It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

Hey everyone!! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I cannot believe it is already December! Time has really flown by this year faster than I thought it would. I have less than three weeks of school left, including a week of exams.

 My family got our Christmas tree on Sunday, and just brought it into our house last night! We haven't decorated it yet, but I am soooo excited to do that! Here is a picture of our tree from last year (I was messing around with the bluriness-its intentional!)

Decorating a Christmas tree is honestly is one of my favorite things to do in Christmas time! ... Along with doing advent calendars  (my family has two) and BAKING!

One recipe that I love to bake anytime of the year, but especially around Christmas, is for pretzel buttons! My friend sPg always makes them for Christmas, and I was so excited last year when I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest. The original recipe was intended for Valentine's Day, but I love them during Christmas! Last year's batches looked so much better than the ones I made this year, so here is what they should look like!



They are really simple to make, and they are great gifts for your friends, or for a hostess, as well! They are also the perfect sweet to have out at a Christmas party! At my family's annual Christmas open house, we had them sitting out for people to much on, and they disappeared quickly! Last year I put them in small mason jars with custom stickers, and gave them to family and neighbors.

Here's the recipe!

You will need:
- A bag of M&M's
- A large bag of pretzels (I have found that the square pretzels work best, but normal shaped mini pretzels or the ones that are just circles work fine as well.)
- 1 or 2 bags of Hershey's Hugs (The candy cane Hugs work, and so do Hershey's Kisses!)
- Parchment Paper
- 1 cookie sheet

Side note on the HUGS: This year I used a combination of Hugs from early 2013 and brand new HUGs. The melting process did not move at the same speed for the different kinds, so I encourage you to use all new ones, or at least ones that were all bought at the same time!

Side note on the M&M's: This year I tried mini M&M's, but I think the normal sized ones work best!

Step 1: Fit a piece of parchment paper to your cookie sheet.

Step 2: Begin placing pretzels on the sheet. I normally try to fit as many as possible.

Step 3: Unwrap your HUGS, and place one HUG on top of every pretzel.

Step 4: When you are half way done with unwrapping and placing the HUGS, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 5: Place your pretzels and HUGS in the oven for about 5-6 minutes (brand new HUGS will take far less time than older ones). You do NOT WANT to melt the HUGS, just to have them be soft. They will be shiny when you remove them from the oven!

Step 6: Get your arms ready! As soon as you remove the pretzels from the oven, place a M&M on top of the HUG. You can decide how far you want to push them, it's all up to you!

Step 7: Place the buttons in the fridge for a few minutes to let them set. Then you can package them!

If you try this recipe, tell me how it goes! I highly recommend them!

XOXOXO,

Kels

Washington & Lee

I said this was coming, and here it is! My visit to W&L recap.

Washington and Lee is a small liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. Lexington is also home to Virginia Military Institute, or VMI. Many people on my mom's side have attended W&L, and many family members and family friends have attended VMI, as well. Last weekend my family and I spend three days in Lexington. We explored the town with my mom's close friend, who lives in Lexington, and ate at the Bistro, the Southern Inn, Nico's, and Primo. We went to the VMI football game (they won!) and hung out with our family friends who have a son who goes to VMI. Some of my cousins and family friends really want to go to VMI who are around my age, so it would be fun if we were all in Lexington together! I also spent the night at W&L with my friend who is a current freshman. I will be forever grateful for her hosting me, taking me to a party, and introducing me to tons of people. I really learned more about W&L than I would have otherwise.

I have actually spent quite a bit of time at W&L over the past few years, because they have this great lacrosse camp. Its a sleep-away camp where you get to sleep in the dorms, eat in the cafeteria, play on their fields, and get instruction from their coaches, their players, and coaches from other nearby colleges. So, I knew the campus pretty well before I had even had a tour! I highly recommend the lacrosse camp if you play, and you are thinking about the school!

How does W&L stack up on my wish list?

1. Study Abroad: The best time to study abroad is during the "Spring Term". Spring term is this really interesting term where students on campus only take one class. Normally freshmen and seniors stay on campus for spring term, and sophomores and juniors either do internships or study abroad. This really sounds like an amazing thing, that obviously most colleges do not have.

2. Small Classes: Yes. Crazy small classes. A lot of them are smaller than the already small classes at my HS! Crazy low student to teacher ratio, as well. I love small classes personally it helps me create closer relationships with the other students in my class, and I become much more comfortable around my teacher as well.

3. Traditions: Apart from being a tradition to attend W&L for many of my family members, W&L is a school with a rich history and a historic campus. I love schools with older architecture (like W&L, Davidson, W&M). That is something that I would love to have at my HS, but unfortunately do not have. Washington and Lee used to be all male, so no female members of my family have ever attended!

