It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is no secret the the holiday season is my favorite season of the year! I just love EVERYTHING about this season! The smell of gingerbread, the snow on the ground, the smell of pine needles all over the house, holly all over the town, seeing the children anxiously waiting to sit on Santa's lap and tell him all they want for Christmas! Everything about this season is absolutely beautiful!

So this year Mike and Susie started decorating the house before Thanksgiving. This is something that Mom and Dad have never done before. Usually we just wait until Carey and I are out for break to decorate anything in the house but, this year they got a bit of a head start! This is great because in my house it has been Christmas for a week already (which is completely fine with me)!

Anyway, I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this Christmas season! Today I broke out my Michael Bublé Holiday station. I honestly can't think of anyone I would rather bring in the holiday season with than Bublé and the original Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.)! I don't think I will ever turn off this station. Seriously, Christmas music is my absolute favorite, it is not going off.

This is seriously the most wonderful time of the year! Everyone just seems so much happier during the Christmas season and, despite the cold, everything is just warmer! I really LOVE Christmas!

A Few Finds

So Susie is letting me keep a few of my finds from the shopping extravaganza yesterday! I am so excited, I came into my room after lunch and saw these sitting on my bed!

Tommy Hilfiger earmuffs (similar)/JCrew Olive Pumps/Red Coach Crossbody Bag (similar)

Deals and Steals

So we did Black Friday differently this year. Usually my cousin and I go out at midnight and hit the Belk then we would come in and sleep until 5. At 5 we would get up and head down to the outlet mall to shop all of our favorite stores! 

This year my cousin wasn't here so Susie, Carey, and I slept-in and got to the outlets around 9:00. Oh my gosh! It was an amazing day! J-Crew was having a 50% off + and extra 10% sale! Tommy Hilfiger was 50% the whole store AND I got a pair of penny loafers and got $150 dollars off (can you say steal?!)! Unfortunately I won't see ANY of it again till Chirstmas because Susie is wrapping it all up and it's all going under the tree (sad face).

Such a great day with so many great deals and I can't think of any place better to spend it than my home away from home at Kill Devil Hills! 

Much to be Thankful For

I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! We had so much fun at the farm with my mom's family! There is never a dull moment with Susie's family! The renovations to the house really opened up the house and it felt like we had much more room. We also had cable this year (which was a plus) and we were able to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade without the signal going out on us every two minutes!

Anyway, we had tons of fun! I helped Susie and Uncle Joe with breakfast and then got ready for the day with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on in the background (did I mention we got a flat screen HD TV in the back bedroom too!). I watched some amazing performances as I got ready and now have a LIST of shows that I am just dying to see!

Around 10 the rest of the family started coming and the house became a bustle of excitement with everyone pitching in to help cook or sitting around getting out of the way! Lunch was served around 12:30 and we had the works! Potato Salad, Mac & Cheese, Sweet Potato Casserole, Country Cured Ham, Turkey, my grandma's secret dressing recipie, Succotash, Snap Beans, Collard Greens, Ree Ree's Chicken pie! Sweet Potatoe Biscuits and Homestyle Biscuits, and Deviled Eggs! It was delicious! We also had my Uncle Joe's famous Sweet Tea! Dessert was made of Peacan Pie, Cheese Pie, and Chocolate Chess Cake!

After lunch my cousins and I went into the back bedroom to take our annual after Thanksgiving nap but failed because we had to keep our little cousins out of trouble. It was okay though because we got to spend more time together before each individual family had to leave! 

Afterwards my family headed to Kill Devil Hills to spend the rest of Thanksgiving weekend on the beach. Tonight was much more chill than this morning with Brunswick Stew and Corn Muffins for dinner and Pumpkin Pie (Classic) for dessert! We ate and then settled on the couch to finish watching the Dallas game! 

I am so thankful for my whole family and my family traditions! Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday and I have such fond memories of spending time with both of my families!

Last night I was going through the Bass family photo album and found some great family photos from Thanksgiving past! There were plenty more but I decided to just take the ones I was in! These are cousins only photos by the way.

I am the one in the pink dress! Thanksgiving 1997!

Red dress is me! Thanksgiving 1999!

Thanksgiving 2000! I am the one in the blue dress with the turtleneck underneath, stylin' right? By the way that wall isn't there anymore and neither is the room in the last picture, they were both removed during renovations of the farm house!

Thanksgiving 2001? Maybe 2002. I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm in the pink!

Thanksgiving 2008! A lot of cousin's additions since 2001! 

The foursome: Anna, Catherine (me), Carey, and Ryan! 

I am so thankful for my family and for another safe Thanksgiving! 

Family Traditions

So Thanksgiving is coming up and every year my family pack up the car the day before and heads out to our family farm in Edenton, NC.

Well now I'm here and I keep thinking about how this year, like every year is going to be the same. Unlike the years in the past though, it is going to be very very different. Every year my mom's whole family (all 21 of us) have packed ourselves into the tiny farm house to enjoy a late Thanksgiving lunch! We have so much fun laughing and eating and talking despite the fact that we barely have any room to breathe. After lunch my family packs up the car and heads down to Kill Devil Hills to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's parents! At the beach we eat a traditional meal and then I stay up ALL night so that I can hit the outlets for a little bit of Black Friday shopping (my favorite shopping spree of the year).

