holiday recap

Now that the holidays are well behind us (and the SEC has won another National Championship) I thought I might as well share a little bit about what I've been up to on my holiday hiatus.

Sleeping, lots of sleeping...it really is my favorite thing to do, and it was glorious.

But I digress...  I didn't do a ton of decorating for the holidays, but I did enough to host the family's Christmas Eve and a group of my high school friends after Christmas without feeling like a grinch.

My sister took this picture of the pond on Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition has always been dinner and presents with my dad's side of the family, but as my grandmother has gotten older, she's been a little more comfortable going out to dinner, then coming back to her house for dessert and presents.  Last year we transitioned to dessert and presents at my house, and this year I cooked and we did the whole thing at my house.  (My family was surprised that I could cook a turkey, go figure, this was like number 6 or 7 for me.) 

My Grandmother was thrilled to have dinner at my house, and I think it was the first meal she had eaten in the house since my great grandmother passed away in 1991.  It was nice to see her happy in the house, especially since I know she wasn't thrilled that I painted the kitchen yellow.

I spent the week after Christmas visiting friends who were in town for the holidays, and anyone who was still in town the weekend after Christmas came by my house to get togeather.  It's crazy that my group of high school friends has grown to include babies and puppies, but it has, and I think they had the best time out of anyone!  Little Bobby and Anoush (Armenian for sweet) are seriously best friends now.  Any time Bobby was upset...and that is hardly ever bc he is so chill...Anoush made everything better.  It was fantastic.

Our girl scout came through on the fire (since the ground was soaked), and I have to say it was a pretty perfect night.  (Well except for the part where a friend told us that she had to back to the UK for VISA issues, but she will better be be back)

from @Chandlee's instagram feed

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite holidays, and I have always celebrated with friends.  This year Clemson was playing LSU in the Peach Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, and I apologized to the host in advance because I knew I was going to be preoccupied for the first half of the party.

Clemson vs. LSU was a pretty epic match-up, and going into the game I was nervous about how it was going to turn out.  LSU is good and consistent, Clemson is good, but no one can pretend that Clemson is the model of consistency.  Last year Clemson was on an emotional high coming off an ACC Championship, and was embarrassed by West Virginia.  So when I thought honestly about the game, it didn't look pretty. THEN Sammy Watkins was injured on the first drive of the game.  That was bad, there was a fumble, then LSU scored, but you knew that Clemson had success this year without Sammy, and all was not lost.  Somehow the team focused, rallied, improved at the half, and played the best 4th quarter of Clemson football that I have ever watched. (I've watched it about 3 times now, it was that good.)  4th & 16..4th & 16...it was just amazing.

Also over the holidays (but before Christmas, I know this is out of order) I got to spend time with an out of town friend that I don't see nearly enough.  The trip was not entirely planned, but we got to hang out, make a bazillion sugar cookies, and meet her new puppy.

Isn't she cute!!  She's a little sassy, but I think she's going to get a lot of that from her family (human and puppy brothers & sisters)

My holidays were great, and hope yours were too :)   And if anyone knows how to get rid of this 5 day work week, let me know, I feel spoiled!