I love my "Christmas break"

Yep, I've been MIA lately. I got back last night from my weekend to Quincy, Illinois. It was 65 degrees there for awhile, then a fun little thunderstorm frenzy popped up with a few tornado warnings thrown in (kind of creepy for December) and the temperature dropped like a rock. Sigh. I love Christmas. Not winter. But the trip was a lot of fun and it was great to see my Grandma and Grandpa and my Dad's whole fam. We spent the whole day Saturday at a winery. The wine flowed and many deep (and slurred) heart-to-hearts with family members followed. Good times.

 

So now that I have this week off, I'm absolutely loving all my free time. This morning I slept in, ran up to the outlets with my Mom to exchange a couple things at J.Crew and now I've been sitting on my bum for hours watching the John and Kate + 8 marathon on TLC. I love today. And I can't wait to continue my relaxation tomorrow...

Did you have a nice Christmas? I hope so! My Christmas was wonderful. The best part (besides Christmas Eve at my Grandma's) was my family's Pajama Christmas Day. We literally stayed in our pjs and watched movies all day. It was so fun hanging out with my parents and brother and sister like that. I'm already looking forward to next year.

And I hope Santa was very good to you, too. He certainly was good to me...I got some fun stuff! I'm really excited about my new fun red crock pot and cookbooks. Now I can actually learn to cook. And I love all the clothes, pajamas, books, Philosophy stuff, dvds, etc that I got. I can't wait to play with/wear/watch/read them all.

But the most exciting thing? My cute little iPhone. I'm in love with it. It has a charming little green case and is now chock full of fun applications (I'm addicted to the App Store). I think I've run out of batteries every day since I've had it because I can't stop playing with it. And it's so nice to have a phone that finally works...though I haven't tried it in my apartment yet. Eek. 

Now I feel like I should give it a name or something. It's not just a phone—it's so much more. I'll have to think of a good one...

And I love the camera on the iPhone! Just had to throw in this pic of my dog Rufus that I took:

Love it. Too bad my other dog Nellie is camera (and apparently iPhone) shy. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Have fun gearing up for the New Year!

Merry Christmas!

In the wise words of *NSYNC, "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" everyone! Cuddle up with family and friends, drink some hot cocoa and soak up the holiday cheer. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

It just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing and....

I have never seen so much snow in my entire life. I know I'm only 23, but the weather over the last few days has been absolutely insane. And usually I love snow, especially around Christmas time, but this is a but much.

I got back from Boston late yesterday afternoon and I had a wonderful time, despite the many snow-related, stress-filled moments. But I am lucky that I even got to Boston, and I'm even luckier that my boyfriend did, too. After all, it was his family, his house and his Christmas party we were flying out for. 

You already know that my flight was cancelled an entire day before I was scheduled to fly out. They put me on the 6:30am flight on Saturday morning...and then the craziness began:

Friday: The snow was slow in coming, but eventually slammed into Chicago and then made a beeline to Boston. Thanks Mother Nature. Thank goodness my flight was changed, but unfortunately my boyfriend (let's call him J), who was flying form Milwaukee to Chicago was

 delayed. When he finally made it to Chicago 3 hours late (it's about a 15 minute flight) he found out that his flight to Boston was cancelled. Try as he might, he couldn't get booked on a single other flight and was told he'd have to go on standby.  He ended up sleeping on a little refugee cot at O'Hare airport next to a large German man he nicknamed Haas. (On the plus side, Haas invited him to explore Michigan Avenue with him if the were both stranded. My boyfriend politely declined.)

Saturday: I got to the airport at 4:15am and found J. He was 16 on the standby list for my flight. We waited and waited, and then I had to board and leave him behind. They started letting the standby people on and went through 9 people before they closed the door. So I jetted off to Boston, while J was stranded at O'Hare. Meanwhile, the weather in Boston was getting worse by the second and my flight couldn't land right away. So we circled and circled and circled some more before they told us we would land in Hartford. But when we finally landed, we were in Boston. Odd. So I met J's parents who so kindly picked me up at the airport. I felt bad that I made it there and J didn't (he is their only child), but they were just happy I made it in safely. 

