Christmas Cheer

WARNING, this post is littered with pictures. So get ready!
(it looks longer than it is)

I had a wonderful vacation! I can't believe it's over already. Wow. But it was good and slower than most breaks are. I was making sure to enjoy each day, and the special people I was with each time.

Began my break with a wonderful friend who was home from school for winter break. Baked (too many) cookies (to count), watched Harry Potter 6 (she hadn't seen it yet) and talked like crazy. Went to my parents and hung out with them, and my youngest brother, (and his girlfriend a bit) and generally chilled. Christmas Eve was at my other brother's church, and he, his wife, and sweet daughter came over on Christmas day. Games were played, ham was eaten, family time was thoroughly enjoyed. Newest family pic, anyone?


And here's one of my sweet mom (Grammie) with the sweet granddaughter:

Then I picked up one of my best friends (we met in college) and we did (of course) some shopping, went to get mani-pedi's and more shopping, out to our favorite restaurant together (BD's, how dare you leave Deerfield), and (of course, again) went to see New Moon together. We also (which really should be a tradition, and sort of already is) watched some Lord of the Rings - movie and extras. I would like to point out how hilarious it is to me that we watched the extras online when I had the dvds sitting less than 6 feet away on my shelf. ;)

Good times. Nothing but good times.

After dropping her back off at home, I went into Chicago to visit my other best friend. It had been almost 5 or 6 months since we'd seen each other. How sad is that when we live an hour apart, we don't see each other much?? Oh my! Well, we certainly enjoyed ourselves. Dinner at some fabulous neighborhood places (why can't there be a SoupBox here??), the Art Institute with free tickets (thanks to my friend's membership to ... something...), bus rides (inside joke...but really we did ride the bus a bit one night), and movies. Nice. She followed me home and we spent a quiet New Year's Eve together on my couch watching movies.


On New Year's Day it was off to Omlet Fest, the Thorwall tradition on the first day of the year (well, for most of us), and it was nice to see family and family friends that I don't get to see often enough.

That night, I went to see anther good friend in Joliet. I got home at 12:30 (on technically Jan. 2nd) and realized how busy I'd been the entire 2 weeks! I definitely had some (ok, lots of) down time, but was busier than I realized I'd gotten.

SO, I spent the next 3 days (yes, I had Monday off too!) sleeping in (to 9:30~ a big accomplishment for me), reading, and watching movies and some tv shows (kids, cooking, Pushing Daisies), I even did some laundry!

Went back to work today with a new haircut (got it yesterday), and it went well, but I am glad to be home tonight.
Whew! Ok, consider yourself updated!