Christmas

I never really got around to writing about Christmas this year.  We were in Utah for a week, where we were busy spending time with friends and family.  When we got back to DC we basically hit the ground running and I feel like I've been behind in most aspects of my life ever since.

Oh well.

Christmas was great.  It started snowing on Christmas Eve and didn't let up until the day before we flew home.  It was exactly what I wanted - a true white Christmas.  I think we got something like 18 inches.  Sundance, strangely, got more snow than any of the Park City joints, so Blake was in heaven being able to ski so close to home.

It was a really relaxing trip.  Because of the snow and only have one 4-wheel drive car, we had an excuse to stay home and warm with a book, a puzzle, or a movie by the Christmas tree.  In my mind, there's no better way to spend the holidays. 

I'm already wishing it were Christmas again.  I mean, what's the point of winter when there's no Christmas to look forward to?  All these cold, grey days are getting me down.

Before I sign-off, what Christmas would be complete without some gratuitous Noosa shots?  Sure, she's 10 years old, and getting a bit creaky and slow, but I'll still contend that she's the cutest yellow lab to ever walk the earth.

(P.S. some of these cute faces may or may not have been coerced through use of turkey held overhead.)

Bear

So what.  Work's been crazy, church overwhelming, and my identity was stolen over the weekend.  It's all made better by the fact that I have this to look forward to:

 

Photo via

 

That's right! Blake and I are getting a dog! 

 

Not that exact one, but one just like it (from the same breeder).  It's a mini sheepadoodle (cross between a Poodle and an Old English Sheepdog).  He/she will be about 40 pounds full grown. 

 

We're on the waiting list to get one this summer and we can hardly contain our excitement.  Sheepadoodles are supposed to be the ultimate family dog (this is not an announcement of any kind) and they love kids and other dogs.  They're also supposed to be very easy to train.  Perfect!

 

This weekend we celebrated by going to Petco to look at what we'll be having to spend on all the supplies.  More importantly, we purchased a dog tag and had it engraved with his/her name: Bear.  Thanks to their nubby tails and fluffy hair, we think these little guys look exactly like baby bears. 

 

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've had trouble sleeping lately because I am just so excited.  Who wouldn't love coming home to a face like that every day?

Just up in India, stealing your cash.

The worst way to wake up on a Sunday morning is undoubtedly by getting a 7:00 a.m. complimentary wake-up call from American Express to ask you if you just spend 1,500 rupees at a cosmetics store in Delhi. 

If we're looking for bright side here, maybe it's that I've never felt so instantly awake that early on a weekend morning.

I went through my mental checklist: card has never left my possession, never written the number down, never said it out loud in a public place, haven't ordered anything from sketchybiz.com. 

And this whole time at the back of my mind I'm remembering those hilarious identity theft commercials from a few years back where they'd show a wizened old man sitting in a Lazy boy, smoking a cigarette, but when he opened his mouth he sounded like a teenage valley girl discussing the merits of a recently purchased bustier. 

Sort of like that time in college when someone in Moscow got a hold of my bank account information and started withdrawing my money in $250.00 increments from various ATMs around the city.  After the initial shock wore off and the I'd survived the crazed visit to the bank to verify that I had not been in Moscow in the last 10 days, I may or may not have spent the day breaking into a Vladimir-inspired accent and mentioning the expensive Vodka I was purchasing with that cold, hard, American cash.

Mid-twenties crisis

So, is this it?  The slow descent into insanity?

Days filled with too much work, too much church, too many metro delays, and gaggles of dust bunnies roaming free throughout the house? 

It's been absolute chaos at work and I'm only now starting to come up for air.  Here's hoping I can catch up with all things life-related sometime soon (maybe during the much-anticipated 3-day weekend coming my way...).

A channel for all ages.

In the weeks since I last posted, we've been busy celebrating the season, vacationing and relaxing.  We had our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (our biggest yet!), celebrated Christmas early with Blake's family, flew to Utah to spend Christmas with my family, enjoyed 18 inches of powdery Utah snow, flew back to DC to cold grey weather, and lazily rang in the new year with friends.

But, before I get to all that...

Last night while we were watching TV, Blake and I saw several commercials for Life Alert and a handful more for the Hurry Cane (the all-terrain cane, of course!).  All of this during the prime-time hours.  It was at this point that we realized that we were watching the travel channel.  I guess we're not quite the demographic that's usually watching the travel channel at 8:30 p.m. on a Wednesday.  What can I say, Baggage Battles is oddly captivating.

Also, as our vacation came to a close, Blake and I decided that playing is more fulfilling than working.  The Travel Channel (and HGTV) have convinced us that to get the most out of life we need to quit our jobs and become real estate moguls.  So, if anyone knows of any real estate that currently needs moguling, please let me know.