Nothing says 'Christmas' like faux fur and red streaks!

I love the holidays. They are hard, but I love them. My family has changed so much over the past 5 years, but change is good. Christmas 2011 is when I found out my dad's cancer was not curable. And last week I was told by my step-mom that there is another tumor on my dad's brain. It was unbelievable shock to hear that when she called me because I thought she was calling to finalize Christmas plans. However, the surgery is a good thing because that means we finally know what is causing my father to have so many seizures. The tumor will be gone and my dad will go back to normal.... well as normal as he can be. Thank God for wonderful advances in cancer medication and for the amazing team of doctor's at Duke Medical that take such wonderful care of him.

I went to the doctor on Monday for my B12 injection and I lost 2.5 pounds last week! I am down 16.1 pounds total in the past 28 days!

My Christmas break started Monday at 4:30 PM. I hit the gym for cardio and a weight circuit. As I was leaving, I could not help but snap a picture of the beautiful sunset we had. It rained and rained all day, so the beautiful sunset was welcome!

I then came home to two wonderful packages. I buy ALL of my tops and dresses from Venus and I ordered this amazing new faux fur sweatshirt, I thought it looked perfect for the holidays. I love it!

Christmas Eve morning I woke up early and hit the gym for 45 minutes of cardio. I had to do preventative damage control because my step mom was making my favorite Christmas snack; sausage balls. After I came back to get ready and drive up north to my hometown. 

Oh and I got my red steaks touched up, they are so fabulous!

When I arrived in my hometown, my first stop was to see my best friend Anna and her adorable daughter, Alaina. She is unbelievably adorable and never cries. 

After I left Anna's, it was finally time to go stay with my dad and step-mom, and victory was mine. I finally indulged in my sausage balls!

My sister and her boyfriend were also there with us and we stayed up so late talking and laughing. I had such a great time. I only got 5 hours of sleep!

I loved their beautiful tree!

Christmas morning I was up at 7 AM. It was time to leave my dads and go to my mom's so we could go to my Papa's for our annual Christmas breakfast. I am 24 years old and I have never missed a Christmas breakfast at my Papa's!

My step dad and brothers at Papa's breakfast!

My brother and my nephew at Papa's

Papa handing out gifts!

My step-grandmother Dixie makes this sausage, cheese, and egg casserole each year and I swear it's laced with crack, it is so delicious. I ate way too much of it. 

After breakfast at Papa's, I went to my mom's for the day. Since I only had 5 hours of sleep at my dads and I had a carb overload from breakfast, I napped for a long time at her house. When I woke up, my brother, sister-in-law and nephew came over for Christmas lunch and exchanged gifts.

My mom made her famous mexican dip for lunch, it. is. amazing.

Around 3PM it was time for me to take off for Charlotte. I missed my cat and I wanted to get the drive over with so I would not have to make it today. 

I got back to Charlotte around 6 PM and was lazy for the rest of the night watching my new favorite show, "Total Diva's". I can definitely tell I ate way too much because I went to bed at 9:30 PM and did not get up today until 9:30 AM. I never sleep 12 hours, but after a lot of food and driving, I could not get enough of it.

I was so happy to be off today. I took full advantage of it by getting ahead on cleaning and putting up my Christmas goodies. I also managed to get in a killer leg work out. It felt great to be back in my health grind - clean eating and hard work out's. 

Marty and I were happy to relax once I finished all of that.

I am back at work tomorrow, but at least it is only one day! I have a jam packed weekend ahead and New Year's. My sister is staying with me this weekend and my mom will be staying with me next week! It looks like this new year will be coming in great!

Twas the week before Christmas and it's been nonstop!

Hello my loves! How is everyone doing this week? My week has been fantastic but nonstop. But now that I think of it, when is it ever? It is a good thing I am a naturally hyper person, otherwise I would not be able to keep up. I am stoked the Friday is almost here and that it will be another two weeks before I have a full work week again. Christmas and New Years will be here in the blink of an eye so that is wonderful and I am getting my hair done tonight - touching up my roots and getting the red streaks re-added. Ah! I am so happy, lots of awesome things going on!

I bought a new table last week. I found it on Craigslist for $60. I then found two chairs on Amazon for $43 plus free two-day shipping with my Amazon prime. To complete my dining room, I needed to find the perfect centerpieces which I showed you guys on Sunday from the weekend blog entry. That totaled only $25. My chairs unfortunately arrived late so I did not receive them until Monday (it was supposed to be Friday) thankfully, I have an amazing boss who put them together for me! It was hilarious seeing the president of my company in a suit and tie putting together dining room chairs in his office. 

