Hey My Loves! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Firstly, Let’s take a moment to thank God that we made it into 2015 alive, strong, and well. I’m so thankful that you are part of the living census and are still hanging out with me: Let’s make this year one heck of a fun one shall we?! God willing we’ll all gather here together this time next year to talk about more awesome things (AMEN).

I promised to share with you some details regarding my Fourth quarter in 2014; although 2014 is over and some of you were probably not checking for the update, I am obligated to share because…well… I promised I would so herrrreee goes! C’mon be excited 🙂

*deep content sigh* 4th quarter 2014, what an amazing quarter it was. From weddings, birthdays, and thanksgiving, to random “travels” and sight seeing…I HAD A BLAST! I shared some pictures from my honey’s wedding in October, so I won’t burden you with that I’ll fast forward to events that occurred afterwards.

SWEET NOVEMBER:

I attended a wedding and it was a beautiful experience. As you know I’m a hopeful romantic, so I enjoyed the atmosphere the couple’s love created; here’s what I wore

 

See details of this outfit here 😉

My friend’s birthday was a week before mine, and we decided to celebrate by taking a bus trip to New York. WHAT. A. WEEKEND! Let’s just say we had lots of fun, so much that my body ached the entire week after. We hiked through the arctic cold to time square, rode the ferry to see Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.

 

Thanksgiving was AMAZEBALLS! I made turkey for the second time (I was pretty excited about how it turned out). My brother bought an Xbox and the Dance Central game so you already know family time was great! Laughter resounded through the walls all night. We were truly thankful.

 

A number of events occurred in November, weddings birthdays, and thanksgiving, but the most important one was *drumroll* MY BIRTHDAY!

Yes I am a Fiery Sagittarius, and I turned the BIG TWO FIVE…uh huh I’m 25 years young even though I look barely over 18. I didn’t throw a big party or rent out a yacht (maybe I will for 30 lol); I wanted to avoid a few noisy hours with people who barely knew my person gathered around to superficially mark another year. I desired so deeply to celebrate by doing something nontraditional, to be surrounded by people who know, love, and care for me, most of all, I wanted to spend time with my sisters (my female besties) and wanted to feel like the rest of the world was non-existent for a weekend. What better way to culminate all those feelings than to have a retreat in the mountains?! The retreat didn’t happen until December, so see below for the continuation of details of our trip 🙂

My actual birthday was indescribable. I felt so much love from my family and friends both near and far. I was celebrated in a grand way, and I was overwhelmed with emotion…mostly of gratitude. The text messages, the calls, the Facebook statuses, the Instagram shout-outs, the customized birthday cards, the prayers, and the birthday dinner all brought warmth to my heart. You could say my birthday was a day on which I was reminded of how blessed I truly am to have such amazing people to call family and friends. I do not at all take them for granted; they are all special tokens with whom God decided to grant me the opportunity to experience life. I am forever grateful!! Of course it was compulsory for me to “look good” on my actual birthday, so below are a few pictures I took because you know I certainly had an impromptu birthday photo shoot LOL.

Dress: www.dorothyperkins.com

Colorblock Purse: www.aldoshoes.com

Leopard print suede shoes: Birthday gift

DREAMY DECEMBER

My birthday was in the last week of November, so it was only befitting to celebrate the weekend after. Off to Swallow Falls, MD we went! 8 women, 2 cars, and a 3 hour road trip; we saw some of the most jaw dropping views on our way and once we arrived at our cabin everyone initially felt a sense of panic…scrrr…yea…see what happened was only 3 out of 8 of us had phone service (limited) in a remote cabin, which was tucked into the woods. Pretty Scary right? We later discovered that not having phone service was a blessing in disguise; it created time to chat and bond as a sisterhood. We were transparent, honest, and vulnerable with one another; it was beautiful. Once we did drive out into the city, it was hilarious to see everyone glued to their phones (There’s a pic below).

We had several funny, exciting, and exhilarating moments, all of which I can’t recount in this post but as it’s often said “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Anyway, we went laser tagging, we cooked a lot, went out to dinner, and we concluded the retreat by walking through Swallow Falls Canyon Trail to see a gorgeous waterfall. The retreat was lovely and created the atmosphere I desired to commemorate my 25th birthday…I was surrounded by love and gained much needed insight and wisdom. I can’t wait to return to swallow falls.

 

 Pheeew… It all seems exhaustive, but I can guarantee we were all well rested. I think we would have stayed a lot longer if we were offered the opportunity…ok I lied…everyone wouldn’t, but I would have.

Upon my return, I was treated to a lovely Thai dinner courtesy of another one of my sisters (yea I know have a lot of them lol).

25 started of on one heck of a great foot, and I hope it continues that way! 😉

CHRISTMAS

Well Christmas…not Xmas (it grinds my gears to see that)…CHRISTmas day was wonderful for me.Christmas is the day I get to celebrate/commemorate the birth of the greatest gift I and the world could ever get. To many it’s the day to celebrate receipt of gifts off their wishlist, Santa, and family time, but for me it is the day I reflect on the power of faith and obedience of a young virgin who birthed into flesh my Lord and Saviour, Jesus. I was not as concerned about gifts as I was about the time I’d spend at church. We typically have morning service at church on Christmas day; it’s a way to remind ourselves of fundamental reason for the season/holiday. I feel as though this past Christmas was one of the best I’ve had in a while, no it had nothing to do with the gift, but had everything to do with the fact that I spent time with my friends and family at the feet of JESUS. I visited my childhood friend and one conversation led to another where we simply built one another up in our most holy faith; it was awesome!!

Here is how I wished my facebook, twitter, and instagram family a Merry Christmas. I hope you can accept this as my belated wish to you blog family…pweety pwease! (Check out this blog on what I wore!)

IN THE WORKS…

Lastly, I decided to take a step further into achieving something I desired to do for years. While I cannot divulge information about it just yet, I can say that it could only make our relationship even better and who knows we may end up connecting with other people to create one big happy BLOG/WEB fam :). I will keep you posted!

If you made it to the end of this post…I APPRECIATE YOU! You are pretty cool for that lol 😉

Thanks for catching up with me, and I wish you a splendid new year filled with great things as God wills for you! Expect many more posts this year and let’s stay connected!

Cheers,

∼Moyo∼

For you: a song from my most recent favorite album Black Star Elephant