Friday Favorites - 12.29.17 - Favorite Memories of 2017!

Happy New Year’s Eve weekend, everybody!  For today’s Friday Favorites, I’m doing something fun and looking back on my favorite moments of 2017.  Another year has flown by and I had fun remembering all the things I did each month.  So I share my look back at 2017 while looking forward to an even better 2018.  As always, I’m linking up with the Friday Favorites hosts Erika, Andrea and Narci.

January 2017

At the top of the year, my parents and I took an Eastern Caribbean cruise.  We had never been to the Caribbean and it was a relaxing getaway, as planned.  I read 13 books that month, and the majority I read on the cruise in various nooks and crannies of our ship.  I also learned how to roll sushi, and Mom and I took a napkin folding class.  The joys of cruising – their fun little activities at sea.  We took off during the week where we didn’t miss any Seahawks football.  In this picture, we’re representing our team as 12 fans at the ruins in Cozumel.

February 2017

One of my college besties, Tracie, came to visit from Hawaii.  It’s always fun times when she’s in town for a mini reunion with all our college besties.  It’s also a lot of eating!  Laughs and "framily" dinners – always memorable.

March 2017

On March 3, my littlest love, Caleb, was born.  He is my youngest of 27 godchildren, born to my BFF, Genel.  Our lifelong girlfriends and I were all there when he graced the world with his presence.  I love this picture of us all ogling at him as soon as he was brought into the room.

April 2017

In April, some friends and I went to UNLVino, the wine and food tasting event to benefit UNLV.  It was my first time going and I’m glad I did.  This ended up being the last time I would hang out with my dear friend, Ed.

April was a month of highs and lows, and one our family won’t soon forget.  My cousin ended his valiant fight against leukemia in March and we celebrated his life in Seattle in April.  While it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to Kuya Lenard, the outpouring of love and support for him as we all wore our #TeamLenard shirts was beautiful.  He was, and is, loved by so many people.

I also visited the cherry blossoms of Seattle for the first time on the University of Washington campus with my cousins and nephews.  We had a lil photo shoot with my camera, and these flowers just never disappoint behind the lens.

Later on in April, Seattle family joined us in Las Vegas and we played tourist including their first visit to the Hoover Dam.

May 2017

In May, our organization made it to the final presentation for a large impact grant that we had been working on for 6 months.  It was one of the most competitive processes we’ve been in to date and I’ve been at this work for almost 15 years.  We had refined and rehearsed countless times, and then on May 9th, we finally made our presentation… At the end of May, we found out, we were chosen as the recipient of the $405,000 grant!  It was one of my favorite career accomplishments!

For Mother’s Day, I took my Mom and Aunt to Mandarin Oriental’s High Tea.  It was a lovely afternoon out and the pastries, sandwiches, and variety of teas didn’t disappoint. 

June 2017

June is my birthday month and I share it with one of my lifelong besties, Monica.  For our birthdays this year, we hosted a Favorite Things party.  We each brought 2 favorite things, and exchanged them with everyone who came so everyone got gifts, and we ate our favorite foods and had a favorite snacks bar.  So fun!

In June, my eldest niece, Kaleah, who is also my goddaughter, graduated from high school and our family had a blast celebrating her!  I loved being her party planner too.

July 2017

In July, we really lived up summer.  My 3 goddaughters and I were making ice cream, having pool time, visiting the library, having sleepovers, watching movies, lounging with the pups and overall, just having a blast.

I was in my favorite city of D.C. in July attending the National Alliance to End Homelessness conference, and doing visits on Capitol Hill.  Visiting D.C. never gets old.

At the end of July, I launched this blog!  I had been considering it for awhile and I have to say, it was so fun to launch it and see the response.  It’s been a fun hobby ever since.

August 2017

August is fun because it means pre-season for NFL football.  It feels like it takes forever to get here every year!  I headed to Seattle in August to watch my Seahawks at Training Camp with the family.  We love our Hawks.

September 2017

September is Washington State Fair time!  I returned to Seattle to join my cousins and nephew for a day at the Puyallup Fair.  We stayed all day, ate everything we wanted, and shopped for random gadgets and food stuff again.  We love to do the Puyallup!

I also went to Atlanta in September to watch a football game in the Falcons’ new stadium.  My Seahawks weren’t playing, but I have a life goal to visit all the NFL stadiums so this was one more off my list.  The stadium was worth the visit too.  Here’s a tip:  they’ve got the cheapest food of any stadium right now.  Nothing was more than $5 and it was good food too.

October 2017

October started off with something we will never forget in Las Vegas with the 1 October shooting.  The shooting was a tragedy, but the love we felt as a community will truly be what we remember most.  We are #VegasStrong.  I posted this Vegas tribute and it was by far, one of the most read posts on my blog all year.

November 2017

My staff and I hosted our 9th annual Benefit Dinner at the Golden Nugget, to raise money for our programs for homeless and at-risk veterans.  It was the highest attended fundraiser we’ve hosted so far and we exceeded our goal and raised over $100,000!  It was such a fun and memorable night too.

November was also a very memorable month because I also became a foster mom after 6 months of preparation.  Another popular post was the one where I first announced my decision to answer the call to foster.  Raising a little sweetheart has blessed me in countless ways, as I live my life devoted to helping the children who need care in the foster system of our community.

December 2017

The month of December has been all about baby, of course, and also about Christmas.  It’s been a memorable month of introducing baby to family, sharing her first mass, and preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. 

I feel blessed we were able to share baby’s first Christmas with her and we did it big with Christmas photos and Christmas parties, and all her first Christmas gifts.  Now, we prepare to say goodbye to 2017 and give thanks for the blessings this past year.

That’s a look back at a few of my favorite memories of 2017. 

I pray for a beautiful 2018 for all of you!  Happy New Year!