Happy Holidays!

So...

Christmas was awesome. I really feel like I was spoiled this year. Alex did very well: he got me a blue iPod mini. Yay! It's so freaking cute! I'm listening to it here at work as I type. So adorable. :) The Wham and the Pa got me this adorable breakfast nook table (the kind that's rectangular and counter height and stores its two stools underneath it) that fits perfectly next to the sink in my kitchen. It pretty much doubled my counter space, so that's awesome. They also gave me this American Girl doll, Samantha, that I've wanted since I was, oh, 8. Wham had told me that she was getting the doll for my neice for Christmas and I called her a not-so-nice-name and then on Christmas morning she surprised me with one of my own! Yay! :)

I got a very cute jacket from my sister, a John Mayer CD from Xander and one from David, and Greg got me some Bath and Body Works stuff. I got a lot of really cute stuff from Alex's parents: a stocking with all sorts of goodies, a martini candle, a book called "Atomic Cocktails" with classic cocktail recipes in it, some glass olive shaped cocktail picks, a set of knives (chef, boning, paring), and a really cute kitchen mat with wine bottles on it. My mom and RJ gave me a really nice set of pots and pans (nonstick interior and hard anodized (sp?) exterior), some cute blue glass chotckies, and a set of fitness bands.

I got great stuff from my friends too: Beck gave me Newsies on DVD, a Pearls Before Swine book, and a garlic "house". Dodi gave me a book with 400 ways to indulge yourself and a very cute sectioned appetizer server. Carrie gave me a mix your own vodka shooters set and a framed picture of the two of us at her wedding. Danielle gave me a set of foot pampering stuff that smells awesome: peppermint sage, and Meredith gave me a mortar and pestle, a bottle filled with "exotic spices", and a microplane.

So yeah. I totally made out like a bandit this year! I pretty much got everything I asked for. I'm spoiled. :)

So yeah. So I went to PA over the weekend to visit with my mom and the rest of that side of my family. It was a good time. Nice trip: short but sweet. We went to the Yuengling brewery on Monday before I came back. It was a pretty cool tour: they took you through the working brewery and down into the natural caves underneath the building where they'd store the beer "back in the day". At the end of the tour, everyone was entitled to two drinks. Very cool. :)

The move is coming along. I had yesterday off of work and we got pretty much done. I have tomorrow off and I hope to do all the cleaning out of the old apartment tomorrow. I keep thinking that it won't take too long, but I've been thinking that about every step along the way and everything has been taking longer than I've expected. So yeah. So the goal for tomorrow is just to scour out the old apartment. It would be very cool if I could get more than that done, but I'm not going to build my expectations too high only to be disappointed.

Friday will be finishing up with cleaning and organizing the new apartment as much as possible along with preparing for the little New Year's party that we'll be hosting that evening. We're having a few people over for drinks and appetizers before we go out downtown to dance and drink in the New Year. It should be an awesome time... and I'll get to use some of my new toys from Christmas for hosting the party! Yay! :)

But since this is my only day at work this week, I think I should end the post and try and get a bit more done before I head home for the night. Tonight, my sister is coming over for a bit, so that should be a good time. :)