Happy Holidays!

Usually when it comes to November and December, I'm not really ready to celebrate the holidays. Thanksgiving is normally a very stressful day since I try to spend time with all of my family and have numerous dinners with both sides. Then I go back to work exhausted and still stuffed from all of the goodies when I head back into the office on Friday.

At Christmastime, I rush at the very last minute to try to bake Christmas cookies, decorate a little (if I even feel like it), shop for the all important presents and rack my brain to figure out if I forgot anything else that I promised to take care of for my friends and family.

I don't know if I had a change of heart with the holidays this year or if I just haven't had the panic that I've experienced in years past, but Thanksgiving went off without a hitch and this weekend I started decorating both my place and my parents and I'm starting to get into the holiday spirit. I spent Thanksgiving with my Dad, Bro, Aunt, Uncle and cousins at my Dad's house and then on Friday I had Thanksgiving with my Mom, Michael and my Grandma after I got off of work in the early evening. We were planning on doing Thanksgiving on Thursday as well, but because my Mom was not released from the hospital until Friday morning from her knee surgery, our plans were postponed. It worked out for the best though and I ended up having a great Thanksgiving with both sides of my family.

Saturday morning I woke up and decided that I should get out my ceramic table-top Christmas tree and other decorations and try to get into the spirit. While most people would make fun of my little tree, I love it. It's perfect for my apartment and I can't imagine trying to fit anything bigger in my living room.
While I was looking forward to starting my Christmas shopping, I decided to hold off and wait until I have a better idea of what I need to get for my family and friends. I'll probably start on that next weekend.
Instead, I ended up going over to my parents' house again today, both to check on my Mom's progress almost a week after her knee replacement and to cook them the dinner I promised. I also found that this was the perfect opportunity to get their tree up and the house decorated for Christmas.
And this was the end result:



Doesn't it look great?!? It's kinda funny though, that tree always looked gigantic when I was a little girl and we were decorating it in my childhood house. In the new house and now that I'm older the tree really doesn't seem that big and really it took no time at all to assemble and decorate. We worked very hard on that tree and I'm proud of it. And, I'm even more excited for Christmas now!

Tomorrow is the start of a new week and month at work. I'm ready to head back into the office but I know it's going to be a crazy month with trying to get everything finished before the end of the year. I am reminding myself to stay focused, do what I can and not get too over-whelmed by the number of tasks I have to accomplish. I'm sure I will be fine. I've got a great group of friends and family that will get me through everything. :)

I will definitely try to put together another post or two before the end of the year. I know there will be many exciting things coming up in the next few weeks with both work and everything else and hopefully I will find the time to check in every now and again. Have a terrific week!

The Good, The Bad and The Not So Pleasant...

The good news -- if the Arizona Cardinals win the game against the 49ers tonight and total points scored is 41, I win the football pool at work. First time a girl would win this season. Of course, I think there are 7 or 8 of us who could win, so I don't have any bragging rights just yet.

The bad news -- Jamie McMurray placed 3rd in yesterday's NSCS race in Phoenix and became engaged earlier in the week. I'm not upset about the 3rd place finish because that's awesome! I'm a tad bit peeved that he's engaged. Guess I don't have a shot with him after all....damn! My little dream has been squashed.

The not so pleasant -- it's fricken cold here in St. Louis. How do we go from 80 degrees last Monday to a brisk 28 this morning. Where the heck did fall go and why are we already faced with winter temperatures?

Other than that, things are fairly peachy. This weekend flew by and I kept myself fairly busy. I slowed down in just enough time to start over this week at work. Work is about the same as always, but I can't complain...it's just how I like it.

Hope you have a terrific week!!

Domesticating Lindsay

I don't know what's gotten into me this week, but for some odd reason I have felt the need to become more domesticate. Wednesday night, I made homemade zucchini muffins (from a recipe that I ended up tweaking to make it my own!); Thursday night, I helped make dinner at M's for us and for TL's family; and then today, I actually cleaned my entire apartment and tried to plan out dinners for next week and for my potluck at work on Tuesday. I don't know what's gotten into me....I'm sure it won't last long though!

In other news, I ended up having a blast last night!! In fact, I think this is the first time I can remember actually enjoying my Halloween as an adult. I still was unsure about what I was actually going to do when I left work after month end at 6:30 last night, but I got into my car and called M just to check in since I was leaving so late. TL and his wife had invited the work bunch over to his house for chili and relaxing by the fire pit that night and we both had tentatively planned on going. My intentions were to go to the casino first and then since I would be out that way, just head to his house. Well, the plan on going to the casino quickly changed as M invited me over and told me that it would be easier if we just rode out to TL's later in the evening together. I was not in any sort of arguing mood and since I knew there were a few others that would also prefer that I not go to the casino by myself, I told M, I would meet her at her house after making a quick stop at home. We ended up getting out to TL's house about 10 pm and I was already starting to feel exhausted. I didn't think there would be any way I would be very good company, but soon after, we all started joking around and I forgot all about being tired. It was such a beautiful night for being the last day of October -- you can not beat temps in the low 70s and high 60s for Halloween night, especially in St. Louis. After bs-ing with C, MO, TL and B (TL's wife), singing Whitesnake and having just an all around good time, I finally got M back home at almost 2 this morning and then I high-tailed it home so I could get to bed. What a change from the last two Fridays where I went to bed so early I thought I was going to lose my "hip 25 year old" status. Ha! :)

This hip chick needs to get back to uploading some new tunes to her Ipod. I'll catch up with you later. Don't forget to "fall back" tonight. I'm sure the extra hour of sleep will help everyone! Have a great weekend!!