I hope everyone has a wonderful time unwrapping presents this morning and that Santa brought them everything on their list. Josh and I had Christmas parts 1 & 2 yesterday with both sets of our parents and had a really nice time seeing everyone and unwrapping really nice gifts.

My parents and I will be celebrating together today, and my sister and all her boys will arrive tomorrow for yet another celebration. Christmas is my favorite time of year, so it’s only fitting I get to have four of them!

Merry Christmas!

Well I’m officially on Christmas vacation, and I won’t be going back to work until January 5th. Woohoo! Josh and I will be heading back to Houston early next week to start the festivities. I’m just glad to have a few days of time to myself in the apartment, since my free time will be very limited once the entire family appears for the holidays.

Josh and I had a lovely brunch with the Trommer’s yesterday, and I’m sure Angela will post pictures and a very flattering commentary about the whole experience. I must say, the meal I prepared was really great (as were the mimosas) and we had a really nice time. It was super fun to exchange gifts in person this year, and not via UPS. I really love getting together with them.

Josh has been super busy at work…still…which hasn’t left him much time to be in the holiday spirit. I plan to remedy that situation though, but the viewing of my favorite christmas movie of all time: The Muppet Christmas Carol. I’ve been humming the songs all month (okay, i actually hum the songs all year) in anticipation of watching my beloved movie. Man, I do love a good muppet.

Anyway, I hope everyone who is traveling does so safely, and that Santa has everyone on their good list. I’m still hoping Santa got my Christmas letter and has forwarded it along to Josh for fulfillment. I’m hoping to have some good news to report in a few days….but am not holding my breath.

I’m excited that Emily and I are in the beginning stages of planning a trip together next year. I desperately want to see her, and as much as I do love KC, it’d be so much more fun to go someplace together. Someplace exotic, someplace sunny…and definitely someplace fun!

Our first official cold snap of the year has definitely inspired me to watch some of my favorite christmas movies and get ready for our Christmas brunch with the Trommers. Josh says I’m making way too much of a deal out of it, but I don’t get many opportunities to entertain, so I feel like I can go all out the few times a year we get to have people over. This past weekend I bought some Christmas decorations for our apartment, and after I got home and arranged them all where they needed to be, it didn’t seem like I’d bought anything at all! I think we got some nice stuff, but without a Christmas tree it just doesn’t seem very festive. Maybe next year we’ll finally break down and get a tree. Josh and I are truly not Scrooges, it’s just that we’re not home for the week before and after Christmas and there’s no reason to go to all that fuss for the few days that we’ll be there to enjoy it.

In other news, this is my favorite time of year at work. There simply is nothing to do at all. My boss walks from room to room, evaluating what everyone has on his/her shelf, and the good news is that none of us have anything on our shelves! Of course, tomorrow I have two QuickBooks sessions in one day, but those are certainly more fun for me that doing nothing all day.

All of my Christmas cards are written, and all of my presents are purchased, so all I have to do now is sit back and wait for Christmas to come. Isn’t it wonderful?

Josh has been so incredibly busy at work lately. He’s been working really hard to meet a deadline of a super fun new website they’re going to release (hopefully) soon. I just wish he could be busy at the same time of year that I am, but it never seems to work out that way. Josh had mentioned (I hope seriously) that we were going to be able to get engaged before Christmas, but I talked to him about that last night, and I’m really not going to hold him to it. He’s just been so occupied lately, I don’t want him to have to rush to meet yet another deadline…especially a deadline that’s been seven and a half years in the making. Sigh.

Let’s see…New Years plans are either still in the works or slowly falling apart. I’m not sure which. I’m kind of thinking we’re not going to be able to pull off a big group dinner again this year. Somehow last year we managed, but maybe that’s because no one was over-analyzing the situation. I think that’s what happens when all of your friends are too smart for their own good.

I hope everyone is having fun getting ready for the holidays. I really do love this time of year…especially the part that involves me singing christmas carols to myself in my car.