SMILE

1) to assume a facial expression indicating pleasure, favor, or amusement, but sometimes derision or scorn
2) to move the lips characterized by an upturning of the corners of the mouth
3) to regard with favor
4) to have a pleasant or agreeable appearance or aspect

I feel absolutely terrible about the tardiness of this post -- I meant to get this up around the holidays, but I never got around to finishing it! So, here it is now!

One of my favorite things about the holidays is that all of my high school besties come HOME! When we all are in the Seattle-area, we try to schedule a time to get together for a dinner or something along those lines. This year the way everyone's travel schedule worked out, we were able to have a little dinner party at my place. I LOVE hosting dinner parties/get together so I was really excited that this worked out. On top of it, I have a co-worker who also loves to host events -- so when I told her about my girls dinner she has the perfect addition to the festivities -- "PHOTOBOOTH" PROPS!

Last year our landlords let us pick an accent wall in our kitchen, so we chose a mossy green for the brick wall. This turned out to be the ideal backdrop for our "photobooth". Who knew?! We laid out all of the holiday themed props and took turns being photographed. Then using the collage feature at picmonkey.com -- I was able to string the photos together to make them look like actual photobooth strips. 

My girlfriends and I had so much fun with the props that I decided to bring them to my parents house on Christmas day so my sisters and I could also play around with them. This time we used our fireplace because it had a holiday feel and we propped my sister's phone up on a table. She has a feature that allows you to say "shoot!" while in camera mode and the picture will capture on a one second delay. This provided lots of laughs for us and some pretty cute holiday photos.

If you ever find yourself looking for a quick craft project for a rainy day -- make some props and throw together some prop bins! It is so fun to have these little items on hand for get togethers, no matter the reason or season. These photos will be the talk of your event! 

I loved looking back through these photos, as I put together the photo strips. I couldn't help but be thankful for the amazing women around me in the form of friends and family, and SMILE. 

FROLIC

1) merry play; merriment; gaiety; fun
2) a merry making or party
3) playful behavior or action
4) to gambol merrily; to play in a frisky, light-spirited manner; romp
5) to have fun; engage in merrymaking

A couple of weeks back, Roz and I frolicked in The Ugly Sweater Run 5k. We had a blast getting into the holiday spirit with this event. We were decked out in our ugly sweaters, fun socks and leggings, and best of all -- antlers! 

The course took us through Magnuson Park on a clear, crisp day -- the kind of day that keeps me thinking I should really stick to this running thing. We promised each other that we would break out of our Greenlake habit and come back to Magnuson! And the best part of this run was that Roz really pushed me -- we finished in just over 24 minutes! I never have 8 minute miles!

If I count my 8k (Beat the Bridge) then I have reached my new year's resolution of running five 5ks (but don't worry if I don't count it, I still have the Turkey Trot)! I am thankful that I found all of these fun runs to get me into running. In the future I may start to tackle some distance -- but for now  I will enjoy the FROLIC!