So I went back to J's house and helped his parents get ready for their big family Christmas party that very night. I baked, I swept and watched the snow pour down (it was literally raining down snowballs at some points). J called to check in and couldn't get on the other 3 morning flights. We were all so nervous he wouldn't make it in. When he called to tell us he made it on the 1:45pm flight, we were ecstatic . But then it was delayed and delayed and delayed some more. And then he called to say all the flights to Boston before and after him were cancelled because of the heavy snow. Some of the people who were stranded couldn't get rebooked until December 26th...

But finally his flight took off. In the mean time, his family party started and luckily I had met most of his family before, so I felt pretty comfortable with everyone. When J finally arrived around 8:30pm and we were all so happy to see him.

Sunday: Boston Pops day. Still snowing a TON. We drove to the T to get to the city and it took us FOREVER. We saw so many spin-outs and could only go about 15 miles an hour on the highway. Nothing was plowed or salted or sanded or whatever. It was very scary. I took this from the car as we drove:

When we finally go to Boston, NOTHING was shoveled. Since I was dressed up for the night, I was wearing flats and tights (dumb, I know) and I had to wade through really deep, ice cold puddles. EVERYTHING in Boston was closed due to the weather. It was crazy. When we got to the city it was sleeting....then it poured rain...then the temperature dropped and everything froze...then it snowed again. 

But we were able to get to the Pops and it was a blast. I loved it! And when we came out...it wasn't snowing anymore! Hooray!

Monday: I ran errands with J, exchanged gifts and went out to dinner with him and his parents. Oh and his parents just got a Wii, so J and I couldn't stop playing tennis, golf and bowling. I'm kind of obsessed with it now. 

Tuesday:  I knew Chicago was getting snow on Tuesday when I was supposed to fly, so I was a bit nervous. My flight was at 10:30am yesterday morning and seemed to be on time. So I said goodbye to J and skipped off to my gate. And then I waited and waited and waited. No plane yet. When the plane finally came, we started to board. And then we sat at the gate and waited some more. When we finally taxied out to the runway, we had to wait some more. Our pilot told us the weather was bad in Chicago...and it was. We got in about 2 hours late (not too bad at all) and the crowds at O'Hare were horrendous. I guess tons of flights were delayed up to 4 hours or cancelled altogether. My parents didn't think I'd even make it in.  So I was SO glad when I did. 

And guess what? It's still snowing here. But at least I had a great time and everyone made it back safe and sound.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Doin' the holiday hustle

Tomorrow is my last day of work for two wonderful weeks. My office closes between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day (which is awesome) and I was able to use my remaining vacation days to maximize my time off. I couldn't be more excited. Not only will I be able to relax and enjoy the holidays, but I'll also be able to get away from the "cesspool of sickness" that is my office, as the senior copywriter so nicely put it (every single person is sick, it's kind of gross).

So now I won't be at my apartment for about two weeks and I've been running around like a mad woman packing things, getting errands done and finishing up all my Christmas shopping. 

But once work ends Friday, the craziness really begins. I have to hop on the L, rush to O'Hare and await my flight to Boston. Unfortunately, Chicago is supposed to get hit with a snow/ice/sleet storm over the next couple of days. Not only that, but Boston is supposed to get hit with a big snowstorm, too. With those two combined, it should make for an interesting travel experience. Can't wait!

I am really excited to go out there, though. And then I get back on Tuesday afternoon, get to wrap tons of presents (I LOVE wrapping, seriously), and hang out at my parent's house. Then it's off to church and my Grandma's house for Christmas Eve. 

