College Graduation Weekend

This past weekend was so special to me, and it will be one of those weekends I will always remember. It was seriously one of those weekends I never wanted to end because I was enjoying it so much! I graduated, and it meant so much to me to have all of the people I love so much there for me! This weekend was definitely marvelous, so I will be linking up with Katie!

This post will be a lot of pictures, which are honestly the best ind of posts. 🙂 If you missed my last post about what I learned in college, you can find it here. 

We started off the morning by having some breakfast at Cracker Barrel before heading to my graduation since it didn’t start until 1:30.

It was really cold when we were taking these pictures outside!

I was really happy that the graduation ceremony didn’t take long at all. It was only like an hour! The ceremony was very well organized and ran smoothly.

Now we are both alumni of the university where we met!

I could not have made it from kindergarten all the way through college without my wonderful parents. I know I say it a lot, but you really don’t understand how amazing my parents are.

I could not have been blessed with better in-laws. They made a long trip down here just to watch me graduate; they are too sweet!

Ryan’s parents, like us, met at this university when they were college students, at the same BSM where Ryan and I met! This school was obviously good to the four of us.

I have too much fun with these four. The best husband, big bro, and SIL a girl could ask for.

My sweet grandparents.

My other sweet grandparents. 🙂

Several generations of alumni. My grandfather, mom, Ryan, and I all attended and graduated from the same university! We are proud of our university!

Our good friend Tanner also graduated with me, and his wife, Chelsea and him became some of our best friends at college! They were one of the couples who came over for the first night of our 12 dates of Christmas. The guy on far left, Garrett, is another one of our best friends and was one of Ryan’s roommates his last year at school. He was so sweet and came to watch the graduation.

After my graduation my Mom had a party for me at their house, and my best friend since fifth grade, Shelby, and her mom, Shelly, stopped by to see me. It was so good to see them since I hadn’t seen them since this summer. Shelby got engaged in November, and I hadn’t seen her in person since, so it was so fun getting to talk to her in person.

Shelby gave me this super cute box, and when I opened the lid it had a ring pop in it and asked if I would be her bridesmaid. Obviously, I said yes!!! I was and am still so excited! (I totally should have taken a picture of the ring inside the box with the other note, but I didn’t think about it. My bad.)

The fact that I graduated during Christmas time made it so much better!

I also received some incredible gifts from the people I love. Everyone was way too generous, and I am so thankful for everything.

My parents gave me some Spode Christmas dishes so that I could start a collection. I have always wanted to have my own Spode collection because my mom, grandmother, and Ryan’s mom all have Spode. I thought it would be so fun to carry on the tradition! Plus, they are so festive this time of year, and I love that! My in-laws also gave me several pieces of Spode for graduation, including beautiful placemats, a serving dish, a platter, a candy bowl, and an oven mitt!

My parents also gave me this beautiful cross necklace, that I love! I had been wanting one like this for a while.

Ryan knows me well and gave me a long distance training belt for running and a BIC band for my hair! I had been wanting both of these things.

Ben and Kaleigh gave me such a cute gift bag full of things I will need in my own classroom. I thought this was such a fun, though out gift, and I love it! I will definitely be using all of the things in this bag.

Shelby and Shelly gave me a similar gift. They gave me this super cute Vera Bradley bag, since they said every teacher needs a cute bag (I totally agree), and it was filled with things I will need for my classroom. Of course I loved this gift too!

All of my grandparents were very generous as well with their gifts, and I am so thankful for everything everyone gift me. I am most thankful for everyone just giving up their time to celebrate the day with me. It was seriously so fun, and a very special day for me.

Sunday, Ryan and I went to one of my grandparents’ house and celebrated Christmas with them, my parents, and Ben, and Kaleigh. We had Mexican pile up for lunch and played Charades. We had a blast here too, but somehow I left without taking any pictures! It’s okay though, because I am pretty sure this post has a lot of pictures already. 🙂

So that was my marvelous weekend! Obviously, this weekend was one I will always remember. It was made so special because of the people I love most. I don’t know what I would do without them.

Questions:

1. Tell me something fun about your weekend?

2. Have you gone to any Christmas celebrations yet?

3. Any fun plans for this week?

4. Any good recipes I should try this week? I am grocery shopping later today.