Sunday, December 11, 2011

Ringing in Christmas

Wow! I decided to fully celebrate the Christmas Season this year and not let day-to-day work get in the way. I'm off to a good start and hope that the festivities continue!

The past week has been a whirlwind of travel, parties, networking events, work, Christmas concerts and catching up with some friends.

First, I spent last week in New Jersey visiting my sister and family and watching her perform with her husband and some of the kids in an interfaith Christmas Concert.


I got to spend some quality time with the three youngest who went from dark velvets to winter white as they changed over from their church attired into their performance attire. They looked like little angels, but they actually played the parts of little lambs...though I neglected to get a picture of them with their hats.



It was a great concert and my sister got to sing a solo along with the choir. It sounded beautiful!

Before the performance


On Monday I had to return home to continue out the work week since we've got a ton of initiatives and projects in the final stages of completion.

Tuesday was a ward choir Christmas Party which was a great way to get to know a few more people in our congregation. I'm grateful to be getting to know people better. When you don't have kids and have a day job, it is tough to get to know people since play groups, mother excursion and the like aren't part of my life.

Wednesday we went to a networking event and had a great dinner with people we had never met, but got to learn a lot about. The first few minutes are always a bit shallow, but then people start talking and you find out you share the table with rocket scientists, famous (but, private) engineers, and big shots that like to remain anonymous. Soooo different from the likes of Hollywood, and a bit intimidating.

Thursday was work day and laundry day. Am I the only person who enjoys doing laundry on Thursday night? I feel more prepared for the weekend if I get a head start.

Friday was staying at home and work, work, work day...with a few walks in the nice weather.

Saturday was FULL!



We started off the day de-junking. The clothes that occupied these hangers are now sitting in a Goodwill bin. Yep, half a closet gone. Now our clothing fits neatly into our closets. It is such a relief to get rid of things. I find that half the battle is mental. When we finally let go of the "stuff," it is amazing how one day later it isn't missed and the existence is forgotten.

The closest Goodwill happens to be about 15 miles from here (can you believe it? - so far for such a populated area) and so we had some Peruvian chicken at a hole in the wall for lunch and then I remembered that I had a friend in town! Totally forgot, but just in time.

I got to spend a few minutes with my high school friend while she was in town for a local arts and crafts festival.


She designs and creates wooden flowers and vases. Very beautiful - http://www.dmwoodart.com/.

Afterwards, I took a jaunt down to DC and to Georgetown University where one of my office co-workers was participating in her dance troup concert. Belly dancing! Of all things! I think I'm the only person that was there specifically for her and so I'm glad that I went.


I've taken a couple of belly dancing classes from her at work as another form of exercise. It gave me a greater appreciation for how much work some of those seemingly basic moves are - a little harder than hula it seems. There were women from 20 to 75 years old of all shapes and sizes and races. Many took this class as a confidence building activity and it showed. They got quite the applause throughout the concert.

This evening we went to the Washington LDS Temple Festival of Lights to see the temple, the lights and Jennie Oakes Baker perform on the violin. She was recently nominated for a Grammy and so we figured it would be harder to see her now that she has reached a bit more fame.








As luck would have it, we ran into one of my cousins who is out here going to graduate school and so it was a nice little reunion. Ok, we saw her a couple of weeks ago, but still it was fun.

I'm invigorated by the festivities of this week, but know that going into a second week of parties, choir practices and networking events will be a little harder. Yet, that is what the next week holds.

The good thing is that no time has been spent shopping - except for toothpaste and food - and I am feeling like I'm focused on the right things this season.

Family and friends are dominating my time and that is the way that I want it. I haven't been too good about that in the past.

As a side note, I'm making a wall Christmas tree with cards, concert programs and family pictures that I get in the mail. Should be fun to see it take shape over the next few weeks. Right now it is a bit lacking, but it will grow.



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