It's the Weekly Recap!

Happy new year, my dear blogging friends!

* Last Sunday was Christmas! I went to church and then to my parents' house for lunch and the Christmas palooza! Much fun with my sister and her husband, too. No, I am not really taller than my Dad. Love my high-heeled boots!
Came home from the family Christmas, plopped down in front of the fireplace and watched the My Fair Wedding marathon. (Yes. I'm obsessed with that show.)

* I was very blessed to have Monday off work, so I slept in and then proceeded to stay in bed a while longer...because I could...drinking coffee, watching TV and working on my goals for the new year. I had a helper:
Once I did get up, I ran around for the rest of the day trying to catch up the chores, catch up with friends, and be prepared to return to the work force IN full force on Tuesday!

* Tuesday's commute to work was, in the words of my mother, THE PITS. We had a mix of rain and snow and the temperature was hovering right at freezing...a mess. I planned to stay in Ft Wayne that night to spend the night at Lynne's but she wasn't feeling well, so I came home (thankfully it was MUCH better at the end of the day) and I was a cleaning FOOL at my house. Christmas and gifts had pretty much thrown up all over the house and I had to get some sense of order! I also worked out and decided THIS was an appropriate workout shirt. :)
* Wednesday evening I drove to Van Wert, Ohio to see Olivia for the first time since her wedding!
She was visiting her husband's family, so I got to see all of them too - they made me feel right at home! We had dinner and then I had to head back to Ft. Wayne because I spent the night at Lynne's house! I love having sleepovers at her house. I got to curl up and watch You've Got Mail and then sleep on a pretty comfy bed.


* Thursday, Lynne and I had a planning PALOOZA. We spent the entire day figuring out our plan for next year. Here's what that looks like: We had the most fun day, and on the way home, my car hit this milestone:THEN...at the end of the day, I had a special treat of having dinner with my friend, Laura! We spent two hours at IHOP, where we caught up on life and I drank three cups of coffee (because the five glasses of iced tea at Lynne's - and Starbucks on the way home - had not been enough).

* Friday began my long weekend...I had the day off as the second day of my Christmas vacation. Slept in (of course) and then headed to two of my favorite places on earth with one of my favorite PEOPLE on earth! Amber and I went to the Gaither store and to...HOBBY LOBBY!!! I made good on some retail therapy. :)

* Saturday I got up and took down ALL the Christmas decorations. Didn't have time to put them away in an organized fashion, so they're (gently) thrown in sacks in the office until Monday when I can deal with them. Tried to clean up the house a bit into a decent looking space because...Faith came over to celebrate New Year's Eve with me. More on this later, but just a sneak peek:
CHANGES TO THE END OF THE WEEKLY RECAP in 2012:

* Now that I'm reading for a living (so to speak), I'm not going to keep track of what I'm reading here anymore. Too chaotic. I'll list the books I've read in the monthly recap instead.

* More to come on this as well, but Lynne and I are taking a One Thousand Gifts challenge in 2012 based on Ann Voskamp's book by the same name. So my "favorite God moment" is morphing slightly into a mention of one (or a small handful) of my One Thousand Gifts list.

* Organization Confessions. I told you a couple of days ago that I'm working on getting organized in 2012. So I'll stay accountable to you by sharing what worked and what didn't of the things I try each week!

* Pinterest highlight of the week. Yep. I'm addicted to Pinterest. Since I spend so much time on there, it stands to reason that I need to make good use of my finds. So each week I'll show you something I've tried based on my Pinterest addiction. I'll go ahead and show you my first one now. I'll explain it a bit more when I post about New Year's Eve, but Faith and I started 2012 time capsules based on and idea I found, which originated from Kelli Crowe's blog. This was her capsule: Photo Credit: Kellie Crowe

And these were our capsules:

We took pictures (of COURSE) on New Year's Eve and will add one to the top to remind us where the year began!