Catching up...

Hello again! It’s been almost two full months since I last posted… and, good gracious, do I have a lot to talk about!

So, let’s begin with the end…

In order to close 2010 with the bang it deserved (considering the many life changing events it surprised me with), I decided to go ahead and quit my job (not without two offers to consider -one of which I accepted, of course) and take a couple of weeks ‘off’ to refresh, work on the house, and spend Christmas and New Years with the people I love.

My last working hours at SecureWorks were on December 23, and I had every intention of making a daily habit of blogging, working out, and other things productive. Interestingly enough, however, the two goals that I clarified were the two that I didn’t stick with…argh… That doesn’t seem right- according to the billions of studies about new year’s resolutions and plain ol’ goal setting… but…oh well… it is what it is… and now I have a lot of catching up to do (with the blog AND my waistline - considering all of the delicious sweet treats I did not stop eating over the holidays…)….Catching up sucks. (Unless you’re catching up with old friends or Grey’s Anatomy…)Slimming down the waist line is hard work, and much more fun if you don’t ‘have’ to do it (Unless you’re burning off the extra calories snorkeling in the Caribbean or hiking through the rainforest to zip line in Costa Rica- but then you’re skimping on the alcohol or desserts…so I really wouldn’t prefer losing weight while on vacation... but anyway…)

The holidays were very nice. This was mine and Matt’s first Christmas together, ever! Have I mentioned lately how much I love him? I would not prefer it any other way! We ate too much on Thanksgiving (traveling to both families for meals con delicioso!), and trekked up to North Carolina with his folks and Skip the Sunday afterwards to pick out and cut down our very own live, first Christmas tree! What a great time! The farm was huge and complete with hundreds of gorgeous, full, (<-Kim, notice intended use of Harvard comma), and well-shaped Christmas trees. We had a hard time choosing (just) one, but finally decided and were very happy with ‘the one.’

Though it didn’t appear ginormous at the farm, by the time we got it home, we realized that it was 8ft tall and 6ft wide… We knew it was 8ft tall, but the 6ft wide part threw us for a spin…Big thanks to his folks for hauling it on the Tahoe for us! Though the tree was bigger than we intended, it really worked out well, considering we didn’t have any furniture for the room we were going to put it in :)… It served a great purpose for the month of December, and, after taking it down, I strongly considered finding another (less conspicuous) tree to put in its place…but decided on a bookshelf… I don’t think the books live up to the tree, so unfortunately for them, they won’t live there permanently… but anyway…

Christmas was lovely. Matt and I personalized matching stockings and bought a cute felt one for Anastasia, our cat. I debated personalizing hers too…but decided against it… I’m not sure why and may change my mind for next year… The two of us exchanged gifts on the 23rd, and on the 24th drove down to my parents’ and had Christmas with aunts and cousins over BBQ & Brunswick stew. Yummy - and a wonderful time. Then we had Christmas morning with my parents and brother and sister and their families. That is always a pleasure. This year we decided to do things a little differently and play the white elephant game with the siblings. It was a good time, and I came home with Vodka, coffee and other things that work well with the two…

Ok…I am stopping here for tonight’s blog… Matt got stuck in the snow on the way home from a work dinner, and I had to go ‘save’ him… He had to park about 2 miles away from our house and walk home by himself in clothes designed, well - for dinner - not for walking two miles in snow that comes up to your ankles. It was not snowing when he left and was not snowing where he was having dinner…but the weather got bad quickly and Atlanta is just NOT prepared for the snow…Thanks to advice from my well-informed brother, I called the police and all the taxis listed when you google ‘taxi Atlanta’, but no one could pick him up :( Apparently, the police had real accidents to tend to (Matt didn’t get in an accident but his M3 was not made for snowy weather, and after several tries knew it was better to park than fight with it) and the taxis weren’t getting out in this ‘crazy weather.’ Argh… But he is ok now and we are home in comfy warm clothes, a fire, and wine :)

Until next time…stay warm…