This year is going to be different though. Nothing about the traditional routine will change. We will still go to the farm (already there) and we will still go to the beach. The only difference is the farm house. We renovated last year and the house doesn't look anything like it did before. My grandma, CC, at the beach is also not making her traditional Thanksgiving meal. Instead she is making Brunswick stew. It will be weird but I am ready to embrace the weird. 

Anyway, I love what my family does on Thanksgiving. It is so much fun getting to spend time with both families for this holiday, it is the only holiday that we get to do that for! I love getting to see all of cousins and spending time in two of my favorite places: Edenton and Kill Devil Hills! 

In Edenton everyone in the family bring a different dish and it is very much like a potluck. We have salted ham and oven roasted turkey, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, mac&cheese, rolls, succotash, snap beans and more. We also have my Uncle Joe's "famous" sweet tea and an abundance of desserts (none of which are pumpkin pie). It is so much fun and very nontraditional, which is okay because it completely fits that side of the family!

Our Thanksgiving in Kill Devil Hills is so different in comparison to the one in Edenton! It is usually much more traditional with everyone dressed up all nice and the traditional turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and, of course, pumpkin pie! It is so different from the Thanksgiving at the farm but it is just as fun! Even with the change I am sure.

This is just one of my families crazy traditions and I love it! 

Bookshelf: The Yellow Birds

So I read this book last year for a school extra credit project. I almost didn't read it but the day it was due I thought, well maybe I'll give it a try. I ended up LOVING this book! I read it in one night and was able to do the extra credit assignment without missing any content.

The Yellow Birds is an excellent representation of a solider readjusting to life in the states after getting back from the middle east. Whether you have been to war (which I have not) or not you can sympathize with with the characters in the book. It is absolutely amazing and you fall in love with every character from the first page. 

This is an amazing book and I would read it over and over again! The story is so captivating and wonderful that people from all different backgrounds will love it! 

Uncomfortable Situations

Some times I have those days where I am thrown into some of the most uncomfortable situations. Sometimes these situations end up going really, really well and other times . . . not so much. But from these uncomfortable situations I always learn something new about who I am as a person and what I am capable of doing under pressure and out of my comfort zone.

So today I was at rehearsal for Tarzan. It had been a really long last day to my week and I honestly couldn't wait for rehearsal to be over so that I could go home and just lay on the couch and spend time with my family. We finished running Act 1 and rehearsal was almost halfway over. I was sort of wishing that we would be excused but at the same time I knew and wanted to stay to run the Act again.

Okay so side-note. The actress that play Kala is out sick with a virus and is a good friend of mine so I really hope she gets better. Since she hasn't been there her unofficial "understudy" has been filling in for her at rehearsals.

Okay, I digress. So we almost done with Act 1 and by that point in time I knew that we were going to have to stay after and rerun the Act. It didn't look horrible, like at all (for a high school level production it looked really, really good) but it did need some work. Tarzan and Jane are singing different together when my director calls me back to where she and her creative team were sitting. I went back there and was told that Kala's "understudy" had to leave rehearsal and that I was going to fill in for her. Being a compliant actor, I agreed.

Ya'll should know that this was throwing me way out of my comfort zone. I was really nervous just because I didn't know ANY of the blocking and I didn't feel completely confident in what I would be singing on stage.

Well I got over it and performed my scene as my character (I am Tarzan's mother by the way) and after I left the stage I ran over and immediately starting playing Kala. Although I was nervous, I got over my nerves and performed lines that I had never looked at of heard before and sang songs that I somewhat knew. And in the end I didn't do too shabby of a job. 

I was completely thrown into this role today and this was something completely out of my comfort zone. I absolutely hate being thrown out of my comfort zone and this was pushing it. I don't mind singing or acting on stage, at all. That does not freak me out because I know what I am doing. But honestly had no clue what I was doing for Kala. I did learn that I can work really good under that kind of pressure. I had never done anything like that before and it was interesting and fun and thrilling! I loved every minute of it.

Try to make the best out of the uncomfortable situations. Really playing into them can help you overcome any fear and break through comfort zones. Find comfort in the uncomfortable situations. 

Sweet Dreams

So last Wednesday, my youth pastor gave a talk about following your dreams. In actuality it was about much more than that, but in my small group we talked about the dreams we have now and whether or not we are going to regret not following them in the future. After that talk I really started thinking about all of the dreams, goals, and ambitions that I have.

I want to be a singer. I want to be on Broadway. I want to be the next Kristin Chenoweth. I want to be a ballerina. I want to dance professionally. I want to be a blogger. I want to be the first lady of the United States. I want to live in New York City. I want to live in Washington D.C. I want to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I want to be a trendsetter. I want to continuously be classically refined. I want to be Audrey Hepburn. I want to be a seamstress. I want to be a business owner. I want to be a mom.

