because some things can't be concealed with powder and lipstick: December rolls on!

Oh, this December Daily project is exciting me so :).

I do so love the Christmas season...which you wouldn't know if you visited our home right now :). We have minimal Christmas decorations displayed...our powder room has a Christmas-y monogrammed 'B' hand towel, our stove has a snowman towel hanging from it (yeah, I'm partial to themed towels...one of my quirks. I buy many towels throughout the year. LOVE themed towels! HA!), and I put out my "12 Days of Christmas" scrapbook from last December (that still isn't completely finished).

Tree? Nope.
Stockings? Nah.
Snowmen? None in sight.
Wreath? What?!

Nativity? Not yet.

I told my good friend Brooke via text last weekend that I hadn't gotten my decorations out yet...her response?

YOU SCROOGE!

Harumph. Maybe so, Brookie. Sorry!!! ;)

Regardless...I DO kind of feel like a failure of a woman/wife right now since I haven't decorated our home all cutesy for the holidays yet...but Jeremy just looked at me as if I am truly crazy when I asked him if he cares. He doesn't. Ha!

So, this year, I just might not do it.

I have been looking for ways of cutting back on "unnecessary" stressors, and honestly right now the thought of decorating my home stresses me out. So, I am not going to deal with it. Today is December 10th. Christmas is 15 days away. If I decide at some point in the next 14 days or so that I really NEED some Christmas decorations...perhaps I'll put some out.

But again, maybe not. ;)

Now, when we have children...I will definitely decorate. I wouldn't deprive my children of the fun of a home full of Christmas cheer just because I don't FEEL like decorating. But at this point in our lives? Meh, we're good. HA!

Ok...all of that being said...let's carry on with the rest of my December Daily project!

Day 4-December 4th, 2010.

(Continued from previous post)
On Saturday night, Jeremy and I went to Chili's for dinner (one of our "standards") and then home for a movie. We put in "Law Abiding Citizen"...and I only lasted about 30 minutes. It was kind of disturbing...and made me feel sick (maybe I'm just a big wimp ;)). So, Jeremy and Izzy watched the movie with out me....

Day 5-Sunday, December 5th

I went up to Peoria with Jillian to help her teach her final scrapbooking class at Scrapadoodle....well, her final class before baby McG makes his grand debut, anyway! She asked me to go up to help her out...so I did! It was a lot of fun. The project today was a canvas tote bag. It was really cute!
Here she is in all of her teaching glory :). She is a great teacher :).
Me and the teacher :).
Oh, you're such a fun, cute pregnant gal Jillian!

Sunday evening after we helped out at the high school youth group Sunday fellowship (Jeremy and I are youth leaders), we vegged out a bit at home and got ready for the week.

We watched SNL on our DVR from the night before...and "What's up with that?" one of our FAVORITE re-curring skits was on. HA!

Jeremy polished some of his work shoes while we watched...

...and I worked on writing messages in our Christmas cards!

Jeremy made a pretty darn creative Christmas card for us to send out this year (not to everyone...clearly these weren't cheap! He made cd's with some of our favorite non-traditional Christmas songs, along with custom designed labels and album insterts. Love his creativity!

My contribution was writing personal messages in each :).

Christmas cards!

Jeremy decided to give our little Izzy a tuna treat :). She goes NUTS!

Here she is, all stretched out and anxious to get her treat!

YUM! ;)

Day 6-Monday, December 6

So my therapy room at Easter Seals is SO COLD!

Jillian lent me her awesome space heater...truly amazing :).

View from my therapy room window...snowy Bloomington, IL.

One view of my cluttered, too-full therapy room...lots of toys and books!

One of my Monday kiddos putting together a Mickey Mouse puzzle while we worked on his speech targets...clearly for privacy reasons, I cannot take a picture of kiddos' faces!

A common sight of mine....Raintree! Raintree is our electronic documentation system at Easter Seals. Many an hour is spent documenting therapy and evaluations in this system.

Day 7-Tuesday, December 7th

After work, we had our friends Steve and Jamie over to watch Inception! Inception was just released on DVD today, so Jeremy went to Blockbuster right after work to rent it. He had suggested yesterday that we start a Tuesday-night movie night...

I am not sure if we will really keep it up EVERY Tuesday night, but it was a great first "movie night" and it was fun to have Steve and Jamie as our first guests!

We had fun visiting, eating snacks, and watching an awesome movie. Steve and Jamie hadn't seen it before...and they loved it!

Jeremy and I had seen it a few months prior in the theater...and couldn't wait to see it again.

Ahhhh...my latest issue of Runner's World!

Day 8-Wednesday, December 8

After a very busy day at work...I headed to my favorite salon in town, Girl Friday!

The lovely Colleen hooked me up with a cut and color that I love.

Here I am under the dryer :).

Here's the lovely Col :).

Day 9-Thursday, December 9

Tonight after work, Jeremy and I attended a retirement party for his father at Biaggi's, hosted by Ed and Sally Rust (the CEO of State Farm and his wife). It was an awesome dinner and a great time.

Day 10--Friday, December 10

Here's my very messy therapy room table...where I often camp out to work on various work projects. It was looking extra-cluttered today! We're under the gun at Easter Seals. Surveyors from CARF, our accreditation agency, are coming on Monday and Tuesday of next week so we have to ensure that each and every one of our t's are crossed and i's are dotted!

I had a busy morning consisting of two kids and one meeting...and then a work lunch at Herradura that I helped organize. It was nice to sit down and relax over some yummy food with some of my fun co-workers! Christina, Veronica, Jamie, Kathi, Gretchen, Kristin, and Kristin's adorable 2-year-old daughter Ellie joined me. It was a great time!

After lunch, I headed over to Girl Friday for the second time this week! I had made an appointment for a pedicure and shellac manicure...my friends Jamie and Jillian had given me a gift card for my birthday that I was all too excited to use! It was relaxing and awesome...

I wore skinny jeans (my new obsession)...and got the darn jeans stuck over my calves! I had rolled them up (no easy feat...those puppies are TIGHT!) for the pedicure and had quite a bit of difficulty getting them down! I felt like a freak show!

Both Nikki (the nail tech) and Colleen had to work at them with me to get them down! Here is Colleen...I snapped this picture right as she got my second pant leg down FINALLY! haha!!!

After the pampering, I went to teach a piano lesson :). It was the second lesson for my newest student and went very well. After the lesson, I went back to work where I worked on getting my documentation up to date.

Jeremy picked me up at 7 and we headed across town to one of our favorite dinner spots..Moe's! We each got some delicious vegetarian nachos (our favorite).

The Bulls game was on...so naturally Jeremy tended to stare at the nearest TV screen ;).

Neither of us ever eats all of our nachos...so we combine the leftovers at the end, and Jeremy gets to have the big pile of goo sometime later during the week :).