Since I am a diva on a budget, I am excited to say my dining room is finally complete and I only spent $128.00 on all of my dining attire!

I go to my wellness clinic on Monday's to receive my B12 injection. Since I have been back on track 100% with health and fitness and just overall trying to improve myself from a rough year, I have them weigh me. I lost 3.5 pounds last week! My total pounds down in the last 21 days= 14.1! How amazing. I am so excited! I cannot wait to keep going. I feel so damn good. I feel better about myself than I have in a long, long time.

I know my muscle is looking semi pathetic, but I have lost a lot of fat in them. My arms are a big trouble spot for me, along with my lower stomach, so seeing this progress means a lot!

My company had our holiday luncheon and 2014 benefits meeting yesterday. Since I am the Office mom, I mean manager, I had to order the food, set up everything, and then clean it all. Our company has 50 employees and cleaning up after Hurricane "Holiday lunch" was absolutely exhausting. Thankfully it went smoothly, we had a lot of fun, everyone brought delicious holiday desserts (that I did NOT partake in), and our company is growing. I was proud of my decor!

We had a local italian company cater pizza for our luncheon today and everyone brought a holiday dessert. I normally let myself have two "cheat meals" a week so I decided to make yesterday one of them. Usually my "cheat meals" are like a steak and bleu salad from Panera or a grilled chicken panini - nothing too heavy or crazy. However, I love pizza and I hear good things about this company so I decided to go for it. I had two slices of mushroom and cheese pizza and I. was. miserable. I do not eat a lot of carbohydrates. I certainly do not deprive myself, but I just do not want to eat them. After I ate, I was literally falling asleep. I absolutely hated the way I felt. My body is clean of the grease and toxins now, so I just felt crappy after. Most days I have a vegetarian meat substitute (such as GardenIn products) for lunch and a side of vegetables. I feel extremely energetic after, I never crash or get fatigued, but I did today. Luckily, I was so miserable after that I did not partake in the desserts. I will save my treats for my mother's amazing treats on Christmas! Before this was never me. And seeing these changes are absolutely incredible.

Last weekend I decided to get groceries at Target since I was there getting a lot of other things anyway. I was so surprised, the prices are fantastic and they had a lot of items that I was not familiar with. One of them being a flat bread with brie and balsamic vinegar. Holy mother of tastebuds, it was the most delicious flat I have ever eaten! Half of it is only 350 calories and it goes perfect with a side salad. If you have a Target near you, go try it ASAP! 

That is all I have for now!

Happy... WHATEVER DOESN'T OFFEND YOU!

I am the Office Manager and President's assistant.

He assigns me tasks to complete on a daily basis. Some of them are typical and administration related and some of them are "unique" and interesting. 

Last week I was told to purchase 60 "holiday" cards for our employees.

Fun, right? And easy enough I thought.

I go to WalMart (gag) because I had other supplies to get for the office and I picked up "holiday cards". They had "Christmas-y" pictures on them; you know like a Christmas tree, Santa, things like that, but nowhere on the box did it state that the inside of the card read "Merry Christmas". I thought they would be safe enough.

Nope.

Some read "Merry Christmas" and some read "Happy Holidays".

I go back to WalMart, wait in line for 46 hours to return the cards, and proceed to go find another two boxes of "holiday" cards.

One box includes 32 cards, I bought two. One box has a picture that reads "Season's Greetings" and another box reads "Happy Holidays". Great.

Nope.

I open them to begin working on them and they are assorted. Some say "Merry Christmas", so say "Happy Holidays", and some say "Season's Greetings". Unfortunately, majority of them say "Merry Christmas" so I have go return them.

For a second time.

Who would have ever thought buying freakin' "holiday" cards would be so hard!

SO then I hold the staff meeting to draw for "Secret Santa". 

We all write our name, three gift ideas, fold the paper, and put it in a bowl to be drawn.

First round, I was the last person to pick a paper and guess what?

I drew myself.

Awesome.

Everyone puts their papers back in the bowl to go again.

I picked my paper last again.

Guess what? I drew myself.

For the second time.

I can't.

Finally, the third go round, I drew someone else.

I am officially over this holiday mess.

All I can do is LOL. Story of my life, friends. You would think I am making this up, but with God as my witness, I'm not. 

PS: Join me over Kristen's blog for "Tell All Tuesday's" - a weekly link up and yours truly is the co-host this week!