Best of 2009 challenge….

Dec 4, 2009 | #best09, 2010 Occasions mini catalog, Hampton Beach, NH, Stampin' Up

I never do enough reflecting, or writing about me and my life in my scrapbooks, journals or otherwise. So I’ve decided to participate in Gwen Bell’s The Best of 2009 Challenge.
The idea is to reflect on the best aspects of 2009… best trip, best meal, best album, best inspiration… etc. Some of the prompts speak to me more than others — particularly the first one, which is why I couldn’t resist participating!
You should try it, too — even if you don’t have a blog — write it down somewhere — in a journal or to keep for journaling in your scrapbook later — it’s good to sometimes think about yourself once in a while!
Anyway the first prompt is best trip. And hands down I have to say the impromptu trip Matt and I took to Hampton Beach, N.H. in September was my favorite trip. That is the first time we’ve ever just got in the car and started driving, not knowing where we’d end up.
It was also the first time I’ve ever seen a sunrise (see above) — I’m a night owl, so mornings are not my thing, but we got up early and watched the sunrise over Hampton Beach from our top floor hotel room. Gorgeous.
Matt tricked me, though, and wouldn’t let me go back to bed afterwards! But it was O.K. because we got up and had a leisurely breakfast, wandered around the stores for a bit and then beached it for about 6 hours! The best part was the whole time we were on the beach we didn’t know what our next move was. We didn’t have a hotel for the night, our clothes and belongings were just packed up in the car and we just sat. on the beach. for hours. Fabulous.
We wandered away for some lunch and returned with some ice cream and continued to watch the people in front of us have a mini-concert with a guitar and three singers. The group beside us had a softball game with about 20 people. And dozens of Moms and Dads wandered around the beach with little tykes in tow. I love people watching.
What was really amazing to me, too, was that this is the first and only trip that had the same feel to me as our honeymoon. I’ve always said that our honeymoon had a special feeling to it — unlike other vacations… it was somehow different. I don’t know if it was because it was such a relief after nine months of planning a wedding, or the excitement of actually being married and starting our life together, or just the newness of experiencing California for the first time — something was just special about that trip. And for some reason, the trip to Hampton Beach had the same feeling and I loved it!
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I’m not sure if I will participate with all of the Best of 2009 Challenges, but I do like the idea a lot and some of the prompts really do speak to me… so I’m sure you’ll hear a little more about what I loved about 2009! I hope you don’t mind (wink, wink)!
In the meantime, I just placed my pre-order for the new Stampin’ Up Occasions mini-catalog product — and oh my gosh am I excited…. I had a really hard time (and I know I say this every time, but I mean a REALLY hard time) deciding what to order…
There are so many great things to choose and as a demonstrator we got an EXTRA 10% off stamps in this mini (for a total of 30%) so it was hard NOT to order some of the insanely cute sets….
Stay tuned to the blog for some sneak peeks towards the end of the month… I’m planning a little countdown before the release on Jan. 5.
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Friday (almost)!
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