Ohhh, Christmas holiday. It didn’t get here one second soon enough. With Joel working long hours and me working long hours ALL FREAKIN MONTH, we’ve both been counting down to getting a few days of sanity back. 

This was a banner year for us, in that Joel and I finished all our Christmas shopping well before Christmas Eve — even sending gifts to America (oh thank you, Amazon Prime!). And it wasn’t 500* and humid on Christmas day (oh thank you, Australia).

And here’s what it looked like:

Dec 17: Hard core solo Christmas shopping and meet up with Kat for pastries. I drank so much coffee this day that I nearly passed out.

Dec 22: Christmas weekend started the way it has the last 3 years: with a half day of work on Friday and a LUUUUX showing of the new Star Wars (full report later). Except this time I got a pedicure beforehand (which you can totes see through my sneakers). I was meant to go to a party after the movie, but I fell asleep instead /winner

Dec 23: Joel had the day off so we had planned to make gingerbread cookies while watching Home Alone. But it was a little more eventful: I woke up to a migraine, we had to call an emergency plumber because we had no hot water, I yelled at mom on the phone for a solid 40 minutes (oh family and feelings), I checked on the car for the first time in 4 weeks and the mirror glass in the driver’s side mirror was gone (what?!), the plumber said both water heaters were burned out, so they had to get Strata approval before they could replace the heaters which could take a week (which was great, considering I hadn’t washed my hair in 4 days), I couldn’t find my gingerbread man cookie cutter, and I sweat through my clothes by 11AM. So that was fun.

But not all was lost. We made the cookies, and it was a wholesome blast. I don’t know if I’ve ever properly baked and decorated gingerbread cookies. My mom always made ginger bread squares, and sometimes we decorated sugar cookies, so my life wasn’t completely devoid of holiday joy.

I also forgot how much dough one recipe makes — we were exhausted after the first batch, and there’s still a half batch sitting in our fridge. Whoops.

Dec 24: I slept in until 11:30 (!!!!!) woke up fluey, and basically did nothing until it was time to take an ice cold shower (not fun) and meet up with Joel for Christmas Eve dinner at his dad’s.

We got a mid-afternoon shower while the sun was out, that looked like snow as it reflected off the sun. For a moment I was able to forget that it was 36* with 95% humidity.

 

Dec 25: CHRISTMAS! Presents, coffee, and breakfast with my Aussie. It was actually chilly, which was a blessed relief from the heat soaked week we had leading up to Christmas. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and a cardigan. Hallelujah!

26 DEC – Boxing day. Poor Joel had to be at work at 6AM for the sales (Boxing Day is Australia’s Black Friday), and I was alone all day. Once again, I did absolutely nothing but putter around, which included doing 7 loads of laundry and taking Lil Betty for a spin and making some chocolate chip cookies. My sister Mary warned me not to over beat the dough. I told her I most definitely would over beat the dough. And lo, I did, because there’s no sound more beautiful than the sound of the mixer you’ve been lusting over for years humming away while you both hands to incorporate flour to creamed butter and sugar without making a giant flour bomb. I love her so.

I’ll spare you how awesome it was to clean out our pantry cabinet and find a jar of loose leaf tea that had turned into a moth breeding ground (omg weevils, I wanted to barf), and how I spent the better part of the afternoon throwing out any open food and disinfecting the cabinet. Also moth balls = blehhhhhh.

Instead, here’s a cute pic of Pancake respecting Joel’s very expensive camera gear:

Early on, I made plans to do absolutely nothing all week, apart from leaving the house to feed my boss’ cats, because I just want to recharge and get my life together for 2018. So far, I’d say I’m definitely achieving on the Nothing scale. I got a little project done, I’m deep cleaning and trying to make goals for next year. I haven’t worn a bra in like, 4 days.

You know, just living my best life possible.

3 more days til New Year! BRB, I have more loafing to do.