the thing I love the most about home is...

...that I can magically run into people I know and miss randomly in a city neither of us live in! I went to Sioux Falls both Saturday and Sunday of this week and both met up and ran into some really great friends. That is something that is not nearly as easy to do in a larger city - I'm usually planning meet-ups with friends for days if not weeks in advance. It's silly, really, when we don't live very far from one another, but it is just how it seems to work. Either way to Beth, Stacy, Brittany, Joe and another Stacy -- I'm glad we've seen each other for at least a few minutes in the last couple days!

Today we had another Christmas celebration with family at the Make-A-Wish SD headquarters. It was very cool - the building is new (actually it may be a little over a year old, but I couldn't attend the opening so it is new to me) and we had the in because of my aunt, who is the CEO. She does some incredible work, and has done it for as long as I can remember. She definitely has what I consider an incredibly hard yet rewarding job, and I can only hope to be as lucky someday.

While we are on the topic of Christmas, I thought I'd share a couple quick photos of an ugly sweater party I went to the weekend before Christmas. It was very fun but I didn't take out my camera once, so I'm relying on other people's photos to document the night!Spending some quality couch time with good friends. Our fabulous sweaters!

And hanging out with the boys! All of the people in these photos were on the Pay It Forward tour I went on during last year's spring break. If the incentive of incredibly good friends doesn't get you on a tour, I don't know what will. (Okay, okay, the travel and community service are pretty great, too.)

Tonight is my last night being 21. I think I might go have a sip of wine to celebrate.