Christmas is officially over. My sanity returns!

Oh wow, what an overwhelming past few weeks. It seems (and feels) like I have been doing nothing but shopping, going to Christmas gatherings & shopping some more. It’s been a few days because I sadly encountered a virus bug that had been traveling around my office … and family for about a week so it put me behind schedule with everything else. Yes, I know … being sick during the holidays is no fun at all.

The great Christmas season started out with a delicious bang when my office has their annual Christmas party. My company is amazing. I am so thankful to have a great job with great people. This year we dined at Hearth and Harvest in Cartersville. Yummy, yummy! Each year we draw names (and it never stays a secret) but I had Emily’s name. So, the weekend before the Christmas party I was at the mall looking for the perfect present for her. I ended up picking out a “poofy” jacket with fur around the hood. (so cute) When we got to Hearth and Harvest and ordered our food the “head honchos” let us open one present … HOODIES! We each got hoodies & let me tell you, we were BEYOND excited to have these hoodies. Back to the food … I had a filet with a baked potato and salad. I didn’t dig the salad too much … it had cranberry’s and nuts on it & that just doesn’t make a salad to me. Too bad that I love food and ate it anyways. : ) After the meal we each handed out our presents and took turns (somewhat) opening them. Jessica had my name so I got a brown sweater with a white & brown scarf. PERFECT! Except … the weather hasn’t been cold enough for a sweater OR a scarf so I’m pretty sad about it. I guess that’s what happens when you live in Georgia …

Now the fun begins with more Christmas shopping! (not) I had everything done when I got hit with the ugly virus early Monday morning (before Christmas) Needless to say with two “sick days” at work later, it was Christmas Eve. I didn’t get to enjoy any holiday food & my stomach still hurt but I got a lot of nice things and spent some time with my family. For lunch on Christmas Eve my brother & his family came over to open presents and then that night, around 6:00 we ventured out to my Granny’s for more presents. I can’t complain about my presents but I’m not into Christmas for that reason. There’s so much more to it!

Merry Christmas!! Christmas Day morning was spent eating a delicious, traditional breakfast with the family and then me heading to my friend Crystal’s house to see what Santa brought her son, Eathyn. With no rest time it was off to BJ’s to exchange gifts with his mother. Rush, rush, rush because from there it was time to go to my Granny Joan’s. After we opened presents there I let out a silent sigh of relief. Oh, Christmas is over again! I did have a great time after present opening. I went to my cousin’s house to enjoy a few games of Rockband and on the Wii. I love the Wii … I think I need to get me one!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas & I hope you all got what you wanted from Santa. Stop and think about what’s most important this time of year. Be thankful for your friends, family and everything God has placed in your life. If you are alive, well, and have the Lord’s loving arms wrapped around you then you have everything to be thankful for. YOU are truly blessed!

Christmas, you can go away now!

December 16th? Already? Seems like this month … well, these past few months have flown by so fast that I can’t even stop to take a breath. December is a fast paced month with Christmas presents to buy, decorations to put up & in my case, finals. Yes, the dreaded finals!! My family just does not get into the Christmas spirit like a lot of other people and that fact is totally evident this year. Let me give you a quick run down of how Christmas decorating goes at my house: two weeks after Thanksgiving 3 Christmas trees go up, a snowman goes in the front yard, wreaths are on the windows & a spotlight is shining on our house. That is a typical Christmas, but no … not this year. This year we have one tree. That’s all, just one. Oh and this one tree went up last week without decorations, because those went up Saturday.

I attempted to finish up my Christmas shopping yesterday but did not succeed. However, I did manage to buy some things for myself, my brother, and my sister-in-law. Not too bad ... even though I spent a few hours at the mall. But Merry Christmas to myself! I still need to finish up presents for my parents but that will be accomplished on Thursday, or maybe Friday morning? Oh, I can't decide. I hate waiting until the last minute because that seems to be the only time everyone else in the world shops too. Crowds are not my thing … neither is the Christmas music the stores play, or the long lines that are not necessary to stand in to purchase ONE item. (yes, that almost happened to me at Ross) Christmas is so overrated. Shouldn’t we be celebrating Jesus’ birth instead? Sweet little baby Jesus ...

All-in-all I started wrapping my presents today. Mostly to get the clutter out of my room & because I have to have Emily’s (a co-worker) wrapped before our company Christmas party tomorrow night. Let’s face it when I start wrapping, I just can’t stop. So I got baby Andrew’s, Lee, Shalon (hers is already in a pretty box with a bow), Emily, and BJ’s presents all wrapped and under the Christmas tree. (it's beginning to look a little more like Christmas now) I have a few more left & thankfully, I will be done soon. I am pretty excited about spending time with the family. I love family time (as if you couldn’t already tell by my Thanksgiving blog) I also love watching my cats at Christmas. It’s always interesting to see what mischief they are going to find themselves in. With that being said I guess you could assume my favorite part is the present wrapping and watching my cats get into to “messy” situations. I’m just waiting on the holiday to be over & maybe we’ll skip it next year.

January = new vacation spots

This semester at school is coming to an end and with finals approaching I could not be more stressed out and I need a vacation! Now, I realize that I just got back from Tennessee but that wasn’t good enough. Of course I was with my family but I was constantly on the go so I never had a moment to rest or relax so I need a resting, relaxing vacation. With this being said I have decided to vacation in Spokane, Washington sometime after the beginning of the year. I’m thinking January? Is that a good month for traveling? I hate the cold weather but I like to see snow & since it snows in Washington … it’s perfect. But why did I pick Washington? Because my best friend, Nikki lives there!! I haven’t seen Nikki in over a year and the text message, e-mail, phone, and Myspace conversations are getting old. I want to hang out with her, meet her friends and just do “snow things”. I am taking a semester off from school because I am done with classes and just waiting to be accepted into my program so this is the perfect chance to go somewhere.

