A Christmas Prep Weekend

Good day, blog friends.

♥

I just opened my calendar and stared in disbelief at the days. Christmas is one week from this Friday? Yep. This past weekend was all about baking for the packages I'll be mailing this week. This was me, for the majority of the weekend:

It was so awesome to bake in our new kitchen. I love our big countertop!

I have a few recipes that I bake every year, and I always like to try one new bread or cookie recipe. This year the new recipe was snickerdoodle bread, and it is yummy!

Saturday morning I taught my first restorative yoga class at my new studio job. :o) It was awesome!!! I had three students who were regulars of the previous Saturday morning teacher. They were all so nice and gracious to me. The studio has a tropical feel to it, and just look at the floors in this room! SO pretty!!!

 

After yoga I grabbed an iced tea before running some errands, and I was so excited to see that I was in the drive-thru lane right behind SANTA!!! His personalized license plate, contact information on the back of his pickup truck... And when I caught a glimpse of his reflection in the side-view mirror? White beard and all?! SANTA!!! ~sigh~ What a shocker to see him lift a cigarette to his mouth. Way to represent, "Santa."

 

From yoga and "Santa" watching, I headed out to a local craft fair to purchase some jars of jam and candied jalapeno peppers from this sweet girl:

Lacey is a childhood friend of Carrie's, and I've known her since the girls were eight years old. Today she's a busy mom of two little boys with a thriving business of her own. I attended the craft boutique specifically to purchase her wares to tuck into my Christmas packages this year. You can find her on Facebook by clicking here. Standing there, watching her interact with customers and sell her product, ah! I felt so proud of her. ♥

 

I did a bit of shopping at the craft fair, then another major grocery store trip. Man, I have spent a lot of money at the grocery store over the past month. That first photo of me in the kitchen? That was me for the whole rest of Saturday.

 

Sunday morning I attended a Christmas cantata at a beautiful church in Scottsdale. A sweet friend of mine (hi Kristi!) played flute in the orchestra. It was such a beautiful setting, wonderful music, Heavenly message... It was just what I needed to put me in the right Christmas frame of mind.

 

After the services on Sunday, I came home and put a little spread of appetizers together for our guests. We had Doug's aunt and uncle over for a look around our house - they're our real estate agents, and hadn't seen our home since we got our keys in August. Ah! It was SO much fun to have them see all of the changes and updates we've made. What a blessing to have them love and care so much for us, that our joy in our new home brings them joy as well.

 

When the visit was over...well...refer to photo #1 again. I baked another batch of pumpkin bread and these peanut butter cup cookies that I make every year...

 

I'll admit that it's at this point, just about every year I think, when I really question what in the world I am doing. Having spent every spare moment in my kitchen this weekend, I did not do one single load of laundry, and our house is a bit disheveled. Maybe next year I'll scale back a little. Yes, that's what I'll do...next year I'll scale back...

 

Oooooh...this week! We're getting our Christmas tree tonight! It won't be decorated right away, but it will be in our living room standing tall and smelling wonderful and being examined by Lucky the dog and Whiskers the rotten cat. Tomorrow night I'll finalize my Christmas boxes for mailing on Wednesday. Every lunch hour is booked with errands, and Friday is a half day at work! We'll cap off the work week with our annual holiday luncheon, hopefully accompanied by a generous bonus check, then we'll be off work for two glorious weeks.

 

My yoga mat is calling my name and I'm going to heed the call. I know this is a busy time for most of us, so I'm wishing you an underlying sense of calm as you make your way through your busy-list.

 

Reminding us to breathe deeply, rest easy, smile plenty, and be of good cheer.

♥