1) A belated birthday date with Bri. The first Friday of December, Bri took me out for my birthday. We went to a fancy Italian restaurant in Tampa where we filled our bellies with delicious apps and pasta. We ordered a side of Brussels sprouts and, I kid you not, I am still thinking about them today. They have to be one of the top-3 foods I’ve ever had. I’d go back to this restaurant in a heartbeat just for those Brussels sprouts. Anyway, Bri spoiled me way more than I deserved and I am so lucky to have someone like her in my life.
2) Making gingerbread houses with coworkers. I got together with three coworkers in mid-December to decorate gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! My friend who hosted has an adorable dog who was so friendly and just wanted us to pay attention to him all night. No problem there, bud! I haven’t seen any of these coworkers since March of 2020, and it was so, so nice to see them and hug them and talk IN PERSON.
3) My promotion. In mid-December, my VP set up a last-second meeting with me. I don’t know about you, but those last-second meetings are always anxiety-inducing. Am I getting fired??? The opposite, in fact! She wanted to let me know that she was promoting me to content team manager in January. !!! This was something we had talked about at length, specifically at my review in January 2021. Over the course of 2021, she had given me lots of management-like tasks to help me hone my skills and explore that side of things. I have loved (and excelled in, if I do say so myself) those tasks, so it was truly an exciting conversation to have. I’m really looking forward to this new role and all it will entail (like no more writing!!!).
4) A sweet package from Kim. You guys, I can’t even tell you how much this Christmas package from Kim meant to me. She spoiled me! She sent me the softest cat blanket, a pair of adorable cat earrings, Christmas dish towels and a sweet toy for the cats that they just loved. But the sweetest present, the one that made me all teary, was this beautiful painting of Eloise and Lila. Look at my babies! I was particularly impressed with how she got Lila’s calico markings just perfect as well as Ellie’s. She even got Ellie’s little patch of white between her eyes and her uneven white feet markings. I have it displayed on a floating shelf in my dining room, and it makes me smile every time I see it. (The painting is by Sunrise Stone Art!)
5) A Christmas brunch. The week before Christmas, I got together with some friends to have a Christmas brunch followed by a Blind Date with a Book exchange and a Christmas movie. It was so much fun! The brunch was delicious and I was really happy with the book I “blindly” picked (it was Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger!) And then we watched Home Alone. While that’s not my favorite Christmas movie ever, it was super enjoyable, mostly because Kevin reminded me so much of my younger nephew!
6) Annual Christmas cookie decorating night. Our annual Christmas cookie decorating night took place on December 23rd (we usually do it much earlier in the month, but we had scheduling difficulties). My brother and nephews came over and we had such a fun time cutting out the shapes and frosting the cookies. My younger nephew was adorable, too, saying things like “I tried my best on this one!” and using up all of the sprinkles on one cookie. He’s six, so he’s still getting the hang of cookie decorating!
7) Christmas Eve dinner. Going out for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner is a new-ish tradition (this was our fifth year doing it!) This year, we went to Bern’s, which is a Tampa establishment, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I always love getting dressed up and having a super delicious meal with my mom and stepdad. Bern’s has a special dessert room (yes, a dessert room) and of course we had to finish off the night with something sweet. My mom and I shared a seven-layer chocolate cake that was to die for.
8) Christmas! I had a lovely Christmas Day with my family. I slept in, lazily got ready, and headed over to my mom’s around 11:30. I played with the dogs while waiting for my brother and his family to arrive and gave them one of their presents, which they promptly set about destroying. Of course! My brother, sister-in-law, and nephews arrived around 1 and we ate a delicious meal that was mostly cooked by my stepdad. He did a great job! Then, we opened presents and afterward, my younger nephew asked if we could get Lucy out to play with. (We always put the dogs away when my younger nephew is over, as he’s timid around dogs.) She’s 1000x more relaxed than Chip and is so, so, so sweet around my nephew. He will even tug on her ears, play with her feet, or touch her snout and she won’t do anything! She doesn’t bark or growl or do anything that would scare him. It’s like she knows he’s not completely comfortable with dogs and alters her behavior to suit him. Anyway, we all headed home around 4:30 and it was a very successful Christmas, if I do say so myself.
