Reflecting back on this year, I would wager to say, it's been the best one yet...but, then again I say that every year!  I've never been one for making, or should I say keeping resolutions, but this year I thought maybe I should.  So here are my resolutions!

1. Blog at least 5 times a week. - This one is pretty self explanatory.  I would love to make it 7 times a week, but sometimes I just get busy!
2. Be more proactive.  - Taking initiative has been a struggle for me in past years, not so much in school, but in extra curricular, and at home doing chores and things.  This year, I want to change that!
3. Get my licence! - Also, gain more freedom when it comes to my parents, which leads us to...
4. Earn their complete trust, and don't break it! - My parents and I sometimes walk on thin ice because I have this tendency to always want the last word, and that is what gets me in trouble.  And trouble sucks, so I would love to earn their complete trust.
5. Be an example. - In my life and in my walk with Christ, I want to always act like  a role model.

Now, I have got to dash! I have a soiree to get ready for!
xoxo.
Morgan
“For last year's words belong to last year's language, And next year's words await another voice.” ― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

I love taking pictures.  Especially the ones that are candid.  They immortalize feelings and capture beautiful moments.  Ever since I can remember, my favorite rainy day past time has been going through old boxes of pictures and hanging them up around my room.  
That's partly why my sister, me and our friend Julia decided to have a photo shoot yesterday.  It was a ton of fun and we all got great new profile pictures! Plus it was a perfect day and it wasn't too cold.  We traversed around our neighborhood at the lake and posed near many a sign, rock and waterfront, and if I do say so myself we got some cute ones!
Look at our photos below! (These are only some of the good ones, we took over 700 in all!)
xoxo.
Morgan
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ― Ansel Adams

Every year on Christmas day my family and I go to the movies...call us weird, but that theater was packed!  Last year we saw Les Mis, and this year we saw Catching Fire, which didn't technically come out on Christmas day, but none of us had seen it yet.   Even though we were probably the last people on the planet to see the movie, it was phenomenal.  Jennifer Lawrence was amazing, as usual, and she continues to be one of my favorite actresses.  The sets were surreal and it was so neat to see a hotel my dad stays at every time he goes to Atlanta on the big screen.  Multiple people have said that Catching Fire was a better movie than The Hunger Games, and I think I would have to agree.  The depth of the characters only grows in the sequel, and the actors just keep getting better and better.   Now that I've seen Catching Fire, I don't know if I can wait until Mockingjay comes out! The end of Catching Fire is a huge cliff hanger and I don't know if I have the patience to wait until November 2014.
xoxo.
Morgan
"Remember who the real enemy is." ~Finnick, Catching Fire

I am a strong believer in learning through my mistakes.  I think that if I sit home and do everything I am supposed to do, I will never achieve my fullest potential. Putting myself into new situations will help me to grow as a person.  Especially this past year it has been a struggle for me to admit that, to myself and to my friends, but if I hide in safety the rest of my life, I will never be able to expand my horizons.   
A lot of this theory of mine directly correlates to my way of evangelizing.  Many people are big fans of walking up to atheists and 'bad people' and shoving gospel down their throats, and while I respect that, I also think that it is largely ineffective.  People need to want God in their lives to be saved, and if you show them what he is doing in yours just by being their friend and not by bragging about it, they might seek Him out themselves. It all circulates  back to pushing myself to be in situations I am not always comfortable with.
So, everyday I do at least one thing I've never done before, or something that terrifies me, or just something that is odd, to make sure that I always keep expanding my horizons. 
xoxo.
Morgan
"Experience: the most brutal of teachers.  But you learn, my God, do you learn." ~C.S. Lewis

Christmas this year was beautiful, and I am sad to see it go; however, when Christmas ends the relaxing and unwinding begins.  After Christmas my immediate family go to our lake house and spend the final week of the break relaxing. Our lake house is somewhat of an escape for me. It allows me to communicate with people I want to but I never have to get dressed if I don't want to and I don't have to wake up at decent times either. It's so peaceful and serene there it feels like a weight has been lifted just when you get off the exit ramp. Also my closest family friends all have houses down there as well so all of our families hang out on New Years and basically whenever we feel the urge. We've known these families since I was two and they are the people who know all of my secrets and embarrassing stories, but we never get to see them at home so it's nice to cherish this time with them. As I'm writing this, Shack (my poodle) is breathing down my neck, my sister and mom are sleeping and my dad is driving us an hour and half to our escape, and everything feels like it's going to work out okay.

xoxo.
Morgan
"We feel free when we escape - even if it be but from the frying pan to the fire." ~Eric Hoffer 

First of all merry Christmas!!! I've been so blessed this Christmas with loving family and friends and I couldn't ask for anything more! So to bring around a close to the season I thought I would share with you a Christmas tradition of my family's. Santa. Bags. Sounds a little weird at first right? Well it's actually one of my favorite things that we do as a family! Everyone in my extended family goes to the Dollar Tree and purchases everyone a gift of $1.00 or less. We all get super creative and get people the craziest things! It's very fun to see the looks on people's faces when they receive a gift that they were no where close to expecting! Merry Christmas to you all and I hope that Santa was good to you!

xoxo.

