Merry Festive Holiday Season!

So, I know it is only Tuesday but my workweek is officially over... YAY! It's a good thing too because work has been a deadzone. A tomb. There is NOTHING happening there, so I left at noon. I figured that my employees sure weren't going to leave as long as I was there and I didn't want them feeling like they had to stick around during the slowest week of the year. It was all for them. Really.

I headed over to Opry Mills, which was P-A-C-K-E-D PACKED. I think that maybe people have had a little too much family vacation time and they needed to get out of the house. Wow. I just went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to use part of a gift certificate and bought 2 Yankee Candles in Mistletoe at 50% off. I LOVE this candle. It got a lot of burn time at my mom's house last weekend and smells like fir trees and campfires. MMmmmmmmm.

Then I went home, ate too much for lunch, went grocery shopping, and took a nap. My sleep schedule got all screwed up over the holidays. On top of that my doctor tried to put me on some medication a week ago and all it did was make me want to sleep like the dead for 2 days straight. I was so tired I wasn't even comfortable driving. So I got off of that pronto, and back into the swing of things. I think I'm still a little messed up on sleep though.

Christmas was wonderful. I got to see my family, and it was really nice to spend time with everyone. I got kitchen appliances that I am all sorts of excited about- a slow cooker that could feed 50 (I can see some big cook & freeze events in my future) and a George Foreman grill that is one of those things I always wanted to try but would never buy for myself. I got nifty knitting needles that I'd been lusting after (they are SQUARE, and if you knit that probably sounds weird but they're genius). (And in case you didn't figure it out, you can find them at yarnmarket.com.) And I got the complete series of Ally McBeal, something I'd wished would come out on DVD FOREVER, and it is finally here. YAY! I also received some super handy house stuff like picture hangers and fasteners, which I was starting to run out of, and a little organizer box to put different fasteners and whatnot in because that is exactly the sort of thing that feeds my OCD nature. (Last week I dumped all of my screws and stuff in a jar and that jar has been mocking me from the closet. I can't imagine why the doctor was maybe thinking I should be on meds....)

My friend Heather (YET ANOTHER ONE) gave me a great biography about Louisa May Alcott and I have not been able to put it down. Never mind that I was in the middle of Edgar Sawtelle, I'm all about those wackaloon Alcotts right now. They were some SERIOUS nutjobs.

On saturday my dad and sister and I went to DSW and I purchased these Acorn slippers on super sale. I have never been wild about slippers, but I have to tell you that I LOVE these and I keep catching myself forgetting to change shoes just as I am about to leave the house. I know that at some point I will wear them to work by accident and be forced to attempt to pass them off as clogs. (And if that works... oh wow, a whole new world of wearing-slippers-to-work will open up for me and that my friends is a slippery slope. Next I'll try to wear my bathrobe to the office and pretend it's a sweater coat.)
Aaaaanyway, these are super snazzy fleece fabric with microfleece on the inside that does fancy things like wick away moisture, and there's some memory foam in there and the bottom is non-slip so I can wear them when I get the mail or take the trash out or walk to the breakroom....

Back to the week! On Sunday my mom and her partner came to see my new place! I am so glad she finally got to see what I've been whining talking about for the past month. We hung out here for a while, and then we all went to Maggiano's for a dinner that could have fed 8, but that's sort of the point isn't it? The leftovers might explain my post-lunch food coma today. It was really good for me to be away for a few days because coming back here it really felt more like "home" instead of "the new condo" and I had a feeling of relaxation instead of "oh my god there can't still be things that I need to clean/do/fix/break". And have I mentioned that the night before my sister flew in I replaced the toilet flushing lever thingy all by myself? The chain kept coming undone and I took a good look at it and realized that it was about to disintegrate into a thousand rusty pieces. So I zipped over to Lowe's, bought a new one for something like $8, and it took all of 2 minutes to replace.

Yeah, that's right, I'm putting pictures of toilet parts on my blog now....

The rest of my week involves seeing old friends, going to parties, ringing in the new year with half of Nashville, going to concerts, and basically having a really good time. I hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas too. Have a Happy (and safe) New Year!!!