I will admit though, I am a little nervous. My first flight was to Hawaii but my parents went but this time I’ll be flying alone so you can see where my concerns are at. Hmm … I think I can make friends safely! I’m a likeable person!! (ha,ha,ha) For the past few days Mandi (thanks) & I have been searching for cheap airline tickets online and we have found that the “cheap” sites, aren’t so cheap most of the time. I have found some pretty good deals though and I’ve realized that it makes a difference on the time of the month and the day of the week that you leave. These facts are interesting to me. Where can all these people be going on certain times of the month and on Mondays? I think I have my dates decided on: January 20-28 so now all I need are tickets & a little time off from work. Oh how I love treating myself to special things. Christmas bonus money here I come!.

Now, for anyone who has ever been around me when it’s vacation time or if you personally know how I pack then this is posing another dilemma. I overpack. Well, over packing is probably an UNDER-statement for me. I just never can decide on what the best thing for me to wear will be on any given day. If I am going somewhere the temperature is largely different from my small town in Georgia then you can bet I’m packing all my clothes because you can add or remove any amount of clothes to better suit yourself for the temperature. Packing … is just so time consuming for me! Jeans, long sleeve shirts, sweaters … & jackets! I’ll need a big marshmallow looking jacket … any ideas? Oh, and I can’t forget boogins’, glooves and scarves. It’s not even time to go yet and I’m already packing in my mind.

Okay, that’s enough rambling. If anyone knows where I can get cheap tickets & if you can tell me what I can pack for this plane ride adventure then please … LET ME KNOW!!!

A Fun & Successful Thanksgiving Vacation

I hope everyone had a wonderful & safe Thanksgiving. I am so thankful that my family had a great Thanksgiving vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We headed up to Tennessee on Thanksgiving Day and ended up stopping in Athens to eat at Cracker Barrel. (oh, how I love Cracker Barrel) We arrived in town around 9:30 and headed straight to the cabin. We had a minor “getting lost” incident (my parents were in the lead car & apparently could not read the directions correctly) but we turned around and got the situation under control. We headed into “Sky High” with full force & started making decisions on which bedrooms we were going to stay in. My cousin, Anna and I decided to take the top bedroom because the view was better, it had a Jacuzzi tub and we could listen to our music as loud as we wanted to without anyone hearing it. (that’s girls for ya, right?) We unpacked as best we could and got ready to hit the hot tub. Ahhh, the hot tub … a perfect ending to a long day of driving.

Friday was a busy day for everyone. I woke at 8:30 to the smell of bacon, sausage and coffee downstairs in the kitchen. I just love breakfast food!! After breakfast Anna, Bryson and I started getting ready to head to downtown Gatlinburg to catch a few attractions. Our first attractions was the Hollywood Wax Museum. (and of course Anna and I had to take a picture with everything in the museum). After the wax museum it was Bryson’s turn to choose an attraction and he picked black light golf and a mirror maze. The mirror maze was so much fun! Bryson and I made it to the exit but had to go back and find Anna because she got lost. (poor Anna) We did have a quick lunch, that consisted of a corndog, from Fannie Farkle’s. After the “lunch” we headed back to the cabin to play pool and relax in the hot tub before going to eat supper at The Brewery in Pigeon Forge.

On Saturday morning I woke up to another breakfast being prepared and headed downstairs to see what I would soon be consuming. Mmmmm … eggs & grits! We just waited around the cabin and watched Saturday college football previews until it was time to leave for the Christmas show at Dixie Stampede. Dixie Stampede is always good and I had never been to the Christmas show before and it was wonderful. From Dixie Stampede Anna, Bryson and I went to Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge while the adults went shopping. (fun, right?) Wonderworks is basically a virtual reality attraction with tons of things that everyone will enjoy and you will need at least 2 hours to spend in there since there is so much to do. From Wonderworks we headed back out into the flood of traffic that accumulated over the 2 hours that we were inside and drove an hour (yes, an hour) back to Gatlinburg to our cabin. After a quick change of clothes (warmer clothes) Anna and I headed out to eat (at Taco Bell) while Bryson and my uncle went to the arcades.
Sunday was our day to leave and I was sad about it. I always hate going home from vacation, mainly because that means I have to go back to work and school and that’s not no fun. (kidding) But my lovely daddy had went to BoJangles (one of the greatest reason anyone outside of the South should come to the South) to get everyone biscuits. : ) I had to get my clothes together and get ready to head home on the most rainy day I had seen in a while. As Anna and I headed down the mountain there was a flipped 4-Runner at the end of Ski Mountain, but thankfully the people were out of the SUV and the people were already assisting them. Anna and I hung around town for a little while though to do a little shopping and enjoy a quick lunch with my friends, Michelle and Mama CThe drive home seemed quick, even though it was raining and very foggy in some areas and I was so excited to get home to my friends and lovely boyfriend. I missed everyone at home so much! I hate leaving from vacation but I also love being home. Since I can’t take all of my friends on vacation with me at the same time it’s great to be around them again. So I’m just glad that with a family my size & with everyone in the same cabin for 3 nights that no one strangled each other. (kidding) I only hope to have many more family vacations together.