures by the tree

Christmas Day!

Birthday girl with her cake that my sister made!

My favorite part of Christmas is spending time with great family and friends. We still have 3 more Christmas celebrations!

What is your favorite part of Christmas?

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Today is a busy day here at my house. We host both Christmas Eve and day festivities. I have to run some errands with mom first and then go home to get ready for mass. I can't wait to see everyone!

I'll share a post for my Christmas outfits later this week :)

Xoxo,

Brown Eyed Girl

Framing

Today I picked out some new glasses! I was in need of a new pair and finally made an appointment to get them before I head back to school. What do you think? 

Xoxo,

Brown Eyed Girl

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my family and I have a tradition of watching White Christmas together each year. We make hot chocolate and eat Christmas cookies and chocolate star cookies. It is one of my absolute favorite traditions that I look forward to each year.

Some years we even took our tradition to another level:

In 2007 we traveled to Pennsylvania to the Dutch Apple to see White Christmas performed. It was so great! One of the best parts of the trip was the breakfast we had at the chain Bob Evans. Yum!

In 2009 White Christmas was on Broadway, so of course we couldn't pass up this opportunity. It was so great!

I even love listening to the soundtrack (we have both the movie and Broadway versions).

We watched White Christmas last since everyone is finally all home together! However, we only made it only 2 hours in, and still have yet to finish it. I guess this means another movie night!


Do you have any special Christmas traditions with your families?

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

Christmas in a cup

All I've been wanting for a few days is Starbucks in a Christmas cup. Today while out shopping, I finally got one!

I got a tall chai tea latte with skim milk, my favorite :)

What's your go-to Starbuck's drink?

Xoxo,

Brow Eyed Girl 

I'm Home!!

You read right, I'm finally home for Christmas vacation. Yesterday was filled with an early morning of studying for my last final. And it only took me 20 minutes to take!! After that I grabbed some lunch, packed up my car, and headed home!

This is a picture I sent my mom before I went into my final-- a little too excited

I hit no traffic and was home early in the afternoon. I was so excited to be home that I jumped on my dad. Which then turned to my sister jumping on him, then my mom. Hope his back doesn't hurt today!

I caught up with my family for a while and slowly unpacked my things. We ordered pizza for dinner, because really, who can turn down Friday night NY pizza !?

Nothing beats sicilian pizza from Guissepe's!

 It was too great. After dinner mom, Guita, and I headed to a few shops to pick up last minute gifts. 

My friends from home and I are exchanging Kris Kringle (or Secret Santa) gifts tomorrow. I pulled my best friend Christina's name from the virtual name picker we used! (SO COOL). I decided to craft something for her and got her a super complicated paint by numbers canvas which she loves. 

Smile, life is beautiful-- my best friend loves this quote.

The rest of my night consisted of painting, watching Santa Clause 2, then picking my sister up from work. I love being home for the holidays!!

What's your favorite part about being home for the holidays?

Xoxo,

Brown Eyed Girl

Makeover time!

You would think after working on a website for the past few weeks, I would be really sick of coding. Nope! I finished studying for my last final tonight so I decided I would play around with the html on my blog for a little bit! Do you like the changes I made? I'm hoping to work on this more on my break-- which begins tomorrow afternoon!! I cannot wait to go home and get ready for Christmas with my family.

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

Snow Day!

So as many people on the east coast know, we got a lot of snow today! Those in Pennsylvania particularly got a lot of snow. It started Sunday morning, on day 2 of my dance showcase, which made it harder for many people to come see the show. Luckily my parents made it safely here and home! The snow took a break on Monday, but began again early this morning and full speed ahead.

Students in the Communication department have to work on a senior project during their final year in the major. Unfortunately my group project was due today so we had to postpone! We were really hoping the snow woulnd't come today, but we were rescheduled for tomorrow.

Friday is reading day for our school, but I don't have finals until next Thursday. However I have a huge multimedia website due tomorrow and broadcast reel due Thursday! One positive of this snow day was that it put me in the Christmas mood! My roommates and I cuddled up, made hot chocolate, and watched Christmas movies :) This snow day also made me feel like such an adult because we had to shovel the sidewalk of our house! Talk about feeling old.

I am now watching the Grinch and working on my final internship paper.

How did you spend your snow day?

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

My Favorite Christmas Movies

I can't wait to start watching Christmas movies. Since I am so busy with school, I may have to have a movie marathon once I get home!

Here are my top 5 Christmas movies:

1. The Santa Clause
2. White Christmas
3. Elf
4. The Grinch
5. The Polar Express

What's your favorite Christmas movie?

Xoxo,
Brown Eyed Girl

Brain Food

I am currently struggling to work on my multimedia website. It is basically a research paper in website form. I just want to curl up in a ball and finish the Santa Clause that I started last night! I started getting hungry to I made a snack of craisins and sea salted almonds. Each came in 100 calorie packs so this nice snack comes out to 200 calories!

What's your favorite brain food?

Xoxo,

Brown Eyed Girl