Happy Holidays!

Well I hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you may be celebrating this season.  I have been such a bad blogger the last several weeks.  Between learning my new job (which has been keeping me so pre-occupied) and my new project of fixing up the house (there isn't a much better motivator than 6 house guests!) I have had time for little else these days.  However, I have been making great progress on both aforementioned endeavors (at least I am quite pleased with my progress) I decided I better a least leave a little post with a bit of an update.As I mentioned I have been working on fixing up the house--of course I am not taking on any major projects (too much $$) but I have been doing little things to really pull everything together (once I am done with it I will post my before and after pictures, which should be in the next few weeks).  When Garrett and I moved in together we had only planned to stay in our current home 2 years or so, but after the real estate bubble popped, moving just didn't seem like the prudent financial decision for us.  So even though I think buying a new home now could be a great investment--I think our current home should appreciate a bit and it gives us time to put more money into savings (since buying a new home would mean a high mortgage payment).  I really hope that the economy is one the mend and that the real estate market should start trending up--but I digress.  Given that we plan to stay here for a while at least, I decided to put a little money into fixing up the place.  We are still missing furniture in some rooms (like a coffee table) but I added curtains and new bedding and throw pillows to a few of the rooms--and it really pulled things together.  It seriously looks so much better.  Although I have made way too many trips to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond (now affectionately known in our household as BBB) to purchase and return things. Thankfully, I get to take a break on that during the holidays.Christmas was great for us this year (although I am so sad it is over--I have been listening to Christmas carols the past two days trying to savor every last bit--just like when I eat Menchies frozen yogurt or cotton candy).  Garrett bought me a new Samsung digital camera that I love and am excited to start posting more pictures (my old camera died about 2 years ago and I hadn't bothered to get a new one since I kept using the digital SLR--which is great but too big to go in a handbag).  He also made some pictures on canvas photos that I am anxious to put up in my newly redecorated house.  I ended up getting him a new lens for his camera, some clothes, cuff links, and perfume (Bond no9 of course--as both of us our obsessed with it).  We had lots of visitors, ate tons of food, had great conversations, played several games of Mexican train dominoes, and had a good time.After Christmas I had one big day of shopping.  I did pretty well in not buying much for myself during the Christmas shopping (except the blue flowered shirt I am wearing in the picture with my sister--but that was only $10 on clearance at Target so it hardly counts), but on the day after Christmas I got up early at 7am (which was actually quite a feat since I had been up until 3am the night previous playing board games with my cousins and family) to hit the after Christmas sales.  Mostly I intended to look for ornaments, gift wrap, etc since most of it is usually 50% off and sure beats buying new stuff next year....however the only place I ended up buying stuff was Banana Republic since they had SO MUCH stuff on sale--and here is the kicker--everything was 50% off the sale price before noon (yay for getting up early!).  Maybe I will make a new post with a bunch of pictures of my new clothes....but I bought several sweaters (around $18 each, marked down for $60), a cute one shoulder dress for $45, and two button down non-iron tops for $15.  I was so proud of all my great finds (and thankfully I happened to be at the mall, in the future I think I really need to figure out how to hear about these amazing deals in advance!).Tonight I spend most of the night moving my closet from wooden and metal hangers to these new velvet hangers that are *so* much better--the clothes really don't slip off and they take up so much less space than the wooden alternatives.  Now I am just finishing up some work before the week starts, and of course posting my random little update. :)And finally, I watched the movie Julie and Julia and it really made me think about blogging.  I love her approach of taking on challenge and then following through with it (although to be honest I found Julie pouty and mostly just enjoyed the Julia portion of the movie), I also think it makes me realize that my blog is too random and I need to somehow find a purpose, topic, or theme to fit all of my interests and comments into that vein.  Any suggestions?  I am thinking about it and hope to come up with something good soon.