How I spent my winter break

I WISH!  But…maybe not…because then I would have missed out on…

• last minute Christmas shopping
• taking my parents with me to Chicago to retrieve my son
• playing enough Hand & Foot with my girls to completely wear out two decks of cards!
• chit-chat with girlfriends at much-over-due-lunches
• watching chick flicks with my girls
• too much baking/cooking…eating!   ;)
• playing dominoes with parents/siblings
• wrapping a mound of gifts
• guzzling wine with my sister-in-laws on Christmas Eve
• spending time with family
• listening to Elliot’s film analysis…grateful that my tuition dollars are being well spent!!!
• lunches with my extended family
• spending time with my great-nieces and nephews (were my kids ever that little?) and their parents, of course!
• a spontaneous trip with my girls to Milwaukee
• eating at Rocky Rococos
• a trip to Chicago with Elliot and Arielle
• listening to Elliot’s 15 minute review of the restroom @ Hard Rock Café…and his 30 second review of Wicked…all in the same day
• shopping at Archiver’s
• experiencing annoying road closures in downtown Chicago…and STILL finding my way out of the city!
• watching movies with Elliot
• family dinners
• a little bit of scrapbooking
• a lot of reading
• playing with Toby (the little fur ball is definitely growing on me, ya know…when he’s not growling at me!)
• an awesome massage
• girl-talk with my daughters
• playing Pounce with Elliot
• getting back into the exercise routine
• making plans for the summer
• some West Wing and Weeds episodes (what a combo, huh?!)
• some wonderful and thoughtful gifts
• some quiet time to reflect on 2010 and plan for 2011
• and…a bunch of other things that I’m sure I’ve forgotten to list

Typically when I have a break from work, I jot down a to-do list and try to cram as many little “jobs” into the time as possible.  This time, I didn’t make a list and didn’t have any huge expectations of what I would like to accomplish.  Basically I decided to just go with the flow….and RELAX for a change.   The down-time felt great.  Probably not as good as laying in a hammock on a tropical island…but hey, maybe next time!