One of my favorite things to do every year is to sit down and write this post. Its an incredible journey to look back on the year that was and to look ahead to the year that could be.

The year started with Jenn starting to get into a groove with her new job while I continued to pursue improving Darkstation. In fact the start of 2013 was a big for Darkstation as it was when we launched a brand new layout for the site. The layout was a modest improvement, streamlining some of our bigger traffic areas of the site (news, reviews, podcasts) while maintaining 10 years of content. I'm super proud not only of the redesign but for what we were able accomplish on the site in 2013.

For the last two years (see 2011, 2012) Jenn and I have been collaborating on a post we like to call "Our Favorite Things". Each year its an opportunity to look back on the year that was and remember the TV, Music, Movies, and memories we want to remember from those years. So as is now tradition here are our favorite things from 2013. 

It's the day after Christmas and all of Southern California basked in the glory of its amazing weather. Jake and I indulged ourselves into the fine sport of golf and had a fun nine holes at the Newport Beach Golf Course; an Executive Par 3 course a couple of miles from our apartment. 

Each year Jenn channels more and more of her mom and decorates more and more of our apartment. It really began last year when she decorated each room with a tree, now not only does each room have a tree but each area that could potentially hold a decoration is now covered. And I hate to admit it, but I kind of love it.

It all began ten years ago today.

On November 3, 2003 a beautiful winter afternoon I finally summoned the courage to ask Jenn out. This wasn't the first time I'd asked her. Two months prior I was turned down, being told that she wasn't ready. My heart was broken but not enough to stop me from trying again. Our friendship grew, I fell even harder for her, and on that day I finally mustered enough courage to ask her again. 

Every year since the year after we started dating, I took part of the Carpenter tradition of painting pumpkins. I remember back in 2004 when I did my first pumpkin painting and unlike the Carpenter family I have zero artistic skill, so needless to say I was both nervous and intimidated knowing that they were all super artistic. 

Needless to say ten years later we are keeping the tradition alive. Jenn and I had our whole Sunday planned out. We woke up at a reasonable time and headed to Strawberry Farms in Irvine to go pick up our pumpkin. Having never gone there we were amazed with how gigantic the place was. I mean truly enormous. We spent quite a bit of time searching for the "perfect pumpkin" and managed to stumble on three great ones.