A Birthday Boy & Christmas Surprise

When it comes to the Christmas season, for the last few years I've been feeling rather scrooge-like. In my head, I would love for Christmas to mean everyone is nice to one another and doesn't care about buying things for other people and enjoys It's A Wonderful Life at home with a cup of cocoa. In my head, I don't care too much about rushing around and seeing everyone and playing Santa, I just like sleeping in and staying in my pj's and carrying a blanket around the house with me... maybe take a nap or overindulge in holiday candy. As much as I want to do these things, I know that seeing my family and friends for the holidays is what's important to them, and I love them dearly so I am going to do that rushing around thing I was talking about a minute ago. So to prove my commitment to the holidays, I will upload photos of my Christmas decorations.

 

...and that's it. I haven't accumulated very many decorations yet. 

In other news, last Saturday Dugan and I drove down to Phoenix Saturday morning to pick up his "grandpa" from the airport . When we got to the airport, the person we picked up was not his grandpa it was Elyse! My dear friend is so thoughtful- she surprised me with a visit from New York. I thought she wasn't visiting until next month and was only going to stay for 3 days. All lies. This month. A week and a half. I love my life. So, around my work schedule (sadly) I've been trying to keep up with showing Elyse the sites of Arizona and doing fun activities. So far, we've only taken her downtown a bit, made a quick trip to Sedona, and decorated some holiday cookies. 

There will definitely more on this later. More photos, more scenery, more fun. Stay tuned.

One more thing to touch on is Dugan's birthday. My handsome guy turned 23 last Thursday. We celebrated by eating some delicious sushi and a lot of it. Afterwards, we took a drive around the city to look at all the pretty holidays lights and decorations, some german chocolate cake I made, and then some hanging out at home with some close friends. We stayed up too late and woke up too early the next day. It was great. I think he had himself a good birthday.

 Finished the sushi boat. Well, 2 of them (12 rolls) between 4 of us.

Birthday boy.

Seth is coming to visit tonight so that will be fun. Im sad to be working tomorrow while Seth and Elyse will be here, but I won't complain about the hours.

Final...ly

There hasn't been much new and exciting activity going on up here but there are a few new things I can talk about. The last few weeks have been filled with job hunting, classes, interviews, lots of hot cocoa and some baking with Rachel. Made pumpkin pie for thanksgiving and then Rachel made some amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last week. It's nice having a baking buddy.

So, here are a few new things going on. They're not a big deal but its just bits and pieces from my every day life.

1. Put up the Christmas Tree

You know the drill. Got george (that's its name) out of the box, and put it up. It looks festive in here. Dugan wishes it was real. La di da.

2. Got some job offers

In the last week I got two job offers- one at Olive Garden and one at Harkins Theatres. I think Olive Garden would've been the better choice in environment and working career, but they wouldn't work with me on my finals week and they seemed a little less flexible with hours so i chose Harkins. It's easy and It's something I know and it's a good simple job for the winter especially since the theatre is located directly behind my apartment complex so I can walk there and Dugan can take the car with him to work and school. If I hate it, i'll re-apply for the summer or look for something better. The spring time is better for job hunting anyway. If I like it at Harkins, i'll stay and make easy money for the next couple years. Nothing is permanent. After school, we'll be headed for Oregon anyway.

3. Finals week!

First semester for us is almost over! Im confident that the finals this week will go just fine for me. I have some essay work to do for ENG101 and then my PSY and Math final will be pie. I'm not worried. I think next semester I'll try out the nutrition class. Keep things interesting.

Last week two of my lovely sisters in law and their handsome guys came and stayed with us for a night. We didnt do much but we had some pizza and watched movies and played some bored games. These are three things we are really good at incidentally. I had planned on making vegetable lasagna buuut then my oven broke and that plan was blown.

All in all, things are going alright. I am really happy it hasn't snowed yet. I really don't like the cold. I like a cool breeze every once and awhile but I hate the feeling of being freezing. I like my limbs. I don't like not being able to feel them. I also like driving without ice on the roads. 

Dugan's 23rd birthday is next week and I'll be making him some german chocolate cake- his favorite. I don't know what Christmas will look like. I will be most likely working so who knows if we will have room to drive home. I hope it all works out.

Happy December all. I'll check back in next week!

xo