This week was fantastic.  Tons of fun with friends, family, and obviously too much food.  [The breakdown]

Monday a group of friends got together for dinner in West Valley.  It was one year to the day that our sweet friend Natasha passed away.  It was great to visit with some friends that I don’t see very often, and wonderful to see Natasha’s dad, her older sister, and her nephew.  We ate at her favorite restaurant.

Tuesday was a real Christmas Miracle!  While at work, around noon the POWER WENT OUT and we were told it wouldn’t be back up until 6 pm.  No power = no way for this computer nerd to get her work done.  So…my boss sent me home.  Since I graduated from college, I haven’t had a day off from work in the middle of the week that wasn’t a holiday!  [Or that I wasn’t on a vacation or getting a giant lump cut out of my back.]  So, I didn’t go home.  I got all my Christmas shopping done.  In two hours.  First of all…I finally realized what I have been missing!  How have I never been to Target at 2:00 pm?!  It’s like a ghost town compared to a Saturday morning.  So I completed all of my Christmas shopping and wrapped all of the gifts before Zach got home from work.  This included finishing all of my custom chalkboards.

I had a co-worker cut 16 different shapes for chalkboards out of a couple of MDF boards for me a few days ago.  I got them all painted and the ribbon, rope, and fabric all cut and tied for the hanging ones.

I plan to give them as gifts at a Friend Christmas party, I’m excited they turned out!

For the past few weeks, I have been helping my sister-in-law with her new spa branding.  We’ve created a new spa menu, new business cards, and even custom packaging for her product.  It’s been so fun to see how everything has evolved, and I finally got to pick up the product this week!  So exciting.  Do you want to know what the best part of being a designer is?  Seeing something you create in your mind come to life.

Thursday night was our Henderson night out.  We went and had some delicious Italian food and went to a movie at the Gateway.  We saw Playing for Keeps.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Who can complain about Gerard Butler…?

My sweet mother-in-law also gave us all this portrait for an early Christmas present.  She has the same one in her home and I have been admiring it for a few years now.  It’s my favorite Christmas painting of all time.  Ironically, I have been asking about this painting at several different Seagull Book locations, and they were all sold out.  Then Thursday, after our movie, she gave us all a box.  When I got home and opened it, I couldn’t help but get teary eyed.  What is sweeter than the Savior at Christmas time?

Friday we had our date night.  We decided to go to Tsunami for some sushi and then catch a dollar movie in Sugar House.  We saw Pitch Perfect.  I must admit, we waited for it to go to the Dollar Theater before seeing it, because we were afraid that it would be super cheesy.  (In my mind I was picturing a “Bring it On” type of flick, I don’t know why.)  It was SO good.  We both enjoyed it, and totally worth the $4 wait!  Also, thanks to my sister-in-law, Zach and I signed up for the Cinemark coupons every week.  Basically you get a new coupon every weekend – either a free popcorn or free drinks, but with as many movies as we go to, it has already saved us some serious cash!  This is what free popcorn looks like to Zach…

Pure joy.

Speaking of Zach…this year I decided to do the 12 Days of Christmas for my husband.  I have been a pretty horrible wife the past few weeks.  Work has been stressful and I have been putting in some extra hours – this always means “on your own” dinners for Zach.  He’s had a lot of fast food and Ramen the past few days.  I know it doesn’t make up for the lost time and lost meals, but this was something I wanted to do for him to show him that I cared about him, even during the hectic holiday season.  It’s the 12 Days, Zach style – with some of his favorite things.  Days 1 – 3 happened this week, my favorite being days 2 & 3.  Day 2 is [two turtle doves] to which I gave him two Dove Body wash bottles so he “doesn’t smell like a turtle” and Day 3 [three French hens] was a KFC gift card.  Zach loves KFC.

Saturday was so much fun.  Zach and I have been slightly obsessed with two things lately:  trying the Olive Garden’s dinner for two deal, and eating a Doritos Locos Tacos from Taco Bell.  Both commercials have been tempting us for weeks, so after our grocery shopping extravaganza at Walmart we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell.  I hate Taco Bell.  I guess I’m a Taco Time girl or something, because I haven’t set foot in a Taco Bell establishment since my Junior year of High School.  But I wanted a Doritos Locos Taco – even when I saw the man in front of us order his gordita in his pajama pants, I still didn’t turn back.  Call it good marketing, but those commercials made it look amazing.  We both ordered one.  We both conquered one.

I have to say, it was pretty good.  My mouth really enjoyed the taco – my stomach, however…didn’t love it 30 minutes later on our drive to Fashion Place Mall.  I will save you those details though.  We spent the rest of the day battling the hordes of people at FP Mall.  We started at North Face, both picked out a new coat and realized we had actually picked out the SAME identical coat and size.  So we bought one of the coats and decided to share.  Sometimes it pays to be the same size as your husband.  Depressing, yes – economical, you bet!

We ended the hectic day at Hot Dog on a Stick.  Zach got some cheese sticks and talked about them the whole way home.

Sunday after church we spent the evening at our friends’/neighbors’ house for the 49er football game.  Good food, good conversation, and a victory for the Niners!

I also got to spend a brief cuddle moment with this guy, Nash – his partner in crime [Crew] had already gone ni-night.  So much fun with two cute families that we love!