Day 481. January 7. Matthew.

Today, not only did I get to see Matt for the first day in a month, but after he picked me up, he took me to the mall & told me to pick out my Christmas gift :
new sunglasses !!

(We chose Ray-Bans wayfarers!)

Day 480. January 6. Flight 406.

Flight 406 was supposed to leave Nashville at 5:15PM.
Instead, the arriving flight didn't arrive until 6:30PM which put us in the air by 7:05PM.
Long flight home, the major congestion in my head made it hard to listen to headphones and drown out all the Bama fans sitting around me.

I arrived home by 10:00PM -- only 2 hours later than expected...
Relieved to see my Papa at the gate (I really have the best grandpa in the world).
Exhausted. Time for bed.

Day 479. January 5. Loveless.

It's my last day in Nashy so we went out for dinner & said goodbye to a Nashville favorite, The Loveless Cafe.

Day 478. January 4. Southern ATM.

You know you're in the South when you go to the ATM expecting to deposit your money into an automated machine, but instead are greeted by a tube that flies through the sky & delivers your money to an actual person sitting on the other side of the bank.

Way to go Nashville for keeping job opportunities alive!

Day 477. January 3. Hunter.

I spent the day hanging out with my brother.
Sherlock Holmes was SO good.

I can't get enough of the dormant trees here.
It doesn't look like this in CA.

Day 476. January 2. Dinner with (New) Friends.

I always thought of myself as a social person.

That is, until I started college & was forced out of my comfortable PCS/MHS bubble to make new friends & put myself in social situations I'm not familiar with.

Somewhere along the line, I kicked my extroverted self out the door & kicked up the "shy" notch a few levels. I'm not sure why this happened, or when exactly it happened; but it happened.

And this (somewhat new) introverted self has a really hard time coming to Nashville & meeting all of the new people in my family's life -- all of whom know me, even though I don't know them.

Tonight we had a group of my family's friends come over for dinner.
(an activity that at first made me want to curl up in my introverted ball)

But, after meeting over appetizers & spending an evening finding out that these new friends in my family's life can, in fact, be my new friends as well; I loosened up and regained that extroverted Meghan I really only know in groups of people I'm close to.


(maybe I'm already making more progress in this new year than I expected....)

Day 475. January 1. Resolution.

It's a New Year

which for most Americans

means making a

list of resolutions

& more often than not,

breaking them

within a few weeks.

I usually follow

along with this trend,

but this year I'm not going to.

I'm not sure if it's because

I'm feeling a huge lack

of inspiration,

or if it's because I am

tired of making that list

and never following through with it

(maybe it's a bit of both).



We saw Avatar today

which is not the type of movie

that I'd normally tag along to see,

but I went anyway, and guess what

...I loved it.

So maybe I am making a "try new things" resolution after all.

Day 474 // December 31 // A Dick Clark New Years Eve.

Our family didn't do much for New Years Eve today/tonight. It was a drag not having all our friends together to ring in the new year, but we made the most of it.
One of our adventures was at Sweet CeCe's, the cutest fro yo shop I've ever seen.

Day 473 // December 30 // Christmas Five Days Late.

Because of our last minute rush to Iowa, we never got a chance to unwrap the presents that Santa left for us under the tree.
So, we did the usual Christmas morning ritual, tonight.
And it was perfect.

Matching TOMS!
(What? we live across the country from each other which gives us the right to coordinate)


SUPER fun vintage camera mugs!
(that ironically all match the cameras I already own)

Mom got new charms for her bracelet!
(Dad unwrapped his new camera case in the car on Christmas Eve)

Day 472 // December 29 // Messy?

We're back home now & I should probably consider cleaning my room.....

Day 471 // December 28 // Univ of Iowa.

We left at 7AM for a long drive home (14 hours to be exact).
On our way through Iowa City, we stopped to get a personal tour of University of Iowa where my dad graduated in 1982.

(Lenny & Ann, you should appreciate these next few photos.....)

Day 470 // December 27 // Day 4 in Iowa.

My dad's cousin, Mary works at the Iowa state capitol, so we went & visited.
(gorgeous, huh?)

Then we did a little shopping.
(it was 17 degrees)

And took a snowy family photo.

And ended the day with dinner with the Pat Braun family + Mary, Lenny & mom, Rosie.

Day 469 // December 26 // Braun Family Christmas.

Our Braun family (day after) Christmas:

We exchanged Christmas gifts with Lenny.



More board games (our favorite).

More snow !!!

(Ron, "my favorite old guy")

And finally, the traditional Braun family Christmas program:

(Cousins, Erin & Maggi performed a song
about the family that they wrote all by themselves)

(Dad performing some holiday favorites)

(Rose & Brian acting in the play)

(Hunter playing "Norbert, the Narrator", in the play)

(Hunter & Mary)

(Ron & Alice giving the traditional "Significant Events" awards)

(Lenny playing "Penny Wellington")

The Jinglets performing a Christmas classic
(yes, I actually sang/danced.....kinda)

(Ron & Maggi & Erin)

(Lenny & I)