The most exciting thing? My family and I have decided this year will be a Pajama Christmas. Every other year we had to drive 6 hours to visit my Dad's family in southern Illinois on Christmas Day. I love my family, but spending the whole day in a car is NOT fun, especially when the only place open to get lunch is a really, really sad Wendy's in the middle of nowhere where people chain smoke and babies scream and everyone looks like they want to hurt you for being happy. But this year, we're not leaving until Friday, so we get to veg out all day on Christmas in our pajamas. I can't even wait.

It's going to be a crazy week, but it's going to be a blast. And two full weeks without work? It's going to be amazing! It's like I'm back in school again and get a holiday break...yay!

Good news! I saw a dog today.

Ok so maybe I'm not as excited as Buddy the Elf, but I'm thrilled about the pretty great week I'm having so far. And here's why:

Monday:

• Had to meet with my boss first thing in the morning—he told me I was getting a raise. A very, very small one, but my first one ever as a working girl. I was so excited. What a great way to start the week!

• My coworker made amazing brownies. Brownies are always a reason to be happy.

• I went to my parents' house to decorate the Christmas tree and my Mom made one of my favorite meals—cider stew. And she made brownies, too. Double brownie day!

• My parents picked out the perfect (live) tree and my Mom, Dad, sister and I decked it out with as many ornaments as possible. It's a total masterpiece now, if I do say so myself:

I always love the ornaments we made as kids, like this little gem:

Yep, that's me when I was 4. Apparently I loved Minnie Mouse...and penguins.

Tuesday:

• It snowed...it was pretty.

• I had 1/2 a vacation day to use, so I slept in.

• We all got little Christmas bonuses at work, which was very unexpected, very appreciated and very exciting.

• The creative team got to leave an hour early to go out for our annual Christmas dinner "Meet for Meat". We went to Twin Anchors, an amazing restaurant in Old Town. 

• After dinner, we went out for drinks at a bar nearby. The only two other people at the bar got ahold of a microphone...and proceeded to put on a "comedy" routine. The one guy started ranting about life, trying to be funny. It was totally awkward, but we were forced to listen to it. Then the other guy grabbed the microphone and proceeded to serenade us with songs like "Blue Velvet". He gave little dedications before each song ("this is for the dreamers out there, hope you find your love") and then forget half the words to the songs, so he hummed along instead. It was awful to watch, but it was probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Good times.

Wednesday:

•Finished all my Christmas shopping!

• Only two days of work left and then I'm off for two whole weeks. Can't wait!

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

I love Christmas music. 

I usually start listening to it in October. Yes, I know, kind of crazy, but I love it. It always puts me in a great mood. I used to be in musical theater when I was younger and sang carols before the The Nutcracker in my town every year (8 performances each time!). We all had to have long curls (loved those pink sponge rollers) and dressed head to toe in Dickens caroling apparel—bonnet with a bow and all—and I loved every minute of it.

It was nearly impossible for me to pick my top 5 favorite songs. So after the first one, they aren't really in order...

1. "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby. Hands down, my favorite Christmas song. It's so sweet and festive...and that Bing was quite a stud. Those eyes and that voice. Wow. Though he kind of looked like my Grandpa when he was younger, so I guess that's weird for me to say.

2. "The Holly and The Ivy". I don't know why, but this song always gives me the chills. There's something about the melody that is so haunting and beautiful.

3. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". How could you not love this one?

4. "Oh Holy Night". I have to have one religious carol thrown in here and this would be it. I've always loved this song.

5. "Fairytale of New York" by the The Pogues. I first heard this song while I was studying abroad in Galway, Ireland. I came back to the States right before Christmas and listened to this song nonstop—especially during the flight home, crying the whole time (yeah I haven't even tapped into my love for Ireland yet on this blog yet).  So every time I listen to this song, it's like I have a little piece of Ireland with me. Wow, I am such a sap!