9) A week off. My last day of work for the year was December 22nd. It was so amazing to have 11 days off work, and I was really proud of myself for not turning on my work computer once during my time off. A part of me felt guilty for that, but a larger part of me felt very silly for feeling guilty. I have earned this time off! I am not obligated to work! Argh. (Work/life balance was never an issue for me until I started working from home full-time!) Anyway, I used my week+ off to reorganize my kitchen (I pulled everything out of the cabinets!), have a fun day date with friends, meet up with a friend for a coffee date, and take looooots of naps. It was the perfect mix of relaxation, friend time, and productivity.
10) New Year’s Eve. I spent NYE at home for the first time in quite a few years. At one point, I looked at myself in the mirror and had to laugh because I looked like a hot mess. Sweatpants, big t-shirt, hair in a messy bun… I was the epitome of I Give No Shits About NYE this year. I spent the night reading, working on blog posts, and watching episodes of Brooklyn 99. I was snuggled in bed with the cats when I looked at my phone and saw that it was 12:20am—I hadn’t even rung in the new year properly! Ah, well. I said “Happy New Year” to my girls and that was that.
Tell me one good thing that happened to you in December!
December was a rockin’ month for you! Congrats on your promotion.
My December highlight was getting to spend so much time with our extended family. We didn’t do in person gatherings last year and this year we went All In on the family parties.
December, December. When was December.
Oh yeah! I mean, I love December so there were lots of Christmassy things that happened but my favourite thing was that my husband booked a night away, just the two of us. It was lovely AND our boys proved they can be home alone overnight. They looked after the dog so well and were generally responsible.
Your December looks lovely!
What a great way to celebrate a fun month! That painting of your girls is so amazing! It’s nice when an artist gets all the details just right.
I know the feeling of the anxiety from an unexpected, sudden meeting with your boss. I have PTSD from a bad experience with a boss back in 2010 and I have never been able to shake that feeling. My boss wanted to set up a last minute meeting this fall and I freaked out, even though I know I have nothing to worry about at work. Anxiety is weird!!
December. Ugh. It wasn’t my favorite month. There was so much sickness and doctor appointments and terrible sleep (which sadly has continued – Will came down w/a fever last night so we ended up back at the doctor today. It’s unrelated to his ears so probably some other virus? Who knows). But back to December, the high was celebrating Christmas Eve with some of Phil’s extended family. In hindsight, we have said that it was probably not the wisest decision with Covid spreading, but everyone was vaxxed and most were boosted. But getting covid would be so horrible for us because of the daycare quarantine. But it all worked out and hopefully by next year our kids will be vaxxed so we won’t have to worry so much about going to a family event like that?
Ah, I love December! Such a fun month. Congratulations on your promotion! Let’s see… my December had a lot of highs- my son coming home from college, daughter’s band concert, general Christmas festivities- and one big low, getting sick. But overall it was good! I can’t really complain about a month that had delicious food, beautiful decorations, and lots of presents.
Your December sounds really lovely. Lots of good times with family and (kind) friends! <3
And congrats on your promotion! I have to ask, is this something you consciously pushed for or is that something your supervisor suggested/presented? I am so bad asking for more responsibilities to get a promotion (and it seems so hard in my office, because they sometimes "move the goal post", so to speak. I am happily do everything I am asked to do, but I am so bad at self-promoting my skills. Ugh, any advice?
Your birthday date sounds so fun! How did they make the brussels sprouts? We had some on our Dec vacation that we loved so much!
OMG congrats on the promotion and manager role! You are going to kick butt at that!!! Gah, I am so late to the party. Sorry. I kind of forgot to read blogs. 🙁
So I feel like a JERK that I have not seen the special shoutout you gave me! Thank you! It made me feel so good to see it today! I am so glad you love your gifts, and the painting. I just adore Sunrise Stone Art’s work!
My family used to have cookie dates like those and they are so so fun, especially with littles there! My sister wanted to do it this year but it didn’t work, maybe next year.
Your special dinner, and xmas, and week off, and NYE sound perfect! What a great way to wrap up the year!
One good thing that happened to us in Dec was we went on a fun road trip!
Your December was awesome! The celebrations are what stand out – birthday, Christmas, New Year’s (yes, I count that, because you were celebrating as YOU, not as someone else’s idea of what you should be like on NYE… I was right there with you [but asleep much earlier, LOL]).
CONGRATULATIONS (belatedly, of course) on your promotion. I suspect your team is happy, too! You seem like you would be a great team leader. Cannot wait to see what 2022 brings for you!