Some Catchin' Up to Do....

OK…I’ve been called on the carpet by my loyal fan club and am properly repentant on my lack of updates to my blog. In all fairness, I’ve been working like a dog and even was sick. OK…enough of my excuses…I admit that I’m a slacker.

I’ve been keeping pretty busy. My favorite highlight in the past month was my surprise trip home for Thanksgiving. I was sitting at home one evening wishing I was home, so I hopped on the internet and found a steal of a deal airline ticket to Indy and back on Thanksgiving, so I snatched it right up. Because it wasn’t a direct flight, I was afraid that I might get stuck somewhere along the line, so I didn’t tell anyone so that no one would expect much if I didn’t make it. Everything went so smoothly, and I had such a great time visiting everyone. I got to see my new nephew for the first time, what a cutie! Lehna is getting SOOO big. She was so shy with me at first, but she eventually warmed up and let me hold her. She is just so adorable right now…I wonder how long it will last until she’s so spoiled her Mom and Dad will be looking for ways to give her away. 

After that, I flew home on Friday and got busy on decorating my home for Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year. I even went out and bought a new Christmas tree this year…much bigger and nicer now that I have a bigger place. It was so much fun to decorate my tree. As many of you know, I collect Christmas ornaments from all my trips and things that remind me of certain people. I didn’t get to put up a new tree last year since I was just moving into my townhouse, so I had two years of new ornaments. Decorating my tree is always so much fun because I am reminded of all the fun times I’ve had with special people in my life.

I’ve been on the road quite a bit. I was down in Florida for a couple days right after Thanksgiving, and I was able to see Joyce and Don a couple times. They have a cute little apartment. They were getting it all decorated for Christmas. It was great to see them. Unfortunately, my trip to Florida wasn’t without incident. I started getting sick while I was there, but had to head to up DC for the rest of the week. By the time I got home late Friday night, I was really feeling pretty bad. I went to Urgent Care the next morning, and found out I had a sinus infection, a throat infection, and a pretty bad case of bronchitis. Luckily, the doctor hooked me up with some pretty good drugs, and I’m much better!!!

The following week, I had to be in DC for the majority of the week. My last day there, I had to do an interview in downtown DC, so I headed down a bit early never knowing what traffic would be like. I got there about an hour early, and I was able to walk around a bit. I saw the White House all decorated for the holidays. I got to see a bunch of other Government Buildings as well, but then I stumbled across one of the Smithsonian buildings, and was able to do a quick walk through the Arts & Crafts Museum. It was really a great experience. That is one of the few perks of traveling, when I can steal an hour or two and experience the places I visit—it’s rare, but always amazing.

I spent this past week on the road again. I was in DC, Dallas, and St. Louis. In Dallas, we had an HR Leadership Team meeting. For our team building event, we went to a Dallas Stars Hockey game. I’ve never been to a hockey game before, so it was a lot of fun. They had rented a box, so we really saw it in the lap of luxury—comfy seats, great food, warmth. You really can’t beat it. The Stars lost the game, but I still felt like a winner, which is all that really matters, right? 

I’m now on vacation for the rest of the year. Doesn’t that have the BEST sounding ring to it? I’m pretty excited. Since I got stuck in St. Louis an extra day due to bad weather, I am going to have to run into the office on Monday to deliver my Christmas gifts and cookies I baked (I can’t believe I actually cooked….this just goes to prove that Christmas IS a season of miracles). I fly home to Indiana on Wednesday for 8 days. I’m definitely looking forward to kicking back and relaxing and seeing my family and friends.

I want to wish all my loved ones a very Merry Christmas and the brightest and best New Year’s ever!