With the New Year already here, and the hecticness I brought upon myself during the entire month of December over now, I’ve been reflecting on my 2021. Like most years, there were ups and downs; though I think it was a net positive year for our family.
With things to look forward to in the future (a hobby of mine), I thought I’d first pause and make a little post to remember some of my favourite things from the last 12 months.
1. fresh flowers – this was my year for gorgeous bouquets. During the peak flower season, I think I had a bouquet in my house most weeks. Last year, I bought Gwendolyn flowers from Foxglove, here in Provo, for her dance recital. Once Todd knew where to get really nice flowers, he bought me several bouquets throughout the year. (Him never buying me flowers, except, like, twice—in grocery stores, and only when I asked—had been a point of mild contention in the nearly-decade we’ve been together). We also hit up the farmer’s market as much as possible, and I bought a few bouquets there, too. The dahlias in September were incredible—I still swoon thinking about them! I also went to a flower arranging class. When I attended a ‘favourite things’ party a few weeks ago, I had mini bouquets made, since fresh flowers had brightened my year so much.
spring recital bouquet 
surprised with flowers 
winter recital bouquet
the bouquet I made 
surprise flowers from a friend <3 
incredible dahlias
bouquet post-sword tournament 
dahlias 
anniversary flowers
2. frozen hot chocolate – or, as I like to call it, “cold chocolate”. I am a h u g e fan of our local chocolate factory + store’s (and, like, seriously, how cool is that in general?!) hot chocolate. But in 2020 I tried their frozen hot chocolate. I liked it, but still preferred hot chocolate. While in college, I made a homemade version a couple of times but this was obviously better. However, summer 2021 had me craving cold chocolate, and then…I couldn’t get enough. We went so many times, so I could get my fix. Cold chocolate is definitely a stand-out part of my last year.
3. pizza john merch – readers who know me irl likely know I’ve been watching the Vlog Brothers for approximately a billion years. Every October, they celebrate “Pizzamas”, where they sell things with the Pizza John face on it to raise money for charity. Pizza John started a long time ago, when John Green made a video about Pizza whilst sporting a questionable mustache. Someone made it art, and now it’s a big thing. I’ve been a fan of Pizzamas for years—I loved my space Pizza John t-shirt; still adore my strategically-placed Pizza John sticker; and wear my black on black Pizza John sweatshirt all the time. This year, Pizzamas wasn’t in the budget, but, to my surprise, for Christmas, Todd bought me my favourite t-shirt design from this year, a blanket I thought was the coolest, and an iron-on patch. As a result, I feel Pizza John must be noted in 2021.
4. star trek – when I was pregnant with Harry, Todd and I made our way through the entirety of Next Gen (my favourite way to fall asleep at the end of that pregnancy was watching 2 episodes, then falling asleep to another). After a prolonged break, we started watching Voyager, which I was not into at first, but now is my personal fav Star Trek, aside from Lower Decks which is my #1 Star Trek recommendation for every person. We also suffered through all of Deep Space 9 (yikes), and have moved onto the old Star Trek movies. It’s been a year of Star Trek. Does this make me a nerd? For our Halloween costume, we went as Star Trek Characters.
5. e-biking – in the spring, I finally broke down and got a new e-bike (my big front cargo basket e-bike was actually impossible on the hills around here). It’s so fun, you guys. Todd had already been loving his since the end of 2020, but now we could really go places together. And we have. We have biked all over town, and love biking the Provo River Trail. It’s a fantastic way to get outside, get in some movement, and be together as a family. As soon as the winter is less bitter, you can bet we’ll be back at it.
our very first ride 
6. studio ghibli films – particularly Totoro, Ponyo, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. My children have been obsessed. It’s all they watch, so, obviously we have watched them ad-nauseam. Gwendolyn became passionate about Totoro, so that’s been the main one (and I may write an entire blog post about my thoughts on that film in the future). But, in October I was looking for a completely non-scary Halloween film, and Kiki’s Delivery Service seemed to be the one. Both the kids have loved it, and constantly find ‘brooms’ to ride on, and quote the movie. The last few weeks, though, Harry has fallen in love with the movie Ponyo. Frequently, Gwendolyn pretends to be Ponyo, while Harry pretends to be Sosuke, so that works out well.
my two little witches 
7. mozz pizza – I feel like mozz could make my list every year, but I made sure to eat as many pizza specials, and appetizers specials as possible this year. Our lovely besties gave us a gift card from there for Christmas, which we loved. There’s no need to repeat myself, so if you want more info on Mozz/to read me gushing about it, I have a post on that.
broccolini + harissa 
brussel sprout pizza 
gochugang pasta
8. alice and ames dresses – this year, we’ve struggled getting Gwendolyn to find clothes she likes wearing. I bought her an entire Spring capsule, and she was actually kind of opposed to wearing a lot of it. However, she still liked wearing the alice and ames dresses she had, and was growing out of. So I bought her, like, a t o n more. And she loves them. Sorted. I even bought a matching one for her best friend, because I have a problem.
9. the try guys – since their inception, I’ve watched the Try Guys on and off, but, once we moved into our house, I became a regular watcher. At the beginning of 2020, Todd joined me, and we went through and watched everything they’ve ever put on youtube (so 2020 was a try year, too). This past year, I’ve been regularly listening to their podcast, The Try Pod, and it really kept me company while I was working on Christmas projects October-December. Last night we watched an hour-long video of Keith eating the menu. It’s just a thing now.
10. farmer’s market – summer is my least favourite season, but 2021’s was made worthwhile through excellent farmer’s market attendance. The kids both loved getting their regular items, and it was nice to be outdoors and together enjoying our town. This year, I even got a big ol’ basket from one of the vendors to use for my purchases. It made me feel like a ~real farmer’s market girl~. Overall, it was just a bunch of fun, and we looked forward to it every week.
I think those 10 things all played really big parts in coloring how my 2021 went. If you could choose 5-10 things that you enjoyed last year, what would they be?
