A month ago, my darling cousin Jenna flew in from Houston for a visit. At 15 years old, she is drop-dead gorgeous, just the right amount of sassy, and completely uninterested in letting anyone make her feel bad about what she likes, how she dresses, etc. We had a blast watching Channing Tatum movies and getting manicures and melting in the sun at Wrigley Field and eating our weight in sugar.

I love hanging out with her.

She also convinced me to try renting a movie through RedBox (since Netflix, Hulu+, and iTunes were uninterested in letting us watch Bridesmaids). Something about the battered DVD case brought me back to my childhood, when Blockbuster was king of the video rental establishments and getting a week off from school meant stocking up on films and video games and consoles. Bringing home an N64 over Thanksgiving weekend guaranteed that Adam and I would play Mario Kart and Zelda and Army Men until we made ourselves sick. In fact, I distinctly remember going to bed after at least three major holiday dinners with a raging headache and images from Donkey Kong burned into the backs of my eyelids.

I'm glad that my childhood is so full of good memories like that, and I love that I get to continue making fun memories with Jenna and Ian and all of you wonderful people. xx