A New Year

I know I am almost an entire week late on this, but Happy New Year to all of you out there!!! I hope this first week of 2012 has been treating you all well. :) I've been reading a lot lately about how people are "so ready" to move on from 2011; how they want/need a fresh start, complete with big resolutions and life-changing plans. And they are NOT looking back. To those people, I say, good for you! But I'm not one of them. 2011 was an incredible year - I've got no complaints, and I want to look back and remember everything that happened. There are so many beautiful memories! Now, was it always easy and uncomplicated? No. Planning a wedding to man who lives thousands of miles away was a bit of a stressor last year! But there were so many positives last year that outweighed the negatives. My sister got married (and I was so blessed to be here MOH), I got to travel Europe (I still don't think it's hit me how lucky I am for that one!), I got married to my best friend of 10 years, moved to Germany, spent some much needed time with my closest friends from all over the States, and finally got my hair back to a semi-normal color after mistakenly dyeing it black on the eve of 2011. If those aren't major highlights of a year, I don't know what are. I'm so lucky.

So how did the Stewarts ring in 2012, you ask? Well, for starters, not in Berlin, like we had somewhat originally planned. Several of our friends were traveling up for a couple nights, and we really wanted to go. But we also wanted to go when we have plenty of time to see the city and not be in freezing rain the whole time! I can't lie...we were, and probably still are, a little jealous of the amazing time everyone had there, but we had a nice little NYE here in Bamberg. We didn't do anything fancy, but it was such a fun night! It started out at Casa Italia, a little restaurant up the road, with a few good friends. Here's a pic of Jason and I at dinner. p.s. I cannot believe how long my hair is!!

And look at these cute napkins they had!

Adorable. After dinner, the 5 of us headed back to our apartment for a little champagne and beer for the boys. Here's a pic of Emily and I. She just got here a few weeks after me, so it's definitely nice to have someone that is just as new to everything as I am! p.s. we share a love of Justin Bieber (Lindsay - I showed off my JB singing toothbrush to everyone). I knew I liked her from the start. :)

Yes, we still have our Christmas tree up. And yes, I am leaving it up for 2 more weeks. For 2 main reasons. 1) That sucker will never get used again in our apartment, and 2) my parents will be here in just over 2 weeks, and I really want them to see it! I do think I'll take the rest of our decorations down though. It's time. I just love Christmas so much, it breaks my heart to see it all go back in a box!

After splitting ways for the rest of the night, Jason and I headed to our other friends', Jae and Stacey's, for more food, fireworks, and more champagne.

Here are a few pics of us right at midnight with sparklers and a perfect view of the fireworks being set off downtown!

beautiful Stacey! (and baby!)

And for the fireworks...

I know the quality isn't great, but you get the picture! I took all of these on my phone...and really almost every picture on the blog. It is just so much easier to pull out my phone (which I almost always have with me!) then to remember to bring my camera everywhere.

So that was pretty much our New Years! And actual NY day was spent in our PJs watching an 11-hour Dexter marathon. Seriously, we are addicted. And that's also the reason I will end this post here. We've got to go watch the season 2 finale!

Happy New Year! Cheers!