Whew! Christmas!

I feel like I am always catching up! Rather than go through the list of things that I've accomplished since last time I'll just highlight a few of my favorites.

One was to get all dressed up and go out for a "night on the town" with Brad. This is not one that I planned. Brad and I went to Chicago for our second anniversary. We each took a day to plan, but it had to be a secret--something we thought the other person would really enjoy, but we've never done together before. Brad bought us tickets to see the Joffrey Ballet's The Nutcracker. Then, we had dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building. In the morning, we went shopping for a dress and shoes for me to wear--his anniversary present to me. We had so much fun getting all dressed up and going to the ballet. Our table at the restaurant was great, too. We sat by a window so we could see all of Chicago--it was a perfectly clear night. We really had a great time. Not only did this one count for going out, but it is a tourist attraction in the city that I have never done before--two birds with one stone!

That weekend we also went to a couple other restaurants that I had never been to, including a Thai restaurant that was really good.

The weeks before Christmas I was a baking fool! I baked about five different types of cookies to put together plates to give to our neighbors for Christmas. The Sunday before Christmas, Brad and I walked around our neighborhood going to our neighbors' houses and passing out the cookies. We had so much fun meeting everyone and sharing our cookies with them! This is definitely something that I want to turn in to a tradition! I also used some of the cookies for the cookie exchange that I hosted with my small group girls. We had so much fun sampling each other's cookies and just talking. This is also something that I want to do again!

I'm getting really close to finishing my 50 books! I stopped reading for a while because of the busyness of work and everything, but I've picked it back up recently and I have quite a few good books in my pile! I can't wait to finish them all!