Just. Breathe.

I wrote a different post and it bored me so much, I decided to start over. Have you guys found this yet? It's called Birchbox and it's a monthly subscription to happiness! Okay, that may be overselling it a little. But it's a subscription to at least a smile or two! Each month this box arrives, usually inside of a PINK box -- so you immediately know you're getting free stuff! The suspense builds... ...until you finally see the goodies inside! This was November's box, and I'm telling you that the tube of blue face cream is miraculous! Basically, they're trial sizes of (mostly) high-end products. [I say mostly because my first box had a new formulation of Chapstick in it!] The tiny tube here is CC cream, which I've been wanting to try, and now I make bargains with myself about when I can use it -- it's a tiny tube, after all, and I don't want to waste it! I took this hairspray on a recent trip, and it passes the airport check.

We're not discussing how it's been two months since my last confession .post.  Instead, let's see what Christmas looks like this year! First, there was this a couple of weeks ago: That's solid ice, people, NOT snow. Even the dogs couldn't walk on it. That was followed by this: ... in which I dress up like a man and proceed to hack at the ice like it's my job. I really wanted to get out the blow dryer, but sanity (aka, the husband) prevailed. Moving the party indoors, I took a day and did this: Holiday baking, otherwise known as "cheap gift giving for a million people." Snickerdoodle, chocolate chip, and molasses cookies, and chocolate covered pretzel sticks. There was banana bread at one point during the ice storm, but you can't prove it now.  In the midst of all this, I changed jobs for the first time in nine years, and had about 3 days to finish all things Christmas before jetting off to Chicago for a couple of days, whe