We had a good, but crazy busy weekend. It started Friday with me finally starting a super-secret present, which I have to do at a super-secret location. This is one present that a week ago I didn't know if I'd be able to pull off, but one that I knew I had too. The recipient rarely reads my blog, but you never know, so I have to be vague. It felt great to get going on it and hopefully it will done in the next couple of days.
David came home on the early side, well early for him, and we went out and bought our tree. This is the third year we've gone to the Shriner's on 84th. They are the nicest guys and it's kind of become our tradition. We bought a beautiful tree! The little people were so excited to decorate. In true Denise fashion, my lights didn't work, but luckily this year I discovered this before I got them on the tree. Last year, the lights worked, but once I got them up half of them stopped working. It was not a pleasant situation... After my discovery David ran to Target and bought a bunch of new lights. Our tree is definitely a kid tree, with most of the decorations on the bottom half! I need to do a little re-arranging, or maybe I'll just leave it.
Saturday I finished up my last custom pet portrait order, and worked on decorating the rest of the house. I think I'm about done. The day went by so quickly that before we knew it, it was time to get ready for David's office Christmas party. The kids were spending the night at Besta's and she said to bring them over before we got dressed, but we totally ran out of time and had to drop them off on our way downtown. We went to a little pre-party which was held in one of the apartment buildings across the street from Durham. The view of the Old Market and all of the holiday lights was amazing. The party was at the Durham, it was beautiful and fun to see the huge Christmas tree they have. David works with so many great people, and in the 2 1/2 years we've lived here we've quickly become good friends with many of them. That makes those events so much more enjoyable.
Sunday morning we went to Besta's for breakfast and after hurriedly came home to make crab dip for our neighborhood party and get ready to attend a holiday concert with my mom and a group of her good friends. I dashed out the door, picked her up and we headed to the Holland. The concert was amazing. I really enjoyed it. After the concert my mom's friend's son and his partner hosted a little party for all of us in a condo at the Brandeis building. The condo was so cool! I couldn't stay for longer than a glass of wine, because we had our neighborhood party, but was so glad I got to spend some time there. I dashed home, we dropped off the kids at the house that hosted the babysitters, and we headed to the second house (we missed the first house because of the concert). It was fun to see the neighbors we knew and meet a lot of new ones. Really, really great people. Whew. We came home and collapsed. I'm having a hard time getting anything accomplished today and this cold weather really isn't helping. And now the boys will home in less than an hour. Hopefully after this slow day, my batteries will be re-charged and tomorrow I'll get a lot more stuff crossed off my list. Like the 10 calendars I need to make for family and friends, the teachers' gifts, the remaining gifts I need to purchase, getting my house clean before my mother-in-law arrives, a little more baking, and finishing my super-secret present. Diet coke, anyone?