Christmas is Coming!!

This is probably going to be my last post of 2013....because I am headed back to Chicagoland tomorrow for TWO WHOLE WEEKS!!!!!!! (cue happy dance)

The past couple weeks I've been hanging out, Christmas shopping, and getting more and more excited to have an extended trip back home. About 2 weeks ago I went to my first Kappa Kappa Gamma alum event which was the East Bay Alum Association Christmas party. We gathered at this swanky house in the hills above Oakland. Super fancy pants. It was great to meet other sisters out here of all ages and backgrounds. I definitely plan to become involved with a local chapter, I met the PDC (Province Director of Chapters) and she was very excited that I was interested in being an adviser. Yay for being social!

The oldest woman in the front row was a hoot, I could have talked with her the entire night.

I've loved receiving all the happy Christmas cards and small festive packages from family and friends over the past couple of weeks. One of my favorites and most intimidating/fun to open was a gift from my best friend, Kristen. She had made a homemade body scrub and sent me a small plastic container of some as a nice little surprise! Trouble is that the container got a crack and a very small amount of the scrub leaked out and soaked through all the papers and wrappings. As you look at this sequence of pictures I took while opening it, not knowing what was underneath, try to imagine the terror/joy upon finding each layer.

First: I found this strange bag stuffed into my small mail box

Next: A strange gloopy package. The tape had lost its stick and is weirdly soupy. The entire package is soaked through with grease. I also discovered this was from Kristen, and therefore anything could be inside. 

I peel through the paper and gloopy tape to find body scrub! And a weirdly soupy card with ink that has seen better days haha

And here is the culprit! That small amount leaked out and left me with a mostly solid mass of scrub and one very oily package. But never fear, with a little more liquids it is good as new! 

While they have seen better days, the directions survived.

This is actually a really good scrub. I used it the next morning in the shower and was left with nice and soft but not weirdly oily or over exfoliated skin. Thanks Krisio!

Well I am going to bed, I've got a hot date with a cabbie at 4am tomorrow! Gotta make that early flight! I'll be back in Chicago for two weeks so let me know if you want to see me. My first week is already booked solid, so seriously talk to me if you're interested in week 2. It's like people like me or something, they want to see me! I'm okay with it, I love feeling loved :)

Speaking of feeling loved, check out my beautiful fridge with all the Christmas cards. Thanks everyone! Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Trip to Chicago(suburbs)!!!

When I started this blog I had grand plans of posting about once a week. As you can read, that hasn't really happened lately. Trouble is that when I get home at night I am sick of being on a computer all day! Sorry I've been absent, internet.

ANYways (to be read in the tone of my mother), I'll give you all a recap of my fantastic, whirl-wind of a weekend back in Illinois.

I flew home on Thanksgiving morning and when I was timing when I needed to leave my apartment to get to the airport I forgot to factor in time to park and get from long term parking to the terminals. When I remembered on the drive over that when you're checking bags for a flight that you need to have them in at least an hour ahead of time, I almost died. Instead of dying I hit the gas and hoped no cops were on the road at 4:30am. Thankfully the airport parking people have their stuff together and instead of having buses take passengers from the parking garage to the terminals every 15min, the buses were just rolling in one right after the other so I didn't need to wait long to get on a shuttle to check my bags.

You may be wondering why I had bags to check for a 4 day trip. I flew Southwest so I took advantage of their free checked bag policy and brought home some a suitcase my parents let me borrow for the move, Christmas gifts, and a TON of wine. Seriously, about a ton. My bags were overweight there was so much wine. I ended up taking out my pillow and stuffing the pillow case with random heavy things to have as my makeshift carry on. I'm just thankful I didn't decide to bring a real carry on! On the way back west it was much easier and lighter with only one bag being checked.

When I arrived back in Chicago for the first time since July, my wonderful boyfriend was there to greet me with wonderful flowers. It had been just over 2 months since we had seen each other (when he came to visit me) and I was obviously overjoyed :)

We went back to my parent's house for a Thanksgiving dinner with my immediate family, where he met everyone for the first time. I am pleased to report he did well, even started to learn pinochle. We also had my friend from college, Hannah, come to our dinner as a "misfit" and it was wonderful to catch up with her too. We hadn't seen each other since graduation!

On Friday it was my turn to meet Bobby's family! I think it went well....you'd have to ask him just how well but I enjoyed meeting everyone and we had DELICIOUS thanksgiving left overs for lunch. Seriously, I can't imagine how wonderful it was when it was first cooked because I cleaned my plate with the leftovers. His family then left to go to the German Christmas market downtown and we snuggled on the couch to watch the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special. We both thought it was a bit of a let down. It was good and enjoyable but for the hype surrounding it we were expecting more.

That evening we went on a fancy date to Cooper's Hawk and while we were waiting for our table just happened to partake in a wine tasting. During this tasting we discovered that the activity we have done most is taste wine. So now we're officially the wine tasting couple. I'm completely okay with it. Instead of getting an appetizer with our dinner we decided to do the wine and cheese pairing flight which gave us each 4 wines and a nice platter of cheese to eat them with. We split the tastings up between before and after our meal but that meant that on the table during dinner were a ton of wine glasses, because we may have each gotten a glass with our entree. Hey, it's already been paired up for you! It would be a shame not to complement your food so perfectly.

We looked like alcoholics

Needless to say, we lingered for quite a bit after our meal to work some of the alcohol off. We also took a walk around where the restaurant was because we're cool like that. We got done with the official portion of our date around 10pm-ish but neither of us wanted to call it a night so Bobby called up some of his friends and we met them at a bar in Palatine (water for him, he had to drive me home still). It was fun to see his friends again, I had met some of them over the summer and hear about them all the time. On the drive back to my parent's to take me home we jammed to some Christmas music, apparently I do a great Josh Groban. If you were wondering, I was indeed a bit hung over the next morning. 

Then comes Saturday! AKA baby shower fiesta day!!
Yep, you read correctly, Heidi's baby shower was fiesta themed. How fitting for a Spanish teacher, right!? Altogether there were just shy of 60 people in the house and we decided the limit should be 50 in the future. It was quite tight/noisy but at least it was full of love! I wish I had taken pictures of the decorations because they were so cute and just perfect (thanks Amy and Mrs. Hummel!) but alas I'm a dumbo and didn't take any pictures. Heidi has them on her camera. Thank you to all who came and are helping Baby Hummel (name still, TBD) get a great start in life!

Sadly, Sunday had to come eventually and my crazy weekend back home was to come to a close. We finished cleaning from the party and had a generally lazy day.

A lot of Sunday looked like this. He was cold and refused to use a blanket....

The immediate family plus Erin and Bobby was again gathered for a late lunch/early dinner before I left. My flight was delayed about an hour and I didn't end up getting back to my apartment until 1am California time, aka 3am Chicago time and I didn't get any sleep on the plane :( It was a crazy trip but was wonderful to be back home, even for that short of a time. But in less than 2 weeks (2 weeks from yesterday, actually) I'll be back for Christmas! And I'll be around for two whole weeks! YAYAYAYAY I CAN'T WAIT!