There's nothing like the morning after a three day holiday weekend to jolt you back to reality. 6:30 this morning may as well have been 3 AM, as alert as I felt. I'm pretty sure I didn't actually wake up until about halfway through my run, which was luckily on the treadmill this morning -- I swear one of these mornings I'm going to open my eyes and find myself miles away from home. My only consolation this morning is that while it felt like a Monday, it is, of course, Tuesday, and the beginning to a four day week followed by another three day weekend... I could get used to this.
Our weekend consisted of one wonderful date night, two days of pure and utter chaos, and one of incredible laziness that just barely made up for all the sleep previously lost. Santa found our house (thankfully... we have no chimney) and brought me a lovely new laptop, a beautiful snowflake necklace, a gorgeous KitchenAid mixer, and lots of other nice things. I am very lucky to have married such a great shopper who takes Christmas very seriously, from the diamonds down to the chocolate in my stocking.
Somehow all of the baking got done, some just minutes before it was to be served/gifted. We handed out 16 tin cans of these yummy cookies:
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| [via, because my pics are all still on my camera] |
They were a huge hit and looked super cute thanks to this wonderful printable label. The downside of this little project is that there are currently 6 enormous containers of fruit cocktail, canned peaches, and mandarin oranges from those tin cans in our fridge. We will be eating (un-)canned fruit until at least St. Patrick's Day...
I also baked brownies and made Santa hats like these:
... that of course weren't nearly so cute, but basically got the point across. Finally, I whipped up oreo balls dipped in chocolate and marbled cheesecake bites. My poor kitchen will never be the same: it looks like we had a small snowstorm of crushed candy cane bits, drizzled chocolate, and graham cracker crumbs.
The real adventure of the weekend, however, was our foray into veterinary care. My stepmom headed up to New York to be with her family for the holiday, and we volunteered to care for the pets over the weekends that she is gone (luckily there is a housesitter there during the week). This task is complicated by the fact that one cat is diabetic and needs insulin shots twice a day, and that currently all five cats (Yes, five. No, she's not a crazy cat lady. They're all very sweet and impeccably clean.) are being treated for some virus that requires two doses of a thick pink liquid each day (think pepto bismol but chunkier). If you have a cat, you can relate to the fact that trying to get liquid down such an animals throat is roughly as easy as scratching your ear with your little toe... and probably as painful. These cats certainly aren't dumb, so catching them got increasingly more difficult as the weekend wore on and typically involved shutting doors behind us to trap them in, launching ourselves under beds and between recliners, and holding on for dear life once we got a handful of fur. We started wrapping them in a towel upon capture to avoid minimize the claw marks we sported across our hands, arms, and faces. Then I would gingerly place my entire body weight on top of the cat while Dan gently attempted to pry open their mouth and stick the syringe down their throat while navigating the rough terrain of sharp teeth. It was nothing short of a miracle when we were able to check off all five cats for a dose, and I swear I have never felt so proud of anything before in my life. Dan and I will be resting up this week in preparation for another three days of this next weekend... all I can hope is that my stepmom will come home to five healthy cats and a daughter and son-in-law who are still alive.
For now, my goal is to get through this week with minimal stress, maximum sleep, and a little bit of pre-planning for what is shaping up to be a fun New Year's Eve. I am also hoping to catch up on the gazillion blog posts I have neglected to read over the last month or so... I am looking forward to finding out what my favorite bloggers are up to lately!
Hope that you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and that the transition back to the office (if you had to make it today), has not been too painful. Only three and a half more days until the weekend!
Love,
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