Last year was my first Christmas with Michael's family. We drove down to Illinois in the morning, started the day with shots of whiskey, and each family proceeded to perform Christmas carols, complete with funny hats and instruments. All newcomers to the family must perform a song by themselves. It's like initiation into their crazy Polish family! Luckily Michael had warned me about this so I had a few weeks to decide on a performance. I was in choir and the school musicals throughout high school, so I contemplated singing a classic song like "Oh Holy Night." Given my sometimes awkward and nervous tendencies, I decided to go with a humorous route instead.
If you've seen the movie, A Christmas Story, please refer to their Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant when the staff dazzled them with Christmas carols...
Thankfully, their family is tons of fun and the song was a hit, and this year I can sit on the sidelines!
What are your family traditions? Do you take shots and sing like a goof!? I'd love to hear about it!
Two days until Christmas. Two years (!!) to celebrate Michael and I being together, and too many smiles to even count.
Unfortunately we can't spend the night together, but the Christmas festivities begin as my parents open their home to 50 of our old dear friends. I can't wait to see everyone but I am slightly partial to crawling into bed and locking the door behind me.
Luckily Pinterest (and Elizabeth Taylor) gave me just the pep talk I need...
Sadly, I lost the sweater competition to a man in a very similar sweater. Why are boys naturally funnier than girls? It's the sad truth. But I suppose I can't win the prize when I coordinate the party, so I accepted defeat with my head held high. (nerd alert, I know).
On a higher note, I did discover a wonderful gift for my favorite bookworms. Anthropologie(I promise I'm not typically so obsessed with the store to write about them every day, they just have awesome Christmas gifts and decor!) has an awesome collection of classics that look hand-stitched! One of my girlfriends is the queen bee of books, so I couldn't resist buying them (on sale!) to give her shelf a little glam!
Three more days! I am absolutely ecstatic that today is my last day of work before a nice long holiday weekend! I can't wait to kick this illness, get some rest, and then overindulge in time with family and friends.
In an effort to bring some Christmas cheer to the office, I organized an ugly sweater party for today. This festive little number has made me the winner of two consecutive ugly sweater contests, so I hope to come home victorious! In my experience, the more 3D the sweater is, the more successful you'll be, so I hope to make you proud. 3rd time is a charm today! Please also note the reindeer turtle neck. Resale shops are a riot this time of year!
Four days until Christmas! Are you in a frenzy, yet? Somehow I've managed to get myself into Christmas stress mode this year. My squeaky voice and feverish head are dragging through the work day and then scrambling around town to find the perfect finishing touches to my gifts. Why I'm choosing to torture myself this year, I'm not sure, but I definitely feel like this:
Then I drive, listen to this, and remember what this season is really about..
(Please humor the screenshots that will follow in the next few days!)
*****
J.Crew highlighted their pajama line in an email blast and I suddenly want to call in sick for the rest of the week and lounge in their flannel and cashmere.
Leave it to J.Crew to make sick days, sweatpants and sleepwear look glam. I love the black and white shot!
In college my roommates and I would always go out for breakfast at an amazing hole-in-the-wall diner and "rehash" the events from the night before.
I'm sorry for the lack of pancakes, eggs and greasy bacon, but here's my weekend rehash.
Double carpal tunnel (I swear I'm in my twenties), a blown-out tire with Michael to the rescue (forever filed in the "man-work" category. I'll say no thank you to that skill), Christmas shopping and decor, Christmas parties, losing my voice from the cold flu, baking cookies (dog eats half the cookies-can you say Marley?), more Christmas parties....
The weekend turned out to be anything but relaxing, still wonderful nonetheless.
Since my sister came home, the schedule has been jam-packed, the laughter has been endless, and the sleep has been minimal. So naturally, my tiny immune system acquired the cold flu.
This morning I went to work without putting on deodorant (sorry, coworkers), and I wore blank ankle socks with my flats and slacks. My exposed ankles looked pretty cool when I sat down!
Needless to say, my brain is no longer functioning, but is floating somewhere outside of my body.
Luckily, Michael and I planned to lay low and make Christmas cookies tonight, so you will find me dressed like this:
Happy weekend!
ps. like everyone else, I'm on Pinterest, you can find me here :)
So much has happened since my little blog hiatus since June. I finally moved into my apartment, which is adorably tiny (many DIYs to come!), today marks my one year anniversary at my first position in the big kid world, M and I are about to celebrate two years, and some of my old friends have invited me to help out with their non-profit, combining two of my greatest passions. My life feels a little bit like the juggled photo below, but I feel like I can't go wrong when I'm doing what I love with whom I love.
If only I looked this glam while working my tail off ;)
(photo of my kitchen chalkboard used for shopping lists, etc, anddd where I channel my inner 1st grader for each holiday)
"Thanksgiving is about the bounty of this great land, and the plenty that ingenious and hard-working people have been able to create. With this plenty,America has saved the world from two world wars, invented medicines, technology and production techniques that have lifted living standards massively.
Other countries have smart people that have done good things. Other countries have resources. Other countries have been around longer, but none has been as generous, or had a more positive impact on the world, than America.
Being an American is an enormous gift. The freedoms and widespread prosperity we enjoy are unique and desirable. That’s why millions of people from all over the globe not only desire to live in America, but actually risk their lives to live in our land. More importantly, Americans are not leaving America to go anywhere else in large numbers at all. Despite recent high unemployment, no country provides the combination of opportunities, protections, freedoms, or living standards that America does."
I think sweater dresses are my favorite fashion trend of 2011. Who would've thought a dress could be so warm and comfortable, yet still so chic!? Refinery 29 covered some of the fashionable favorites, and I just purchased the first dress below in navy blue - I wish I would have bought one in every style! I think this will be my new winter uniform.
We're heading to Naples for a long weekend. We haven't been there since our final Spring Break trip almost two years ago, so we're pumped to head back, just the two of us! Last year poor Michael had a sub-par birthday that didn't feel like much of a birthday at all, so I think this little getaway will be the perfect celebration!