And I also love:

•"All I Want for Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey

•"Joy to the World"

•"Home Alone Theme/Somewhere in My Memory" by John Williams 

•"Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" by *NSYNC

•"You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"

•"Sleigh Ride"

•The entire Nutcracker soundtrack

My biggest pet peeve of the season is that "My Favorite Things" is NOT a Christmas song. Yes, it mentions "warm woolen mittens", but as a huge Sound of Music fan, I can only ever associate it with Maria hopping around her room, singing to the von Trapp children and wrapping herself in the curtains (which will later become the children's play clothes) 

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

I literally just walked in the door and it feels so good to be back in my nice little apartment again. 

After going nonstop for a week now, I am physically and mentally exhausted. It's been a wonderful, fun-filled week, but I think I could pass out now and sleep for days. I only got about 4-5 hours of sleep each night last week. And after being out until the wee hours celebrating the Marquette victory last night, I'm pretty sure my body hates me. 

I'm really looking forward to having a relatively quiet couple of days coming up. And I'm determined to go to bed early this week. The craziness doesn't start again until Thursday and then doesn't stop until the 28th. I have friend parties, family parties, boyfriend's family parties, coworker parties, a trip to southern Illinois and a trip to Boston to squeeze in there. I now realize why it's my favorite—and most exhausting—time of year. 

Ok, that's all I have the energy to type right now. This night owl is going to bed early. Sweet dreams.

Son of a nutcracker!

Since I love Christmas so much, it's only fitting that I write about some of my favorite things. 

So I now present to you my top five favorite Christmas movies:

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

1. Elf. No surprise here. I could watch this movie all day, every day the whole year and I still wouldn't get tired of it. I love it. It always makes me laugh. My brother and I constantly quote this via text message, everything from "Good news, I saw a dog today" to "Francisco...frannnciscooo" And "I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite" is my favorite movie quote ever. Love it.

We invite you to ask yourself this one simple question: 

Do you believe in Santa Claus?

2. Miracle on 34th Street. Ok confession, I've never actually seen the original version, though I own it. But I LOVE the new version (own that, too). There's something so magical about this movie and yes, I'm proud to admit that I do believe in Santa Claus.

Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

 

3. It's A Wonderful Life. I cry every time I watch this movie. The classic Christmas movies are some of the very best ones. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And that George Bailey is such a good man...

If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion 

love actually is all around.

4. Love Actually. How could you not love this movie? It's cute and funny and I love it. My favorite couple? Jamie and Aurelia, of course. And I love how all the characters are connected. The first time I saw this movie I remember being amazed by it all. Such great stories.

You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

5. A Christmas Story. The Christmas Eve staple. I like this one based solely on tradition. Every year TBS plays 24 hours of A Christmas Story, and every year I get sucked in. After Christmas Eve Mass, after my Grandma's house, while I'm drifting off to sleep, the next day after we open gifts, while we eat breakfast...I can't get enough of it. And that's the only day of the year I actually watch that movie. 

Honorable Mentions: Home Alone ("Look what you did you little jerk") and How the Grinch Stole Christmas—the animated version, NOT the Jim Carrey version ("I wouldn't touch you with a 39 and a half foot pole")

So there you have it. Now I'm going to pop in the original Miracle on 34th Street for the first time and hop into bed. 

...and to all a good night. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year. The traditions, the memories, the decorations, the songs, the movies, the lights, the excitement...I love it all. And I love sharing it with my family and friends.

As soon as fall hits, I'm ready for the holidays. People complain about the decorations going up too early and the radio stations switching to Christmas music too soon, but I love every minute of it. It doesn't last nearly long enough for me. I try to savor every carol, every commercial and every Starbucks Gingersnap Latte. 

 As soon as I see this commercial, I know Christmas is officially here:

When I got back from my parents' house this afternoon, I immediately put up my little Christmas tree. I initially set it up on the ground, but it was too low, so I put it on a pedestal (aka a TV table) and covered the base with my lime green scarf. It came with lights already on it, but I as I assembled the tree, I noticed large chunks with no lights at all. Alas. Thank goodness for my bright Target Christmas ornaments. They filled in the little dark spots...

It needs a little work, but it makes my apartment feel much cozier already. 

Hooray for the holidays!