Plaid, decorations, and the Spirit of Christmas!

It's been a very pleasant day. Went shopping with my mom, gave her an early Christmas gift, got almost all the remaining decorations up, did a little painting, and am rocking some awesome new plaid flannel pajamas (the VA girl still comes out in me once in a while - I LOVE plaid and flannel). Finding places to put our decorations around the house has been fun. We are blessed to be spending our first Christmas in our new home and I'm definitely feeling the spirit of the season.  I just gave a few more gifts to get for family and our Toys for Tots Holiday Open House at work. Now to get some presents wrapped and under that tree!

Oyster Roast

In my twenties I was all about meeting my friends out somewhere, staying out late partying, and then repeating it the next weekend. I can't say I missed much during my college days. 

Then I got a little older and as much fun as it was, I got bored with it. It was time to do some other things. It was time for the next stage. Meeting friends for dinner or game night, of course tennis became a new kind of fun. Doing things with friends and their families is more exciting now than going to the club every night. It's still fun to go once in a while though ;). 

Every December some friends hold an annual oyster roast at one of their homes. Today was the day and I was blessed to attend. The whole thing is very laid back. Watching the kids play and the adults talk  while shucking oysters was soooo much fun. Everyone had a great time. The weather even held out for us. I'm not sure who had more cupcakes, me or my friend's almost 2 year old!  It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday evening. Bonus - getting home in time for a good night's sleep means a good day tomorrow! 

Furniture

After months of thinking and looking we were blessed today to find the furniture we both like for the living room.  Funny thing - the furniture store was 17 minutes away the entire time. The price is incredibly reasonable for the good quality. It's a great deal for after the new year too. 

I know this is a 1st world type blessing for sure and I'm appreciative of the fact that I'm lucky enough to have these 1st world blessings (and the blessing of that in and of itself). I think the best part is that it is a locally owned family store. We even saw a kid of one of the workers come in with his dinner. The man that was helping us was incredibly accommodating and easy to work with. He deserves the commission he will get. 

Virtual

A friend asked me to speak to her class about my job today. She teaches at a virtual school and the setup was very impressive. While I'm far from being a good speaker I still feel blessed to have been able to talk with her students and hopefully have helped with some of their questions. 

Registered

Huuuump day!  Yay!  I'm ready for the weekend. Looking forward to church on Sunday too. We have been going to the same church for years but never actually registered. I didn't think it made much difference for a long time but then it started to feel like the right thing to do. Finally, the other day I sent in the paperwork. It was very simple and now we are blessed to be registered members. It won't change the reason or the message but it feels good to be considered a member. Hopefully now we will become more active in various aspects as well!

I saw this today and liked it so I thought I'd share:

The 12 Days For Christmas

The computers worked today! - Well, mostly. There was a little issue this morning but it was fixed before 9 so I'm not counting it. Then I had a very productive and satisfactory meeting during which I found out I had an extra vacation day I didn't know about. As a result I'm blessed with 12 days off for Christmas! Woo hoo! That's an excellent time for a break. 

Cyber Monday...

Cyber Monday had a different meaning today at our office- the computers totally went down. I basically couldn't work for most of the day. I knew I was dependent on the Internet but wow. Our IT guy is a blessing. I can send a crazy help me message, yes, sometimes a little panic-y, and I get a good response, sometimes funny. When I left for the day the system was up and running. It's so nice to have helpful people in the world!