4. Honor Code: Yes! This is honestly so important to me, its kind of hard to describe how much I love the respect that students have for each other under a honor system. Leaving things around campus is NOT the norm everywhere, and a big reason of why I love my favor

5. Liberal Arts Education: Yes! And they have a journalism school! It was the first journalism school in the country. I think that history is really special. They basically have every major I am possibly interested in: Journalism, Business, Poli Sci, and English!

6. College Town (with trees!): One of my mom's best friends lives in Lexington, and she really wants me to go here! Its a great little town! They have the best ice cream (check out "Sweet Things"), and tons of restaurants and stores for such a small town.

7. Greek Life: YES! W&L has over 80% participation in Greek life. Thats so amazing and their houses are beautiful as well. When I went to visit my friend, who is a freshman, I went to a frat party at the Kappa Sigma house (I think? ... Maybe a different "Kappa" house) and it was so much fun. Unfortunately, there is not a Delta Delta Delta  (my legacy) chapter at W&L, but there are lots of other great options. The sorority houses are really nice, normally sophomores live in them, and they're all in the same little section of campus!

Looking pretty rough, but it was a great night!

All in all, I love W&L, and it is definitely somewhere I am interested in attending. It is the perfect school for me!

Have you read my other college posts? I have also visited William and Mary, Davidson, and Wake Forest.

I really still need to visit a lot of schools, and because I am only a junior, by no means is anything set in stone. There are a lot of colleges that I like, but here are some of the ones I love:

My College List: Washington and Lee University, Davidson College, College of William and Mary, Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt University, Sewanee: University of the South, University of Virginia, Southern Methodist University, and Johns Hopkins University

XOXOXO,
Kels

Easing into the Holidays

It's been forever since I have been on here, and I hate that! I have had a crazy few weeks since I last posted. Here's what I have been up to in the last couple of weeks!

1. My amazing French exchange student, Hannah, left for France. We didn't have nearly enough time to spend together due to a crazy amount of school work and volleyball commitments that happened while she was here. I can't wait to visit her at her home in 2014!!

2. I went to my dad's college homecoming, and met with a family friend who is a freshman that college. We went to a football game and met tons of his friends from college. It was interesting to see it with all the alumni, and it showed me how you really do make life-long friendships in college.

3. I have been obsessed the show "Don't Trust the B***** in Apartment 23". Actually obsessed. In only a couple of days, I have watched almost all of Seasons 1 and 2! It's bad how much I love it! It's really annoying though because Netflix mixed up the order of the episodes, so some of them are in Season 2, but it puts them with Season 1 episodes. It has been my relaxing tool!

4. Volleyball is OVER! I am so happy to finally have more time to do my homework and BREATHE! I love my volleyball team and the friendships that I have made from it, but I am pretty relieved to have a season off. I think winter is the best season for me to be free because the holidays are my favorite time of the year, and I really get to take advantage of them! Plus, not that many of my friends do winter sports, so it is not like I am the only one that takes it off.

5. I visited W&L this weekend. I will write a post on this later today, but I LOVE IT. Can't wait to elaborate! 

6. I am currently putting together my Christmas list, and I am sooo excited to start buying presents for my family and friends. Ahhh!!!

XOXOXO,

Kels

Homecoming and Senior Night

This month has been so crazy! My French girl through school, Hannah, is at my house and is leaving Saturday. Yesterday was Homecoming, and the dance was literally 100 times better than last year. Last year barely anyone danced, but this year everyone was dancing! It was so much fun. After, I went to my friends house and we just had a really fun night! We won the football game too, so it was a great day! Friday was Senior Night for volleyball. At my school, Senior Night is the last home game for Seniors, and so the team celebrates by making posters with embarrassing pictures of each senior, and decorating them up in a theme! We dressed our seniors up as Disney Princesses, and I dressed up my senior as Sleeping Beauty. The day before Homecoming we also have a Pep Rally where the seniors from every fall sports team have a dance competition, and the volleyball team's dance was literally amazing. (So sad they didn't win!)

I got my dress and shoes from Free People. Loved them both!

I really like my French girl, Hannah. She's really chill and has great fashion sense. I will be sad to see you leave!

XOXOXO,

Kels

My Fall Clothing Favorites

Fall Essentials by kelswills 

Free People oversized white sweater | Free People top | J Brand jeans | Patagonia | BDG black stretch jeans | Clarks shoes | Scarve | Frye Women's Shoes, Billy Pull On Boots

This is just a collection of what I wear literally everyday in the fall, and in the winter too. I cannot wear jeans to school, so the black denim skinnies from Urban are my to go to pant in the colder months. The Free People sweater is so soft and its long in the back, so thats mainly why I am obsessed with it! The wallabees are great to wear when I am sick and tired of wearing boots, but still want a confortable shoe that covers my whole foot. The patagonia fleece is amazing. I sleep in it, wear it to school, and wear it everywhere on the weekends. Its the best thing EVER.

Adios! Gotta get ready for school. I ordered a different homecoming dress than I said I would, and it comes in today! So excited!

XOXOXO,
Kels