Can you believe it's New Year's Eve? 2015 went by in a flash. Rob and I went out for a delicious dinner last night and have plans to sit on our couch with Chinese food and champagne tonight, which is why today's post is especially appropriate!

A few weeks ago, before the rush of the holidays, I had two of my best Charlotte girlfriends over for a movie night complete with hot apple cider and some super festive popcorn. This little tradition started for me when I lived in Minneapolis and my friend Daci came over to help us decorate our tree, eat snacks, drink warm beverages, and watch Elf.  Then she invited me over with a few other girlfriends for more cider, cornbread, and Love Actually. 

Basically you just need snacks, some festive warm drinks, and a holiday movie. Pop Works & Company was nice enough to send me some popcorn to share with my friends: we feasted on the Salted Caramel & Fudge, Cookies & Cream, and Birthday Cake flavors. (They're all awesome but my favorite was definitely the Salted Caramel & Fudge.)

And since it's New Year's Eve and if you're like me you are refusing to watch a holiday movie tonight, I've included a list of non-holiday holiday movies, which are a thing if you didn't know. But I think they're different for every person. Here are mine, and why (yes they're all musicals):

• Rent, because it takes place around the holidays and I'm pretty sure ends on New Year's Eve. Don't hold me to that--it's been a while since I've seen it, but I always want to watch it around this time and I think I'm going to.
• Les Misérables, because it was released in theaters on Christmas day but isn't about Christmas so I listened to the soundtrack nonstop after seeing the film and also because there's really never a bad time to watch Hugh Jackman and/or Eddie Redmayne do their thing.
• Frozen, because it takes place during a magical winter and it's cozy.

Pop Works & Company is offering their Pop Box (what I received--three different flavors) for $15.99 and you can get free shipping through tonight (New Year's Eve)!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

— Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

I hope 2015 was a year that asked questions, because I don't have very much room for any more uncertainty these days.

2015 was a bad year.

• My parents split up and moved out of the house that used to be one of my favorite places in the world.
• Rob and I were in a car accident.
• My mom got cancer and had two surgeries.
• I took a step back from blogging and came back uninspired; feeling like I was flailing about in a sea of uncertainty while my peers raced ahead steadily.
• I tested positive for a BRCA gene mutation that increases my risk of breast cancer up to 84%.

And yet, it was a good one, too.

• We rescued a puppy and fell in love with him (as I'm sure you could tell from his ridiculous first birthday party).
• I was invited to speak at my alma mater about creating an unconventional job with an English degree, which I will always look back on as the first big honor of my career.
• We celebrated our first year of marriage in a city that finally feels like home.
• I teamed up with Courtney of Sweet C's Designs to pitch my first really huge blogging project and found myself on a sponsored trip to California to put our plans in action.
• We made a handful of really great friends and managed to maintain some old traditions in new ways--including sushi and bowling the day after Thanksgiving and a Love Actually girls night after a visit to a local holiday market.

I'm looking forward to so many new things in 2016--more travel, reading a ton of books, studying Spanish again, learning a few new skills (I have my heart set on hand lettering), and hopefully less heartbreak.

We all have so much to be thankful for, don't we?

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to run on the light.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Happy New Year, friends.

Sometimes I find the week after Christmas to be even more magical than the holiday itself. Lots of people are still off work, and it's kind of the calm between two storms. Christmas has come and gone and we're in the few days before the new year that always make me look back on the past year with some reflection while simultaneously looking forward to the year ahead with determination.

This week I will be taking down our Christmas decorations, cleaning our apartment, finally throwing away the last of the clothes I never wear, and sitting down to make some resolutions for 2016. There will also be burgers and cocktails and cozy breakfasts at home, despite the 70+ degree days we've been having lately.

Between the weather and my family and the move, it didn't really feel like Christmas to me this year. But it definitely feels like time for a new year.

Merry Christmas, darling.