Morgan

"Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinner reconciled."

Ever year since I was 2 years old, my grandmother has taken me, my sister, my two cousins (Jaimie and Hannah), my Aunt Kim, and my mom to the Nutcracker at the Ballet.  This was the twentieth year that the tradition has occurred since my oldest cousin, who is now 22, was born.  Every year we eat dinner, or lunch depending on the time the ballet is with my entire family, and that is the only part of the festivities the boys are invited to.  Then we all pile into my aunt's van and my grandmother gifts each of us a nutcracker on the way to downtown Richmond.  Sometimes they are different, other times they are all the same.  This year we all got nutcrackers with red sequins all over them!  When we finally arrive at the ballet we naturally take millions of photos, and take our seats.  In the theatre you are not supposed to have candy, but Gran always sneaks in a bag of hard candy for us to suck on during the ballet.  Finally the ballet will start and all of the families going to the Christmas party will dance across the stage.  It is amazing to see it year to year because you start to notice when they change things and you wonder about the logistics of the ballet.  Every year it is fabulous, but this year was particularly monumental because the girl playing Clara was phenomenal and the audience was very energetic, and that makes a huge difference. The tradition of the Nutcracker with my family is one that I will never want to get rid of, and I hope I can continue it with my own children.

xoxo.
Morgan
"I'm enamored with the art world. Anytime you look at anything that's considered artistic, there's a commercial world around it: the ballet, opera, any kind of music. It can't exist without it." - Steve Martin 

Yesterday, because of the last day of school, the McBeavers celebrated with Noodles, Frozen and gingerbread houses.  Frozen might have become my favorite Disney movie now. It is completely different than the stereotypical Disney Princess movies, which I love as much as the next person, but Frozen was a breath of fresh air, or ice.  The all star Broadway cast, which includes Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad just to name a few, may have been one of the things that set apart this film from the classics.  Usually the classics are very predictable, boy meets girl, evil comes along something happens to girl, true loves kiss, but in Frozen the plot is much more complex.   The prince who you meet in the beginning of the film isn't who he says he is, the bad guy is not clearly outlined for the audience and Princess Anna's true love had nothing to do with a prince.  It was heartwarming to see the first relationship that was mended in the movie be the relationship between the two sisters, Anna and Elsa, partly because it was so honest and true. Not to mention the songs were catchy, and beautiful, a perfect combination!  I loved Frozen, and I would recommend it to anyone!  
xoxo.
Morgan 
"Do you want to build a snowman?" - Frozen

This year my sister and I have become really close with my friend and her sister. It's great! Catherine and I became close last year in show choir and when we found out that our sisters were going to be in chorus together their freshman year we vowed that they would become best friends. And low and behold they did! It took some nudging, but now the two are almost as inseperable as Catherine and I! Meredith, Caroline, Catherine (http://cattycorneredcafe.blogspot.com - Catty's amazing blog! Go check it out!) and I all hang out, craft, sing and do crazy things together! It's really fun to have these girls who are basically two extra sisters to talk to and look out for. I honestly have no idea what I would do without the McBeavers (our group name haha). Hopefully three of us will be I'm the same show choir next year and Catt will be at college and every holiday we will have adventures! We are all there for each other whenever we need anyone and tomorrow we are going to see Frozen and make gingerbread houses which will be a ton of fun! Be prepared for pictures tomorrow!

xoxo.

Morgan
"Those who've seen us know that not a thing could come between us." -Sisters from White Christmas

While looking for something to blog about, I came across this article that I just have to share.
http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/470/Noah-s-Ark-Has-Been-Found-Why-Are-They-Keeping-Us-In-The-Dark-
 To sum up the article, in 1959 this army captain came across this sort of valley thing on the border of Turkey and Iran that was shaped differently than normal valleys.  This "valley" was in the shape of a giant boat.  What's more was the boat was measured and converted into Egyptian cubits (the system of measurement used in the Bible) and was found to be 300 cubits by 50 cubits, the exact measurement stated in the Bible.  Next, a group of archaeologists took a sample from what was left of the boat and found pieces of animal feces, deer antlers, and even cat hair.  Also, in the surrounding area rocks with man made holes in them have been found, and research shows that Noah and his family would have used rocks like those to anchor the ship.
Many historical texts have cited the location of Noah's Ark, and those locations completely check out with where the captain found the ark.
"The Gilgamesh Epic (650 BC) gives Mt. Nisir as the landing place of the Ark. The local name for the town where the Ark was found is Nasar.
The annals of Ashurnasurpal II of Assyria (833-859 BC) places it south of the Zab river (correct).
Theophilus of Antioch (115-185 AD) said the Ark could be seen in his day in the Arabian mountains. Later Church Fathers also mention the Ark as late as the mid 7th century.
In the 13th century, Willam, a traveler, stated for the first time that Mt. Masis was the Ark location (present-day Mt. Ararat).
Ptolemy's Geographia (1548) mentions the mountains of Armenia as the place of landing. So does the traveler Nicolas de Nicolay (1558)."
How can people say that Bible stories are simply folktales for teaching lessons when hard evidence like this exists?
xoxo.
Morgan
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.