Catching Up: Nov 15 - Nov 30

Okay, since there was a six week gap with no posts at all I thought I would do a little mini recap of the last several weeks. I'll do this in sections to keep from having War and Peace-length posts (as well as to keep anyone from dozing off - lol).

Thanksgiving - another wonderful family holiday. Everyone gathered at my parent's house which is the norm. It was a nice, relaxing, low-key day... just the way I like it. We had a big lunch around 1p.m. and then hung around for the rest of the afternoon. The girls talking or goining thru the sales papers, some of the guys watching tv (football, of course). Later on a group of us camped out in the family room and played Scattergories, which has become something of a tradition. As has defending some of our answers to the death. LOL

Day after Thanksgiving - for the past 3 or 4 years me, my mom and my two sisters have met up early the morning after Thanksgiving and hit The Avenues mall. We usually meet at 7a.m. , some of us armed with lists, start at one end of the mall and work our way to the opposite end, then go up to the second level and work our way back. We don't hit every store (not even close) so we're usually ready to call it quits by noon. It's amazing how much you can get done in that amount of time! Sometimes we'll see something we love for ourselves and Mom will end up buying our Christmas gift right there. Ha! Afterwards we have lunch together and then go our separate ways. I love this tradition that we've started. It's not even about the shopping so much as it is just spending some time together.

Book of Me Class - November was the first month of me taking over the BOM class. The class started more than a year ago with my friend Kimberly as the instructor. Some people have come and gone but the core group of us (me, Terri, Patti and Deb) have remained fairly constant. When Kimberly learned that she would be moving to Colorado (whaaaa!) she asked me to take over the class. Or, actually, she told me I was taking over the class. And announced it to everyone before I had agreed to do it. How's that for having a decision made for you? LOL At the same time we made the decision to move the class from the scrapbok store where it had always been held to a different scrapbook store. The store is smaller, with less stock and less room to crop, but the ease of working with the owner, Lina, infinitely makes up for it. I was not relishing the fact of having to deal with the oners at the other store... they could be less than accomodating. So it was a great move but I was still nervous about my first class. I didn't need to be because it ended up being just me, Terri (my sister) and Lina (the store owner). Ha! How's that for a kick in the old ego? LOL Deb did show up about midway thru the class but only to say hello. In hindsight it probably worked out for the best. I got thru my first class with a nice, small audience. ;-)

Big Sigh of Relief

The reason for my big sigh of relief? The holidays are almost over! Now, before you go thinking I'm some major Scrooge... I'm not. Really. But I am really, truly looking forward to things returning to normal. Enough of the Thanksgiving-thru-New Years holiday madness. I can't wait to have more free time to get caught up on things that I have had to let slide (like, sadly, regular blog entries) and to get back to enjoying little things that make me happy. The past month has been a whirlwind of working and shopping and planning and decorating and gift wrapping and card sending. It's tiring and overwhelming... and I'm ready for my normal routines back, thank you very much. So here's to ringing out the old and ringing in the new... and getting back to what I love.