The list could go on and on and maybe one day I will continue writing out the list for you. My point and the point of Jon's talk was that you can dream of many things, but if you never act on it you will never achieve your dreams. I agree 100% with what he say. If I don't act, I will never achieve my dreams. I will never be the person that I was truly meant to be.

The Need to Retreat

Sometimes you don't realize just HOW badly you need to retreat until you go on one. That's me! I went on a retreat this past weekend with my youth group and it was exactly what I needed in every single way! The music, the food, the people, the message - all of it was just too perfect! 

So we talked about "being filled" this weekend. Being filled with God's love and with scripture so that you may be rooted in him and seek out his pleasing about perfect will. I was really excited to go on this retreat because I have been struggling these past few months with my relationship with God. I have just felt stagnant, like I have no motivation to make a change, no matter how bad I want to. This was really becoming a problem and was starting to stress me out, big time.

On this retreat we talked about many things that have to do with being filled but the main one I got out of it was that I am able to let go of everything and give it to God. I feel like this is something that I skip over oh so much and don't even realize it. I wanted a step by step manual to get out of my fandom and because I wasn't getting an, "Okay Catherine: Step 1. Blah blah blah Step 2. Dab dah dah . . ." I was getting super frustrated and with that frustration came anger and control and sadness and stress and bitterness. All of these unwanted evils were filling my heart and were preventing me from growing any closer to God. But this retreat, and this weekend was a perfect reminder in every way that God is in control and if he cares about the birds in the trees he sure cares about me.

I also had tons of fun this weekend with my youth group. I got to hang out with my girls Olive, Rach, and Ems all weekend (which was good because we needed some serious real talk time) and we had so much fun!

 I also met some of the COOLEST JMU students while on retreat! They were our worship band this weekend and not only led us in some amazing worship, they were also so much fun to hang out with and talk to! They are seriously some of the most genuine people I have ever met! I miss them all ready and they kind of make me want to go to JMU (kind of is key)! 

Also, please just check out this amazingly adorable photo of Olive and Cole!

Sometimes a retreat is just good for your soul. Whether you just need to get away or you really need some spiritual guidance, retreats are nessecary to perform well in everyday life! I don't know what my life would be like without retreats!

E - I - E - I - O

The cast of Tarzan (the musical I am currently in) took a trip to the D.C. National Zoo today! We went to the zoo to study the gorillas but we got so much more out of it than just how a gorilla moves. We were able to grow closer together as a cast while we were there and on the 4 hour drive home from the zoo. The whole trip was so much fun but so exhausting! Here are a few photos from the trip!

 The giant panda was adorable and super cute! It just sat there eating bamboo and we stared at it.

 I think Asian elephants are the cutest creatures in the world! I they are by far my favorite animal and much, much, much prettier than African elephants. I could have stayed at the elephant house all day!

 Flamingos. . .need I say more?

 The sea anemone was just beautiful. The only thing missing was Nemo!

 Not the best picture (my camera takes crappy photos) but this is the silverback gorilla in all his glory!

Here is a shot of my friends and I. 

The trip to the zoo was so much fun and completely unnecessary (I'm not complaining though)! More photos to come as I get some in. My friend Caroline took a bunch of wonderful photos and I haven't gotten them yet. These are just a few that I took!

New Beginnings

"No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is a beautiful one!" ~ C. Joybell C.

I really like new beginnings. For example when you start a new book and open up the crisp new pages and get ready to devour this new beginning. Or when you start a new year in January and you are just ready, ready for this new beginning. Or when you walk into a new school. Remember your first day of high school? The day you walked into that over-sized new building and just looked around and all you could think was "Oh crap." And when you went home you sat at the kitchen table, still in awe of everything that you had just experienced that day at school. Then your mom sits next to you and asks how your day went and you responded with "Mom, I got lost," or "Mom everything was so big," or "It was the BEST day of my life Mom!" or (my personal favorite) "Mom, you'll never believe it! I saw a guy with a beard!" It was a new beginning and you never thought you were going to get used to it and you hated it and loved it at the same exact time! 

Well that is what the start of this school year was like for me. The only difference is that I'm not a freshman, it's not a new school, and I didn't tell my mom all about some random guy's beard (I've told Susie about plenty of beards but not on the first day of school). It was a new beginning. I was entering into my senior year of high school with absolutely no friends and nowhere to belong and it was terrifying. I remember walking into the building of James River scared to the bone, not knowing which way was up, which way was down, and who I was going to encounter. It was a new beginning and I hated it.

Although I was scarred silly then, now I enjoy every moment of this new beginning. Starting my senior year of high school the way I did has allowed me to really grow as a person and realize who I am as an individual, before I get to college. I have made friends that I really know that I will keep for life and have had the most fun I have had in years. I can honestly say that I am the happiest I have ever been in my whole high school career and it is all because of this new beginning! 

Catty Cornered Café is another example of a new beginning for me. As I have been discovering who I am as a person I realized that I have a list of dreams, but they will just remain dreams until I act on them and make them reality. So I decided to make one of my dreams a reality and here it is, Catty Cornered Café! I am scarred, excited, nervous, and petrified for this new beginning but, despite all of that, I am ready to dive head first into the water, sink or swim!